These are all the documents where Canada is mentioned by anybody, not simply all the documents where Trump mentions Canada - so there are 161 documents instead of 127.
Any document that doesn’t clearly denote speakers is one of Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts.
Many of the Truth Social posts are very short, since he frequently reposts other accounts or posts images/videos without much text attached.
All the documents are in date order (oldest to newest) and the dates are listed before each document.
Date: 2024-11-25
As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before. Right now a Caravan coming from Mexico, composed of thousands of people, seems to be unstoppable in its quest to come through our currently Open Border. On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders. This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!
Date: 2024-11-30
I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada. I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship! Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families. We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before.
Date: 2024-12-03
Oh Canada!
Date: 2024-12-05
Donald Trump: Well, I want to thank everyone. This is quite a group. I have so many friends sitting right here. Oh, there’s one that I – he was calling me early on. He was saying why are you going through this process? You know he’s going to win. He’s big. He’s strong. I will never fight you. I’m going to tell you that. Donald Trump: But right from the beginning, right? Right from the beginning. Thank you very much. [Person calls out, inaudibly] I appreciate it. Great guy. So, how about Sean? Is Sean just great, you know? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And he said every single thing that I was going to say. And what the hell? I can’t say it again. But he’s a special guy. He’s been my friend for a long time. I probably shouldn’t say a friend, but he is really a friend. He’s a friend of the country. And I just want to thank Sean Hannity. He’s a great guy. Donald Trump: And his ratings are very good, too, which is very important, which is very, very important. And you really do. You have incredible people at Fox. You have incredible people at every level of Fox, really. A couple I don’t like, but that’s all right. I shouldn’t name them. Should I? I don’t think so. I shouldn’t name them. Donald Trump: But, you know, we had an incredible – we had just a spectacular election. They were – [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: they were thinking it was going to be close, and it wasn’t close. We won the popular vote by millions and millions of votes. We won all seven swing states. And we won the most votes ever gotten by millions by a Republican candidate. And I think I can say also a Democrat candidate, but I won’t bother getting into that. Donald Trump: We had – we had a tremendous – just – it was a tremendous day, a tremendous night, a tremendous period of time. Seventy-two days. It really started 72 days before. No day off, no play, no golf, no nothing. I didn’t want to even play golf even though it’s sort of a good thing to run through a course. [Audience member calls out “We love you, Mr. President.”] Donald Trump: Thank you, darling. Thank you. It was all work. It was all work because we have a very important job to do. We have to win, and we have to bring our country back. When you look at all of the people that flow through open borders, who could ever want open borders? Who would want that? [Audience boos] Donald Trump: And when I heard that – I heard it three and a half years ago. And, you know, we built 571 miles of wall. [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] Donald Trump: We ordered another 200, which is far more than I said we were going to do, but we ordered another 200. And I heard that they weren’t going to use it because we had a very bad result in that election. You remember that night? That was not a pleasant night. But we had a very bad result, very unfair situation. Donald Trump: We’re going to get things straightened out in this country, including elections. We’ve got to get the elections. This one was too big to rig. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: You know, it’s too big to rig. They tried, they tried. [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] Donald Trump: They tried, and then they just dropped their placards and went home. They said, “This is a slaughter.” And – but we’re going to – we’re going to do things that have been really needed for a long time. And we are going to look at elections. We want to have paper ballots, one-day voting, voter ID, and proof of citizenship. Donald Trump: A little thing – a little thing like proofs – and we have a hard time because, you know, in California, they just passed a law that you’re not even allowed to ask a voter for voter ID. Think of that. [Audience boos] Donald Trump: If you ask a voter for their voter ID, you’ve committed a crime. They have to get Judge Jeanine, where’s Judge Jeanine, to lock them up. You’re supposed to lock up somebody that I don’t think – she won’t do it. She won’t do it. She’ll say, “I’m not doing it.” But we’re going to get it straightened out. [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] Donald Trump: We’re going to get the whole country straightened out. And the first thing we have to do is get the criminals out of our country. They’ve allowed – they’ve allowed 21 million people into our country coming through open borders from many, many countries. They came from jails. They came from mental institutions, insane asylums even. Donald Trump: And we’re going to have to get them out. And when you think about it, who would do such a thing? Who would do such a thing? Who would – who would think It’s good to allow countries from all over the world? Who would think it’s good to allow countries from all over the world, to allow people in from prisons and from all of these different places, countries that have – countries that have serious, serious problems with crime. Donald Trump: And they’re all coming out. You know, in Venezuela, they took their drug dealers, their criminals. They took the people from areas of the city that were – you couldn’t even walk in. And they took them out, and they brought them into our country. They dumped them into the United States of America, and we’re getting them the hell out of here fast. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And as you know, I spoke with Canada, and Justin came flying right in because we talked about 25 percent tariffs. That’s just the beginning. [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] Donald Trump: This is a hell of a nice crowd. I like this crowd. This is a nice crowd. [Audience chants “51”] Donald Trump: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s – that’s an interesting statement. Thank you very much. I do appreciate all that pent-up anger and – and love. It’s everything at one time, it’s everything at one time. But we’re going to do things that a lot of people thought were going to drill, baby, drill. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: We’re going to get your prices down. Now, we’re bringing the cost down. You know, when we were campaigning, a lot of people thought the biggest thing was the economy. And it is. It probably polled the best, but I never believed it was as important as immigration and the border and stopping our country from being invaded because this was a massive invasion of our country. Donald Trump: And I spoke with – as you probably read, I spoke the other day to the president – the new president of Mexico, very nice woman. And we had a very nice conversation. But she said, “Why are you doing this to me?” I said, “I’m not. I’m just putting a lot of tariffs on because you’re allowing criminals to pour into our country, and we can’t allow that anymore.” And it stopped. Donald Trump: It stopped. It was so fast. It stopped. But we have great people. You know, Tom Homan – he’s central casting, by the way, Tom Homan. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: Is he central casting? We’ll stop it, and we’ll stop them fast. We shouldn’t have to be doing this, but we have no choice, but we’ll stop them. But I figured – I really always felt that was bigger than inflation. We’re going to take care of inflation. We’re going to take care of that by bringing the energy prices down, everything else. Donald Trump: This is what they did. They messed up our energy. We had inexpensive – how about $1.84 for gasoline? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And – and now, they’re saying they’re doing well. It’s at – it’s at $3.75. But it was going up to $5, $6, $7, and $8. And they went back to the Trump plan. But the Trump plan, the real Trump plan would have had double the production that we have right now. And we’re going to have that very shortly. We have the best energy people in the world all lined up to go. But I just want to say, we’re going to bring prices down. Donald Trump: We’re going to make our country safe. We’re going to stop people from robbing our stores and hurting our people. We’re going to – and we’ll get involved with governors, including Democrat governors because that’s, unfortunately, whether you like it or not, that’s where the crime is. [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] Donald Trump: It’s – in virtually every case, it’s with Democrat – it’s with Democrat-run cities and states, and we’re going to stop it. We’re going to work with the governors and the mayors – [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] Donald Trump: Even if they’re Democrats, and we’re going to get it down. And we’re going to bring our country back, and it’s going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And we’re going to be proud of our country. Again, right now, we’re not so proud of our country. We’re going to be very proud of our country again. It’s going to be – [Audience member calls out “We love you.”] Donald Trump: it’s going to be better than ever before. It’s going to be more successful than ever before. We’re going to be more respected throughout the world than ever before. Countries are going to respect us again. They already do, actually. I think you have seen more happen in the last two weeks than you’ve seen in the last four years, [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: and we’re not even there yet. We’re not even there yet, so I just want to thank – this is a fantastic group of people. This is a fantastic turnout. This is very impressive. But – and you’re my friends, you’re my friends, and we’re going to be friends with this country. And we’re going to do something that I’ve been talking about for eight years. Donald Trump: We had it done. We created the most successful economy in the history of our country. We were doing so good. Our border was the lowest numbers ever, the lowest number of illegal immigrants coming into our border that we ever had. The famous chart. Do you remember the chart that I looked over to the right? Donald Trump: Ooh, ooh. I have that – I still have that throbbing feeling. That beautiful chart that I looked over, well, that chart showed we had the best immigration, the lowest number of people in the history of our country recorded, in the history of our country were – I mean, that’s what we achieved, and we’re going to achieve it again and very fast. Donald Trump: It’s going to be very fast because we have no choice. But we’re going to do something that I’ve been talking about for eight years. We’re going to do it again, and we have to do it again. And that’s we’re going to make America great again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tyrus. Thank you, Tyrus. Good man. Thank you.
Date: 2024-12-08
Note: [The following is the official transcript as provided by NBC News. It has been spot-checked and cross-checked for accuracy, with only minor changes. The official transcript is available in its original form here: https://cqrc.al/nbc-20241206. Video courtesy and copyright NBC News.] Kristen Welker: President-elect Donald Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Kristen Welker: Thank you so much for being here. You are the first president since Grover Cleveland to win non-consecutive terms. Republicans now have control of the House and the Senate. What do you plan to accomplish in your first 100 days in office? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to do something with the border, very strong, very powerful. That’ll be our first signal – first signal to America that we’re not playing games. We have people coming in by the millions, as you know, and a lot of people shouldn’t be here. Most of them shouldn’t be here. But we have jails being emptied into our country. Donald Trump: We have mental institutions from all over the world being emptied into our country. So we’ll be doing that. We’re going to be extending within that period or as soon as we can the Trump tax cuts, because you know they’re coming due and they’re very substantial for people. It would be very – and I think it will anger a lot of people, frankly, if we don’t get an extension of that. Donald Trump: That’s what led us to one of the greatest economies ever. And those two things are going to be very vital, very important. We’re going to be focusing on crime in the cities, and we’ll work with Democrat governors. Most of them are, as you know, if you look at the 25 worst places, they’re just about all Democrat-controlled cities and states. Donald Trump: And we’re going to be working with Democrat governors and Democrat mayors, and I look forward to doing it. But we have to do something about crime, and mostly in our cities. And we’re going to have a lot of other things. We’ll be working on nominations. We’re going to still be working on some nominations. Donald Trump: I think they’re going very well. We have – for the most part, I think they’re going extremely well. It looks like Pete is doing well now. I mean, people were a little bit concerned. He’s a young guy with a tremendous track record, actually. Went to Princeton and went to Harvard. He was a good student at both. Donald Trump: But he loves the military, and I think people are starting to see it, so we’ll be working on his nomination along with a lot of others. Kristen Welker: We are going to delve into your nominations, but since you bring him up, do you still have confidence in Pete Hegseth? Donald Trump: Yes, I do. I really do. He’s a very smart guy. I’ve known him through Fox, but I’ve known him for a long time. And he’s basically a military guy. I mean, every time I talk to him, all he wants to talk about is the military. He’s a military guy. I used to kid him about it. I didn’t think we’d be in this position where he may be, hopefully will be, secretary of defense. Donald Trump: But every time I was with him, he was fighting for soldiers, where he said some soldier was unjustly put in prison because they were really doing what they were taught to do, in some cases. So yeah, I think he’s going to do fine. Kristen Welker: The fact that there are these allegations against him, misconduct, sexual misconduct, heavy drinking, the fact that he said to some senators, reportedly, he’ll stop drinking if he gets this job, does that worry you? Donald Trump: No. I think that everybody has something that they can stop. Some people can stop eating. I’m lucky I’m not a drinker, but I could stop eating. And we all want to stop doing something. And if he said that, I mean, that’s a nice thing to say. That’s a good thing to say. But he’s very respected. I can tell you I know a lot of the people at Fox, they think he’s fantastic. Donald Trump: And the people that work with him, really, they love him. So I think, I think you’re going to have somebody that’s really terrific. And again, all he talked about with me, I said, “You know you’re not really a television guy.” Even though he did very well, as you know. “You’re really a military guy.” He said, “I’m all about the military.” And I told him – so he’s making a lot of money at Fox. Donald Trump: They’re doing very well. And I said, “You know, if for some reason you don’t get this thing, you’re not going to be able to go back. And all that money you’re making, you can kiss it goodbye.” He said, “This is all about America.” You know he – and he didn’t say, “Well, let me think about it. Let me discuss it.” That was – that’s a very big risky thing he’s doing. Donald Trump: When he goes and he says, “I’m going to give up, you know, millions of dollars in order to possibly become the secretary of defense,” a lot of people would say, it’s a great position, there’s probably almost no greater position, but a lot of people would say, “I have to think about it.” He said, “I don’t have to think about it.” Kristen Welker: All right, we’re going to delve into your Cabinet just a little bit later. But I want to delve into one of your signature promises on the campaign trail, which was to end inflation, to lower prices. You are now proposing tariffs against the United States’ three biggest trading partners. Economists of all stripes say that ultimately consumers pay the price of tariffs. Donald Trump: I don’t believe that. Kristen Welker: Can you guarantee American families won’t pay more? Donald Trump: I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow. But I can say that if you look at my – just pre-Covid, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries, but in particular China. We took in hundreds of billions of dollars and we had no inflation. Donald Trump: In fact, when I handed it over, they didn’t have inflation for a year and a half. They went almost two years just based on what I had created. And then they created inflation with energy and with spending too much. So I think we will – I’m a big believer in tariffs. I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. Donald Trump: I think they’re beautiful. It’s going to make us rich. We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune over $100 billion a year. We’re subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion. We shouldn’t be – why are we subsidizing these countries? If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state. We’re subsidizing Mexico and we’re subsidizing Canada and we’re subsidizing many countries all over the world. Donald Trump: And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field. Kristen Welker: Sir, your previous tariffs during your first administration cost Americans some $80 billion, and now you have major companies from Walmart, Black & Decker, AutoZone, saying that any tariffs are going to force them to drive up prices for their consumers. How do you make sure that these CEOs, that these companies don’t, in fact, pass on the cost of tariffs to their consumers? Donald Trump: They cost Americans nothing. They made a great economy for us. They also solve another problem. If we were going to have problems having to do with wars and having to do with other things, tariffs – I have stopped wars with tariffs by saying, “You guys want to fight, it’s great. But both of you are going to pay tariffs to the United States at 100%.” And – they have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used. Donald Trump: I don’t say you use them like a madman. I say properly used. But it didn’t cost this country anything. It made this country money. And we never really got the chance to go all out because we had to fight Covid in the last part, and we did it very successfully. And when I handed it over to Biden, the stock market was higher than what it was just previous to Covid coming in. It was actually higher. Donald Trump: Tariffs are a – properly used, are a very powerful tool, not only economically, but also for getting other things outside of economics. Kristen Welker: Well, again, prices did go up on some goods in your first administration, washing machines, tires. Will you punish CEOs? Donald Trump: Oh, let me just explain to you. No. You mentioned washing machines. So you look at Whirlpool in Ohio. I got a call from Jim Jordan, one of the greats, congressman from Ohio. And he said they’re going out of business because South Korea and China are dumping washing machines into our country. And I put a 50% tariff on the washing machines coming in from China and South Korea, and Whirlpool and the companies that made washing machines, which are based in Ohio, largely based in Ohio, went through the roof. Donald Trump: We saved thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs. They were all going out of business because they were dumping washing machines. And when I put the tariffs on, they became successful businesses. No, not only didn’t it cost people, it made our country stronger and more powerful and it kept jobs. Kristen Welker: But how do you make sure that consumers don’t wind up paying more? Will you punish CEOs who try to pass the cost of tariffs on to their customers? Donald Trump: Well, the market’s going to take care of it. I mean, actually, the market takes care of it. And if it doesn’t, we adjust it somewhat. But in the case of Whirlpool or, let’s say, companies that made washing machines, they were all being put out of business by the dumping from, in particular, South Korea and China. Donald Trump: And when I put the tariffs on, very substantial tariffs – although peanuts compared to what people do to us, what countries do to us – it became a very, very powerful, successful company. Now, let’s say I didn’t do the tariffs, it would’ve gone out of business. You would’ve lost tens of thousands of jobs. Donald Trump: And you don’t include that in your equation. No, they make a lot of money. I’ll go a step further. Tariffs are going to make our country rich. Tariffs are going to help us pay off $35 trillion in debt. Tariffs are going to make our country safe because China, as an example, doesn’t want to play games with us if we’re going to do tariffs on them. Donald Trump: They don’t want to play games. And we have a lot of games being played on us right now. Kristen Welker: Well, I think – and that takes me to my next question. Are you actually going to impose these tariffs or are they a negotiating tactic? Donald Trump: Well, I’ll give you an example. With Canada, and in particular Mexico, we have millions of people pouring into our country. You agree with that. I spoke with the – both – I spoke with Justin Trudeau. In fact, he flew to Mar-a-Lago, within about 15 seconds after the call ended. It was at Mar-a-Lago, we were having dinner, talking about it. I said, “You have to close up your borders,” because they’re coming in the northern border too, a lot. Donald Trump: Not like the southern border, but they’re coming in the Canadian border a lot. And drugs are pouring in. Almost as importantly, drugs are pouring in. Maybe more importantly. Drugs are pouring in at levels never seen before, 10 times what we had. They’re just pouring in. We can’t have open borders. And I said to the president of Mexico and to Justin Trudeau, “If it doesn’t stop, I’m going to put tariffs on your country at about 25%. That’s a very substantial tariff. Donald Trump: And in the case of – in both cases, but in the case where it was really visible, within ten minutes after that phone call, we noticed that the people coming across the border, the southern border having to do with Mexico, there was at a trickle. Just a trickle. In fact, I called the border. See, unlike my opponent, I do call the border a lot. Donald Trump: And I said,”How’s the border looking today?” They said, “There’s nobody here.” They couldn’t believe it. The military stopped these vast groups of people. You know, we call them caravans. But they had caravans of people, and they largely stopped them. Now, they’re going to have to continue that, but if they don’t continue – and the other thing I told them is no more drugs. Donald Trump: And I told that to China too. I had a deal with President Xi. Had the election been different – I’m going to be very nice because we don’t have to get into an argument over 2020 – but had the election been different, the result been different, we would’ve had China giving their maximum penalty, which is the penalty of death, to people that send fentanyl into this country. Donald Trump: But Biden didn’t, unfortunately, finish that discussion up. I had an agreement with President Xi, who I got along with very well. We’ve had communication as recently as this week. And I had communication with him where they were going to give the death penalty to anybody sending drugs into the United States. Kristen Welker: This week you had that conversation? Donald Trump: Not that conversation, but I had other conversations. But in the past I’ve had that conversation. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about another aspect of the economy, sir, the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. There are 20 states that still have a federal minimum wage at $7.25, and I actually have a map. Nineteen of these states actually voted for you, sir. Donald Trump: Right. Yeah. Kristen Welker: And you can see right here, I don’t know if you remember this, but during the debate in 2020, I asked you if you would raise the minimum wage. You said you would consider it. And so my question for you is now that you are going back to the White House, for these 19 states that voted for you, are you going to raise the federal minimum wage? Donald Trump: It’s a very low number. I will agree, it’s a very low number. Let me give you the down side, though. In California they raised it up to a very high number. And your restaurants are going out of business all over the place. The population is shrinking. It’s had a very negative impact. But there is a level at which you could do it, absolutely. Kristen Welker: What is that level, do you think? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t know. I can say this, you have a lot of businesses that are open and thriving because of the lower minimum wage. If you raise it too much – and you understand this, California went crazy. They went crazy. And people – the restaurants are closing all over. Many more people are hurt. Kristen Welker: So I hear you saying similarly to what you said in 2020. Will you consider it? Is this something you’re going to look at? Donald Trump: I would consider it. I’d want to speak to the governors. And the other thing that is very complicated about minimum wage is places are so different. Mississippi and Alabama and great places are very different than New York or California, I mean in terms of the cost of living and other things. So it would be nice to have just a minimum wage for the whole country, but it wouldn’t work because you have places where it’s very inexpensive to live, where a minimum wage which is at $8 or $9 might be, you know, might have very little effect because the cost of living in certain places is really low. Kristen Welker: Before we move on to immigration, which I do want to talk about, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said he will not leave his post even if you ask him to. Will you try to replace Jerome Powell? Donald Trump: No, I don’t think so. I don’t see it. But, I don’t – I think if I told him to, he would. But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn’t. But if I told him to, he would. Kristen Welker: You don’t have plans to do that right now? Donald Trump: No, I don’t. Kristen Welker: Okay. Let’s talk about mass deportation – Donald Trump: Okay. Kristen Welker: – one of your big agenda items. You’ve talked about prioritizing people who have criminal history. Donald Trump: Correct. Kristen Welker: But is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years? Donald Trump: Well, I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard – it’s a very tough thing to do. It’s – but you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for ten years to come into the country. Donald Trump: And we’re going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test. They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country. They can’t come out of prisons. We don’t want people that are in for murder. Donald Trump: So we had 11,000 and 13,000, different estimates. 13,099 murderers released into our country over the last three years. They’re walking down the streets. They’re walking next to you and your family. And they’re very dangerous people – Kristen Welker: The 13,000 figure I think goes back about 40 years. Donald Trump: It goes – nope. No it doesn’t Kristen Welker: That 13,000 figure. Donald Trump: It’s within the three-year period. It’s during the Biden term. No, that was a fiction that they put that out. This was done by the border patrol. It’s 13,099 and it’s during the Biden period of time. And these are murderers, many of whom murdered more than one person. You don’t want those people in this country. Kristen Welker: But you’re saying something, sir, that’s significant. So – Donald Trump: Go ahead. Kristen Welker: I just want to make sure I’m clear, which is that you’re saying, yes, you’re going to focus on the people with criminal histories, but everyone who’s here illegally has to go, is what you’re saying. Donald Trump: I’m saying this. We have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution no matter what country it is. Do you know that in Venezuela their prisons are, are at the lowest point in terms of emptiness that they’ve ever been? Donald Trump: They’re taking their people out of those prisons by the thousands and they’re drop – and just to get back, because I know exactly what you’re getting at. Number one, we’re doing criminals and we’re going to do them really rapidly. We’re getting the worst gang probably with MS-13 and the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world. Donald Trump: They’re vicious, violent people. And you’ve seen what they’ve done in Colorado and other places. They’re taking over, they’re literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. They don’t care. They couldn’t – they just are – they’re in the real estate business, okay? Kristen Welker: You know that local police say that is not the case in Colorado. Donald Trump: Oh, it’s totally the case. I mean, they have it on tape. Kristen Welker: You don’t believe the local police? Donald Trump: I play it, I used to play it at my rallies every single night. No, it was breaking into doors. They’re taking over the building. Kristen Welker: But sir, you raised the point – Donald Trump: And by the way, the police, the police – Kristen Welker: Yeah. Donald Trump: – are afraid to do anything. Kristen Welker: You, you raised the point that the logistics are complicated. You said it yourself – Donald Trump: Sure they are. But everything’s complicated. Kristen Welker: – yeah, you need 24 times more ICE detention capacity just to deport 1 million people per year, not to mention more agents, more judges, more planes. Is it realistic to deport everyone who’s here illegally? Donald Trump: You have no choice. First of all, they’re costing us a fortune. But we’re starting with the criminals and we’ve got to do it. And then we’re starting with others and we’re going to see how it goes. Kristen Welker: Who are the others? Donald Trump: Others are other people outside of criminals. We have convicted murderers. And we don’t mean people that are even on trial. We have people that have murdered numerous people are on our streets and in our farms and we have to get them out of our country. Kristen Welker: What about dreamers, sir? Dreamers, who were brought to this country illegally as children. You said once back in 2017 they, quote, “Shouldn’t be very worried about being deported.” Should they be worried now? Donald Trump: The dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age. And many of these are middle-aged people now. They don’t even speak the language of their country. And yes, we’re going to do something about the dreamers. Donald Trump: And – Kristen Welker: What does that mean? What are you going to do? Donald Trump: I will work with the Democrats on a plan. And if we can come up with a plan, but the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the dreamers. The dreamers, we’re talking many years ago they were brought into this country. Many years ago. Some of them are no longer young people. Donald Trump: And in many cases, they’ve become successful. They have great jobs. In some cases they have small businesses. Some cases they might have large businesses. And we’re going to have to do something with them. And – Kristen Welker: You want them to be able to stay, that’s what you’re saying? Donald Trump: I do. I want to be able to work something out, and it should’ve been able to be worked out over the last three or four years and it never got worked out. You know, Biden could’ve done it because he controlled, you know, Congress to a certain extent, right? He could’ve done something, but they didn’t do it. I never understood why because they always seemed to want to do it, but then when it comes down to it, they don’t. I think we can work with the Democrats and work something out. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about another group of people, the estimated 4 million families in America who have mixed immigration status. So I’m talking about parents who might be here illegally – Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: – but the kids are here legally. Your Border Czar Tom Homan – Donald Trump: You’re talking about separation? Kristen Welker: Well, I mean there are two aspects to this. Your Border Czar Tom Homan said they can be deported together. Donald Trump: Correct. Kristen Welker: Is that the plan? Donald Trump: Well, that way you keep the – well, I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back. Kristen Welker: Even kids who are here legally? Donald Trump: Well, what you’ve got to do if they want to stay with their father – look, we have to have rules and regulations. You can always find something out like, you know, “This doesn’t work. That doesn’t work.” I’ll tell you what’s going to be horrible, when we take a wonderful young woman who’s with a criminal. Donald Trump: And they show the woman, and she could stay by the law, but they show the woman being taken out. Or they want her out and your cameras are focused on her as she’s crying as she’s being taken out of our country. And then the public turns against us. But we have to do our job. And you have to have a series of standards and a series of laws. Donald Trump: And in the end, look, our country is a mess. We have the highest crime rate and during the debate a man whose ratings have gone way down, David Muir, said to me, “no, crime is ..” – because I had to debate three people, not one. Debating one was easy. Debating three was actually pretty easy too, if you want to know the truth. Donald Trump: But David, David Muir said, “The crime rates have gone down.” I said, “No, they’ve gone up.” And then the following day they released the crime rates and they were way up. Kristen Welker: Yeah, and the FBI statistics – you’re talking about those FBI statistics which are – Donald Trump: Yeah, well, no, but he gave the wrong answer. Kristen Welker: – confusing based on what you’re looking at? Donald Trump: Yeah, but a lot of that is migrant crime. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about another aspect of this – Donald Trump: And Kristen, you know a lot of it’s migrant crime. Kristen Welker: Well, let me ask you about another aspect of this that I think a lot of people are really curious about. And 3% of the people who are here illegally have criminal histories. But in your first administration, you had the zero-tolerance policy, where we did see family separations. Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: You ended it. The purpose of that, though, to some extent, you talked about this at the time, was deterrence – Donald Trump: And by the way, you also had it with Obama. You do know that. Kristen Welker: He didn’t have a zero-tolerance policy. Donald Trump: And you also know he built the jails for children. Kristen Welker: He didn’t have a zero-tolerance policy. Donald Trump: But in 2014 he built the jails. You know that. Kristen Welker: I want to ask you about the zero-tolerance policy – I mean, he didn’t have a systemic, “We’re going to separate families.” Families were separated when the parents were a threat to the kids. Let me ask you about this – Donald Trump: We don’t have to separate a family. Excuse me, Kristen. Kristen Welker: Yeah. Donald Trump: We don’t have to separate families. Kristen Welker: Yeah. Okay. Donald Trump: We’ll send the whole family, very humanely, back to the country where they came. That way the family’s not separated. Kristen Welker: So no more family separations? You’re not reviving the zero-tolerance policy? Donald Trump: Well, it depends on the family. The family may decide to say, “I’d rather have Dad go, and we’ll stay here.” And in which case they have that option. Kristen Welker: But you’re not going to revive your zero-tolerance policy, which was put in place as a deterrent? Is there any universe where you would bring that back, sir? Donald Trump: We need deterrence. Look, ready? When somebody comes here illegally, they’re going out. It’s very simple. When they come here illegally, they’re going out. Now if they come here illegally but their family is here legally, then the family has a choice. The person that came in illegally can go out, or they can all go out together. Kristen Welker: So – Donald Trump: And that was made very clear by Tom Homan. Kristen Welker: So you’re not, at this point in time, planning to revive that zero-tolerance policy where kids are separated? Donald Trump: Well, if you call it that – yeah. I’m doing what I just told you I’m going to do. You know, I don’t want to send the family out. I don’t want to send anybody out. But I’ll tell you, we have to because otherwise we have no country. If we don’t have borders and if we don’t have voting, good voting, fair voting. Donald Trump: Do you know they’re still counting votes in San Diego, California? Listen, they’re still counting the votes. This is almost four weeks. They’re still counting the votes. If we don’t have fair elections and honest voting and machines that work quickly, if you had paper ballots every election would be over by 10:00 in the evening. Kristen Welker: Sir, let me ask you – Donald Trump: You understand what I’m saying. Kristen Welker: Well, let me, before we get to – Donald Trump: And you’d get a much more accurate count. Kristen Welker: Before we get to all of that, let me ask you about some of your other promises on this topic. Donald Trump: Okay. Yeah. Kristen Welker: You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one. Donald Trump: Correct. Kristen Welker: Is that still your plan? Donald Trump: Yeah. Absolutely. Kristen Welker: The 14th Amendment, though, says that, quote, “All persons born in the United States are citizens.” Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: Can you get around the 14th Amendment with an executive action? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to have to get it changed. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it. We’re the only country that has it, you know. Kristen Welker: Through an executive action? You’re going to – Donald Trump: You know we’re the only country that has it. Do you know if somebody sets a foot, just a foot, one foot, you don’t need two, on our land, “Congratulations you are now a citizen of the United States of America.” Yes, we’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous. Kristen Welker: Through executive action? Donald Trump: Do you know – well, if we can, through executive action. I was going to do it through executive action but then we had to fix COVID first, to be honest with you. We have to end it. It’s ridiculous. Do you know we’re the only country in the world that has it? Do you know that? There’s not one other country. Kristen Welker: Well, what about the legal challenge, the inevitable legal challenges that will come? Donald Trump: Well, that’s the other thing. Do you know we have thousands of judges? Somebody walks onto our land and we have to now say, “Welcome to the United States.” They could be a criminal or not a criminal. We release them into our country. It’s called catch and release. We release them into our country. Wait, just one second. Donald Trump: And now they get them lawyers. And the lawyers are good lawyers. And everybody has a lawyer. And do you know how many judges we have? Thousands. Thousands. Now, here’s what other countries do. They come onto the land and they say, “I’m sorry, you have to go.” And they take them out. Okay, with us, once they touch our land, we’re into litigation that lasts for years. Donald Trump: Costs us hundreds of billions of dollars. We have judges, and I’m sure they’re all honest but I don’t know that for a fact, you can imagine what’s going on with the judges. But just so you – because I have a lot of judges, I tell you what, I know more about judges than any human being in history. Look, we have judges. Donald Trump: Every time somebody puts two feet or even one foot on a piece of our land, it’s welcome to long-term litigation. Other countries, every other country, when somebody walks on and they see that they’re here illegally, they walk them off, they take them back to where they came from. We have to get rid of this system. Donald Trump: It’s killing our country. Kristen Welker: Let’s talk about health care. I’ve been talking to Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They say it’s no longer feasible to repeal and replace Obamacare because it’s so entrenched in the system. Do you see it that way? Is that now off the table, repealing and replacing Obamacare? Donald Trump: So, when John McCain let us down by voting, and Murkowski and Collins, and whoever it was that voted against, but they really let us down. They did us a great disservice, because we would’ve had great health – Obamacare is lousy health care. It’s very expensive health care for the people. It’s also expensive for the country, but for the people. Donald Trump: It’s lousy health care. When John McCain gave his thumbs down after saying for ten years that he wants to repeal and replace, okay, and then he came out, he put his now famous thumbs down and he became a hero to the left, just let me just tell you, if we find something better, I would love to do it. But unless we find – but, one thing I have to say, I inherited Obamacare, or anything else you want – it’s got about 20 names. Donald Trump: But I inherited it. And I had a decision to make with health and human services. I had a big decision to make. Do I make it as good as we can make it or do I let it rot? And a lot of political people said, “Let it rot and let it be a failure.” I said, “That’s not the right thing to do.” And I had very good people in the medical area that handled that. Donald Trump: And I said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “We really have an obligation to make it as good as we can,” and we did. We made it as good as we can make it. Instead of, instead of making it bad, where everybody would be calling for its repeal, I made it so that it works. Now, it works – Kristen Welker: But you did try to overturn it, sir. Donald Trump: Well, it’s lousy. No, no. Kristen Welker: You did try to overturn it. You did have your Justice Department try to direct the Supreme Court to overturn it. Donald Trump: No, we had a little bit of a surprising opinion, to be honest with you. If it would’ve been overturned, we would’ve had much better health care right now. But right now we have something that I made the best of. I could’ve made the worst of it and it would’ve fallen by the wayside. I did the right thing from a human standpoint. Donald Trump: But, you know, I’m sort of proud of my decision. At the same time, sometimes I regret it. I told the people and I gave them the money to do it. I said, “Fix it. Make it work.” Because people would’ve suffered. But it’s too bad that they voted no. I wish John McCain, I wish – he fought for ten years on repairing, replacing Obamacare. Donald Trump: For ten years. And then he voted against. Nobody understands it. Kristen Welker: Sir, you said during the campaign you had concepts of a plan. Do you have an actual plan at this point for health care? Donald Trump: Yes. We have concepts of a plan that would be better. But – Kristen Welker: Still just concepts? Do you have a fully developed plan? Donald Trump: Let me explain. We have the biggest health care companies looking at it. We have doctors who are always looking. Because Obamacare stinks. It’s lousy. There are better answers. If we come up with a better answer, I would present that answer to Democrats and to everybody else and I’d do something about it. But until we have that or until they can approve it – but we’re not going to go through the big deal. Donald Trump: I am the one that saved Obamacare, I will say. And I did the right thing. I could’ve done the more political thing and killed it. And all I had to do is starve it to death. Kristen Welker: You did try to have your Justice Department effectively kill it, though, sir. Donald Trump: No, no. Kill it from a legal standpoint. But from a physical standpoint, I made it work. Kristen Welker: In – in your concepts of a plan, sir, will people with preexisting conditions still have coverage? And can you guarantee their prices will not go up? Donald Trump: The answer is yes, they’ll have coverage. You have to have it – Kristen Welker: And what about their prices – Donald Trump: – because you know what, it’s – Kristen Welker: What about their prices, sir? Donald Trump: I want the prices to go down. I want to have better healthcare for less money, and there are ways of doing it, I believe. And I have the – I have the smartest people in that world. You know that’s a separate world unto itself. I have the smartest people in that world looking at it and trying. And if they come up with something, I will present it. Now, maybe you won’t be able to sell it. But if – if we get better healthcare for less money, I believe it’s very salable. Kristen Welker: Just very quickly, when will we see your fully developed plan? When are you going to – Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know – Kristen Welker: – show the public that? Donald Trump: – that you’ll see it at all. I can only say that we have some of the best healthcare people. I’ve always tinkered with it. I think – it’s a little hard to explain. Obamacare, when I took it over, was a disaster. And I made it workable. Kristen Welker: It has insured 20 million people. Donald Trump: Yeah, because of me. Because of me. If you look at what I did, I was the one – Kristen Welker: But you tried to – Donald Trump: I made it good – yeah legally – Kristen Welker: You tried to repeal and replace. You tried to kill it, sir. Donald Trump: Because if I repealed it and replaced it, we would’ve had a better system because we wouldn’t have had healthcare. And the Democrats would’ve been forced to do something. If we wouldn’t have had it, the Democrats would’ve been forced to do something that they wouldn’t do if we have it. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about another aspect of healthcare. You talked about this on the campaign trail. IVF. You promised free IVF for all who want it, either through the government or through mandates with insurance companies. I’ve been hearing from Republican senators, some of them, who say they’re not going to support that plan. Kristen Welker: How are you going to get that passed? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to see. We want them to – ideally the insurance companies to pay for it, the fertilization. I came out very early for a Republican, especially. And I think they were looking for my guidance, my great wisdom, right? They were looking for it. And I got a call from Kate Britt, who is a terrific person, senator from Alabama. Donald Trump: And she said, “Sir, we just had a really negative ruling from a judge in Alabama, conservative judge, that all of these clinics had to be closed.” And she said – she went into great detail. And she said, “People are devastated over it.” And after literally speaking to her for five minutes, I issued a – an order, really an order, in a sense, and it was a statement from the Republican Party that we are all for IVF and fertilization. Donald Trump: Ok. The Alabama legislature met the following day and passed it. It was a beautiful thing to see. And I consider myself to be the father of IVF, in a certain way. And the Republicans were very strong on the issue. Kristen Welker: But, sir, I want to understand where it falls in your list of priorities. I mean, is this something we can expect to see you try to move on in – Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to be – Kristen Welker: – the first 100 days? Donald Trump: – we’re going to be talking about it and we’re going to be seeing. We have a lot of other things. I have tax cuts. You know, we’ll be submitting in either the first or second package to Congress the extension of the tax cuts. So that might very well be in there. Or, or it’ll come sometime after that. Kristen Welker: Let’s talk about abortion, sir. You have taken responsibility for overturning Roe v. Wade. You’ve said that abortion is now a state issue. There are steps that you could take, though, as president to restrict abortion through executive action without Congress. More than half of abortions in this country are medication abortions. Kristen Welker: Will you restrict the availability of abortion pills when you’re in office? Donald Trump: I’ll probably – I’ll probably stay with exactly what I’ve been saying for the last two years. And the answer is no. Kristen Welker: You commit to that? Donald Trump: Well, I commit. I mean, are – things do – things change. I think they change. I hate to go on shows like Joe Biden, “I’m not going to give my son a pardon. I will not under any circumstances give him a pardon.” I watched this and I always knew he was going to give him a pardon. And so, I don’t like putting myself in a position like that. Donald Trump: So things do change. But I don’t think it’s going to change at all. Kristen Welker: Ok. Let’s talk about some of your picks to fill out your administration. You named Kash Patel to be the next FBI director. Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: He has a list in his book of 60 people that he calls members of the so-called “deep state.” It includes Democrats like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. It includes former members of your cabinet, from Bill Barr to Christopher Wray. You campaigned on destroying the deep state. Do you want Kash Patel to launch investigations into people on that list? Donald Trump: No. I mean, he’s going to do what he thinks is right. And I will – Kristen Welker: Well, do you think that’s right? Donald Trump: – and I will – Kristen Welker: Do you think that’s right, sir? Donald Trump: If they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or a corrupt politician, I think he probably has an obligation to do it, but – Kristen Welker: Are you going to direct him to do it? Donald Trump: No. Not at all. Not at all. We have two great people that – we have him, and we have Pam. And Pam Bondi has been like a rocket ship. She’s very popular and very good and very fair. And Kash Patel is very fair. I’ll tell you. I thought Kash may be difficult because he’s, you know, a strong conservative voice, and I don’t know of anybody that’s not singing his praises. Donald Trump: The other day, I was watching, and Trey Gowdy, who’s a moderate person and very smart and very respected in the party, he’s Kash’s biggest fan. He said, “This is the most misunderstood man in politics. He’s great.” I guess they worked together on the Russia hoax or something, and Trey Gowdy became a fan. Donald Trump: Trey, you know, Trey Gowdy. Everybody respects him, and, you know, just like him, others also, I don’t know of one negative vote – I don’t think he’s going to have any negative votes. Kristen Welker: Is it your expectation, though, that Kash Patel will pursue investigations against your political enemies? Donald Trump: No, I don’t think so. Kristen Welker: Do you want to see that happen? Donald Trump: If they were crooked, if they did something wrong, if they have broken the law, probably. They went after me. You know, they went after me and I did nothing wrong. Kristen Welker: Well, let me ask you this. You said, President Biden, quote, that you’re going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden. You said that during – Donald Trump: Where did I say that? Kristen Welker: – the campaign Donald Trump: Where? Kristen Welker: You said that on Truth Social, June 12, 2023: “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden – Donald Trump: Well, that part is true. Kristen Welker: – and the entire Biden crime family.” Are you going to do that? Are you going to go after Joe Biden? Donald Trump: I’m really looking to make our country successful. I’m not looking to go back into the past. I’m looking to make our country successful. Retribution will be through success. If we can make our success – this country successful, that would be my greatest, that would be such a great achievement. Bring it back. Donald Trump: We have a country now that’s overridden with crime, that has millions of people that shouldn’t be here, that should be in prisons in other countries, that should be in mental institutions. We have drug lords being dropped into our country and told never go back to their country. I’m looking to make our country great. Donald Trump: I’m looking to get – bring prices down. Because, you know, I won on two things, the border and more than immigration. You know, they like to say immigration, I break it down more to the border, but I won on the border, and I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. Like almost – you know, who uses the word? Donald Trump: I started using the word – the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down. Kristen Welker: I want to pause here, because what you’re saying is significant. Because you wrote on Truth Social in 2023 that you’re going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden. Now you’re saying you’re not going to do that. Donald Trump: I will say this, no, I’m not doing that unless I find something that I think is reasonable, but that’s not going to be my decision. That’s going to be Pam Bondi’s decision, and, to a different extent, Kash Patel, assuming they’re both there, and I think they’re both going to get approved. But I – I – you know, while you ask me that, what they’ve done to me with weaponization is a disgrace. Kristen Welker: We’ll get to some of that, sir – Donald Trump: No, no, wait, wait, wait, you can’t do one without the other. In the history of our country, nothing like this has ever happened. And I’ve won these cases. I’ve won every one and the rest are in the process of being won. Deranged Jack Smith is on his way back to The Hague where he can execute people. This is where he should have stayed. Donald Trump: I don’t – I think he’s dangerous even being there. But I’ll tell you what, what they’ve done to me in terms of weaponization, indictments, impeachments and everything else. And in the end, it probably helped, because I got the biggest vote, the most votes any Republican’s ever gotten in history. Kristen Welker: Do – Pam Bondi talks about investigating the investigators. Do you want her to investigate Jack Smith based – Donald Trump: I want her to do what she wants to do. Kristen Welker: – do you want to see Jack Smith investigated? Donald Trump: Well, I think he’s very corrupt, but I want her to do whatever she – Kristen Welker: Are you going to direct her – Donald Trump: No, I’m not, I’m not Kristen Welker: – to prosecute Jack Smith? Donald Trump: She’s a very smart person. She’s – She was a great attorney general in Florida. She’s very experienced. I want her to do what she wants to do. I’m not going to instruct her to do it, no. Kristen Welker: Sir, are you going to fire the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, who you appointed? Donald Trump: Well, I can’t say I’m thrilled with him. He invaded my home. I’m suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. I’m very unhappy with the things he – he’s done, and crime is at an all time high. Migrants are pouring into the country that are from prisons and from mental institutions, as we’ve discussed. Donald Trump: I can’t say I’m thrilled. I don’t want to say – I don’t want to, again, I don’t want to be Joe Biden and give you an answer and then do the exact opposite – Kristen Welker: We’re going to talk about that – Donald Trump: – so I’m not going to do that. What I’m going to say is I certainly cannot be happy with him. You take a look at what’s happened. And then when I was shot in the ear, he said, “Oh, maybe it was shrapnel.” Where’s the shrapnel coming from? Is it coming from – is it coming from heaven? I don’t think so. So we need somebody to straighten – you know, I have a lot of respect for the FBI, but the FBI’s respect has gone way down over the last number of years. Kristen Welker: Don’t you have to fire him in order to make room for Kash Patel – Donald Trump: Yeah, but – Kristen Welker: – if he is, in fact, confirmed? Donald Trump: Well, I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious that if Kash gets in, he’s going to be taking somebody’s place, right? Somebody is the man that you’re talking about. Kristen Welker: Okay. Let’s talk about Project 2025. This is the conservative policy blueprint. You disavowed it during the campaign. You called it a product of the radical right. You’ve said some of their ideas – Donald Trump: No, not all. No – Kristen Welker: – were abysmal – Donald Trump: – I said some of it is. Kristen Welker: Okay. Donald Trump: Some of it is very good. Kristen Welker: Okay. Donald Trump: Some of it’s very mainstream actually. Frankly, the Democrats should’ve used some of it because they went, you know, with all the transgender that they were doing, or with the men playing in women’s sports, if they wouldn’t have done that, maybe they would’ve done better. Kristen Welker: Well, so you take me to my question. You’re now giving people involved in Project 2025 prominent roles in your administration. Are you changing your mind about Project 2025 – Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: Is this now the policy– Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: – blueprint – Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: – for the second Trump administration? Donald Trump: No. Some people – you take a look at the group, it was hundreds of people who were involved. And I was actually – I reprimanded the whole group. I said, “You shouldn’t have placed this document in front of the voters because I have nothing to do with it, and I’m the one that’s running. You had no right to do this where you put a 1,000-page document in front – and many of those things I disagree with.” Now, many of those things, I happen to agree with. Donald Trump: Many of those things, Democrats should’ve agreed to. And I think they would’ve done much better in the election ‘cause they got slaughtered. Kristen Welker: Well, I guess people – people see the list, Russ Vought, Brendan Carr, Peter Navarro, John Ratcliffe, Pete Hoekstra, Monica Crowley, and they think, “These – These are all of the people – Donald Trump: Sure, sure Kristen Welker: – who were involved in or writing Project 2025 – Donald Trump: But, but they have – Kristen Welker: This must be a blueprint for work requirements. Eliminating the Head Start Program, criminalizing pornography. Is that what we can expect to see? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know how they voted. I don’t know – I didn’t – I never spoke to them actually about it. And I purposefully, and I told you, normally it would be just the opposite. I’d review every page. I purposely didn’t even want to see it because when somebody like you asks me a question about Project 2025, I can honestly say I’ve never seen it, I have nothing to do with it, I didn’t read it. But I did hear some things in there that I would totally disagree with. Donald Trump: And I said to the people that were really the people behind it, you know who those people are, I said,”You really had no right doing this to me because they used it as a sound bite,” the Democrats. And I don’t know, it couldn’t have been too effective because they got slaughtered, but they did use it as a sound bite. Kristen Welker: But to people who see, “Oh, he’s bringing in all of these people from Project 2025, he must know what it is –” Donald Trump: Well, you know – Kristen Welker: – you say what? Donald Trump: – I don’t know what it is, no. I don’t know what it is. Kristen Welker: You still don’t know what it is – Donald Trump: But I heard certain things – Kristen Welker: – all these people are coming in – Donald Trump: – that I didn’t like. Kristen Welker: – to your – Donald Trump: And by the way, I heard certain things that are phenomenal, okay? Kristen Welker: Like what? Donald Trump: Like law and order. We want law and order. Kristen Welker: Okay. Donald Trump: Okay little things, like let’s put prisoners in jail. Let’s not let people come out and raid every drug store in Manhattan so that we have to put glass up and every store is going out of business. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about something you’ve referenced a couple of times in this interview. I asked you last time we sat down for an interview if you were going to pardon yourself. You said no. But now that President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter, are you reconsidering? Might you pardon yourself? Donald Trump: I didn’t do anything wrong. I – I was given the option, and the lawyers told me – a very specific lawyer. I don’t have to go into who, but very high up in the – in the administration, said, “Sir, if you pardon yourself, you’re going to look guilty, and you did nothing wrong.” Oh, I had that option. I could’ve saved myself a lot of legal fees. Donald Trump: But it turned out that I was right. Look at what’s gone on. Everything’s being dropped. I still have a – Fani Willis, Fani, a total hoax. That’s a total hoax. Every – it’s all being dropped. It’s all been discredited. It’s been dropped. There are those people that say, and this would be the first time in history, that all of those fake indictments, they were – they were going after a political opponent. Donald Trump: There are those that say that I actually did better in the election because of it. Now, that would be a first. I think you would agree because normally, that’s like, you go back to the microphones, you say, “I’m leaving right now. I will leave office. I’m going back to my family and I will fight for my name.” Well, I had to fight for my name in public because I didn’t leave office. Donald Trump: But no, I didn’t want a pardon. And I didn’t want to pardon myself. I had the option to pardon myself. Kristen Welker: And you don’t want one now? You’re not going to pardon yourself now? Donald Trump: What do I need one for? First of all, I’ve won almost all of the cases. Kristen Welker: What if President Biden – Donald Trump: And the ones that I didn’t win are on resuscitation. Kristen Welker: What if President Biden offered you a pardon, would you accept it? Donald Trump: I’ve never even thought about it. I don’t think he’ll do it. Look, if he did, he’s the one that started this whole thing. He got the Justice Department to go after me. And the state cases are all being run by the Justice Department, which is illegal. They had their people from the Justice Department work for Alvin Bragg in order to get something going. Donald Trump: They worked for Letitia James in the state. He had his people go from the federal government and take lesser jobs in the state in order to get Donald Trump – Kristen Welker: And you know he denies he had anything to do with it. Donald Trump: No, no – Kristen Welker: And there’s no – Donald Trump: He can’t deny it. You know why? Because they were there. Wait a minute. Wait. You know, you have a tendency to sort of, like, slough over things. You just made a statement. His person, the top, maybe the third, or second or third person left the federal government, the DOJ and went to work for Letitia James. Donald Trump: And then after they got that one started, went to work for the DA. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about some of this new reporting. NBC News is reporting that President Biden is considering giving preemptive pardons to the likes of Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, and Anthony Fauci. If President Biden doesn’t issue those pardons, do you think they are going to wish that he had? Are they going to be – Donald Trump: I don’t know. Kristen Welker: – pursued? Donald Trump: I can tell you this about Cheney. And she’s a so-called Republican. I think she hurt the Democrats terribly. When I saw that Kamala put Cheney out on the campaign trail, I said, “That’s the end of Kamala.” I really did. I thought it was a terrible move, especially if you’re a Democrat. But Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps. Donald Trump: So the unselect committee went through a year and a half of testimony. Wait. They deleted and destroyed all evidence of – that they found. You know why? Because Nancy Pelosi was guilty. Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 troops. You wouldn’t have had a J6 because other people were guilty. The people that said that I attacked two Secret Service agents in a car, I grabbed one around the neck. Donald Trump: I was then rebuffed and I grabbed the other one. These are two of the toughest men anywhere on the planet. And they happen to slightly younger than me. You know, just a little bit. Let me just tell you. They testified. They said it was total bullshit. And all of this stuff came out. People lied so badly. Donald Trump: Now, listen, this was a committee, a big deal. They lied. And what did they do? They deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony. Do you know that I can’t get – I think those people committed a major crime. Kristen Welker: Sir? Donald Trump: And Cheney was behind it. Kristen Welker: Well – Donald Trump: And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee. Kristen Welker: We’re going to – Donald Trump: For what they did – Kristen Welker: Yeah – Donald Trump: – honestly, they should go to jail. Recommended Donald Trump Fact-checking Trump’s interview with ’Meet the Press’ National Security Democrats and Republicans in Congress worried that Gabbard might leak to Assad regime Kristen Welker: So you think Liz Cheney should go to jail? Donald Trump: For what they did – Kristen Welker: Everyone on the committee you think – Donald Trump: I think everybody – Kristen Welker: – should go to jail? Donald Trump: – on the – anybody that voted in favor – Kristen Welker: Are you going to direct your FBI director – Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: – and your attorney general to send them to jail? Donald Trump: No, not at all. I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to – I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill. Kristen Welker: When you say that, it carries weight though. You know, you’ve tapped these people to lead the Justice Department and FBI – Donald Trump: They can do whatever they want. Kristen Welker: Okay. Donald Trump: Biden can give them a pardon if he wants to. And maybe he should. Just remember, unselect committee. A year and a half of sworn testimony, and after getting all of the testimony, they deleted it, wait, and they destroyed almost everything. There’s nothing left. It’s unprecedented. Kristen Welker: And they deny doing that – Donald Trump: If you do that in a civil case – Kristen Welker: Yeah. Donald Trump: – you go to jail. Kristen Welker: You know they deny doing that. And officials say that the order never came in for the National Guard – Donald Trump: They put out a statement – Kristen Welker: But – On January 6th. Let me ask you this about January 6th – Donald Trump: Wait. Bennie Thompson – Kristen Welker: I think you’re going to want to answer this. Donald Trump: – wrote in his statement that he has destroyed all evidence. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you this about January 6th – Donald Trump: It’s amazing. I wish you could be a – you know, you have such potential. If you could be just – just non-biased. You hurt yourself so badly. I’m telling you, they deleted and destroyed all the evidence. Everyone knows it. And you slough it off like it doesn’t mean anything. Kristen Welker: No. I’m just saying they deny it. That’s all I’m saying. Donald Trump: Kristen, if I did it, you would be standing up on that chair shouting at me. And you know what I’d do? I’d say, “You got me.” Kristen Welker: Let me ask – Donald Trump: They have done something so illegal. They have a committee sworn to, and because it was so bad – the only reason they did it is because the testimony turned out to be in favor of me, like Secret Service testified and disputed everything. It made them into a bunch of liars. Not Secret Service, it made the people. Donald Trump: They got rid of it because it made Nancy Pelosi, the mayor of D.C., so many people look like criminals. And I will tell you, it’s illegal for them to delete and to destroy that evidence. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about January 6th in a different capacity, okay? I think you’re going to want to answer this question. You promised to pardon those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. Are you still vowing to follow through with that promise? Donald Trump: We’re looking at it right now. Most likely, yeah. Kristen Welker: Well, you know – Donald Trump: Those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look. But, you know, if somebody was radical, crazy. There might be some people from Antifa there. I don’t know. You know, because those people seem to be in good shape. What ever happened to scaffold man? You know who scaffold man was? Donald Trump: He stood on a scaffold telling everybody to go, and nothing happened to him. What ever happened to Ray Epps? Now, I don’t know anything about Ray Epps, but it was sort of strange the way he was talking. Where is he? What happened to him? Because the people that did very little– they arrested an old woman because she– I don’t think she did anything. Donald Trump: They don’t even know what she did. These people have suffered. Their lives have been destroyed. And yet in Portland, where they burned down half the city, they burn it down all the time, it’s like a, you know, routine occurrence, they don’t do anything. They attacked the courthouse, federal courthouse. You know, they always say federal building. Donald Trump: Okay. They destroyed the beautiful limestone exterior of the courthouse in Portland. They killed people in Portland. Seattle, people got killed in Seattle. Seattle, they took over a big chunk of the city. They took it over. They took the city away. Minneapolis, it looked like when they said, “This is a friendly protest,” and yet over the poor slob from CNN, his shoulder, the entire city was burning down. Donald Trump: It looked like World War II. Nothing happened. Kristen Welker: But – Donald Trump: Wait. Nothing happened. They took over the police statement – they took over the police station in Minneapolis. They burned it down. Nothing happened to anybody. Kristen Welker: I just want to – Donald Trump: And yet, these people – Kristen Welker: Yeah. Donald Trump: – have been in jail. And I hear the jail is a hell hole. They’ve done reports. And you would say that’s true. They’ve done reports. This is the most disgusting, filthy place. These people are living in hell. Kristen Welker: Let me just – Donald Trump: And I think it’s very unfair. Kristen Welker: But let me – Donald Trump: So yeah, most likely, I’ll do it very quickly. Kristen Welker: Very quickly. Okay. But some of them, 169 of them, have pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. Donald Trump: Because they had no choice. Kristen Welker: 900 pleaded guilty to other crimes. They’re also going to be eligible for a pardon from you? Donald Trump: Listen, it’s a very tough system. Do you know, almost nobody– I saw people that didn’t even go into the building and they were convicted. And you had the police saying, “Come on in. Come on in.” I mean, you know, the police are saying, “Come on in, everybody. Come on in.” They had people – you know, you have a lot of cameras. Donald Trump: They don’t want to release the tapes. They don’t want to release the tapes. Kristen Welker: But you’re going to consider pardoning even those who pleaded guilty to crimes, including assaulting police officers? Donald Trump: Well, sometimes they say, “Here’s your choice.” Kristen Welker: You’re not ruling it out? Donald Trump: Look. I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system. They say to a guy, “You’re going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.” And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they’ve been destroyed. But the system is a very nasty system. Kristen Welker: Okay. Let’s move on – Donald Trump: Yeah, I’m going to look at everything. We’re going to look at individual cases – Kristen Welker: Everyone? Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: Okay. Donald Trump: But I’m going to be acting very quickly. Kristen Welker: Within your first 100 days, first day? Donald Trump: First day. Kristen Welker: First day? Donald Trump: Yeah. I’m looking first day. Kristen Welker: You’re going to issue these pardons? Donald Trump: These people have been there, how long is it? Three, four years. Kristen Welker: Okay. Donald Trump: You know, by the way, they’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open. Kristen Welker: Let’s talk about your Cabinet picks. I know we started off talking about Pete Hegseth, but I just want to return to that very quickly. Have you gotten assurances from Senators that he’s going to be confirmed? Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: Do you think – Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: – he can make it? Donald Trump: No. I think he will, yeah. I’ve had a lot of Senators call me up saying he’s fantastic. Kristen Welker: You don’t drink yourself. Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: You’ve talked about how devastating drinking can be. Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: How concerned are you that the person who you picked for this top job at the Defense Department, at least according to those who’ve worked with him, has struggled with drinking? Donald Trump: But I’ve spoken to people that know him very well and they say he does not have a drinking problem. And, you know, he has a lot of knives out for him. A lot of people don’t want to see the military made better. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. You picked her to be the director of National Intelligence. In 2017, she had two secret meetings with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Do you have questions or concerns about those meetings? Donald Trump: No. And he’s got bigger problems right now – Kristen Welker: Well, do you think it makes it – Donald Trump: – because his country – Kristen Welker: – hard for her? Donald Trump: – his county is collapsing. Kristen Welker: Yeah. I mean, do you think it compromises her – Donald Trump: You know, look – Kristen Welker: – ability to handle that – Donald Trump: – I met with Putin. I met with President Xi of China. I met with Kim Jong-un twice. Does that mean – Kristen Welker: When you were president. Donald Trump: – that I can’t be president? Kristen Welker: Well, when you were president. They weren’t secret meetings. Donald Trump: No, but look, people meet. All these people meet. I mean, I see some of the most dishonest people. I’ll tell you, the 51 agents that said that the laptop wasn’t from Hunter, it was from Russia, what about them? Tell me about them. Do you think they did something wrong? Do you think they were all so stupid that they thought that the laptop from hell – Kristen Welker: So you have confidence in Tulsi Gabbard? Donald Trump: I do. I mean, she’s a very respected person. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you about RFK Jr. He has obviously talked about his skepticism of vaccines. He’s expressed opposition to childhood vaccines. Do you want to see childhood vaccines eliminated? Donald Trump: If they’re dangerous for the children. Look – Kristen Welker: So possibly? Donald Trump: – when you look at some of the problems, when you look at what’s going on with disease and sickness in our country, something’s wrong. Kristen Welker: Are you talking about autism? Donald Trump: Well, if you take a look at autism. Go back 25 years. Autism was almost non-existent. It was, you know, one out of 100,000. And now it’s close to one out of 100. Kristen Welker: Well – Donald Trump: I mean, what’s happening? If they can find it. Now, I did something the other night that was a little unusual. At Mar-a-Lago, I called the drug companies, the top drug companies, and I called RFK Jr., and Dr. Oz, and some of his people, and I said, “Let’s all get together and let’s figure out where we’re going because we’re going to do a lot of things.” Number one, we’re going to reduce prices because the middleman makes more money than the drug companies, in all fairness to the drug companies. Donald Trump: There’s a middleman that nobody even knows who they are. And you look at our drug prices, they’re much higher than the prices for the same medicine, for the same stuff. So we met. And we were – we met for a long time. And we talked about pricing. And we talked about vaccines, you know, in terms of what happens. Donald Trump: We talked about pesticides. We talked about everything. And I think a lot of good things are going to come from him. And he’s, he’s not going to upset any system. He’s not going to upset the system. He’s not looking to reinvent the wheel totally. But when you look at the numbers, we really don’t have a very healthy country. Kristen Welker: Sir, going back 25 years, studies show that there is no link between vaccines and autism. And yet, it sounds like you are open to the possibility of him looking at – Donald Trump: I’m open to anything – Kristen Welker: – getting rid of them? Donald Trump: I think somebody has to find out. If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it, I mean – Kristen Welker: Well, they say because they’re better at identifying it. Donald Trump: One in 100,000 and now it’s one in 100. That’s a pretty bad number. Kristen Welker: Childhood vaccines have prevent – Donald Trump: I mean, something is going on. I don’t know if it’s vaccines. Maybe it’s chlorine in the water, right? You know, people are looking at a lot of different things. Kristen Welker: You know, childhood vaccines have – Donald Trump: I want them to look at everything. Kristen Welker: Everything. So childhood vaccines have prevented about 4 million deaths around the world every year, sir, isn’t that – Donald Trump: I think that’s great. I’m all for it. I think it’s great. Hey, look, I’m not against vaccines. The polio vaccine is the greatest thing. If somebody told me to get rid of the polio vaccine, they’re going to have to work real hard to convince me. I think vaccines are – certain vaccines – are incredible. But maybe some aren’t. And if they aren’t, we have to find out. Donald Trump: But when you talk about autism, because it was brought up, and you look at the amount we have today versus 20 or 25 years ago, it’s pretty scary. Kristen Welker: Well, again, scientists say that’s because they’ve gotten better at identifying it – Donald Trump: I think we’re going to – Kristen Welker: – and there’s no link – Donald Trump: But the drug – Kristen Welker: –in studies, sir. Donald Trump: The drug companies are going to be working with RFK Jr. and, you know, he’s been an interesting guy to me. I’ve watched him for 25 years. And he’s been an interesting guy. Kristen Welker: Let’s talk about Elon Musk, another interesting person. Donald Trump: He’s very interesting. Kristen Welker: Last month, one of your allies said, quote, “He’s behaving as if he’s a co-president.” Will you favor Elon Musk over other leaders of – Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: – competitor companies, like Jeff Bezos, Mary Barra? Donald Trump: No, Jeff Bezos called me. We’re having dinner. As you know, Mark Zuckerberg came in. We had a really nice dinner. He asked to have dinner. I had dinner with him. I’m having dinner with everybody. People like me now, you know? It’s something going on that people – I said, “Would you have come to dinner with me if I lost?” I think the answer is no. You know, I said, kiddingly, of course, because I don’t want to sound foolish. Donald Trump: But I say jokingly, “Would you have been here at dinner if I lost?” And the answer was, “Probably not.” Look, I’m getting called by everybody. It’s very interesting. It’s different than the first – you know, when I won the first time, I wasn’t nearly as popular as this. And one thing that’s very important, in terms of the election, I love that I won the popular vote, and by a lot. Kristen Welker: 1.6 percent. Donald Trump: Because they would go with the other one. They say, “Well, he didn’t win the popular vote. He won a lot of –” you know, I won a lot of the Electoral College. But they would always preface it by saying – now they say, “He won the popular vote and he won the Electoral College, and he won all seven swing states.” That was a great election. Kristen Welker: Very quickly, because we’re going to talk about the election coming up, but you’ve tapped Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to head up this Department of Government Efficiency – Donald Trump: Correct. Kristen Welker: – which proposes cuts to the federal government. Think a lot of people hear that and they get concerned about Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid – Donald Trump: You’re not going to have anything to do – Kristen Welker: And defense spending. Donald Trump: We’re talking about – Kristen Welker: You won’t touch Medicare – Donald Trump: – theft – Kristen Welker: – Social Security? Donald Trump: – abuse, fraud. No. I said to people we’re not touching Social Security, other than we make it more efficient. But the people are going to get what they’re getting. Kristen Welker: Okay. Entitlements off the table? Donald Trump: And we’re not raising ages or any of that stuff. Kristen Welker: Ok. Off the table? Donald Trump: I won’t do it. Kristen Welker: Okay. Let’s turn to foreign policy. Should Ukraine prepare for less aid from the United States after you’re sworn in – Donald Trump: Possibly. Kristen Welker: – to office? Donald Trump: Yeah. Probably. Sure. Kristen Welker: You’ve said you can end the war in 24 – Donald Trump: We’re in for $350 billion. And Europe is in for $100 billion. Why isn’t Europe in for the same as us? The one thing that should happen is that Europe should come in for – they should equalize. And, you know, Biden, all he had to do, like I did with NATO, I said, “You’ve got to pay your bills.” They weren’t paying their bills. Donald Trump: And as you know, the secretary general said President Trump got $600 billion – no, 640 to be exact. And I used to use the $400 billion number. He corrected me. He said, “No, you actually got $641 billion put in” because I said, “You have to pay your bills.” We were paying for NATO. And you know why I got the money? Donald Trump: Because I asked for it. It wasn’t that complicated. Europe is in for a fraction. And war with Russia is more important for Europe than it is for us. It’s important for everybody, but it’s more important for Europe than it is for us. We have a little thing called an ocean in between us. Kristen Welker: You said you can end the war in 24 hours. You’ve even said you want to try to end it before you’re sworn into office – Donald Trump: Well, I’m trying to. I’m trying to end it if I can – Kristen Welker: You’re actively trying to? Donald Trump: I am. Kristen Welker: Have you talked to President Putin? Donald Trump: No, I have not. Kristen Welker: You haven’t talked to President Putin – Donald Trump: No, I have not. Kristen Welker: – since you’ve been elected? Donald Trump: I mean, no. Well, I don’t want to say that. But I haven’t spoken to him recently. Kristen Welker: So you’ve spoken to President Putin since you’ve been elected? Donald Trump: I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to say anything about that because I don’t want to do anything that could impede the negotiation. Kristen Welker: But you – Donald Trump: I want to stop– Kristen Welker: – have talked about – Donald Trump: Let me tell you what – Kristen Welker: – the other world leaders. Donald Trump: – I have talked about. Let me tell. There are people being killed in that war at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. You have to go back to the Second World War, and even that, if you take a look – and you know what it is? It’s the soldiers largely. The cities have been emptied out and demolished. The country has been demolished. Donald Trump: If I won that election, which you know how I feel about it. I won’t get into it because we don’t need to start that argument. I think it’s an easy argument. It was really proven even more conclusively by the win that I had on this one. But– Kristen Welker: But you did go to – Donald Trump: – had I – Kristen Welker: – court, sir. And you didn’t – Donald Trump: Yeah, well, that’s your opinion. But I disagree with it. Had I assumed, kept control. Number one, Israel wouldn’t have happened. Number two, Ukraine would’ve never happened. It would’ve never happened, Ukraine, Russia. But the number of people that are being killed, soldiers, young, beautiful soldiers, hundreds of thousands of people are being killed. Donald Trump: And, you know, it’s very interesting. It’s level. Totally level, the battlefields. Totally level. You know what’s happening? The only thing that stops a bullet, you know what it is? Is a body, a human body. And the people that are being killed, hundreds of thousands on both sides. Russia’s lost probably 500,000 – Kristen Welker: It’s devastating. Donald Trump: Ukraine’s lost higher than they say, probably 400,000. You’re talking about hundreds of thousands of bodies laying all over the fields. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, and it should’ve never been allowed to happen. Biden should’ve been able to stop it. Kristen Welker: Sir, will the United States stay in NATO while you’re in office? Donald Trump: In where? Kristen Welker: NATO. Do you commit that the United States will remain a member of NATO while you’re in office? Donald Trump: Again, they have to pay their bills. If they play their bills, absolutely. Kristen Welker: But not if they don’t pay their bills? Donald Trump: But NATO’s taking advantage of us. Because we were – look, two things. Number one, they take advantage of us on trade, meaning the European nations, okay, like terrible. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our food product, they don’t take anything. It’s a disgrace. And on top of that, we defend them. Donald Trump: So it’s a double-whammy. So let me just tell you, I was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO just by a tough attitude. I said to the countries, “I’m not going to protect you unless you pay,” and they started paying. And that amounted to more than $600 billion. That’s a big thing. Otherwise they wouldn’t even be fighting. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t have any money to fight. If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re doing a fair – they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO. Kristen Welker: But if not, you would consider the possibility of getting out? Donald Trump: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Kristen Welker: Let’s turn to the Middle East now, sir. There are still American hostages being held in Gaza. You said this week that if the hostages aren’t released before Inauguration Day, quote, “There will be all hell to pay.” Donald Trump: Correct. Kristen Welker: What exactly did you mean, and do you still think that the hostages are alive? Donald Trump: I’m not a big believer in the fact that there are too many of them living, sadly. Because I’ve seen the way they’ve been treated. I talk about the young girl that was pulled by her hair violently and thrown into the back of a car like she was a sack of potatoes. And I said, “You know, that’s hatred.” And then I said, “How did that young girl do?” Beautiful young girl, just dragged by her hair. Donald Trump: You remember. Blood pouring all over her body. You can imagine the parents. Thrown into the back of a car by some horrible guy. And I said, “How is she?” “She’s dead. She died, sir.” I don’t think you have as many. I mean, I hate to say it, I think you have far fewer hostages than people think. Kristen Welker: Really? Have you spoke – Donald Trump: That’s what I think. It’s only my opinion, but I’ve been right on just about everything. Kristen Welker: Are you going to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu, with whom you have a very good relationship, to end the war in Gaza? Donald Trump: Yeah. Sure. Kristen Welker: And have you already started that process? Donald Trump: I want him to end it, but you have to have a victory. People forget about October 7th. That was as violent – and you know what’s happening? I noticed that a lot of people are saying, “Oh, it never really happened.” That’s like the Holocaust. You know, you have Holocaust deniers. Now you have October 7th deniers, and it just happened. Donald Trump: No, October 7th happened. And I’ve seen the pictures. It is – what happened is horrible. Kristen Welker: If China invades Taiwan on your watch, are you committed to defending Taiwan? Donald Trump: I never say. Kristen Welker: Still won’t say? Donald Trump: I never say, because I have to negotiate things, right? Kristen Welker: Can you just say if you’ll defend it – Donald Trump: I’d prefer that they don’t – Kristen Welker: I’m not saying if the U.S. military – Donald Trump: I’d prefer that they don’t do it. I have a very good relationship with President Xi. We have been communicating with each other. Kristen Welker: Since you were elected? Donald Trump: Yes. Kristen Welker: And you sent that message? Donald Trump: Since, like, three days ago. Yes, we communicate. Kristen Welker: And you sent that message to him, “Don’t invade Taiwan –” Donald Trump: We didn’t talk about that. We talked about other things. But I have a very good relationship, and I hope he doesn’t do it. Kristen Welker: This week a federal court upheld a law that could result in TikTok being banned. You said you’re going to rescue TikTok when you get into office. Are you going to take steps to protect it? Donald Trump: Well, the problem with that is. Yeah, as you know – Kristen Welker: You are? Donald Trump: – I used TikTok very successfully in my campaign. I have a man named TikTok Jack, he was very effective, obviously, because I won youth by 30 percent. All Republicans lose youth. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s changing. And last time we were down 30% with youth. This time we were up 35% with youth. And I used TikTok, so I can’t really, you know, I can’t totally hate it. It was very effective. Donald Trump: But I will say this, if you do do that, something else is going to come along and take its place. And maybe that’s not fair. And really, what the judge actually said was that you can’t have Chinese companies. In other words, they have the right to ban it if you can prove that Chinese companies own it. That’s what the judge actually said. Kristen Welker: So are you going to try to protect TikTok, just very quick – once you’re in office? Donald Trump: I’m going to try and make it so that other companies don’t become an even bigger monopoly. Kristen Welker: Okay. Donald Trump: Because that’s what happens. Kristen Welker: We’re winding down, and I know you have a plane to catch. Donald Trump: I do. Kristen Welker: This is your first interview since you won the election. Donald Trump: Congratulations. Kristen Welker: Yes, congratulations to you. Donald Trump: I hope you do well. Kristen Welker: Yes. And sir, I don’t have to tell you this, because you’ve talked about it. It comes at a time when the country is deeply divided, and now you’re going to be leading this country for the next four years. For the sake of unifying this country, will you concede the 2020 election and turn the page on that chapter? Donald Trump: No. No, why would I do that? But let me just tell you – Kristen Welker: You won’t ever concede – Donald Trump: – when you say the country is deeply divided, I’m not the president. Joe Biden is the president. Kristen Welker: But you’re going to be the president. Donald Trump: No, no. I’m not the president. So when you say it’s deeply divided, I agree. But Biden’s the president, I’m not. And he has been a divider. And you know where he divided it more than anything else, and it probably backfired on him. I think definitely is weaponization. When he weaponized the Justice Department and he went after his political opponent, me. He went after his political opponent violently because he knew he couldn’t beat him. Donald Trump: And I think it really was a bad thing, and it really divided our country. Kristen Welker: Sir, Democrats have control of the White House now. They didn’t in 2020. If they are going around stealing elections, why didn’t they do it this time – Donald Trump: When you say Democrats have control now – Kristen Welker: Of the White House. So why didn’t they steal this election? Since they have more power now? Donald Trump: Because I think it was too big to rig. Kristen Welker: So you won’t – Donald Trump: It was too big to rig. Kristen Welker: To the people who say that you’re now directing your Justice Department to investigate 2020 and they want to move on – Donald Trump: No, I think Pam is going to be great – Kristen Welker: Is that a good use of precious resources? Is that what you want them to do – Donald Trump: By the way, just so you know, I have the right to do that but I’m not interested in that. Kristen Welker: Oh, you’re not? You’re not going to do that? Donald Trump: I’m not interested. I have the absolute right. I’m the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I’m the president. But I’m not interested in that. You know what I’m interested in? Drilling, and getting prices down, and stopping people from pouring into our border that come from prisons and mental institutions. Kristen Welker: Last two questions here. One of the things that made this campaign unprecedented and extraordinary were the horrific attempts against your life. Two assassination attempts. Do you feel safe going into the White House – Donald Trump: I do – Kristen Welker: – for the next four years? Why? Donald Trump: I have confidence in Secret Service. I know the people. I got to know a lot of them, and I have confidence. It was a bad moment. Something shouldn’t have happened. But I have a lot of confidence, and they really stepped it up. They were restricted from giving the – look, I do a rally, and you were at many of them. Donald Trump: And I’d have 50,000 people. Joe would have a rally and he’d have 30 people. And he had more Secret Service than me. My Secret Service was always asking for more manpower slash woman power. They were asking for more and more, and more, and they couldn’t get it. I’m not blaming them really, because they were always fighting for more people. Donald Trump: And they wouldn’t get – now, boy, do we have it. Kristen Welker: I know it was hard on your entire family. What can people expect from the First Lady in this second administration? What role will she play? She obviously had her Be Best campaign. Donald Trump: She’s very liked, loved, and she’s very respected, and she’s a very solid person. And she devotes a lot of time to helping children. You know what she does. And she’s got her Be Best deal that is incredible what she has done. The one thing I say, whether it’s the first lady or my children, my children did such a good job and they were treated very badly by the press and others. Donald Trump: Ivanka was unbelievable, what she did. All she wanted to do was one thing, get people jobs. She could’ve been the UN secretary. I said to her she would’ve been unbelievable. She’s got the whole package for that, including right up there. She’s as smart as they – she didn’t want it. She said, “Daddy, I want to work on getting people jobs.” You know, she’d go to Walmart, she’d go to Exxon. Donald Trump: She produced millions of jobs for people. Not glamorous. Most people didn’t know she did it. And she was always being excoriated. And I said to my kids, “Don’t come in. Don’t come in. It’s just – Kristen Welker: You said to them,”don’t come in?” Donald Trump: I said to them, yeah. I said – Kristen Welker: But will you miss having them there? Will it feel different – Donald Trump: I’ll miss them. Kristen Welker: They were your top advisors. Donald Trump: I’ll tell you what, I’ll miss them, and they are really competent. But I say, “Just go have fun, do your business, do whatever you want to do. But don’t come in.” Because no matter what they did, they did such a great job. Although I have to say, Lara did a phenomenal job as the head of the Republican National Committee, along with Michael. Kristen Welker: What will the First Lady’s role be, do you think? Will she continue her Be Best campaign? Donald Trump: She’s a very elegant First Lady, she was a very successful woman before that in the modeling and other things, but in the modeling very successful. The press I can’t say treated her unfairly. You know why? Because she’s very popular. You would think if the press was unfair, like to me the press was obviously unfair to me, the press – no president has ever gotten treated by the press like I was. Donald Trump: And yet I got more votes than any Republican candidate in history by far. It’s not even close. So you say what’s that all about? The press has to straighten itself out, because honestly it’s lost all credibility. When that can happen – based on the press I should’ve gotten no votes, none. And yet I got the highest number ever. Donald Trump: And the reason is, because I’m able to go on a show even like yours, even though you’re very hostile, I’m able to go on a show like yours – no, you are. Kristen Welker: Well, hopefully you thought it was a fair interview. We covered a lot of policy ground here. Donald Trump: It’s fair only in that you allowed me to say what I say. But you know the answers, the questions are, you know, pretty nasty. But look, because I’ve seen you interview other people like Biden. Kristen Welker: I’ve never interviewed President Biden, actually. Donald Trump: When I say you, I’m talking metaphorically. I’ve seen George Stephanopoulos interview Biden, and he’s a tough interviewer. It’s the softest interview. I’ve seen CNN interview him. They give these soft, you know, “What’s your favorite ice cream?” It’s a whole different deal. I don’t understand why. You know, you would think the press would like to see strong borders, great education, a powerful military so we have a country left, and all these different things. Donald Trump: And somehow they don’t want to see that. Kristen Welker: Let me ask – hopefully you think this interview was fair. We spent a lot of time talking about your policy and your second administration. I want to ask you, sir, one final question. What do you want to say to Americans who didn’t support you in this campaign? Donald Trump: I’m going to treat you every bit as well as I have treated the greatest MAGA supporters. There’s never been anything like MAGA in the history of this country. These people are so dedicated to making America great again. It’s very simple. And I’m going to treat them just the same as I treat MAGA. We’re going to treat everybody good. Donald Trump: We want success for our country, we want safety for our country. You know our country’s under threat, as you know. We have tremendous threat militarily because of the power of weapons and weaponry. There’s tremendous threat, nobody talks about it. But it’s tremendous threat. I want to treat everybody the same. Donald Trump: I want to treat them well. And at the end of this four years – and I have a big head start, because I was there for four years fairly recently. A lot of bad things were done during the four years that I wasn’t there. And mostly – and what they’ve done in terms of our reputation overseas – our reputation is so bad, so shot. Donald Trump: I got to bring it back, and I also have to, have to bring back civilization to our country. Our country is a crime pod and we have to get rid of crime. We have so many things to do. We have to do the prices, we have to do all of that. But we have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to bring down crime. Donald Trump: People have to be able to walk across the street and buy a loaf of bread without being shot. And that’s going to happen. But what I say to them is I love you, and we’re going to all work together. And we’re going to bring it together. And you know what’s going to bring it together? Success. I saw that just prior to COVID coming in, I had polls that were the highest anyone – McLaughlin and Fabrizio said, “George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, if they came back from the dead and they ran as president and vice president, couldn’t beat you, sir.” We were doing so well. Donald Trump: And I was getting along with the left. Let’s call it the left. We’ll be nice, okay? We’re just going to call it – but I was getting along with people that you would consider liberal or progressive, as they like to say, at levels that I never thought was possible. And you know what it was? Success. Success was bringing the country together, and that’s what I want to do. Kristen Welker: We’ll leave it there unless you’d like to say anything more. Donald Trump: I thank you very much. Kristen Welker: Thank you very much for the honor of the first interview. Donald Trump: Very much, great honor. Thank you. Kristen Welker: Thank you. Thank you so much. WALK AND TALK INTERVIEW Kristen Welker: Sir, there is incredible unrest in Syria. Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: Do you think that Bashar al-Assad could fall? Donald Trump: Well, you know, it’s amazing because he stayed for years under you would think much more adverse conditions, and all of the sudden, just rebels are going and they’re taking over large pieces of territory. It’s – it’s – I don’t think it’s looking very good for him. Who would have thought that was going to happen? Donald Trump: Because for 10 years, I mean, the guy was fighting all odds, and all of the sudden, it’s like people are just taking over his country. So I don’t know, people have bet against him for a long time, and so far that hasn’t worked. But this seems to be different. Kristen Welker: Let me ask you, sir, as you think about your inauguration. I remember your first inaugural address, you talked about American carnage. Have you thought about your message for your second inaugural address? Donald Trump: I have. It’s – Kristen Welker: Can you give us a preview? Donald Trump: – unity. We’re going to have a message. It will make you happy: unity. It’s going to be a message of unity. And again, I think success brings unity, and I’ve experienced that. I’ve experienced it in my first term. As I said, we’re going to be talking about unity, and we’re going to be talking about success, making our country safe, keeping people that shouldn’t be in our country – we have to do that. Donald Trump: I know it doesn’t sound nice, but we have to do that. But basically it’s going to be about bringing our country together, Kristen Welker: And no American carnage? Donald Trump: No American carnage, no – what is – what do you mean by American – Kristen Welker: That – that was one of the big quotes of your first inaugural address. It sounds like the tone – Donald Trump: No. Kristen Welker: – based on what I’m hearing is going to be different from this inaugural address. Donald Trump: Well, we had a very successful four years, actually, and the first admin – we had a very, very successful – if you look at what we’ve done with the biggest tax cuts in history. We had safety and military that was incredible. We defeated ISIS, which nobody thought could be done in a short period. I did it in a matter of weeks, and people thought it was going to take five years to do. No, we did a lot of things. Donald Trump: Rebuilding of our military was a big thing. Think of all the things that wouldn’t have happened. Russia wouldn’t have attacked Ukraine if I were president. Israel wouldn’t have had October 7th. We wouldn’t have had inflation because inflation was caused largely by energy prices. Kristen Welker: Yeah. Donald Trump: So many other things wouldn’t have happened. You look at Afghanistan, that disaster. So we’re going to bring our country back, and we’re going to bring it – we’re going to try and unify our country. Kristen Welker: Sir, when you think about your time in office, you are making history for a range of reasons, including the fact you will be the oldest person to be sworn into office. Do you commit to releasing your medical records? Donald Trump: Sure, I do it all the time. I think I’ve released four of them. Kristen Welker: Not just a letter though. Your – your full medical report. Donald Trump: Yeah, I would, and I think anybody should. But I – I mean, according to all the reports, I don’t want to – where’s wood? Is this a wood where I can knock on wood? But my reports are very good, very strong. Kristen Welker: So you plan to release them? Donald Trump: Sure, no problem with it. Kristen Welker: What about your business dealings, sir? You obviously have your online company, DJT. Are you going to divest? Donald Trump: Well, I have online – I mean, I don’t know what’s to divest. All I do is I put out messages. I needed it for messages because, as you know, I was taken off Twitter, at the time it was called, and I was taking off all of the different – so I actually created my own company, became Truth, and it was very successful. Kristen Welker: Will you divest from that? Donald Trump: Well I don’t know how I can divest? What does that mean? I’m not allowed to open it and use it? I mean, all I do is – I – I don’t openly look at the – the company. I’m not even on the board of the company. I didn’t want to be on the board. I have other people, and they run it, and they run it very well because Truth has become a very, very successful platform. Kristen Welker: Are you planning to accept a salary as President? Donald Trump: I’m not going to accept a salary, no. And I’m giving up a lot of money, you know. Do you know – it amaze me, and I – maybe this isn’t right, but other than George Washington, and they’re not sure about that, every President has accepted their salary, except me. Kristen Welker: And you will – you did accept the pension, correct? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. Kristen Welker: You didn’t accept your pension? Donald Trump: I don’t think I accepted anything. I didn’t – I get a salary – the president gets about $450,000 a year, and I didn’t take it. Kristen Welker: I want to ask you again about – Donald Trump: By the way, I got no credit for that. That’s okay. Kristen Welker: Well, I – I am asking you about it for that reason. Donald Trump: Yeah, wait so – Kristen Welker: – and – and I think it’s notable – Donald Trump: – you – you do know – Kristen Welker: – you’re not going to accept a salary. Donald Trump: Yeah, I don’t accept – I’m not – I didn’t, and I’m not going to. And I don’t believe I got any credit for not, but I just feel it’s, for me, it’s – it’s nice thing to do. I think – I think this, and I was surprised, not one president has done that. I would have assumed Roosevelt would have not accepted salary or Kennedy. Donald Trump: You know, Kennedy family is rich. I would have assumed that some of – I’m the only president that – they say they think that George Washington, but those records aren’t too good. Kristen Welker: Sir, we talked about your family, and they were such a big part – Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: – of your first administration. Donald Trump: And they did a great job. Kristen Welker: Well – Donald Trump: Think of it, the Abraham Accords they did. Kristen Welker: Well that’s what I’m thinking of. Donald Trump: The biggest – like oh – oh – Kristen Welker: Will – will Jared still be an advisor? Donald Trump: – tremendous – Kristen Welker: Will he be someone who you turn to – Donald Trump: I – Kristen Welker: – particularly as you deal with what’s happening in the Middle East? Donald Trump: Jared’s a very smart guy, did a great job. He did the Abraham – if he did nothing else, and that was a big thing. And you know, they should have built on it, but we’ll build on it now. We had four very powerful countries with Israel, and when you think of what that – it really represented peace in the Middle East. Donald Trump: That should have been filled out. It wasn’t, but we’ll get it filled out. But no, I’m not going to have the family involved because I don’t – I don’t think they were treated fairly. They did such a good job. Kristen Welker: But will it feel very different to be – Donald Trump: A little bit, yeah. Kristen Welker: – in the White House and not have them there? Donald Trump: Sure. It will feel a little bit different. But, I mean, think of what we did. We did the tax cuts, biggest tax cuts in history. We did the – and that’s a big thing, and that also spurred the economy. But if you look at the Abraham Accords, if you look at peace in the Middle East, we would have had so many different things, and they had it really go through Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax. Donald Trump: Guys like Schiff, who’s a real low life as an example. Adam Schiff. He’s a low life and now he gets elected senator, so sad, but – but my kids got treated so unfairly, so I don’t want them to go through it. Kristen Welker: Last question, because I’m getting a wrap – Donald Trump: Yeah. Kristen Welker: I understand that on day one, you’re going to be signing a flurry – Donald Trump: Yes. Kristen Welker: – of executive orders. Donald Trump: A lot. Kristen Welker: Can you give me just – what are the top ones people should know about? Donald Trump: A lot will have to do with economics. A lots going to have to do with energy. A lots going to do with having – having to do with the border. We’re going to immediately strengthen up the border and do a real job and some of the basics. So we’re going to end the electric mandate immediately for the cars. It’s ridiculous. Donald Trump: I – we want it – people to buy electric cars – Kristen Welker: All on day one? Donald Trump: Yeah, we want people to buy electric cars. But you know what? They have to be able to, if they want gasoline powered, if they want hybrids, they got to have that. So we’re going to be ending that. We’re going to be ending a lot of the environmental things that were ridiculous, that hurt our country very badly and didn’t do anything for the environment. Donald Trump: So we’ll be doing, you know, standard things. Kristen Welker: All right. Donald Trump: Thank you. Kristen Welker: Thank you so much. Donald Trump: Very much. Kristen Welker: Really appreciate it.
Date: 2024-12-10
It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada. I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all! DJT
Date: 2024-12-12
Note: [Time Magazine interviewed Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, for their 2024 Person of the Year story. The following is a transcript, which Time notes is “lightly edited for clarity,”, published on December 12, 2024.] Note: [The interview with Time was conducted by Eric Cortellessa, national political correspondent, Alex Altman, executive features editor, Massimo Calabresi, Washington bureau chief, and Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-chief. Interview courtesy and copyright Time Magazine. Link: https://cqrc.al/time-20241125] Question: You had an extraordinary year. You lived it and you know it. You cleared the field in the Republican campaign. You spent part of your campaign in a courtroom. You were almost shot to death on the trail. Your opponent dropped out, and then you won the swing states, which many people did not expect. What’s one thing that we should know about your experience this year that we don’t know? Donald Trump: Well, I think we ran a flawless campaign. It was, it was really quite something. I called it 72 Days of Fury. There were no days off. There were no timeouts. If you made a mistake, it would be magnified at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. So you couldn’t make a mistake. And I think we just really ran well. Donald Trump: It was a drive to go through it. It started 72 days out. For some reason, it just seemed to be it. And I worked very hard. I’ve been, I’ve been given credit by, actually, the reporters that followed me, because it was, you know, just, it just was all the time, every day, and we said the right things. We said things that were on the minds of the country. Donald Trump: I think the Democrats didn’t get it. They just kept going back to the same old nonsense. And it was nonsense, especially in where we are right now. And we hit – we hit something that was very special. We hit the nerve of the country. They don’t want to see jails emptied out into our country. They don’t want to see people from mental institutions being dismissed from their institutions. Question: Mr. President, what did the Democrats not get? You just said “they didn’t get it.” What did you mean by that? Donald Trump: I don’t think they got the feel of the country. The country was angry because of immigration, because of the people, you know, millions and millions of people. I was saying it could be 21 million people. They were saying a much lesser number, but it wasn’t a much lesser number. But even if it was, it was irrelevant, because it was – they were allowing anybody to come into our country. Donald Trump: They are right now. They opened it up again. You see what’s going on? They’re coming. They’re pouring up through Mexico and other places. And they weren’t using common sense. I said, We’ve become the party of common sense. As an example, they really don’t want to see men playing in women’s sports. You can have a – and this is one: They don’t want to see, as another example, open borders. Donald Trump: They want to see people come in. Everyone’s okay with it, and I am certainly. I want to have a lot of people coming, because we’re going to, we’re going to bring back a lot of jobs. We’ll bring record numbers of jobs, and we’ll do it through good taxing policy, and, you know, using some basic business intelligence. Donald Trump: But we’re going to bring back record jobs. Record companies are going to come into our country. They’re not going to be able to be able to steal our companies anymore. And I talked about that, but I differed, maybe, perhaps, from you people, I thought the economy was a big factor, especially the real economy, which is the economy of going out and buying groceries or buying a car or buying a house, which was, you know, between interest rates and between costs – as an example, the cost of a house is – a big chunk of the cost of the house is just the approval process and the regulations. Question: The economy was certainly a big factor in your victory – Donald Trump: But what was a bigger factor, I believe, was the border. I think the border and, you know, I won it in 2016 on the border, and I fixed the border, and it was really fixed, and they came in and they just dislodged everything that I did, and it became far worse than it was in 2016 – Question: I want to come back to immigration a little bit later. Let’s start out on what’s happening right now. You were elected on a promise to change Washington. By all accounts, the fight over that has already begun. One of your nominees was effectively blocked by the Senate. There are other senators who have expressed doubts about some of your other nominees. Question: What are you going to do if the Senate continues to balk at your choices for these key cabinet positions? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t think they will. And he wasn’t blocked. I had the votes if I needed them, but I had to work very hard. And you know, I’m not – there were numerous hard no’s, all of whom agreed with me to do it. Question: So you decided to give up on Gaetz? Donald Trump: No, I didn’t give up on him. I talked to him, and I said, you know, Matt, I don’t think this is worth the fight. I had the – he was there when I convinced five people to go that were hard no’s, but we want to speak to the President. And the beauty is that we won by so much. The mandate was massive. Somebody had 129 years in terms of the overall mandate. Donald Trump: That’s a lot of years, but people respected that. As an example, many places were thinking that they could go down and they could riot, make trouble, protest, on the election night. You know what happened? When the numbers started coming in, everyone just left. They left. I mean, you see signs of it, Washington, DC, where people were gathered. Question: Did I hear you say that you met in person with Gaetz and the five hard-no Senators? Donald Trump: Not with the senators there. No, I called the senators, and my relationship with the Senate is very good. Many of them I endorsed. Many of them I got elected. If I didn’t get involved in those races, those Senators would have lost. We wouldn’t have the majority. Question: Mr. President, will you use recess appointments to fill vacancies if you can’t get them through? Donald Trump: I really don’t care how they get them approved, as long as they get them approved. Question: So you might do it? Donald Trump: It’s up to the Senate. But I think I have a very good relationship with Senator Thune and the others, all of them. I think almost, almost everybody, many of them I was very instrumental in getting, if not this season, last season, the season before that, I would say more than half. Question: Will you commit to honoring the Senate’s authority to reject or confirm your nominees? Donald Trump: Well, sure, I want them to do that. I think – I don’t think there are too many. I don’t think that – look, everybody has, that’s why they have menus in restaurants. You have different choices. Some people love certain candidates. I’ll tell you, I put up some that I thought would be a little more controversial, and they turned out not to be necessarily the ones that are controversial. Question: One of them who is controversial, who I just want to ask you a quick question about, is RFK Jr, who is a noted vaccine skeptic. If he moves to end childhood vaccination programs, would you sign off on that? Donald Trump: We’re going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it. Question: Do you think it’s linked to vaccines? Donald Trump: No, I’m going to be listening to Bobby, who I’ve really gotten along with great and I have a lot of respect for having to do with food, having to do with vaccinations. He does not disagree with vaccinations, all vaccinations. He disagrees probably with some. But we’ll have it. We’re going to do what’s good for the country. Question: So that could include getting rid of some vaccinations? Donald Trump: It could if I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end. Question: Do you agree with him about the connection between vaccines and autism? Donald Trump: I want to see the numbers. It’s going to be the numbers. We will be able to do – I think you’re going to feel very good about it at the end. We’re going to be able to do very serious testing, and we’ll see the numbers. A lot of people think a lot of different things. And at the end of the studies that we’re doing, and we’re going all out, we’re going to know what’s good and what’s not good. Donald Trump: We will know for sure what’s good and what’s not good. Question: Mr. President, some foreign officials have expressed concern about sharing intelligence with Tulsi Gabbard, given her positions in support of Russia and Syria. Would her confirmation be worth the price of some of our allies not sharing intelligence with us? Donald Trump: I’m surprised to hear it, because I think she’s, like, a really great American. Hey, look, they said I was friendly with Russia until they saw the tapes, and then they said, you know, he’s not actually. He was the one that ended the Russian pipeline, Nord Stream 2. He was the one that put all the sanctions on Russia. Donald Trump: And I get along with Russia. I get along with a lot of people that people would think I wouldn’t get along with, but we get our way because I’m for this country, I’m not for other countries. By the way, do you want hors d’Oeuvres or anything? Question: No, that’s generous, thank you. Donald Trump: You sure? Question: Yes, but thank you. If you learn that foreign officials are withholding intelligence because she is the head of your intelligence, would that change your calculus? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I’m surprised to hear it. I heard that the first time the other day. I mean, I think she’s a great American. I think she’s a person with tremendous common sense. I’ve watched her for years, and she has nothing to do with Russia. This is another, you know, a mini Russia, Russia, Russia scam. Donald Trump: I think probably, if that’s what’s happening. No, I don’t see it. Certainly, if something can be shown to me. Question: During the campaign, you disavowed Project 2025, but so far at least five people you’ve appointed to top positions in your cabinet have ties to it. Doesn’t that undermine what you told Americans on the campaign trail? Donald Trump: No look, I don’t – I don’t disagree with everything in Project 2025, but I disagree with some things. I specifically didn’t want to read it because it wasn’t under my auspices, and I wanted to be able to say that, you know, the only way I can say I have nothing to do with it is if you don’t read it. I don’t want – I didn’t want to read it. I read enough about it. They have some things that are very conservative and very good. Donald Trump: They have other things that I don’t like. I won’t go into individual items, but I had nothing to do with Project 2025. Now, if we had a few people that were involved, they had hundreds of them. This is a big document, from what I understand. Question: More than 800 pages. Donald Trump: It’s a lot of pages. That’s a lot of pages. I thought it was inappropriate that they came out with it just before the election, to be honest with you. Question: Really? Donald Trump: I let them know, yeah, I didn’t think it was appropriate, because it’s not me. Why would they do that? They complicated my election by doing it because people tried to tie me and I didn’t agree with everything in there, and some things I vehemently disagreed with, and I thought it was inappropriate that they would come out with a document like that prior to my election. Question: Did you express those frustrations with them? Donald Trump: Oh I did. It wasn’t a frustration, it was a fact. It’s totally inappropriate. They come up with an 800-page document, and the enemy, which is, you know, the other party, is allowed to go through and pick out two items, 12 items out of, you know, 800. No, I thought it was an open – I thought it was a very foolish thing for them to do. Question: I understand, sir. Donald Trump: These are people that would like to see me win. And yet, they came out with this document, and they had some pretty ridiculous things in there. They also had some very good things in there. Question: I understand, sir. Let’s shift to a topic that I know you care quite a bit about: immigration. You recently said on Truth Social that you plan to use the military to deport migrants. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. What will you do if the military does not or refuses to carry out your orders? Donald Trump: Well, it doesn’t, it doesn’t stop the military if it’s an invasion of our country, and I consider it an invasion of our country. We have criminals coming into our countries that we’ve never seen, we’ve never seen before. We have people coming in at levels and at record numbers that we’ve never seen before. Donald Trump: And I’ll only do what the law allows, but I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows. And I think in many cases, the sheriffs and law enforcement is going to need help. We’ll also get National Guard. We’ll get National Guard, and we’ll go as far as I’m allowed to go, according to the laws of our country. Question: If you can’t negotiate agreements with the receiving governments, and none seem receptive, will you of necessity have to hold these detained migrants in camps? Donald Trump: I’ll get them into every country, I’ll get them into every country, or we won’t do business with those countries. Question: So you won’t need to build more detention facilities, sir? Donald Trump: No, because, look, we may have to do it anyway. Because, look, they brought in millions of people, and many of those people have been, you know, taken out of jails and prisons. You look at prison populations, what’s happening all over the world, except here. No, they – I can’t even conceive of why they would allow criminals, known criminals, people from jails that have tremendous records. Donald Trump: Look, if you look at the 13,000-plus, 13,099 which was issued by border patrol, they said those people were murderers, and they allowed them into our country. Why would somebody do that? Why would somebody do that? And that’s why the Democrats lost, because of many things like that. That’s a bad one, by the way. Donald Trump: You know that’s a bad one, but there are many things that – Question: So you’re saying there won’t be new camps, more camps to hold detained migrants? Donald Trump: Well, there might be. Whatever it takes to get them out. I don’t care. Honestly, whatever it takes to get them out. Again, I’ll do it absolutely within the confines of the law, but if it needs new camps, but I hope we’re not going to need too many because I want to get them out, and I don’t want them sitting in camp for the next 20 years. Donald Trump: I want them out, and the countries have got to take them back, and if they don’t take them back, we won’t do business with those countries, and we will tariff those countries very substantially. When they send products in, they will have substantial tariffs, and it’s going to make it very hard for them to do business with us. Question: A question on the minds of a lot of Americans: Will you restore your policy of separating families? Donald Trump: I don’t think – I won’t have to, because, first of all, it wasn’t my policy. It was Obama’s policy. I didn’t build jail cells for children. He did. If you look at the 2014 – Question: I don’t want to litigate the past. I’m just asking if you will do this – Donald Trump: Well you said, your policy. This was a policy of the country. I don’t believe we’ll have to, because we will send the whole family back to the country. Question: Deport them together? Donald Trump: I would much rather deport them together, yes, than separate. By the way, when you talk about separation, we have 325,000 children here during Democrats – and this was done by Democrats – who are right now slaves, sex slaves or dead, and they were allowed. So I mean, those are the and what I will be doing will be trying to find where they are and get them back to their parents. Question: Many of the people who voted for you, as you mentioned a moment ago, cited high prices, particularly of food and groceries. If you deport millions of migrant agricultural workers, won’t the price of food rise sharply? Donald Trump: No, because we’re going to let people in, but we have to let them in legally. We don’t want people to come in from jails. We don’t want the jails of Venezuela and many other countries, and not just South American countries. We don’t want the jails to be opened up into our country. We’re not accepting their prisoners. Donald Trump: We’re not accepting their murders. We’re not accepting their people from mental institutions. We’re not doing it. Question: Your transition co-chair Howard Lutnick said your appointees would be vetted for loyalty. Are you going to ask your appointees to take a loyalty pledge? Donald Trump: I don’t think I’ll have to. I think I will know who – I mean, look, all you can do is feel comfortable with people. There’s always disloyal people, and every President’s had them. I’ve had them, and every President has had them. But no, I think, I think I will be able to, for the most part, determine who’s loyal. Donald Trump: I want them to be loyal as to policy, as to the country. It’s gotta be loyal. Question: If they don’t follow your orders, will you fire them? Donald Trump: If I think it’s appropriate, I’d fire them. Question: Does that go for civil servants as well, Mr. President, who work in the executive branch but aren’t appointees? Donald Trump: Well, it depends. We have some interesting things happening in rules and regulations, but we’re going to see. But sure, if I’m allowed to do that, I would do that. If they’re not following my policies, absolutely. Question: You’ve put Elon Musk in charge of DOGE, giving him the power to – Donald Trump: Along with – Question: Along with Vivek Ramaswamy, yes, absolutely. But on Musk specifically, giving him the power to oversee the agencies that regulate his companies. Isn’t that a conflict of interest? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. Look, we have a country that is bloated with rules, regulations and with, frankly, people that are unnecessary to do. We are going to need a lot of people in a lot of other jobs. We’re looking to get people into private sector jobs where they can do better and be more productive. We’re going to see what happens. Donald Trump: We have some interesting months coming up, at the beginning. We’re going to see what happens. But this country is bloated. Question: I think everybody agrees that there’s waste in the federal government – Donald Trump: Waste, fraud, and abuse. Question: But Elon Musk is talking about cuts that would directly affect NASA, which would then directly affect SpaceX, his company. Isn’t that the textbook definition of a conflict of interest? Donald Trump: I think that Elon puts the country long before his company. I mean, he’s in a lot of companies, but he really is, and I’ve seen it. He considers this to be his most important project, and he wanted to do it. And, you know, I think, I think he’s one of the very few people that would have the credibility to do it, but he puts the country before, and I’ve seen it, before he puts his company. Question: Well, ultimately, Congress controls spending. Would you veto a budget or appropriations that does not comply with the Musk-Ramaswamy Commission, DOGE? Donald Trump: I might. But there are many things you can do without Congress. When it comes to cutting, harder to get, but to cut, you can do a lot of things without Congress. Question: What do you plan to do? Donald Trump: I mean, I’ll give you an example. We want to move the schools back to the states. We want to, you know, we’re at the bottom of every list in terms of education, and we’re at the top of the list in terms of the cost per pupil, and we want to move them back to the states, and we’ll spend half the money on a much better product. Donald Trump: We’ll get – I believe we can compete with Norway and Denmark and Finland and other countries. And I will tell you, China is right at the top of the list too. Most lists. Question: What does moving back to the states mean? Does that mean closing the Education Department? Donald Trump: A virtual closure of Department of Education in Washington. Question: Virtual closure? Donald Trump: Well, you’re going to need some people just to make sure they’re teaching English in the schools. Okay, you know English and mathematics, let’s say. But we want to move education back to the states. If you look at the states, if you look at some of the individual countries, Norway is a very strong educational country, but many. Donald Trump: I think Iowa, and I think Indiana, and a lot of these states that are well-run states. We have a lot of them that are very well run. When they run their own educational program, I think it’s going to, I think they’ll be able to compete with anybody. Then you’re going to have the badly run states, like a guy like Gavin Newscum [sic] in California, where he does a poor job, and he’ll, but even in California, you’ll give it to Riverside. Donald Trump: You’ll give it, you know, you’ll give it to areas of California where I think they’ll run a great school program. Question: Last question on your transition, why have you declined to sign the ethics agreement as part of – Donald Trump: I don’t know anything about it. Question: The ethics document. Donald Trump: I don’t know. I would sign an ethics document. Question: Will you disclose who the donors are to your transition? Donald Trump: To my campaign? Question: No – to paying for the transition. Taylor Budowich: There will be an announcement on that this week. Question: I really, I have no problem disclosing anything. Question: That’s great, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Just so you know. I had heard this a couple of days ago. I have no problem. I’d rather disclose it right up front. I have no problem with it. Question: I’ve got a question for you about the campaign. Was there a moment when you thought you might lose? Donald Trump: I like not to think of that. The power of positive thinking, right? But there were some moments when, you know, there was, there was some bad things done in the campaign. There were a lot of fake polls. They were absolutely fake. Look at an example, a very good pollster was in Iowa, and I thought I was winning at the end. Donald Trump: But it wasn’t like she was a bad – she was great. For years, she was the best. She was the gold standard in Iowa. And then a couple of weeks before the election, she had me up four, and that brought it down way below the 18 or 19 that we thought we were, we were up with 18 or 19 points, which is, you know what I get, the farmers like me, but she did it in gradual steps. Donald Trump: She did it up four. That was a big story, because I was only up four and then she did where I was down three, and that became headlines all over the place just before the election. Question: When you saw that, did you think you were going to lose? Donald Trump: I thought it was a wrong poll, because we had an Emerson poll that had us up 18, you know. Question: What was the darkest moment for you then in the campaign? Donald Trump: By the way, I’m just using that as an example. I didn’t think I was going to lose. I thought it was a dishonest poll, and we’re going to probably prove that because, you know, we’re taking people to court because we think, I think, we have an obligation to. When 60 minutes interviews my opponent, and that’s a news program, that’s their most important news program, and she gave a really horrible answer. Donald Trump: That was a bad answer. And they took that answer and replaced it, and this is her speaking, and they replaced it with another answer from a half an hour later in the interview that had nothing to do, but it was a much better answer. That’s really dishonest. Question: Speaking of Kamala Harris. What do you think were her worst mistakes in the campaign? Donald Trump: Taking the assignment. Number one, because you have to know what you’re good at. Question: Did she make any tactical mistakes you think that cost her? Donald Trump: I think that when she wouldn’t talk to anybody, it shone a light on her. In other words, if she would have gone out and just did interviews where they’re comparable to Steve, if there is anybody comparable, would say, could you do an interview here? An interview there? You know, she didn’t do anything. And people said, Is there something wrong with her? Donald Trump: Why would they? I mean, I’m doing this interview with you. I did interviews with, if I had the time, anybody that would ask, I’d do interviews. I think the Joe Rogan interview, you know, that went on for almost three and a half hours. Question: I watched the whole thing, sir, yes. Donald Trump: Oh good, I hope you liked it. But I found it to be a pleasure to do it, you know. He was an interesting guy. I wish I could have even done it longer. I had a rally that I was two and a half hours late for in Michigan. It was very cold. And, you know, we didn’t lose anybody. But I explained to him, Listen, I just did an interview. Donald Trump: We got to win this thing and – but I was two and a half hours late. I didn’t know it was going to be three. I thought it was going to be an hour or something. Question: You had to wrap it up at the end. Donald Trump: I had to say, listen, I have a rally where you have thousands of people that are standing. I think one of the big advantages I had is the rallies. I think, you know, nobody else gets the people we had. We had the biggest rallies. Nobody’s ever seen rallies like that, and they were enthusiastic rallies. And when you see that, and then somebody else comes to town the following day, and they have a few hundred people, you would say, you have a big advantage. Donald Trump: But, but it’s an interesting question when you ask about her. I think they made a big tactical mistake by literally not talking to the press, even if a really friendly, I mean, and they had almost all friendly, somebody would come up with a really friendly – like you guys, maybe – but a friendly interview, and they turned everybody down. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t do the basic. And people, including me, would start to say, is there something wrong with her? What’s wrong? Why wouldn’t you do some basic interviews? And then she had some pretty failed interviews, and maybe it was highlighted more than it would. In other words, if she did those same interviews, but she did another 15 interviews, you know, you wouldn’t have really noticed it that much. Question: The bad ones would have been drained out. Donald Trump: She put so much emphasis on interviews. Somebody thought there was something wrong, and I don’t think she ever recovered from that. Question: I’m going to shift to foreign policy. Have you spoken to Vladimir Putin since your election? Donald Trump: I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you. It’s just inappropriate. Question: If Ukraine doesn’t agree to a peace deal that you have said you will broker, will you cut military, humanitarian, and intelligence assistance to them? Donald Trump: The reason that I don’t like to tell you this is that, as a negotiator, when I sit down and talk to some very brilliant young people: young, young, young, young. Compared to me, you’re very young. But when I talk to people – when I start I think I have a very good plan to help, but when I start exposing that plan, it becomes almost a worthless plan. Question: Will you commit to protecting Ukrainian sovereignty, though, from Russia? Donald Trump: I would like to see Ukraine – okay, ready? You have to go back a little bit further. It would have never happened if I were president. Would have never happened – Question: But it has happened. So the question people want to know is, Would you abandon Ukraine? Donald Trump: It makes it so bad. And I had a meeting recently with a group of people from the government, where they come in and brief me, and I’m not speaking out of turn, the numbers of dead soldiers that have been killed in the last month are numbers that are staggering, both Russians and Ukrainians, and the amounts are fairly equal. Donald Trump: You know, I know they like to say they weren’t, but they’re fairly equal, but the numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering. It’s crazy what’s taking place. It’s crazy. I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that? Donald Trump: We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons. And I think that’s a very big mistake, very big mistake. But the level, the number of people dying is number one, not sustainable, and I’m talking on both sides. Donald Trump: It’s really an advantage to both sides to get this thing done. Question: The question that many Americans and many people around the world have is, Will you abandon Ukraine? Donald Trump: I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon. You understand what that means, right? Question: Right. Well, no, tell me. Donald Trump: Well, I just said it. You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon, in my opinion. And I disagree with the whole thing, because it should have never happened. Putin would have never invaded Ukraine if I were president for numerous reasons. Number one, they drove up the oil price. When they drove up the oil price, they made it a profit-making situation for him, the oil price should have been driven down. Donald Trump: If it was driven down, you wouldn’t have had it wouldn’t have started just for pure economic reasons. But when it hits $80, $85, and $90 a barrel. I mean, he made, he made a lot of money. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, because he’s also suffered, but they are moving forward. You know, this is a war that’s been – this is a tragedy. Donald Trump: This is death that’s far greater than anyone knows. When the real numbers come out, you’re going to see numbers that you’re not going to believe. Question: Well, another war with a high death toll is happening in the Middle East. You reportedly told Prime Minister Netanyahu that you wanted him to end the war in Gaza before you took office. What did he say? Donald Trump: I think that, before I talk about that, I think that the Middle East is an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine. Okay, I just want to say that up front. The Middle East is going to get solved. The Middle East has been – it’s a horrible thing. October 7 was a horrible thing. Donald Trump: Everyone is forgetting conveniently about October 7, but that was a horrible day for the world, not for Israel, for the world. And I think the Middle East is going to get – as we speak, things are happening very productively on the Middle East. I think the Middle East is going to get solved. I think it’s more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine, but I think it’s, it’s, it’s easier to solve. Question: Did Netanyahu give you assurances about when he would end the war? Donald Trump: Um, I don’t want to say that, but I think he feels confident that – I think he feels very confident in me, and I think he knows I want it to end. I want everything to end. I want, I don’t want people killed, you know? I don’t want people from either side killed, and that includes whether it’s Russia, Ukraine, or whether it’s the Palestinians and the Israelis and all of the, you know, the different entities that we have in the Middle East. Donald Trump: There’s so many different entities. But I don’t want people killed. Question: When you say productive things are happening, can you be more specific? Donald Trump: No, I can’t. I mean, I’d love to be, I would so love to be, but I can’t. I will be. We’re going to sit down in a period of time, hopefully soon, and I’ll tell you all the things that are happening. But there are some very productive things happening. I do think – okay, because I’m looking at two, two primary fronts, right? Donald Trump: You have the Russia-Ukraine, and you have this, and there are other problems also. But look, when North Korea gets involved, that’s another element that’s a very complicating factor. And I know Kim Jong Un, I get along very well with Kim Jong Un. I’m probably the only one he’s ever really dealt with. When you think about it, I am the only one he’s ever dealt with. Donald Trump: But you have a lot of very bad complicating factors there, but we’ll sit down and we’ll at the end of each of these, or both, maybe simultaneously, we’ll sit down and I’ll show you what a good job I did. Question: You mentioned the Palestinian people. In your first term, your administration put forward the most comprehensive plan for a two-state solution in a long time. Do you still support that plan? Donald Trump: I support a plan of peace, and it can take different forms. When I did the Abraham Accords, that should have been loaded up with people, you know. I made a statement. I think they didn’t add one country. Think of it. They didn’t add one country to the Abraham Accords. We had the four countries, very important countries, but that should have been loaded up with Middle Eastern countries. Question: Do you still support a two-state solution? Donald Trump: I support whatever solution we can do to get peace. There are other ideas other than two state, but I support whatever, whatever is necessary to get not just peace, a lasting peace. It can’t go on where every five years you end up in tragedy. There are other alternatives. Question: Your incoming ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, supports the settlement movement and Israel annexing the West Bank. The real question at the heart of this, sir, is, do you want to get a two-state deal done, outlined in your Peace to Prosperity deal that you put forward, or are you willing to let Israel annex the West Bank? Donald Trump: So what I want is a deal where there’s going to be peace and where the killing stops. Question: Would you tell Israel – Bibi tried last time and you stopped him. Would you do it again this time? Donald Trump: We’ll see what happens. Yeah, I did. I stopped him. But we’ll see what happens. October 7 was a very terrible day. You know, October 7. People are forgetting about it. They don’t ever mention. It was a tragic day. The other thing that’s happening are the hostages, where are the hostages, why aren’t they back? Donald Trump: Well, they could be gone. They could be gone. I think Hamas is probably saying, Wow, the hostages are gone. That’s what they want. Question: So there’s a scenario where you would allow Israel to annex the West Bank? Donald Trump: I will – what I’m doing and what I’m saying again, I’ll say it again, I want a long lasting peace. I’m not saying that’s a very likely scenario, but I want a long lasting peace, a peace where we don’t have an October 7 in another three years. And there are numerous ways you can do it. You can do it two state, but there are numerous ways it can be done. Donald Trump: And I’d like to see, who can be happy? But I’d like to see everybody be happy. Everybody go about their lives, and people stop from dying. That includes on many different fronts. I mean, we have some tremendous world problems that we didn’t have when I was president. You know, when I left, we had, we had an Iran that was not very threatening. Donald Trump: They had no money. They weren’t giving money to Hamas. They weren’t giving money to Hezbollah. Question: Iran recently plotted to have you assassinated. What are the chances of going to war with Iran during your next term? Donald Trump: Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation. I think the most dangerous thing right now is what’s happening, where Zelensky has decided, with the approval of, I assume, the President, to start shooting missiles into Russia. I think that’s a major escalation. I think it’s a foolish decision. Donald Trump: But I would imagine people are waiting until I get in before anything happens. I would imagine. I think that would be very smart to do that. Question: Do you trust Netanyahu? Donald Trump: I don’t trust anybody. Question: Can I ask, Did Elon Musk meet with the Iranians at your behest? Donald Trump: I don’t know that he met with them. Question: Reportedly he met with the Iranians. Donald Trump: I don’t know. He didn’t tell me that. Question: Let’s shift back to some domestic issues. Will you vow that your FDA will not do anything to limit access to medication abortion or abortion pills? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to take a look at all of that. That’s why I’m here. We’re going to take a look at all of that. Question: So it’s possible they may? Donald Trump: You’re talking about the abortion pill? Question: I’m talking about the abortion pill. FDA approvals – Donald Trump: It’s unlikely, very unlikely. Question: But possible? If they tried to, would you stop them? Donald Trump: You know my stance from a long campaign. A long and hard campaign. I was against that. I was against that. Strongly against. Question: Can you be specific? Strongly against? Donald Trump: Strongly against. You’re talking about the abortion pill. Question: You’re against the abortion pill? Donald Trump: No, I was against stopping it. Question: Right. Okay, just to clarify. Donald Trump: So I don’t see any reason why it changed, but somebody could come up with something that, you know, this horrible thing. Question: You won’t rule it out, though? Donald Trump: Look, I’ve stated it very clearly and I just stated it again very clearly. I think it would be highly unlikely. I can’t imagine, but with, you know, we’re looking at everything, but highly unlikely. I guess I could say probably as close to ruling it out as possible, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to do anything now. Donald Trump: I want to do it at some point. There will be a time in the future where people are going to know everything about subjects like that, which are very complex subjects for people, because you have other people that, you know, they feel strongly both ways, really strongly both ways, and those are the things that are dividing up the country. Donald Trump: But you know my stand from a very long, hard thing, and I think it’s highly unlikely that I ever change that. Is it 100% unlikely that I change or that I stay – Question: I think what the women of America want to know is, Are you committed to making sure that the FDA does not strip their ability to access abortion pills? Donald Trump: That would be my commitment. Yeah, it’s always been my commitment. Question: Can I shift to the transgender issue? Obviously, sort of a major issue during the campaign. In 2016, you said that transgender people could use whatever bathroom they chose. Do you still feel that way? Donald Trump: When was that? Question: In 2016. Donald Trump: I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue. Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country, so they’ll have to settle whatever the law finally agrees. I am a big believer in the Supreme Court, and I’m going to go by their rulings, and so far, I think their rulings have been rulings that people are going along with, but we’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people. Question: But on that note, there’s a big fight on this in Congress now. The incoming trans member from Delaware, Sarah McBride, says we should all be focused on more important issues. Do you agree? Donald Trump: I do agree with that. On that – absolutely. As I was saying, it’s a small number of people. Question: It was a big issue, though, on the campaign. I mean, one of the ads that your campaign put the most money behind was the: Trump is for us and Harris is for they / them. Donald Trump: Well, it’s true, Trump is for us. Question: Right. It obviously strikes a chord. Donald Trump: I mean, Trump is definitely for us, okay? And us is the vast, vast majority of people in this country. And also, I want to have all people treated fairly. You know, forget about majority or not majority. I want people to be treated well and fairly. Question: Last question on the trans issue. Will you reverse Biden’s protections for trans kids under Title Nine? Donald Trump: I’m going to look at it very closely. We’re looking at it right now. We’re gonna look at it. We’re gonna look at everything. Look, the country is torn apart. We’re gonna look at everything. Question: Do you plan to fire your hand-picked FBI director, Christopher Wray? Donald Trump: I’ll be announcing something in the future. I’m looking at people, and we’ll make a decision in the not-too-distant future. Question: Are you considering Kash Patel as a replacement? Donald Trump: Yes, I am. One of the people, yeah. Note: [Time editor’s note: On Nov. 30, Trump announced he intends to nominate Patel to be FBI director.] Question: Have you decided yet whether you’re going to pardon all of the January 6 defendants? Donald Trump: Yes. Question: You’re going to do all of them? Donald Trump: I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished. And the answer is I will be doing that, yeah, I’m going to look if there’s some that really were out of control. Question: So you will not include those who committed violent acts? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. And a vast majority of them should not be in jail. A vast majority should not be in jail, and they’ve suffered gravely. And I say, why is it that in Portland and in many other places, Minneapolis, why is it that nothing happened with them and they actually caused death and destruction at levels not seen before? Donald Trump: So you know, if you take a look at what happened in Seattle, you had people die, you had a lot of death, and nothing happened, and these people have been treated really, really badly. Yeah, it’s an important issue for me. They’ve suffered greatly, and in many cases they should not have suffered. Question: We’re sitting here moments after Jack Smith dropped the case against you. Over the course of the campaign, you vowed to or suggested prosecuting a long list of political rivals, whether it’s Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Adam Schiff, Mark Milley. Did you raise these prosecutions of these people with Pam Bondi? Donald Trump: No. Question: You haven’t spoken to her about it? Donald Trump: No. Question: How do you expect her to proceed? Donald Trump: I think she’s going to be fair to everybody. She’s very respected. She’s a very, very smart and even brilliant person. She was a successful at the highest level Attorney General – Question: Are there going to be investigations of these subjects, of these people? Donald Trump: That’s up to her. That’ll be up to her. Steven Cheung: We’re coming up on 45 minutes. Donald Trump: Is there anything positive we can talk about? Question: Actually we do, but it’s a complicated world. Let’s do some rapid fire questions – Donald Trump: I did win the greatest election that a lot of people say we had in hundreds of years. Question: Well, here’s something we can talk about. The GOP will have full control of Congress. You’re gonna have a governing trifecta after you won. What are your first priorities in Congress? Donald Trump: Well, my first priorities are, I don’t really need Congress for it, frankly, securing the border and drilling for oil. Question: Are you going to push for any major legislation in your first year in office? Donald Trump: Yeah, sure. Question: What will that be? Donald Trump: Well, we have to extend the tax cuts, very importantly. I think it’s a very important thing, but, and our Secretary of Treasury has been really well received, as you see by the stock market, et cetera, but very important, we have to extend the tax cuts. But you know, a lot of the things when, when the Democrats were saying, you know, they need Congress to secure the border. Donald Trump: They don’t need Congress. All you have to do is say, I want the border secured. I had the most secure border we’ve ever had, and I never had to go to Congress for it. Question: Do you think Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito should resign in the next two years so you can appoint younger successors? Donald Trump: I think they’re incredible, actually. So that’s up to them, but I think they’re incredible. I think they’ve been great justices. Question: Everyone across the political spectrum recognizes the nature of your comeback, the historical nature of comeback, your resilience. What do you understand about the American psyche that your opponents do not? Donald Trump: See, I don’t view it as a comeback. And people have said it was the greatest comeback in political history, and beyond even political history plus. They said, add sports and add everything else. But I don’t view it that way. I think I ran a great campaign. I think I was popular. I think I did a very good job the first term. Donald Trump: We got hit by COVID at the end. But even with COVID, we did a very, very good job that people are starting to recognize. But you take a look at those first few years, we’ve never had an economy even even close to that. So I don’t, I don’t view it as a comeback. I know it’s considered that. I should allow it to be that, and I will allow it to be that. Donald Trump: But, you know, come back from what? I’ve always been here, you know. Question: I think more the point that sort of the question was driving at is, you know, you’ve won twice now. Donald Trump: Right. Question: You’ve realigned both political parties, you’ve changed America. There’s got to be something that you understand about winning votes or the American people that your opponents maybe don’t give you credit for. And I guess I’m curious what that is. Donald Trump: It’s, you know, I think people want to lead a good life. I think they want to be able to buy groceries at a reasonable price and not have to turn off their heat in order to buy two apples. I think that, I think that people want security. I don’t think people want to have our borders rushed by – it’s really an invasion of our country by foreign countries, and not just South America. Donald Trump: I mean, these are countries all over the world. It’s really, I think our people want common sense applied to their life, and they don’t want to see a girl be beat up in a boxing ring by a man, as happens. They don’t want to see somebody in a weight lifting contest, a woman against a man. It makes no sense. Donald Trump: They don’t want to see, you know, men playing in women’s sports. They don’t. They don’t want to see all of this transgender, which is, it’s just taken over. And then you take a look, and not very many years after the person who went through this process is saying, Who did this to me? As you know, it’s a very high percentage. Donald Trump: I really think that the people of this country have tremendous hearts. They understand and they want common sense applied to their lives. Most of the things I talk about are common sense. They don’t want to see their food prices go up by 57% in a short period of time. And I think that’s why I won. I think – I think that’s why I won. Donald Trump: The Republican Party has become the party of common sense, and it’s so many of the things I mentioned, and other things too. They don’t want to have all electric cars. They might want an electric car. Electric cars are great, but they’re not for everybody. They also want gasoline-powered cars or hybrids or anything else that happens to come out. Donald Trump: They don’t want to have a mandate on cars where they’re forced to buy a car that they don’t want. There are so many things. I mean, they’re too innumerable. There’s too many to mention. I could go on all day long giving you crazy, crazy stats – Question: But your appeal pre-exists a lot of this stuff – Donald Trump: Yeah, Eric, but in the end, they want to see our country run with common sense. They don’t want to be invaded by 100 and 182 at this moment. We’ve had during the course of the last three years – 182, people don’t realize how many countries there are. There are a lot of countries, 182 is not even close to the number, okay, but we had 182 countries where people invaded our country, essentially invaded our country. Donald Trump: We don’t know who they are, we don’t know where they are. We don’t know anything about them. They just walk into our country and they take over. You see what’s happening with the Venezuelan gangs. They’re in all – they’re in many different states. They’re in like 12 states as of this moment, and they are causing tremendous havoc and violence. Donald Trump: People don’t want that. Question: I know that obviously you’re only about to enter office, but I’m sort of curious about kind of the legacy component. Lindsey Graham says Trump’s policies don’t work without Trump. You said that you believe in some ways that’s true. If that’s the case, how does MAGA endure as a political movement after you leave office in four years? Donald Trump: Well, my policies – I heard that statement. I thought it was actually a very interesting statement. We can use the same words, but maybe it’s a look in your eye that works. You know, for a country like Mexico, we’re not going to allow Mexico to continue to invade our country by allowing people to be dropped off in Mexico and come into the United States. Donald Trump: We’re not going to allow that to happen. And I will say it to Mexico one way, and somebody will say the same thing to Mexico another way, and maybe my way is accepted, and somebody else, with the same words, it’s not accepted. So I sort of agree with him, but there are others that maybe can do it, maybe they can’t do it as well, but my policies work. Donald Trump: I mean, my policies work. We have to be – what’s happening with the people coming through Mexico and Canada also, you know, we can’t forget Canada. We have tremendous illegal immigration coming in through Canada. Drugs are coming in through Canada in large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen. Donald Trump: And I’ll take action against Canada and Mexico. We’re not going to allow this to happen. Question: You have galvanized a social and political movement that has transformed this country. What do you think will happen to the MAGA movement when you leave office or when you are no longer on the scene? Donald Trump: Well, I hope when I leave office, I’ll be able to also leave people that are extremely competent and get it. And we do have those people. We have far more than you think. We have some great warriors. We have some great people that want to see this country take care of – Question: Do those people include members of your family? Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Do those people include members of your family? Donald Trump: I think, yeah, I have some very competent members of my family. My kids are very competent. I don’t know that they’re going to choose to go through this. They’ve been treated very badly. I mean, my son Don has spent hours and hours in front of, essentially, grand juries and Congress over something he never had anything to do with: Russia. Donald Trump: He’d come back and say, “Dad, I have nothing to do with Russia.” He didn’t know anything about Russia, and it would turn out to be a hoax. Question: He’s very politically active. Donald Trump: He is. Question: Do you think he might have a future in politics? Donald Trump: I think he’d do well, especially in certain areas. I think he’d do very well. I think he’s a very capable guy. Eric is very capable, and a very different type. Lara. You look at some of these people. Ivanka would be, if she wanted to be, would be a superstar in politics. I think she, she, she’s a great person. Donald Trump: I think she probably, she’s so family-oriented, Ivanka, and I understand that also it makes it more difficult. It makes it definitely more difficult. But, you know, they’re very capable people. Well, they have a name, which seems to be a very good name. Question: Do you think there will be a Trump dynasty? Donald Trump: I think there could be, yeah. I see the people we’re talking about. Lara has been amazing. Look, she was the head of the Republican Party. She’s a young, a young woman, and she was the head of the Republican Party. And look at the job we did. This cheating would have been breathtaking, breathtaking. And we, we, we got it down to a minimum. Donald Trump: And they cheat, but we got it down to a minimum. They were very effective. The RNC was very, very effective. Question: What would your father think of your political comeback? Donald Trump: I think he maybe would not call it a comeback. He would have said it’s just Donald. Question: But what would he think of your political career? Donald Trump: Oh, he would have been amazed, yeah. My father would have been amazed, because my father didn’t make speeches. He didn’t make, you know, it wasn’t, he probably could have done it well, but it wouldn’t have been his thing. I don’t think it would have been his thing. It’s sort of a combination of both the mother and the father. Donald Trump: You needed a lot of energy to do that. You know, I did, I did rallies. We did, what, 12 rallies in three days, and these were full rallies. Because, you know, when people are waiting for two days and three days to get in, you can’t do – people say, Well, maybe you keep it down to 25 minutes or 15 minutes. Donald Trump: If I ever went up for 15 minutes, they’re waiting for days. You know, they have tents. We had many people that followed the rallies. They followed it and it’ll never happen again. It’s sad in a way. It will never happen again. Question: You get some things from your father. What do you get from your mother? Donald Trump: So my mother was a woman. She was born in Scotland. She had great respect for the queen, Queen Elizabeth. It was a long time. She was there for 75 years. And she liked the pomp and ceremony. She thought it was a good thing, not a bad thing. But she was glamorous and my father was hard nosed. It’s sort of an interesting combination. Donald Trump: Maybe there’s a combination. Here we sit in Mar a Lago. Maybe there’s a combination of that. Question: Will the First Lady be joining you at the White House for this term? Donald Trump: Oh yes. She was, she was very, she actually became very active towards the end, as you saw with interviews. And she does – she does them well. People really watch. She’s very beloved by the people, Melania. And they like the fact that she’s not out there in your face all the time for many reasons. Many political people have that, you know. Donald Trump: But she’s, she’s really, they really like her. They really love her. Actually, in many ways, when I make speeches, we love our First Lady. they have signs, we love our First Lady. No, she’ll be – she’ll be active, when she needs to be, when she needs to be. Question: I’ve been keeping a list, Mr. President, of things you mentioned that you intend to do early in your administration. It sounds like a reasonable number of things: turning the Department of Education virtual. Donald Trump: Well, virtual, turning it back to the states. Question: J6 pardons. Do you have in mind what the first 24 to 48 hours will look like? Donald Trump: I’ll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes. I’ll be looking at oil prices bringing down, you know, coming down very substantially – meaning energy, energy costs coming down. And with energy comes everything else. See, they really hurt themselves. It went away from my energy policies, totally. Donald Trump: It was going to crash. The numbers were through the roof. And then they went back to them. They said, Okay, just let it be. That was the difference between the energy, what they did on energy, and what they did at the border. At the border, they just opened it up to the world. They didn’t stop it. You know, we had Remain in Mexico. Donald Trump: We had – that border was in was in great shape. Not easy to do. But on that one, they just said, open it up. And they didn’t change. They just did that. With energy, they opened, you saw what was going on. The energy was going through the roof. And then they said, just go back to Trump’s policy. And they went back. Donald Trump: Now the difference is that I would have had three times as much now. They have essentially, sort of, they tried to get to equal but if they didn’t do that, you’d have energy, you’d have you’d have inflation that would have been much worse than it is. And it already was probably the worst this country has ever had. Donald Trump: We’ve had the inflation. They lost on inflation, they lost on immigration, they lost on – as a part of immigration, I think a very big part is the border, the border itself. You know, if you can self subdivide the word immigration. They lost on the economy. But it was a different kind of – it was the economy as it pertains to groceries and small things that are actually big things for a family. Question: If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken. Donald Trump: It’s broken. You see it. You go out to the docks and you see all these containers. And I own property in California, in Palos Verdes. They’re very nice. And I passed the docks, and I’ve been doing it for 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like it. You know, for 17 years, I saw containers and, you know, they’d come off and they’d be taken away – big areas, you know, you know, in that area, you know, where they have the big, the big ships coming in – big, the port. Donald Trump: And I’d see this for years as I was out there inspecting property and things, because they own a lot in California. And I look down and I see containers that are, that are 12, 13, 14 containers. You wouldn’t believe they can hold each other. It’s like crazy. No, the supply chain is is broken. I think a very bad thing is this, what they’re doing with the cars. Donald Trump: I think they lost also because of cars. You know, there are a lot of reasons, but the car mandate is a disaster. The electric, the EV mandate. Question: And does Elon agree with that? Donald Trump: Oh, it’s very interesting. I tell people that Elon is a friend of mine. He’s a great guy. Gave me the best endorsement you could ever have. And here I am talking against the electric car. Think of that. But see, I’m not really talking against the electric car, because the electric car, I think, is fantastic for some people, for a slice of the audience, but not for 100% and, you know that Elon, a big part of his business is the Tesla, which is a great car, but Elon has never once, it’s actually hard to believe. Donald Trump: He’s never once even talked about the subject. He’ll hear me speaking, you know, speaking, “We must stop. I will immediately terminate the mandate.” Because I think he thinks I’m right. I’m a big fan of the electric car, but not for everyone. Question: Some people say his competitors benefit from the mandate. He’s got the head start. Donald Trump: He makes a great product. Question: But I do think it’s interesting, because when he talks about how he came to be such a full-throated supporter of yours, it’s cultural issues that are core to that. And I think that when you kind of give your taxonomy of the reasons why you won that – I mean, you did, you mentioned the trans issues, but I feel like it’s one that also was, was integral in a lot of ways, it seemed. Donald Trump: So he was not, he wasn’t a – Question: No, he described himself like, basically, a moderate Democrat, a centrist, more or less. Donald Trump: He was a Democrat. And I think over time – you know, something happened when I got shot. I got called by people that weren’t fans, and they became fans. And I don’t view it as bravery. I view it as whatever it was that it was, you know, but, but something happened, and I think that sped up. I think Elon was getting there, but I think it sped up the process a lot with him and many other people. Donald Trump: Mark Zuckerberg – Taylor Budowich: It’s now five a clock. We’ve got about 12 meetings left. Question: I’m curious. You have control of Congress, both houses. Much of your agenda is executive driven. Why? Donald Trump: Um… Question: You have the power to do things legislatively. Donald Trump: Yeah? Question: So why is so much of your agenda executive driven? Donald Trump: I don’t know what you mean by that. Question: Well, you said lots of what you can do is without – Donald Trump: Oh, like executive orders. Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: Well, I think that Congress should have behaved differently when it came to the border. I ended up taking the money. You know, I built, you know, hundreds of miles of wall, but I took it from the military because I considered it an invasion. I got – look, I passed the biggest tax cuts ever, bigger than the Reagan tax cuts. Donald Trump: I passed a lot of things in Congress, but I also did a lot of executive orders. I think that this Congress is going to be a better Congress for me. I didn’t get along with Paul Ryan. I didn’t like him. I didn’t respect him. I didn’t get along with Mitch McConnell, and I thought it was – I thought some of the things that he did were terrible. Donald Trump: The way he was handing out money for the Green New Deal was just terrible. I do get along with, I mean, it’s a new relationship, essentially, because we didn’t really know each other very well. But I do get along with Sen. Thune. I do get along with Mike Johnson. I think, you know, Mike is doing a really good job. Donald Trump: Both of them are doing a good job. If I have, if I have even a little bit of trouble, I go to an executive order because I can get it done. And some of the things I did as an executive order, I had them approved then later on through Congress. In other words, I’d get it done now and get it – look, the great thing about an executive order is you can do it, get it done immediately. Donald Trump: The bad thing, or the good thing, depending on where you’re coming from, is you can undo it. Look, I can undo almost everything Biden did, he through executive order. And on day one, much of that will be undone. Question: Do you support ending the filibuster? Donald Trump: I want to leave the Supreme Court the way it is, most importantly. The filibuster is a mechanism that you’re not going to totally overturn every single thing that was ever done. You know, it makes it very difficult in the Senate. It makes it very, very difficult to overturn things. Now, in one way, that’s good. Donald Trump: In another way, maybe you’d say it’s bad. But you know, some of the things – I have great respect for Manchin and for Sinema, for the fact that they really held out. Look, she lost her career because of it. And you could say he maybe lost his career because of it. Actually, he became hotter because of it. And then he made the mistake of going for the Inflation Creation Act – which is my nickname, by the way, for the Inflation Reduction Act. Donald Trump: Had he not gone for that because he was very popular. But no, I – and I think we have to do, we have. Our Supreme Court was under siege, and perhaps it still is, but now they don’t have, now the other side doesn’t have the power to do. I mean, I’ve heard as many as 25 justices, and they were all psyched. Donald Trump: They were going to do a number on our Supreme Court that now it’s not going to happen. Steven Cheung: Let me just interject here. But we’ve got to make this the last question. Donald Trump: So I have respect for the filibuster. Question: You’d want to keep it in place? Donald Trump: Yes. Question: I want to go back to that moment you talked about, Mr. President, how people changed when you were shot. I’m curious how you changed. Donald Trump: I try not to think about it. That was a big moment. It was a big moment. I had a big crowd. We had 55,000 people RSVPed. We had 107,000 when we had the memorial a few weeks later, but we had a few months later actually. When you think, late October, yeah. We had, I think it was a very big moment. I think a lot of people changed with that moment. Donald Trump: I think a lot of people became much more religious in that moment. Question: Is that true of you? Donald Trump: I think I have family members that became more of a believer than they would have been. A lot of people, a lot of people change. That was – that was a horrible day, it was a horrible moment in our country, but I think it, it did change a lot of a lot of minds. Question: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much.
Date: 2024-12-16
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. So, it’s an honor to be with you. We’ll discuss a couple of points. We’ll take some questions later if you’d like. I’m sure you might have one or two. I’d be shocked if you didn’t. I’d be very impressed. But I’m honored to welcome one of the most accomplished business leaders of our time, the founder and CEO of SoftBank, everybody knows, Masayoshi Son. Donald Trump: Masa runs one of the largest companies in Japan and among the most successful investment and technology companies anywhere in the world, one of the most successful investors in the world. And we’ve just concluded a very productive meeting. And today, I’m thrilled to announce that SoftBank will be investing $100 billion in America, creating 100,000 American jobs at a minimum. Donald Trump: And he’s doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country since the election. And many other people are also coming in with tremendous amounts of money. You probably noticed that the poll was just taken. Business is, literally, in 39 years, there’s been nothing like it. It’s been the biggest increase. Donald Trump: Small business owners gave it a 41 percent jump. It’s the biggest jump that we’ve had in 39 years. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And it’s just a very optimistic. This historic investment is a monumental demonstration of confidence in America’s future. And it will help ensure that artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and other industries of tomorrow are built, created, and grown right here in the USA. Donald Trump: One of the beautiful things about Masa is he’s very much involved with emerging technology, probably knows it maybe better than almost anybody. So, it’s a great honor. And some of you remember after the 2016 election, also, SoftBank committed to invest $50 billion in our country, and they did. And I am very pleased to say that they kept that promise in every way, shape, and form. Donald Trump: And now, they’re looking to do 100 – and I’ve looked at their books. They do have the possibility of doing more. I’m going to ask them to do a little bit more. But first, I’m going to ask them to speak and just to say a few words. Masa, please. Thank you. Masayoshi Son: Thank you. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Masayoshi Son: Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m very, very excited. I would really like to celebrate the great victory of President Trump. And my confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory. So, because of that, I’m now excited to commit this $100 billion and 100,000 jobs into the United States. Masayoshi Son: This is double of last time, as President Trump said. Because I say, oh, President Trump is a double-down president. I’m going to have to double down, you know, $100 billion and 100,000 jobs. This is, you know, my confidence level because that has doubled down. So, I am truly excited to make this happen. Masayoshi Son: And, of course, business is important. Technology is important. But one more thing I’m really hoping is that this President Trump would make the world, bring the world into peace again. That’s my additional hope. And I think he will actually make it happen. So, anyway, I’m excited to go. And we were discussing, and President Trump said, “Masa, you know, double-down is not enough. Maybe, you know, go for more, right?” Donald Trump: That’s right. I’m going to ask him right now. Would you make it $200 billion instead? He can actually – believe it or not, he can actually afford to do that. Would you do that? Masayoshi Son: Well, my promise is 100, but, you know, he’s now asking to do more. I think, you know, with your leadership, my partnership with you, with your support, I will try to make it happen. Donald Trump: All right, 200. He’ll make it happen, 200 billion investment. Masayoshi Son: He is a great negotiator. Donald Trump: He’s a brilliant guy and done an unbelievable job. And the people of Japan and all over the world are very proud of him. They have tremendous respect for him. So, what he does, what he just did, and I would be surprised if – what didn’t go to – when you say you’ll try, I know you’ll do it. Masayoshi Son: I will – I will really try, and I need your support. Donald Trump: You’ll have my support. Masayoshi Son: All right. Donald Trump: You have our country’s support. Masayoshi Son: Oh, fantastic. Donald Trump: Thank you, Masa, very much. Masayoshi Son: Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Donald Trump: What would you like to say to the people of Japan who are all watching? Masayoshi Son: Well, I’m sure our people in Japan are proud to make the partners of the US and Japan be stronger, and I’m very excited to make this happen. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Thank you, Masa. Masayoshi Son: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you. Donald Trump: Great job. Thank you. It’s amazing. He’s a great gentleman, a great leader, and a great investor. So, to have that offer made – and we have so many companies coming in that we’ll be announcing – or that will announce themselves. We don’t have to be with them to do it. But they’ll be announcing. And, as I said, small business optimism took a 41-point jump, 41 points. Donald Trump: It went up 41 points. That’s unheard of. And that’s the biggest, they think, in recorded history, but they know at least a minimum of 39 years, so that’s great. But on behalf of the American people, I want to thank Masa for his faith in what’s happening with our country and what’s happening with the world. Donald Trump: There’s a whole light over the entire world. Many people, some reporters, in speaking to him, they said, you know, it actually is true – a couple of them are not necessarily friends of mine, but they said it is actually true that there’s a light shining over the world. We’re trying to help very strongly in getting the hostages back, as you know, with Israel and the Middle East. Donald Trump: We’re working very much on that. We’re trying to get the war stopped, that horrible, horrible war that’s going on in Ukraine, Russia, Ukraine. We’re going to get a little progress. It’s a tough one. It’s a nasty one. It’s nasty. People are being killed at levels that nobody’s ever seen. You know, it’s very level fields. Donald Trump: And the only thing that stops a bullet is a body, a human body. And the number of soldiers that are being killed on both sides is astronomical. I’ve never seen anything like it. And rapidly, I get reports every week. And it’s not even, you know, it’s like just going down. Nobody’s seen anything like it. Donald Trump: It’s a very flat surface, a very flat land. That’s why it’s great farming land. It’s the breadbasket for the world, actually. But it’s very flat, and there’s nothing to stop a bullet but a body. There’s no protection, no nothing. And what’s happening there is far worse than people are reporting for both sides. Donald Trump: So, we’re going to do our best, and we’ve been doing our best, and we’ll see what happens. But since the election, I’ve been working every day to put the world at ease a little bit to get rid of the wars. We had no wars when I left office. And now, the whole world is blowing up. But there’s great optimism, and you saw that by SoftBank. Donald Trump: Starting on day one, we’ll implement a rapid series of bold reforms to restore our nation to full prosperity. We’re going to go full prosperity and to build the greatest economy the world has ever seen, just as we had just a short time ago when we had it in my term. We had the greatest economy that the world had seen. Donald Trump: We were blowing away everybody. Our country was doubling up on China, doubling up on everybody, and everybody knows it. And then we had to slow it down with COVID, unfortunately, at the end. But even then, I gave it back with a substantial increase of the stock market, bigger than it was pre-COVID. So, it was pretty amazing. Donald Trump: Already, preparations are underway to slash massive numbers of job-killing regulations, eliminating 10 old regulations for every new one. You put a new regulation on, you have to get rid of 10, and we’ll be able to do it. And that was about the percentage we had. We’ve already cut more regulations than any president has ever cut by far, actually, by approximately five times. Donald Trump: Some of those regulations, unfortunately, were put back on, but we’ll catch up very quickly. We’ll catch up with it. One of the things I’d like to ask the Biden administration, as you probably heard, there are two events that took place. We’re talking about a friendly takeover, a friendly transition, as they like to say. Donald Trump: This is a friendly transition, and it is. But there are two events that took place that I think are very terrible. One is that if people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed. And somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that, so that for five years, people don’t have to come back into the office. Donald Trump: It involved 49,000 people. For five years, they don’t have to go. They just signed this thing. It’s ridiculous. So, it was like a gift to a union. And we’re going to obviously be in court to stop it. The other thing is really terrible. We spent a tremendous amount of money on building the wall. The wall was designed specifically by the Border Patrol because it’s very hard to climb. Donald Trump: They need to have see-through. They need it to be steel because you can’t cut this. It’s very powerful steel. It’s very hard steel. It’s a special type of steel, but very, very hard to cut. Inside the steel, as you know, we pour concrete. And that’s a grade 10 concrete, which is a very strong concrete, very as though you were building about a 60-story building. Donald Trump: It’s very powerful concrete. They’ve made tremendous technology advances in the word concrete. Who would think that? But I know that from the construction industry. Today, what you can do with concrete is incredible. So, we have a very strong concrete. And then, we have a rebar. We put rebar inside the concrete, and the rebar, likewise, is very hard to cut. Donald Trump: So, it’s a very expensive process, very expensive wall. And then, we put an anti-climb plate on the top. You saw that. And I didn’t like the look of it. But then, when I watched, we had people testing. We had mountain climbers actually testing, and they were not able to get over the anti-climb plate. Donald Trump: So, I said all right because we’re going to put it on. That plate on top, which I never loved the look of it, but it works so unbelievably well, you have to do it. So, we spent a lot of money on building it, and we have hundreds of miles that we put up. A lot of people don’t realize, but we did 571 miles of wall. Donald Trump: That’s why we had such good records, in addition to the fact that Mexico helped us with their military. They kept people out, and they were actually very good under the past leader. But now, we ordered an additional 200 miles of wall. It’s very expensive. And now, it’s about double the price of what it would have been six years ago. Donald Trump: And the administration is trying to sell it for 5 cents on the dollar, knowing that we’re getting ready to put it up. And what they’re doing is really an act – it’s almost a criminal act. They know we’re going to use it. And if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it. And it’ll cost double what it cost years ago, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars because you’re talking about a lot of wall. Donald Trump: I built much more than I said I was going to build. But then after it was built, I said, you know, we can do some more because it’s sort of like water. People flow through. And that will pretty much really take care of it. And what happened is they just, as you see, they’re trying to sell it for 5 cents on the dollar. Donald Trump: And that’s really – that has nothing to do with a smooth transition. That has to do with people really trying to stop our nation. And all it means, really, is that we’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more, not even talking about the time. Time would be pretty long. But we’ll spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall that we already have. Donald Trump: And people have already come back to us that have deals at 5 cents and 4 cents, and one guy at 3 cents on the dollar, and they offered to sell it back to us at more money than it cost us to build substantially. Can you believe it? So, they make a deal with the United States to buy it for pennies. And then they call us and they say, “Do you want to buy it back? We’ll sell it back to you for hundreds of dollars a foot.” Donald Trump: Hundreds of dollars, from pennies to hundreds of dollars a foot. And we can’t let this take place. Now, we’re going to go – I spoke with the attorney general of Texas. I spoke to the senators of Texas. I spoke to a lot of people. And hopefully, they’ll be able to stop. We’re going to be having a restraining order. Donald Trump: But just think about how ridiculous it is. And this is just people that don’t want this country to succeed. And this has nothing to do with Democrat or Republican. This has to do with common sense. We won on common sense, and this is maybe one of the most egregious examples I’ve seen. So, the people that are buying it or trying to buy it are trying to make a deal with us to sell it back at hundreds of times more, hundreds of times more than we paid. Donald Trump: And this is all because the Democrats – so I’m asking today Joe Biden to please stop selling the wall. We’re going to use that to create a strong barrier. And it worked. That’s why our numbers were so good. It really worked, and it worked well. And it’s very expensive to do. And I’m asking Joe Biden to stop his people from giving it away. Donald Trump: It’s something that people can’t even believe is happening. So, hopefully Joe will be able to stop it. We’ll soon unleash American energy, and this will be done at levels not seen before, issuing quick approvals for pipelines, drilling, and other infrastructure. It’ll be clean energy, and we’ll bring in the price of electricity, and we’re going to bring it down fast. Donald Trump: We’re also going to create clean coal. Clean coal is something that has really taken over. We have coal that will last for over a thousand years. We have so much coal. And with the process, it becomes clean coal. It’s very powerful energy, unlike wind. It’s very, very powerful. And we’re going to be doing a lot of clean coal for the people of West Virginia and others, Wyoming, so many states. Donald Trump: We have great states. And they’ll be happy to hear it. We’re going to be very much into clean coal. I don’t ever use the word coal. I use the word clean coal. And I’ll keep my promise to pass historic tax cuts for American families, workers, and businesses that create jobs in America. As you know, we’re giving tax cuts if they do it here. Donald Trump: We brought it down from 44 percent, 42 percent. In some cases, it was 39. We brought it all the way down to 21 percent. Now, we’re bringing it down to 15, but only if they make their product, their car, or whatever they’re doing in the United States and the U.S. And people are thrilled. I’ve had the smartest people on Wall Street call me. Donald Trump: They said, “Where did you get that idea?” And it doesn’t seem that complicated, right? But it’s like the paper clip. Nobody ever thought of it. One guy thought of it. Everybody looked at it. They said, “Wow, that was a good idea. Why didn’t I think of it?” But we’re bringing it down 6 more points. And that will put us really at the best level we’ve ever had for bringing in business. Donald Trump: We’ve never been down to that level. We’ll be among the lowest-taxed states, and a lot of businesses are going to come in. Between that and our taxing and tariff policies, we’re going to have business like nobody’s ever seen in this country before. That’s why we’re, you know, having a 41-year record in optimism from small businesses and big businesses. Donald Trump: And I’ll keep my promise to pass historic tax cuts for families, workers, and businesses that create jobs in America. Any business that invests $1 billion or more in the United States will be eligible for fully expedited permits and approvals, including environmental approvals from the federal government. Donald Trump: So, when companies come in, if they’re going to invest $1 billion or more, there will be many of them. And they’ll go into Detroit, and they’ll go into a lot of places where we want them. You saw how well I did with the autoworkers. We did unbelievably. You saw how well we did with the Teamsters. And also, the nonunion, we’re a record 98 percent, 97 percent. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever gotten numbers like that because we’re bringing business back. And they’re all coming back. I’m not – we lost them over years of stupidity, I call it. I call it the years of stupidity, the decades of stupidity. Through the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has been working very hard with various people, including Vivek. Donald Trump: We’re going to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud. And I can only tell you, I’ll give you a little early report, they’re finding things that you wouldn’t even believe. So, we’re looking to save maybe $2 trillion. And it’ll have no impact. Actually, it’ll make life better, but it’ll have no impact on people. Donald Trump: It’s not like we’re – we will never cut Social Security, things like that. It’s just waste, fraud, and abuse. And we’ll immediately restore the sovereign borders of the United States and stop illegal immigration, which is costing us, I believe, trillions of dollars a year. I think it’s a cost that nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Donald Trump: I don’t know. How can you be satisfied releasing prisoners into the United – so think of this. You’re releasing prisoners from jails all over the world, not just in South America. From the Congo, I would talk about it all the time. They’re a very big sender of people. But from all over the world, they’re sending prisoners out of their jails. Donald Trump: Some of their jails are empty, and they will be empty soon if this ever continues. I spoke with the president of Mexico, and as you know, I spoke with Justin Trudeau of Canada. And we told them it’s not fair, not right. We can’t let these people come into our country. And they understand, they’re very much on notice, and they’re going to have to stop this from happening. Donald Trump: They’re going to have to stop it. We lose a lot of money to Mexico. We lose a lot of money to Canada, tremendous amount. We’re subsidizing Canada. We’re subsidizing Mexico. That can’t go on. And I get along with the people of Mexico and Canada very well, but we can’t let that happen. Why are we supporting and giving other countries hundreds of billions of dollars? It’s not fair. Donald Trump: It’s not right. And the people of Mexico and Canada fully understand that. We’ve talked about it before, but now we’re doing something about it. We started, and then we had to fix the COVID situation, and that’s what we did. But now we’re doing it. We’re doing it from the beginning. Howard will be largely in charge. Donald Trump: We’ll be working on it together. Howard’s terrific. He’s done a fantastic job, and he’s really helped us a lot with transition. I think we have fantastic people coming in. So, all of these policies will help us rapidly defeat inflation, create millions of new jobs, and put money in the pockets of the hardworking families of our country, pay off debt. Donald Trump: We’re going to be paying off a tremendous amount of debt. We’re at $36 trillion. You don’t want to be there. And we’re going to be using a lot of the money that we make. We’re going to be opening up a lot of businesses that are going to be pouring in because of our tax policy. And we’re going to use the money that we made to pay off debt and to reduce taxes. Donald Trump: We’re going to further reduce taxes. If you remember when we reduced them last time, that brought a tremendous amount. We brought it down to 21 percent, and that was the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. And nobody ever thought this would happen, but this is what’s supposed to happen. We actually ended up taking in more revenue at 21 than we did at 40 percent, which was pretty amazing. Donald Trump: But this will be the most exciting and successful period of reform and renewal in all of American history, maybe of global history. The golden age of America, I call it, it’s begun. So, it’s the golden age of America, and that’s what it’s going to be. And we hope we don’t have any intervening problems because things happen. Donald Trump: Like, out of nowhere came the China virus. Out of nowhere came other things we don’t want to have. You know, when I left, we had no wars. We had no problems. The Middle East was good. We did the Abraham Accords. We did things that nobody felt were even possible. But think of it. Four years ago, we had no wars. Donald Trump: You didn’t have Russia going into Ukraine. They wouldn’t have done it. They weren’t even thinking about it. When they saw what happened in Afghanistan, I think they gave them an idea. But they wouldn’t have done it. They would have never gone in. President Putin would have never gone in. And now, you look at all those people are dead. Donald Trump: All those cities are destroyed. You know, it’s nice to say they want their land back, but the cities are largely destroyed. They’ve left Kyiv because probably maybe they want to use it or occupy it, but they haven’t done it. They’ve done a lot of damage, but relatively compared to the other cities, very little. Donald Trump: But many of those cities are gone. Those beautiful towers, those beautiful buildings that they had are now laying on their sides, destroyed, totally destroyed. The turrets and all of the magnificent 1,000-year-old, 2,000-year-old structures that were very strong are blown to smithereens. You look at some of those cities and not one building standing. Donald Trump: So, you know, when you say take over the country, take over what? Take over what? That’s a hundred-year rebuild. Take a hundred years to rebuild it, and you can never have it the way it was. What a shame. It should have never happened. It would have never happened. If I were president, that war would have never happened, nor would Israel have happened with the attack on Israel. Donald Trump: So, we’re inheriting big challenges at home and all over the world. Again, we had no wars. We had no problems. We had no inflation. We had no inflation. We had it less than 1 percent. Perfect number. And then, we had inflation, the likes of which I say I don’t believe the country has ever seen inflation like that. Donald Trump: They say 38 years. I don’t know, I think it’s probably ever. But we’re going to take care of all of it. We’re going to get the prices down by energy. The energy is going to come in. We have more energy than anybody else. We’re going to use it. We don’t have to buy energy from Venezuela when we have 50 times more than they do. Donald Trump: It’s just insane what we’re doing. So, we will not rest until America is richer, safer, and stronger than it has ever been before. And we have a big head start. Last time, we didn’t. And last time, we didn’t know the people. We didn’t know a lot of things. But by the time we got it up and going, it was incredible. Donald Trump: Again, we built the greatest economy in history for that period of time, and we’ll do it again. I believe substantially more so because we understand, number one, the people of Washington. I know them. I didn’t know any of them, virtually. I relied on other people for recommendations. Some were very good recommendations. Donald Trump: We had some great people. Bob Lighthizer I thought was great. We had a lot of great people. But we had some people that I wouldn’t have used in retrospect. And now, I know them better than anybody, better than they know themselves. So, once again, I’d like to thank Masa for what he’s done with that investment, which will end up being $200 billion, I believe. Donald Trump: But I just want to thank him. He’s just an outstanding man. When you have that kind of brainpower wanting to invest in this country, that’s money that he can’t invest elsewhere. So, that’s a big investment, but it makes me feel very good. It makes me feel that we’re absolutely on the right track. So, thank you to Masa. Donald Trump: And we’ll take a couple of questions. Yeah, please. Jeff. Question: Mr. President – Mr. President, you mentioned the wars. Can you tell us what you said to Prime Minister Netanyahu during the call on Saturday? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: And have you spoken to President Putin since your election? Donald Trump: Well, I’m not going to comment on the Putin question, but I will comment on Bibi. We had a very good talk. We discussed what is going to happen. And I’ll be very available on January 20th, and we’ll see. As you know, I gave warning that if these hostages aren’t back home by that date, all hell is going to break out, and very strong. Donald Trump: But we generally just discussed – I asked him, where are things? Mike Waltz is doing a great job, by the way. Everybody is very happy. I think he’s doing a fantastic job. But he was very much involved in the call. But it was a recap call more than anything else. [crosstalk] Question: [inaudible] to stop the ban on TikTok next month? Donald Trump: Who? Question: How do you plan to stop the ban on TikTok next month? Donald Trump: We’ll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that. Now, Joe Rogan did, and some of the other people that were recommended by my son, Barron, who have – he knew names. Donald Trump: I said, “Who is that? Tell me, who is that?” “Dad, you’ve got to be kidding. I can’t believe you don’t know.” And I did those interviews. And it was actually sort of cute, if you want to know the truth. But we did them, and they had an impact. But TikTok had an impact. And so, we’re taking a look at it. Donald Trump: But, you know, we won youth. Republicans are always 30 points down in youth. I don’t know why. But we ended up finishing. We were – there was one poll that showed us down about 30. We were 35 or 36 points up with young people. So, I have a little bit of a warm spot in my heart, I’ll be honest. Yes? Question: President Trump – Are you – are you entertaining the idea of preemptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities? Donald Trump: Against who? Question: Against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Donald Trump: Well, I can’t tell you that. I mean – Question: Would you – would you – Donald Trump: I mean, it’s a wonderful question. But how can I – am I going to do preemptive strikes? Why would I say that? Can you imagine if I said yes or no? You’d say – that was strange that he answered that way. Am I going to do preemptive strikes on Iran? Is that a serious question? How could I answer a question like that? [crosstalk] Question: President Trump, do you agree with – Mr. President – President Trump – Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Would you be in support of Israeli strikes on Iran’s – Donald Trump: How could I tell you a thing like that now? It’s just so – you don’t talk about that before something may or may not happen. You know, just – [crosstalk] I don’t want to – I don’t want to insult you. I just think it’s just not something that I would ever answer having to do with there or any other place in the world. [crosstalk] Question: President Trump – [inaudible] in you Time Magazine interview. Can I ask, just clearly, do you believe there’s a connection between vaccines and autism? Do you believe there’s a link? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t – look, right now, you have some very brilliant people looking at it. I had dinner the other night with the head of Pfizer, the head of Eli Lilly, and RFK, as you know, and Oz, and we had – and other people within the administration that are involved in the medical. And we’re looking to find out. Donald Trump: You know, if you look at autism – so 30 years ago, we had – I’ve heard numbers of, like, 1 in 200,000, 1 in 100,000. And now I’m hearing numbers of 1 in 100. So, something’s wrong. There’s something wrong. And we’re going to find out about it. [crosstalk] Question: Mr President, can I follow up – Donald Trump: [inaudible] Question: Can I follow up on Robert Kennedy? He’s on the Hill today. He’s meeting with senators. What do you say to people who are worried that his views on vaccines will translate into policies that will make their kids less safe? Donald Trump: No, I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think. I think he’s got a very open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there. He’s going to be very much less radical. But there are problems. I mean, we don’t do as well as a lot of other nations, and those nations use nothing. And we’re going to find out what those problems are. Donald Trump: And another thing that came up – the dinner was fascinating because I had Bobby and I had, again, the head of Pfizer. You know who that is. He’s a highly respected man who has run an incredible company, likewise with Lilly, the top two people. And we had the head of the industry also. So, all companies were represented. Donald Trump: And I said, “Let’s have it out now a little bit.” And, you know, what came out of that meeting is that we’re paying far too much because we’re paying much more than other countries. And we have laws that make it impossible to reduce. And we have a thing called the middleman. You know the middleman, right? The horrible middleman that makes more money, frankly, than the drug companies, and they don’t do anything except they’re a middleman. Donald Trump: We’re going to knock out the middleman. I’m going to be very unpopular after that statement. [crosstalk] Question: Mr. President – Sir, sir, what about the – Donald Trump: I don’t know who these – I don’t know who these middlemen are, but they are rich as hell. [crosstalk] And we’re going to knock out the middlemen. And we’re going to get drug costs down at levels that nobody has ever seen before. And that really, I tell you, we spent more time talking about that with Bobby and with the executives and Oz, all of them. Donald Trump: We spent more time talking about that than anything else. [crosstalk] Question: Can I ask a follow-up – Thank you, President Trump. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: What about the polio vaccine? Donald Trump: Well, I’m a big believer in it, and I think everything should be looked at, but I’m a big believer in the polio vaccine – Question: Do you think – Donald Trump: The Salk vaccine. Question: Do you think schools should mandate vaccines? Do you think schools should mandate vaccines? Donald Trump: I don’t like mandates. I’m not a big mandate person. So, you know, I was against mandates. Mostly Democrat governors did the mandates, and they did a very poor thing. You know, in retrospect, they made a big mistake having to do with the education of children. You know, they lost like a year or two years of their lives. Donald Trump: The mandate was a bad thing. I was against the mandate. [crosstalk] Question: So, is that something you want to – Mr. President. Mr. President. Mr. President. Donald Trump: Yes, please. Question: Do you expect Ron DeSantis to mandate it to appoint Lara Trump to Senator Marco Rubio’s seat? Donald Trump: No, I don’t. I probably don’t, but I don’t know. Ron’s doing a good job. That’s his choice. Nothing to do with me. Lara’s unbelievable. I mean, she was incredible. The job she did at the RNC, chairman, along with Michael Whatley, the combination, but I can just speak for Lara. She is so highly respected by women. Donald Trump: I mean, even her workout routines are through the roof. She lifts 150 pounds. I don’t know how the hell she does it. She’s a bad example for men and women, of course, because I wouldn’t be able to beat her, I don’t believe. I’d try like hell. But, no, she’s an incredible woman. And, you know, it’s funny. Donald Trump: People oftentimes talk about nepotism. I never had – when I put her there, people said, how did you get her to do it? You know, she could have run for the Senate in North Carolina. Ted Budd would be the first to say. And he wouldn’t have run. Nobody would have run. And she just said, “No, I want to really focus on my children.” Donald Trump: When the election, and my family, she has a great family. When the election started getting closer, I asked her would she go to Washington and work on the, you know, as chairman of the committee, along with Michael Whatley. And they did such an unbelievable job, especially on cheating. They stopped it, or at least they stymied it. Donald Trump: Too big to rig. And we won in a landslide. You know, we won tremendously. She did an amazing job. Now, Ron is going to have to make – because Marco has been really a star already. And we haven’t started. But, you know, we see signs of, from some people very early, we see signs of stardom, and Marco has done incredibly. Donald Trump: He’s sort of born for it. It was such an easy decision. The Marco decision was such an easy. But he leaves a vacancy in Florida, and Ron’s going to have to make that decision. And he’ll make the right decision. I also know that Lara’s got so many other things. I mean, she’s got so many other things. People want her to be on television. Donald Trump: They want to give her a contract. You know, her predominant thought is our country and her family. Those are her thoughts. But she’s got so many other things that she’s talking about. Question: Mr. President. Donald Trump: He’ll make the right decision. Question: Mr. President. Mr. President. Should senators oppose your nominee, your cabinet nominee, should they be primaried? Donald Trump: If they are unreasonable, I’ll give you a different answer, an answer that you’ll be shocked to hear. If they’re unreasonable, if they’re opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons, I would say it has nothing to do with me. I would say they probably would be primary. But if they’re reasonable, fair, and really disagree with something or somebody, I can see that happening. Donald Trump: But I do believe that if they’re unreasonable –I think we have great people. I think we have a great group of people. Pam has been unbelievably received. Take a look. Pam Bondi. So, many have been just unbelievably received. I think Pete Hegseth is making tremendous strides over the last week. He’s going to be great. Donald Trump: Look, he went to Princeton. He went to Harvard. He was a great student there. But he really was, from – the first day I met him, all he wanted to talk about was military. He’s just a military guy. I think it’s a natural. This was my idea. And, you know, Pete Hegseth gave up a lot because he was going big places in Fox. Donald Trump: Big, big places, a lot of money. And he didn’t even hesitate. When I said, “Do you want to do this?” He said, “Absolutely.” I said, you know, if it doesn’t work out, you’ll never have the opportunity that you have right now in terms of the world of entertainment or business, whatever you want to call it. Donald Trump: You’ll never have that opportunity again. In fact, it could be just the opposite because it’s nasty out there. He said, “I don’t care. I have to do it for my country.” He gave up a tremendous amount. If this didn’t work, it would be a tragedy. But that’s what he loves. He loves the military. I never talked to him about anything else. Donald Trump: I didn’t talk about the military. He had come to see me about a soldier that was unfairly treated and could I help. That’s the only thing I virtually ever talked to him about. And I always remembered it. I’ve seen him many times, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a subject on anything other than military with him. Donald Trump: That’s where his love is. And he didn’t say, “Well, I’d like to think about it. I’d like to talk to my family.” He said, “Not even a contest.” And, you know, he was going through the roof over there. He was doing great. They have the No. 1 show, that Saturday and Sunday with Will and Rachel. That was great chemistry. Donald Trump: And if this didn’t work out for him, it would be actually sort of tragic. Yeah. Question: Would you consider pardoning Eric Adams? Donald Trump: Yeah, I would. I think that he was treated pretty unfairly. Now, I haven’t seen the gravity of it all. But it seems, you know, like being upgraded in an airplane many years ago. I know probably everybody here has been upgraded. They see you’re all stars, and they say, I want to upgrade that person from NBC. Donald Trump: I’m going to upgrade him. And that would mean you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison. I don’t know, somehow. I mean, I’d have to see it because I don’t know the facts. I think he was treated. You know, it’s very interesting. He essentially went against what was happening with the migrants coming in. Donald Trump: And, you know, he made some pretty strong statements like, this is not sustainable. I said, you know what, he’ll be indicted soon. And I said it not as a prediction, a little bit lightheartedly, but I said it. I said, “He’s going to be indicted.” And a few months later, he got indicted. So, yeah, I would certainly look at it. [crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, can I ask you a question about the drones? [inaudible] Syria. Are you you planning on pulling them when you get to office or will you make – Donald Trump: Well, you know, we had 5,000 troops along the border. And I asked a couple of generals, so we have an army of 250,000 in Syria, and you have an army of 400,000. They have many more people than that. Turkey is a major force, by the way. And Erdogan is somebody I got along with great. But he has a major military force. Donald Trump: And his has not been worn out with war. It hasn’t been worn out with all of the other things. I mean, he’s built a very strong, powerful army. And so, we have 5,000 soldiers in between a 5-million-person army and a 250,000-person army. And I asked the general, “What do you think of that situation?” He said, “They’ll be just – they’ll be wiped out immediately.” Donald Trump: And I moved them out because – and it took a lot of heat. And you know what happened? Nothing. Nothing. I saved a lot of lives. Now, we have 900. They put some back. But 900, if you’re talking about two – now one of the sides has been essentially wiped out. But nobody knows who the other side is. But I do. Donald Trump: You know who it is? Turkey. OK? Turkey is the one behind it. He’s a very smart guy. They’ve wanted it for thousands of years, and he got it. And those people that went in are controlled by Turkey. And that’s OK, it’s another way to fight. But, no, I don’t think that I want to have our soldiers killed. Donald Trump: But I don’t think that will happen now anyway because the one side has been decimated. [crosstalk] Question: [inaudible] are you concerned about more unrest in that region, or do you think it will calm down? Donald Trump: Well, nobody knows what the final outcome is going to be in the region. Nobody knows who really the final – I believe it’s Turkey, and I think Turkey is very smart. He’s a very smart guy, and he’s very tough. But Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher, what he did to children. Donald Trump: You remember, I attacked him with the 58 missiles, unbelievable missiles coming from ships 700 miles away, and every one of them hit their target. But I did that. That was the red line in the sand. Obama drew it, and then he refused to honor what he did. He said, “If anybody goes across the red line,” and Assad killed many more children after that. Donald Trump: And Obama did nothing, but I did. I hit him with a lot of missiles. In fact, President Xi was sitting here the night he was in that dining room having chocolate cake. Remember the famous chocolate cake? And that’s when I explained what we were doing as the missiles were shot. And it was amazing as to precision because every one of those missiles hit its target from a long distance away. Donald Trump: Had President Obama drawn the line where it meant something, you wouldn’t have even had Russia there. But in the end, I never understood why Russia went there. They were not getting very much out of it. But now, their time has taken up with Ukraine, and we’d like to get them to stop on Ukraine, and Ukraine stop also. Donald Trump: As you know, when I went to the cathedral, which was fantastic, the job that they’ve done in France, and the job that Macron – you know, Emmanuel did, he did a phenomenal job on the rebuilding of that cathedral. It’s magnificent, and they did a great thing. And they had great respect for our country. Donald Trump: They treated me, meaning I’m the country. I’m the representative of our country, and we were treated with great respect. And one of the people that came to pay his respects is, as you know, Ukraine, Zelenskyy. And he would like to have peace. He wants peace. Everyone’s being killed. It’s the worst carnage that this world has seen since World War II. Donald Trump: I have pictures of fields where bodies are lying on top of bodies. It looks like the old pictures of the Civil War, where just bodies are all over. Just if you saw those pictures, you’d feel more strongly about it. It’s got to stop, and we’re trying to get it. [crosstalk] Well, we’re going to see. We’re going to be talking to President Putin, and we’ll be talking to the representatives, Zelenskyy and representatives from Ukraine. We’ve got to stop it. It’s carnage. Question: What about the [inaudible] [crosstalk] Donald Trump: Thank you. Good to see you. Good to see you. Question: Can you comment on the drones that are flying around with New Jersey ports? It seems like the American people have a big – Donald Trump: The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went. And for some reason, they don’t want to comment. And I think they’d be better off saying what it is our military knows and our president knows. Donald Trump: And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense. I can’t imagine it’s the enemy because if it was the enemy, they’d blast it out. Even if they were late, they’d blast it. Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don’t want to tell the people. And they should, because the people are really – I mean, they happen to be over Bedminster. Question: Will you shoot them down? How do you perceive [inaudible] Donald Trump: They’re very – they’re very close to Bedminster. I think maybe I won’t spend the weekend in Bedminster. Question: Have you been [inaudible] Donald Trump: I’ve decided to cancel my trip. Question: Have you received an intelligence briefing on the drones? Donald Trump: I don’t want to comment on that. [crosstalk] Question: Two quick questions. First, on vaccines, do you want RFK Jr. to revoke any vaccines? Donald Trump: No, I want him to come back with a report as to what he thinks. We’re going to find out a lot. We’re doing two things. We’re going to have tremendous cost savings that will come out of this. That’s a minimum. And we’re also going to have, I think, very serious discussions about certain things, whether it’s pesticides. Donald Trump: You know, Europe doesn’t use pesticides, and yet, they have a better mortality rate than we do. They don’t use pesticides. In fact, they use it as an excuse not to take our farm product. We spend billions and billions of dollars on pesticides. And something bad is happening. Again, you take a look at autism today versus 20, 25 years ago, it’s, like, not even believable. Donald Trump: So, we’re going to have reports. No, nothing is going to happen very quickly. I think you’re going to find that Bobby is much – he’s a very rational guy. I found him to be very rational. No, nothing – you’re not going to lose the polio vaccine. That’s not going to happen. I saw what happened with the polio. Donald Trump: I have friends that were very much affected by that. I have friends from many years ago, and they have obviously – they’re still in not such good shape because of it. No, that was – and many people died. And the moment they took that vaccine, it ended. Dr. Jonas Salk did a great job. So, I don’t anticipate that at all. Donald Trump: But we’re going to look into finding why is the autism rate so much higher than it was 20, 25, 30 years ago. I mean, it’s, like – it’s 100 times higher. There’s something wrong, and we’re going to try finding that. We’re also going to find out why are we paying more than other countries. And we were in the process of doing that through transparency and other things. Donald Trump: We were doing a good job on that first term, and we brought it down. We got the $35, all of the different things. We got – you know, we were the ones that got all of that done. Every one of those things, we got them done. I said, “You know, I hope I win because otherwise somebody is going to take a lot of credit for what we did.” Donald Trump: But now, what happens is we’re going to have a big conversation on price. Why is it that Germany and UK and other countries are paying so much more for the same box of medicine made in the same plant? Why is it that we’re paying many times more? And I know the answer, because our government didn’t do what they were supposed to do. Donald Trump: And what I put in place was terminated unexpectedly by the Biden administration, and they shouldn’t have terminated it. It would have had a huge impact. Question: And, Mr. President, one quick question. On Ukraine, you mentioned that some of the areas are already decimated. Do you believe that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia? Donald Trump: Well, I’m going to let you know that after I have my first meeting. But a lot of that territory, when you look at what’s happened to those – I mean, there are cities that – there’s not a building standing. It’s a demolition site. There’s not a building standing. So, people can’t go back to those cities. Donald Trump: There’s nothing there. It’s just rubble. Just like when I knocked down a building in Manhattan, which is actually – this is worse, actually, because we do it step by step. This thing has just got demolished. And, by the way, in those buildings are many people. Many people were in those buildings. You know, when they said the number in Ukraine is going to be a much higher number of death, is going to be a much higher number than you’re hearing. Donald Trump: You know, they’re big buildings. This is what I did very well. And these are very long buildings. They’re 15 to 20 storeys high. They’re massive buildings. I was surprised at how big. And they’re flattened like a pancake. One or two bombs hit them and they just collapsed, and they’d say nobody was hurt. Donald Trump: Well, nobody knows who was in those buildings. There were a lot of people in those buildings. They’re going to find that when they start doing the removal. Many more people are being killed in the Ukraine war with Russia than is being reported. And that includes soldiers. The soldiers are being – it’s a carnage that we haven’t seen since the Second World War. Donald Trump: It’s got to be stopped. And I’m doing my best to stop it. [crosstalk] Question: Sir – Donald Trump: Yeah, please, go ahead. Question: You had a meeting with Mrs. Abe yesterday, but Japanese Prime Minister — Donald Trump: Mrs. Abe. Question: Mrs. Abe, yeah. And Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba is hoping to have a meeting anytime soon. Are you – are you – Donald Trump: I will do that. In fact, I sent him a memento. I sent him a book, the prime minister. But Mrs. Abe was very close with our first lady, with Melania, and she loved Melania’s book. And she called and wanted to know if she could have – I was very close to the Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. He was great. He was a great man. Donald Trump: And his wife wanted to know if it would be possible to have dinner. And it was just out of respect to Shinzo. And, yes, I’d love to see the prime minister. We will do that. I actually sent him a book and some other things for him through Mrs. Abe. Question: Will that happen before the inauguration day? Donald Trump: It could. If they’d like to do that, I would do that. Yeah. [crosstalk] I have great – I have respect for the – you know, for the position. And if he’d like to do that, I’d be here. Question: Mr. President [inaudible] Sir – [inaudible] that ambassador of Japan will be George Glass. Is that your final decision? Donald Trump: Highly respected man. That’s right. Highly respected. He’s been an ambassador before, did a fantastic job. We consider Japan very important. He’s very highly respected. OK [inaudible] [crosstalk] Question: Which other world leaders have you invited to the inauguration? Question about the border. Which other world leaders have you invited to the inauguration? Donald Trump: The world leaders are calling me, and some really would like to meet. Question: Are they coming? Donald Trump: No, I mean, literally, they’re calling me. And I’ll be seeing some of them. I think it’s rude not to. I mean, it’s hard to say “I’m not going to see you.” And I’ve spoken to way over 100 where they call to congratulate on the – not only the election, but the size of the election, the extent of the victory. Donald Trump: And they were great. I mean, I spoke to over a hundred countries. You wouldn’t believe how many countries there are. And I’m trying the best I can to get back to everybody, but there are a lot of countries. And every one of them – literally everyone called, and it was very nice. So, yeah, I’d see some if some felt it was an emergency. Donald Trump: I’ve seen – as you know, I’ve seen President Zelenskyy. He came to France while I was there for the cathedral opening. They actually had about 70 presidents and prime ministers and, in one case, a king. And we saw some great people. I also met with William, and I was very impressed by William. I think William is terrific. Donald Trump: I was very impressed by William. As you know, I met with him, too. [crosstalk] Question: [inaudible] the inauguration? [inaudible] Did you invite Zelensky to the inauguration? Donald Trump: No. But if he’d like to come, I’d like to have him. I mean, I didn’t invite him, no. [crosstalk] Question: Are you disappointed that China’s Xi won’t be at the inauguration? Donald Trump: I don’t know that he won’t be at the inauguration. I mean, I haven’t really spoken to him about it. I don’t know that, actually. I would say that if he’d like to come, I’d love to have him. But there’s been nothing much discussed. I have had discussions with him, letters, etc., etc., at a very high level. Donald Trump: You know, we had a very good relationship until COVID. COVID didn’t end the relationship, but it was a bridge too far for me. But if he’d like to come, I’d certainly be there. [crosstalk] He hasn’t – just so you understand, he hasn’t said one way or the other because a lot of people say – Question: Have you spoken – Just to follow up on your – Donald Trump: He won’t come, he will come. People think he will come, he won’t come. It’s something we barely discussed, just about didn’t discuss. But I have had, especially through letters, some very good conversations. Question: Just to follow up on – Have you spoken to Venezuela – Donald Trump: You know, because China and the United States can, together, solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it. So, it’s very important. You know, he was a friend of mine. I mean, he was here for a long time, right in that spot, except sitting in a very comfortable chair. He wasn’t standing like you are. Donald Trump: But we spent hours and hours talking, and, you know, he’s an amazing guy. Question: Have you spoken to Venezuela – Just to follow up on your – Donald Trump: The press – the press hates when I say that, but he’s an amazing person. [crosstalk] Question: Have you spoken to anyone in Venezuela, sir? On the border – on the border – if can just ask you on the border – Can I ask you about the United – the UnitedHealthcare shooting – [inaudible] real quick. UnitedHealthcare shooting, the shooting of the CEO – Donald Trump: I think it’s terrible. Question: Can you give us your thoughts about that? And what do you make of the reaction around the suspected shooter? Donald Trump: Well, I think it’s terrible. Question: Does that tell you anything about how people think about healthcare? Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah, I think it’s a terrible thing. I think it’s really terrible that some people seem to admire him, like him. And I was happy to see that it wasn’t specific to this gentleman that was killed. It was just an overall sickness as opposed to a specific sickness. That was a terrible thing. It was cold-blooded, just a cold-blooded, horrible killing. Donald Trump: And how people can like this guy is – that’s a sickness, actually. That’s really very bad. Especially the way it was done. It was so bad, right in the back. And very bad, very – a thing like that, you just – you can’t believe that some people – and maybe it’s fake news. I don’t know. It’s hard to believe that that can even be thought of. Donald Trump: But it seems that there’s a certain appetite for him. I don’t get it. Yeah, please. Question: Can you just comment on – I want to expand on the defamation lawsuits. Could you see moving that to other people with individual platforms, social media influencers, people that – Donald Trump: Or newspapers, yeah. Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: Yeah. Oh, I do. I do. I think you have to do it because they’re very dishonest. We need a great media. We need a fair media. We need – it’s very important. And we need borders. We need walls. But we need borders. And we need fair elections. You look at California. Millions and millions of ballots were sent out. Donald Trump: They’re still counting the vote in California with the machines. They’re counting the vote. If you had paper ballots, your votes would have been counted four weeks ago, three weeks ago. No, you need fair elections. You need borders. And you need a fair press. And the press is – no, I see others. I have a few others that I’m doing. Donald Trump: As an example, we’re bringing – I’m doing this not because I want to. I’m doing this because I feel I have an obligation to. I’m going to be bringing one against the people in Iowa, their newspaper, which had a very, very good pollster who got me right all the time. And then, just before the election, she said I was going to lose by three or four points, and it became the biggest story all over the world because I was going to win Iowa by 20 points. Donald Trump: The farmers love me, and I love the farmers. And it was interesting the way she did it. She brought it down two weeks before. She said I was going to only win by four. That was a big start. But that was good because she brought it down from, like, 22 points to four, or whatever the number was. Way up, way up, an easy win. Donald Trump: Never even thought to go there. I respect them. I love them. And they understand there’s no reason to go there because she brought it from way up, walk away, which it was. And it turned out to be in the election, too, by the way. It was a win by many, many points. And then, she brought it down very smartly to four a couple of weeks before. Donald Trump: And everyone said, “Wow, that’s amazing. He’s only up by four points.” Then, she brought it down to where it was down by three or four, whatever the number she is. And that was The Des Moines Register, and it was their parent. And in my opinion, it was fraud and it was election interference. You know, she’s gotten me right always. Donald Trump: She’s a very good pollster. She knows what she’s doing. And she then quit before. And we’ll probably be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow. We’re filing one on 60 Minutes, you know about that, where they took Kamala’s answer, which was a crazy answer, a horrible answer. And they took the whole answer out and they replaced it with something else she said later on in the interview, which wasn’t a great answer, but it wasn’t like the first one. Donald Trump: The first was grossly incompetent. It was weird. And that was fraud and election interference by their news magazine, a big part of CBS News. So, as you know, we’re involved in that one. We’re involved in one which has been going on for a while and very successfully against Bob Woodward, where he didn’t quote me properly from the tapes. Donald Trump: And then, on top of everything else, he sold the tapes, which he wasn’t allowed to do. He could only use them for reporting purposes, not for sale purposes. And he admits that, and I think we’ll be successful on that one. And we have one, very interestingly, on Pulitzer, because reporters at The New York Times, Washington Post got Pulitzer Prizes for their wonderful, accurate, and highly professional reporting on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. Donald Trump: Well, it turned out to be a hoax, and they were exactly wrong. People – like many people, John Solomon, Sean Hannity is not for Pulitzer, but Sean Hannity got it right. Many people got it right. Tucker got it right. Jesse got it right. Lara got it right. Janine got it right. A lot of people got it right. Donald Trump: They didn’t get anything. They gave it to reporters that got it absolutely wrong. And now, everybody admits it was a hoax. And I want them to get back – take back the Pulitzer Prizes and pay big damages. And I think we’re doing very well on that one. They have no excuse for it. They gave a Pulitzer Prize to writers that got Russia, Russia, Russia wrong. Donald Trump: And so, I think we’re doing well. And I feel I have to do this. I shouldn’t really be the one to do it. It should have been the Justice Department or somebody else, but I have to do it. It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections. Question: Are you worried about Venezuela? Sir, have you been in touch with Venezuela? For January 6th defendants, you have said in the first few minutes of your administration you want to issue pardons for January 6th defendants. Does that include – will that be a blanket pardon? Donald Trump: Well, you’ll find out. But it’s going to go quickly. Question: And just to follow up on – [inaudible] sir, with – in terms of your mass deportation plans, have you had any preliminary discussions with countries like Venezuela, from where the Tren de Aragua gang is now popping up in this country? Donald Trump: They’ll take them back. Question: They’re going to take them back? Donald Trump: They’re all taking them back, yep. [crosstalk] And if they don’t, they’ll be met very harshly economically. OK? They’ll all take them back. You know, Venezuela and other countries were not behaving very well with us during my administration. And within 24 hours, they were behaving very well. They’ll all take them back. Question: [inaudible] follow up on that? Donald Trump: Jeff. Nice to see you, Jeff. This is like the old days, right? Question: It’s nice to see you, too. Donald Trump: You’ve looked – actually, you look much better now than you did four years ago. What are you doing? What’s he doing? All right, go ahead. Question: Thank you, sir. The first day, you just mentioned, that you’re in office, I imagine you’ve got some executive orders that you want to go through. Donald Trump: Yeah, a lot of them. Question: Can you tell us what your priorities – what are your priorities? Donald Trump: We’ll have a lot. Well, I’ll bet you could tell – you could say as well as I could, we will have many executive orders and other things that we’ll be signing on the first day. Question: Can you also – just going back to my initial question about the Middle East, you said that your conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu was kind of a review. Did you repeat that – Donald Trump: We just had a very good conversation, and, you know, the real conversations will start on the 20th. But we had a really good conversation, and I think we’re going to be in a good place in the Middle East. I think the Middle East is – will be in a good place. I think actually more difficult is going to be the Russia-Ukraine situation. I see that as more difficult. Question: When you say there will be – Donald Trump: I don’t think they should have allowed missiles to be shot 200 miles into Russia. I think that was a bad thing. And that brought the Koreans in, North Korea, another man I get along with very well. I’m the only one that does. But that did a lot of bad things. I don’t think that should have been allowed, not when there’s a possibility – and certainly not just weeks before I take over. Donald Trump: Why would they do that without asking me what I thought? I wouldn’t have had them do that. I think that was a big mistake they made. Question: Will you reverse that decision when you’re in office to let those – Donald Trump: I might, yeah. Question: Missiles be – Donald Trump: I thought it was a very stupid thing to do. Question: And when you say – Do you have any reaction to [inaudible] And when you say – just one last [inaudible] when you say that there will be hell to pay if the hostages are not released before January 20th, what does that mean? Donald Trump: Well, they’re going to have to determine what that means. But it means it won’t be pleasant. Question: Mr. President, how was your – Donald Trump: It’s not going to be pleasant. Yeah? Question: How was your meeting with Apple CEO, Tim Cook? And did you talk about tariffs in that meeting? Donald Trump: The meeting with who? Question: Apple CEO, Tim Cook. Donald Trump: I did have dinner with Tim Cook. I had dinner with sort of almost all of them, and the rest are coming. And this is one of the big differences, I think, between – we were talking about it before – one of the big differences between the first term. In the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. Donald Trump: I don’t know. My personality changed or something. But I had – as you know, I had Sundar from Google, but I also had Sergey. Nobody reported that. Sergey is the owner, the primary owner, along with his friend, as you know. And Sergey was here also. I can’t believe you didn’t pick that one up. Nobody picked that up. Donald Trump: But I will tell you. No, it’s a big difference. The big difference is that the first time, everybody was fighting me on all fronts. And we had a great administration. We got the biggest tax cuts in history, rebuilt the military. Too much of it was given away to Afghanistan, stupidly given away, horribly given away. Donald Trump: I think that’s one of the reasons that Putin went in to Ukraine when he saw the stupidity of Milley and these guys. They’re stupid people, very stupid people. If he didn’t – if they didn’t do such a – you know, we were pulling out of Afghanistan, but I would have pulled out with dignity and strength. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t be having parades, I guarantee you, showing our equipment that they left behind, because we weren’t going to leave any equipment behind, not 10 cents. We were going to take every screw and every bolt. So, yeah, the biggest difference is that people want to get along with me this time. Well, they’ve gone through four years, and, you know, it wasn’t easy for me, but it wasn’t easy for them either. Donald Trump: And that’s a great thing, though. Getting along is a great thing. So, Tim Cook was here. I think he’s done an incredible job at Apple. He talked about the future of Apple. It’s going to be a bright future. But we have many others. Also, and not in that business, and we do have Jeff Bezos, Amazon, coming in sometime during the week. Donald Trump: Looking forward to that. We have a lot of great executives coming in. The top executives, the top bankers, they’re all calling. And honestly, in the first – I don’t know what it was. It’s like a complete opposite. In the first – and the press has covered that fairly, actually, for a change. The first one, they were very hostile. Donald Trump: And maybe it was my fault, but I don’t really think so. They were just very – right from the beginning. And this one is much less hostile. It’s really the opposite of hostile. Question: Will you [inaudible] to give us [inaudible] Can I get your reaction – Sir, I know – I know that you had some, I believe, involvement 18 years ago with the students at Duke accused of rape in lacrosse. Now, we have this development – Donald Trump: Well, I thought it was a – I thought it was a hoax when it happened, the Duke situation. I didn’t believe the woman, as you know. And you destroyed – they destroyed the lives of these kids. They destroyed – and I don’t care what they got. Their lives have been destroyed. Their lives have been shortened by what took place. Donald Trump: And now, the woman admitted that it never happened. That is horrible. And as you know, I took a lot of heat when I said that this is – this did not happen. And those kids were beautiful kids with beautiful families, and they were, in some cases, will never be the same. They will never be the same. Question: Have you talked to them by chance? Do you have any thoughts on the Postal Service? You mentioned Bezos a second ago, and I’ve always thought Bezos would be a key person to go in there and really streamline the logistics – Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Of the Post Office. But they lose billions. Donald Trump: Well, there is talk about the Postal Service being taken private. You do know that. Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard. It really isn’t. You know, it’s a lot different today with – between Amazon and UPS and FedEx and all the things that you didn’t have. But there is talk about that. It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time. Donald Trump: We’re looking at it. I think we’re looking at that along with a lot of – any questions for Howard, by the way? Question: Sure, I’ll ask one. Mr. Incoming Secretary, do you see another trade deal with China coming? Howard Lutnick: I think the president – Donald Trump: That’s a tough one right off the bat. Howard Lutnick: Yeah. Oh, it’s easy for me. You’re sitting next to me, so it’s OK. The president has a very clear agenda for tariffs, and I think reciprocity is something that is going to be a key topic for us. How you treat us is how you should expect to be treated. Question: Would you like to weigh in, sir, on that? Donald Trump: He said it so well, reciprocal. If they tax us, we tax them the same amount. They tax us – forget just for a second about the word tariff. They tax us, we tax them. And they tax us – almost in all cases, they’re taxing us, and we haven’t been taxing them. Question: Is there a deal already underway? Donald Trump: What? Question: Is there a deal already underway? Donald Trump: What? Question: Is there a deal already underway with respect to that? Donald Trump: Let’s just say this. We’re going to make great deals, and we have all the cards. And until I came along – don’t forget, and Howard was going over the numbers with me last night, we took in $600 billion and more in taxes and tariffs from China. No other president took in 10 cents. Not 10 cents, not 10 cents. Donald Trump: And, no, we’re going to be doing things. We’re going to be treating people very fairly. But the word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us – India, we don’t have to talk about owned – if India charges us 100 percent, then we charge them nothing for the same, you know, they send in a bicycle, and we send them a bicycle, they charge us 100 and 200. Donald Trump: India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge them the same thing. That’s a big statement. Question: Are you worried about – Donald Trump: And you know what? The senators, some of them aren’t necessarily business people. When I give that to them, they say, “That sounds fair to me.” Question: Are you concerned that tariffs might hurt the stock market rise that you have seen and the economy more broadly? Donald Trump: Make our country rich. Tariffs will make our country rich. Question: But won’t they increase prices? Donald Trump: Properly used and make – No, well, I didn’t have any inflation, and I had massive tariffs on a lot of places. We put tariffs on steel. If I didn’t put tariffs on steel, 50 percent and more – they were dumping steel in, China and others. I put tariffs on, and it stopped. And we took a fortune. We made a fortune on it. Donald Trump: Tariffs, properly used, which we will do, and being reciprocal with other nations, but it will make our country rich. Our country right now loses to everybody. Almost nobody do we have a surplus to. There are a couple of countries, and they’re embarrassed by it. But almost nobody. And tariffs will make – I always said, to me, tariffs – the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Donald Trump: It’ll make our country rich. You go back and look at the 1890s, 1880s, McKinley, and you take a look at tariffs, that was when we were at our – proportionately the richest. Go ahead. [crosstalk] Question: [inaudible] agree with the deal from – Did you get to a good spot – back on Ukraine, Mr. President. What should Zelenskyy, if anything, be prepared to give up to end this war? Donald Trump: He should be prepared to make a deal. That’s it. It’s got to be a deal. Question: Do you have anything in mind? Donald Trump: No. It’s got to be a deal. People being killed. That is a war that’s too many – you’ve got to make a deal. And Putin has to make a deal. Question: What deal would you suggest? Do you think – yeah. Donald Trump: Putin has to make a deal. And Putin would have never gone in if I was president. If I was president, we wouldn’t have had inflation. Our oil prices would have been lower. I had a good relationship with Putin. He would have – despite the Russia hoax, which made it more difficult, if we had that election, if it were an honorable election, we wouldn’t have had any of the problems that we’re talking about right now. Putin would have never gone in. [crosstalk] Question: Based on your [inaudible] [inaudible] to give up Assad? Will you ask – [inaudible] you said that you could make that deal before you take office? Do you still think you can make that deal? Donald Trump: I’m going to try. Question: Will you ask Putin to give up Assad? Based on your – Donald Trump: Well, I haven’t thought of it. I think we have to get on with our lives. We’ll have to see what happens. But right now, Syria has a lot of – you know, there’s a lot of indefinites. Nobody knows what’s going to happen with Syria. I think Turkey is going to hold the key to Syria, actually. I don’t think you’ve heard that from anybody else, but I’ve been pretty good at predicting. Donald Trump: I want to thank you all, and we’re going to make America great again. Thank you very much. Question: Merry Christmas, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much, Howard. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2024-12-17
The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau. Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!
Date: 2024-12-18
No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!
Date: 2024-12-22
Donald Trump: [Audience chants “USA”] Well, hello, Arizona. It’s great to be here. Nice to win the election, that’s very nice to win. And I want to wish everybody a very merry Christmas. They don’t say that too much anymore. We say it. And when I had all that smoke backstage, I said, “Hey, are there any steps in front of me? I don’t want to go down.” I go down, that would not be good. Donald Trump: We don’t want to do that, nice and slow. But I just want to thank you. What a beautiful production this is. What a great job the whole group does. And amazing turning points, it’s been amazing. It’s really been a tremendous numbers of American patriots. It’s really been great. And you saw what happened last month. Donald Trump: We had turning points, grassroots army. It’s an army. They turned out to vote, and they voted in record numbers. And everybody else voted in record numbers, too, I have to tell you. And we did something that was really epic. We won a battle that a lot of people thought was very hard to win, you know, too big to rig. Donald Trump: Remember what I said? Too big to rig. We’ll make it too big to rig, we’re going to win. And it really was one of the great political victories in the history of our country. And that’s good. They said – one of the very big radical-left newspapers said “the most consequential election in the last 129 years.” And I said, “Couldn’t they have made it a little bit longer than that?” One hundred twenty-nine years, but that’s pretty good. Donald Trump: But we won – oh, it’s so nice. We won the popular vote by a lot, by millions and millions. And I used to hear in the first one, we won and we did great. And they always would say, “Well, he didn’t this sort of – well, he didn’t win the popular vote. He won the Electoral College.” You know, they’d say that low. Donald Trump: But we actually did very well then. But we did really well the second time. And this time, we said to hell with it. We’ve got to just blow them away. And that’s all we did. We blew him away. So, we won all seven swing states. Remember they were saying, “Well, you know, we did very well in early voting, so we didn’t have to win too much because we were way ahead.” But they said, “Well, he only has to win two.” But we won all seven. Donald Trump: Can you believe it? We won all seven. And we carried the great state of Arizona, something not easy for a Republican to do, but it was easy for us to do. And we had more than a six-point landslide. That’s called the landslide here. And not only did we reclaim the White House, we also took back the US Senate, and we won the largest popular vote majority for House Republicans in a presidential year since 1928. That’s a pretty good thing. Donald Trump: And I want to express my tremendous gratitude to Charlie Kirk. He’s really an amazing guy. Amazing guy. And his whole staff for their relentless efforts to achieve this very historic victory. It’s such a great honor. It’s not my victory. It’s your victory. It’s a great honor. Man, we worked hard on this. Donald Trump: We knew bad things happened in 2020. And if I didn’t know that we won in 2020, I wouldn’t have done this because it would have been like the ultimate poll, right? But we won by a lot. And this time, we said, “Look, now we got to really win by –” and we won by so much. They just – you know, they threw all their placards. Donald Trump: They wanted to protest. They were all set. And at about 9 o’clock, they said, “Man, this guy is killing us.” They threw the placards. They went home. And we had no riots. We had no anything. It was a beautiful thing to watch. They just said, “We lost.” And we want to try bringing everybody together. We’re going to try. Donald Trump: We’re going to really give it a shot. The thing that brings people together is victory. It’s winning. And we had that for much of – by far, you know, we had the most – we had the greatest economy in history in our first term. We can now call it a first term. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country, maybe in the history of any country, frankly. Donald Trump: And we had – we did things that nobody could have done, and we’re going to do them even better now. We’re going to be drilling – as we say, drill, baby, drill. We’re going to drill, baby, drill. But we’re going to be doing a lot more than drilling. But I also want to give a very special thanks to everyone at Turning Point Action who outworked and outsmarted – always outsmart. Donald Trump: You got to – you got to be smart, too, and outorganized the radical-left opposition. We had very strong opposition, not in terms of numbers, but I will tell you, some things happened because they are – that was a big defeat for them, that nobody expected the numbers. You know what happened? The pollsters went around. Donald Trump: And whenever anyone said, “It’s none of your business –” they said, “Who are you voting for, or who did you vote for?” They said, “It’s none of your business.” And sometimes, they said much tougher language than that. But I’m not going to get into that because I’ll get in big trouble on the home front. And with Franklin Graham, “Please, sir,” he says, “Please, sir, please don’t use foul language. Donald Trump: You speak so beautifully. You can do just as well.” Actually, it doesn’t work quite as well, but that’s OK. It’s just emphasis. But when they said, essentially, “It’s none of your business,” that was a Trump vote. And they had the highest numbers of people that said that because they don’t trust the press, etc. Donald Trump: And we had the highest numbers. And that’s why the polls were – showed us winning, but not winning in a landslide like we did. And we sort of knew that was going to happen. We could tell by the rally signs. Look at this. Here, we won. There’s no reason except celebration, but that’s not a bad reason, is it? And look at the crowd. Donald Trump: They have 7,000 or 8,000 people standing outside. They can’t get in. Would anybody like to give up their seat, please? [Audience responds “No”] Donald Trump: You know, doing this for years, I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone say, “Yes, yes, I’ll give it up.” Just one person, nobody – the Democrats and the media said that Turning Point could never run a ground game. They weren’t experienced. They didn’t know Charlie, right? But when the ballots came in, the other side really didn’t know what the hell hit them. Donald Trump: They got hit hard. And that victory was such an outstanding one, such a big one. And the other side now – and we don’t want this. We want people to be happy and healthy. But they did. They lost their confidence. If you watch television now, they’re all befuddled. They don’t know what the hell happened. They’re befuddled, to use quite a nice word that my mother used to use years ago, talking about somebody that’s a mess. Donald Trump: But they did. They lost their confidence. And hopefully, they’ll lose it for a long time and then come over to our side, because we want to – we want to have them. We want to have them. And we’re going to have some inauguration on the 20th. We’re going to have something. It’s going to be great. It’s going to be great. Donald Trump: But something happened also in the election. All 50 states shifted toward the Republican Party, every single one of them. And together, we won the largest share of African American voters of any Republican in modern history. Actually, in history. We won more Hispanic American votes than any Republican ever. Donald Trump: And we won the vote. We won the Latino men. Who is a Latino men? Do we have any Latino men? You’re not a Latino man. Very beautiful woman, but a man you are not. Of course, nowadays, who the hell knows? But we won the Hispanic – I call Hispanic. I always said, “Do you like Latino or Hispanic?” Let’s go. Let’s do a free poll. Donald Trump: Who likes to be called Latino? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: OK. That’s what’s always happening. Listen to this. Who likes to be called Hispanic? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: All right. Not as good as usual. But we won half of all voters aged 18 to 29. There’s never been anything like that. We won by 36 young people. And we got the highest share of youth vote of any Republican ever before in history. And we had great people. You know, my son Barron said, “Dad, you got to see this one, that one, this one.” He likes Joe Rogan a lot, too. Donald Trump: He said, “You got to see Joe Rogan. Dad, you got to do an interview with these people.” And he has a sort of a feel for young people. I guess that’s a nice thing to have when you’re young. But he has a feel for it. And it was amazing. So, we got the highest vote ever for a Republican candidate. We won by 36 points with young people. Donald Trump: That never happens. A Republican loses by 36 or 40. So, I’m going to have to start thinking about TikTok. I think we’re going to have to start thinking. Because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response. We had billions of views, billions and billions of views. They brought me – they brought me a chart. Donald Trump: And it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see. And as I looked at it, I said, “Maybe we got to keep this sucker around a little while.” Who wants to – oh, look, I see Sheriff Joe. Sheriff Joe, could we use you on the border? Stand up. Sheriff Joe. Look at that. He had no problems with the border. If you could straighten your border out in two minutes, we’ll put Sheriff Joe over there. Donald Trump: And you’re looking good, Joe. You’re looking good. And we miss your wife, right? Your great wife. She’s up there proud as hell of you. But he had no border problems. You didn’t have any border problems. And we’ll do that very shortly for you. We’re going to have – you have a governor that doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. [Audience boos] Donald Trump: You have people. You have people that don’t know what they’re doing. And we’re going to change it because your border is a disaster. Your border is a disaster, what’s going on. And you just have a few days to wait. We’re going to be fully operational, I would say, by about 2 o’clock on the 20th. 20th of January. Donald Trump: With your help, we gain 23 points with voters under the age of even 25. Think of that. We gain 23 points. And in the election of 2024, our movement not only won a mandate, but we built new American majorities all over the place and will define our country’s future. I believe it’s going to define our country’s future for generations to come. Donald Trump: That’s going to happen. You know, there’s some people called up that are great people, actually. Great business leaders called, a lot of them. And some of them weren’t exactly on my side, but they’re on my side now. But they said there’s a light over not only the country right now but over the entire world. Donald Trump: And it is happening. And we want to get some of these – we want to get some of these wars that would have never happened, like Russia, Ukraine would have never happened. Israel would have never been attacked, would have never happened. We wouldn’t have inflation. We wouldn’t have had that Afghanistan horror show, that horrible, horrible – the way we left, leaving billions of dollars of equipment behind and 13 soldiers. Donald Trump: And, you know, nobody ever mentions – and I mention because I love them and they’re all watching right now, 48 soldiers that were horrifically injured. Nobody ever – they lived and they don’t talk about them, but these are incredible warriors that were hurt so badly with the legs and the arms and the face, and hurt so badly, 48, 48 of them. Donald Trump: And we love you. You’re listening, and we love you. We’re not forgetting you. And for all of us standing before you today, I can proudly proclaim that the golden age of America is upon us. It’s going to be a golden age. It’s going to be a golden age. There’s a spirit that we have now that we didn’t have just a short while ago. Donald Trump: Sadly, we didn’t have. Who the hell can have a spirit? Watching women get beat up in a boxing ring? I don’t think that’s spirit, right? We’re going to end that one quick. We’re going to end it very quickly. We’re going to end that one very quickly. Since the election, the stock market has broken one record after another, the biggest gain of stock market after an election in history. Donald Trump: That’s a good sign. In a single month, small business optimism soared 41 points, which is a record. That’s a record. Bitcoin has surged to an all-time record high of $108,000. Congratulations. Congratulations. And just last week, in an overwhelming statement of confidence in our leadership, the CEO of SoftBank, a very highly respected man in Asia, Masayoshi Son, you probably saw it announced, that he will be investing. Donald Trump: And only because I won the election, he made that clear, only because he has confidence in the United States between $100 billion and $200 billion. And he’s going to be investing, equal to about 100,000 jobs, at least. And all over the world, people are investing now. They’re starting the investments, and it’s going to be a beautiful thing with the jobs. Donald Trump: But they’re calling it the Trump effect because even before taking office, we’re already bringing in the jobs and opportunity and safety and common sense back to the USA. We’re bringing common sense back. Maybe that’s the most important thing. I think common sense is the most important thing, not only are we seeing it at home, but we’re seeing it abroad as well. Donald Trump: The European Union is suddenly talking about buying vast quantities of natural American, beautiful natural gas. It’s beautiful, and it’s very inexpensive. It’s a lot less expensive than windmills all over the place, a lot less expensive. But I’ve informed Mexico and Canada that they will have to step up and stop the illegal aliens and illegal drugs from pouring into our country. Donald Trump: Have to stop. And that goes for the European Union, and it goes for many other places. The European Union has treated us very, very badly. We have hundreds of billions of dollars worth of deficits. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our agricultural product. But we take theirs. And they’ve got to be careful. Donald Trump: They can’t treat us that way. They’re not going to be treating us that way for long, that I can tell you. Because we’re not going to let them turn the United States into a dumping ground. We’re not going to let it happen. We pay Canada in subsidies and deficits over $150 billion a year. And you say, “Why are we doing that? Donald Trump: Why are we paying Canada $150 billion?” Essentially, we’re paying Canada. And we love Canada. I have so many friends – I love Canada. I love it. But why are we spending $150 billion on Canada? Yet, Canada allows people and drugs to flood in through our northern border. You know, we have a northern border that’s not doing so well either. Donald Trump: Likewise, people are coming in from Mexico in numbers that have never ever been seen before. We had 21 million people come in over the past four years. Think of that, 21 million people. And you see a lot of these people should not be here. They come from mental institutions and prisons from all over the world, not just South America. Donald Trump: Hundreds of thousands more are racing to get across before January 20th. You see it. And I was very strong with Mexico. I spoke to the new president, who is lovely, wonderful woman and – President Sheinbaum. Wonderful woman, actually. But I said, “You can’t do this to our country. We’re not going to take it anymore. Donald Trump: You can’t do it.” But I’ve informed Mexico that it just cannot continue. We’re not going to let it continue. The United States has lost 300,000 people a year. Think of that. I don’t know. I mean, how many people – everybody you meet said, “I lost my daughter, I lost my son to drugs, to fentanyl.” Mostly to fentanyl, but to drugs. Donald Trump: Families are being destroyed, and we’re going to stop it. We’re not going to let that happen. And we’re also going to be doing something that’s, I think, going to help a lot. We’re going to do very big advertising campaign, just like a campaign for running for president. We spend a lot of money, but it’ll be a very small amount of money, relatively. Donald Trump: We’re going to advertise how bad drugs are for you, how bad they are. They ruin your look. They ruin your face. They ruin your skin and ruin your teeth. If you want to have horrible teeth, take a lot of fentanyl. If you want to have skin that looks so terrible, take fentanyl. We’re going to show what these drugs are doing to you. Donald Trump: Nobody’s done that before, and we’re going to do it. And that is, it’s going to be like running a political campaign, just like running for president, just like we just did. We have some pretty good heads, right? Well, we explained – we explained what these people have done and how they’re destroying our country. Donald Trump: I mean, who would leave – who would let millions of people pour in from prisons and jails and mental institutions? And I always say, in state asylums. You know, the press gave me a hard time because sometimes they’d use the word – a name, Hannibal Lecter. They said, “Why does he mention Hannibal Lecter? Donald Trump: That has nothing to do with it. Why would he?” I mean, are they stupid? The fact is that we don’t want Hannibal Lecter. You know what that is? “Silence of the Lambs.” We don’t want Hannibal Lecter, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in our country, do we? And you know what happened when they went to the voting booth or, unfortunately, they signed their mail-in ballot, but we got by it. We got to change all of that stuff. Donald Trump: We got to have great, fair, confident elections. But when they went into the booth or they signed their ballot, they said, “Hannibal Lecter, that’s a bad guy. We don’t want him here.” They knew that. They didn’t like that. They didn’t like that. I used him because it’s a good – it’s a very good example. Donald Trump: It’s like incredible, incredible what they do. We need borders. We need fair elections. And we need a free and fair press. And we’re going to try getting all of them. As another example of the things we’re doing and looking at, it’s such a terrible thing is happening. The Panama Canal is considered a vital national asset for the United States of America due to its critical role of American economy, the whole world economy, and also national security. Donald Trump: The Panama Canal – has anyone ever heard of the Panama Canal?[Audience member calls out “Take it back.”] Donald Trump: Because we’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else. A secure – he just said, “Take it back.” That’s a good idea. Where do you come from, sir? He doesn’t come from Panama. Yeah, good. A secure Panama Canal is crucial for US commerce and rapid deployment of the Navy from the Atlantic all the way to the Pacific. Donald Trump: It’s an incredible thing and drastically cuts shipping times down to US ports by days and even weeks. The United States is the number-one user of the Panama Canal, with over 72 percent of all transits heading to or from US ports. Think of that. So, we built it. We’re the ones that use it. They gave it away. Donald Trump: Considered one of the – really, one of the great wonders of the world, the Panama Canal opened for business 110 years ago and was built at huge cost to the United States. And it really is big when you consider the lives and the treasure, the equivalent of $1.2 trillion today. You don’t hear those numbers. Donald Trump: Thirty-eight thousand American men, almost all men, they went there to be construction workers and dig. They were diggers. And they were brave. Thirty-eight thousand men died from infected mosquitoes in the jungles of Panama during the construction period. Think of that. We lost 38,000 men. Teddy Roosevelt was President of the United States at the time of its building and understood the strength of naval power and trade. Donald Trump: When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away, gave it away for $1, $1 [Audience boos] Donald Trump: during his term in office, it was solely for Panama to manage and not for China or any other country to manage. You see what’s going on there? China. It was likewise not given for Panama to charge the United States, its navy, and its corporations doing business within our country exorbitant prices and rates of passage, which they do. They charge us like – like it’s a disgrace. Donald Trump: Our navy and commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama, I say very foolishly, by the United States. This complete ripoff of our country will immediately stop. Donald Trump: It’s going to stop. The United States has a big invested interest in the secure, efficient, and reliable operation of the Panama Canal, and that was always understood when they gave it to Panama. Can you believe that? We would never have done it if we thought what’s happening now can happen, and we would never, and we will never, ever let it fall into the wrong hands. Donald Trump: But it’s falling into the wrong hands. It was not given for the benefit of others by a token of cooperation, but it was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions. You’ve got to treat us fairly, and they haven’t treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly, and without question. Donald Trump: I’m not going to stand for it. So, to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly. William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was, because of the vast sums of money that he brought into our country, the person, really, who got us the money that President Theodore Roosevelt used to build the Panama Canal and a lot of other things, McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president. Donald Trump: They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people. Now, he was a great president, a very good president at a minimum. He was a very good businessman. He was a businessman, then a governor, a very successful businessman. And then he ran for president, and he won. And he was able to use business principles. Donald Trump: And he was a strong believer in tariffs. And we were actually probably wealthiest of any time, relatively speaking, at any point in the history of our country. In the 1890s, we were so wealthy. We had commissions set up, what to do with all the money that we were taking in. We had no income tax. We only had tariffs. Donald Trump: I consider that to be the most beautiful word in the dictionary. But President McKinley was the president that was responsible for creating a vast sum of money in the United States that Teddy Roosevelt then spent. So, let’s say they were both excellent presidents, but McKinley did that. And that’s one of the reasons that we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it. I think he deserves it. There are lots of things we can name, but I think he deserves it. That was not very gracious to somebody that did a good job. Donald Trump: And as you know, he was assassinated. He was assassinated. We have accomplished so much in just 47 days since the election, but that’s only the beginning of what we will achieve together as the 47th president of the United States of America. Over the past few weeks, I’ve nominated an all-star cabinet of some of the most fearless, determined, and brilliant individuals ever to step forward for public office. Donald Trump: And we’re getting great reviews, I have to say. They’re all doing well. And we’re getting fantastic reviews on the people that we chose. It’s we chose, because I wouldn’t choose them if – if I didn’t think you liked them, I’m not putting – I don’t have that kind of courage. You liked every one of them, and everybody – I mean, people are amazed at the quality. Donald Trump: Our Secretary Scott of the Treasury was – is central casting, the whole group. But to get wokeness out of our military to restore the unquestioned strength and fighting spirit of the American armed forces, I have appointed Pete Hegseth to be our next secretary of Defense. He’s going to be great. You know, I’ve interviewed with him a lot on Fox. Donald Trump: And all he ever wanted to talk about was the military, including when we were on. He’d talk about the military. He’d talk about how unfairly our soldiers were treated. Can I give a pardon to this one or that one who was treated so unfairly? They teach them to be fighting machines. And then when they fight, they want to put them in jail for 35 years. Donald Trump: And he was very strong on that. That’s all he wanted to talk about, really, and it just seemed so natural to me. Plus, he had a great education, went to Princeton and Harvard, was a tremendous student. And he’s a very vibrant, strong guy. I think he’s going to be great. He’s do well. To – to make our intelligence community respected even more – I don’t even think the word even is right because we had some bad years with these people. Donald Trump: But we’re going to do something. We’re going to stop looking at all of these horrible foreign wars that we’ve gotten ourselves through stupidity. We’re in wars in countries that nobody ever even heard of before. And we’re going to be smart. We’re going to be guided by strength, and we’re going to have peace through strength like we had. Donald Trump: I had no wars other than I wiped out ISIS. We wiped out ISIS in a small fraction. They said it was going to take five years. It took four weeks. We have a great military. Not the ones you see on television, the real generals. But I’ve nominated Tulsi Gabbard as our director of national intelligence. And to be our next secretary of health and human services, I decided – look, something’s going on here. Donald Trump: When you look at, like, autism from 25 years ago, and you look at it now, something’s going on. And I nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Think of it. Think of this. Twenty-five years ago, autism, 1 in 10,000 children. Today, it’s 1 in 36 children. Is something wrong? I think so. And Robert and I and all of it, we’re going to figure it out. Donald Trump: But did you have your numbers like that? Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong. Likewise, there’s been a 25 percent increase in childhood cancer and a staggering increase in chronic diseases. So, together, we’re going to make America healthy again. We’re going to make America healthy again. Something’s happening, something bad is happening. Donald Trump: And to end the weaponization of law enforcement to restore fair, equal, and impartial justice, we will have an outstanding new attorney general in Pam Bondi. She’s fantastic. She is fantastic, known her a long time. And I’m very pleased to report that Christopher Wray is on his way out. He’s resigned. He will soon be replaced by our next FBI director, somebody who I think is going to be one of the greatest, maybe the greatest director of them all, Kash Patel. Donald Trump: I campaigned on an agenda of delivering profound change to Washington. And last month, the American people voted for change like they’d never voted before and in overwhelming numbers, numbers that nobody saw coming. I saw it coming. I think we all saw it coming. When you went to the rallies, you saw that. Donald Trump: We’d have – like we had in New Jersey, 107,000 people. And they’d go out the next day and they’d have 30 people, maybe 40 if they were lucky. And then I heard how it was going to be a close race. I said, why is that? Why is that? I don’t quite get that. But now, the Republican Senate majority is working very hard to confirm my nominees, and we appreciate it. And with the help of this dream team cabinet, and we have so many others I won’t bother mentioning, you know every one of them, we’re going to embark on the most exciting and successful period of reform and renewal in all of American history. Donald Trump: We’re going to do something that’s going to be really, really special, you’re going to be so happy. And as you know, I made a series of big day one promises in my campaign. You know them just as well as I do. And 29 days from now, I intend to keep those promises to the American people. And just as we did four years ago, my administration will live by the motto, “Promises made, promises kept.” We did keep our promises. Donald Trump: And there’s a new hat – there’s a brand new hat that’s out. I saw it yesterday the first time, and it’s selling like hotcakes. It says, “Trump was right about everything.” And I don’t want to brag, but we were right about just about everything, including foreign policy, these crazy wars that we’re in. One of the things I want to do and quickly, and President Putin said that he wants to meet with me as soon as possible. Donald Trump: So, we have to wait for this, but we have to end that war. That war is a horrible, horrible – the soldiers, the number of soldiers being killed, it’s a flat plain. And the bullets are going, and there’s powerful bullets, powerful guns. And the only thing that’s going to stop them is the human body. They go dead flat land. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Millions of soldiers have died now, millions. And we’re going to – we’re seeing numbers that are just crazy. Got to stop it. It’s ridiculous. Would have never happened if I was president. That war would have never happened. And October 7th, Israel would have never happened either. Donald Trump: So, much – our country would be so different, and the world would be so different. But it’s not. So, we have to make it great. We’re going to make it great. We’re going to do it as quickly as we can. On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country. Donald Trump: And on that same day, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And as part of Operation Aurora, you know all about Aurora, how horrible that’s been, every single foreign gang and illegal alien member, all of this criminal network operating on American soil, will be dismantled, deported, and destroyed. Donald Trump: Got to get them out. Think of it. They sent their gang members to us, busload after busload. We had an open border. Their gang members, their drug dealers, their drug addicts, people that were sick, people that were healthy and strong – what the hell was that? You get the little yips up here every once in a while. Donald Trump: I wonder why. That was a strange sound. Heard some very strange sounds. Every foreign gang member will be expelled, and I will immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. We’re going to do it immediately. And we’ll unleash the full power of federal law enforcement, ICE, Border Patrol. Donald Trump: How good is – by the way, how good is Tom Homan, right? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: He’s phenomenal. I’ve known him a long time. I’ll bet you Sheriff Joe likes Tom Homan, right? Sheriff Joe, yes? Yep. He goes yep. The DEA, the FBI, the intelligence community, and financial sanctions to remove the migrant gangs and criminals that are killing and raping and maiming our citizens. We’re going to get them out. Donald Trump: We’re going to get them out. We’re going to get them out fast. We have no choice. We have no choice, by the way. I don’t want to do that, but we have no choice. The last thing I want to do could have been so much easier. The election wasn’t rigged. We could have been – it would have been a much different thing. Donald Trump: But this will show something. This is going to show how we do it and how good we are. You know, we showed how the opposite philosophy runs a country, and it wasn’t good. They had an approval rating today of 14 percent. Nobody’s ever heard – nobody’s ever had an approval rating of 14. That’s the lowest approval rating, and we’re going to have a very high – in fact, we already have a very high approval rating. Donald Trump: We’re way up. Way, way, way up. Higher than almost anybody – higher than anybody has at this point. We will end the occupation, and January 20th will truly be liberation day in America. Is that OK? Liberation day. And this great liberation will be in honor of all of the victims of migrant crime and all of the angel moms and angel dads who have lost their really incredible kids that – you know, they’re going around for years and years, and I talk to them all the time. Donald Trump: I know so many of them, and many of them are here. And we can just say we love you, we’re with you. They had so little help from the politicians on the other side. We’re joined today by Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who you know all about, a beautiful mother of five who was murdered by an illegal alien monster who entered our country under the open-border policies of the Biden administration. Donald Trump: Your borders are always not too good. Your borders are – that was not Tom Homan, I can tell you. But, Patty, those days are over, and they will soon be over. I hope we’re just not going to have – how can you say never again? But we’re going to have as few as possible. It’s going to be rough, and it’s going to be rough on the ones that do that kind of damage to you and to our country. Donald Trump: Where is Patty? Is she here someplace? I just want to thank her. Hi, Patty. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Do you want to come up for a second, Patty? Do you want to come up? She’s – I had lunch with Patty, and she suffered. She suffered greatly. Donald Trump: I said, “Let me help you with your eyes,” because I want to help her with her eyes. She has an eye situation that can be fixed with some medical help. Many of them can’t be fixed. I said, “Patty, get your eyes taken care of. I’ll take care of it. Just get it done.” I hope you got it done. Did you have them done yet? Donald Trump: Did you have it done yet, Patty? That’s good. Oh, you look good, Patty. Be careful. [Applause] Did you have your eyes done yet, Patty? Just get them done, OK? Patty Morin: In January. Donald Trump: Oh, good. Good. She’s going to get them done in January. Good. Patty Morin: Thank you. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Patty Morin: Thank you. The first time I met President Trump in person, he invited us to lunch, my attorney and I. And to be honest, I didn’t do anything. I just sat there. I didn’t really speak because I wanted to watch the man and listen to what he had to say and what his conversation was like because I knew he wasn’t a politician, but I knew that he had been president before. Patty Morin: And I wanted to see if he was a real, authentic man who actually cared for the American people. And so, I watched him. I watched how he interacted. I also watched how much his staff really respected him and how much his staff loved working for him. But the thing that changed the way that I looked at him as a person was I realized that he was a dad, that he was a grandfather. Patty Morin: And when you spoke to him, you could see in his eyes that he genuinely cared about his fellow human being. But the thing I appreciate the most is that he heard the cries of a mother, and he cared. And he made a promise that he was going to protect us and that he was going to help us. And that’s all you can ask from your president, but also just from a fellow human being. Patty Morin: And so, I personally, I am so honored to know this man. And so, I think of you as a friend. Thank you. [Audience chants “Patty”] Donald Trump: Thank you very much. She’s been through hell. Who wouldn’t be? I mean, so many people, so many – I call them angel moms, and they are – they go through hell. And many of them say it doesn’t get any better, but we have to hope it does get better. Also with us is a very special guy, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, Paul Perez. Donald Trump: He’s incredible. He’s doing a fantastic job, and he wants to do the job right. Hey, Paul, come on up here, Paul, quick. Quickly. Paul, in one month, the patriots of Border Patrol will once again have a president who will back you and will have you, and we’re going to work together, as we have done in the past. Donald Trump: You know, we had the safest border in the history of our country. And you remember the famous sign that I pulled down? That sign was about how good the border was. I haven’t used that sign much lately. Well, we won, so I guess I don’t have to use it. But we really do have to use it because the fact is that we have to have strong, safe borders, and we have to have men like this and women who are doing an unbelievable job. Donald Trump: I’ve gotten to know a lot of them. I’ll tell you what, they’re tougher than I am. I don’t want to mess with them, right? But this man has done, as the head, and also replacing a very good guy. We know that, right? And he’s going to have a good life. I hope he’s going to because he was a very special guy, and you’re a very special guy. Donald Trump: Say a few words, please, Paul. Paul Perez: I mean, we’re back. [Audience responds affirmatively] Paul Perez: America is back. The strength and security that Donald Trump brings to the White House is what we’ve needed. He’s done it before, he’s going to do it again. We’re going to make all of these communities safe. And like Tom Homan said, “If you’re not going to help, get the hell out of the way.” Donald Trump is by far the best president in the history of this country, and he’s going to show everybody exactly why. Paul Perez: Thank you. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thanks, Paul. Thank you very much, Paul, and everybody, and Brandon Judd and all of the people. They do such an incredible job. We’re also pleased to be joined by a man who just also – we really did well in Texas, and I heard Ted’s speech. And he can come up and speak more of me once, or he can just – you know, Ted’s going to be going to a big event in a little while. Donald Trump: Where’s Ted Cruz? Is he here? He’s here someplace? Ted? Ted? Oh, oh, oh, he’s in trouble. No, he was – he was here. Oh. Oh, good. He’s not in trouble. Ted Cruz: Keep Texas, Texas. Amen. [Audience responds affirmatively] Ted Cruz: And I’ve got to say, this election has given President Donald J. Trump a Republican Senate and a Republican House a clear mandate to deliver on our promises. One month from today, President Trump will secure the border. We are going to bring back jobs. We are going to lower prices. We are going to protect American families. Ted Cruz: We are going to put criminals in jail. We are going to keep our kids safe. We are going to end foreign wars with victory. And I’ll tell you, Mr. President, the results of this election, seven battleground states, you won all seven. The people elected a Republican Senate and a Republican House to have your back, and we are going to deliver results. Ted Cruz: And if I could speak parochially for a minute, one of the most consequential things that happened in this race in Texas, you won profoundly in Texas. And both you and I won a majority of Hispanic votes in the great state of Texas. That is unprecedented. That is generational change, and it demonstrates that we are going to protect our nation. Ted Cruz: We are going to bring our country back, and we are going to make America great again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: Thank you. He’s a great – he’s actually a great guy. Was really out there working – oh, I’m so glad he was here. Oh, that was – that was an amazing moment. But we want to thank him. He had a great race and did a fantastic job against, like, 250 million spent against him. But Texas was very special, and it will remain very special. Donald Trump: It’s doing really – excellent people, great people. And the governor is doing a fantastic job in Texas. The senator, Dan Patrick, everybody is doing – attorney general. Also, I want to bring up, if I could, or just say hello to him. He’s on the outskirts. He’s got a lot of people in this room. You’ve got a lot more people outside than you have in the room. Donald Trump: The RNC chairman, Michael Whatley, who was so fantastic and what he did with Lara. The two of them were so great. There’s Michael. Come on up, Michael. Come here. This guy did some job. Michael Whatley: Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. It takes three things to win in a battleground state. Number one, you’ve got to get out to vote. Number two, you’ve got to protect the ballot. And number three, you have to have a great candidate who runs a great race. The people in this room helped us get out the vote. Michael Whatley: They helped us protect the ballot. We would not have been able to win all those battleground states without you. But when it comes to having a great candidate who runs a great race, there is simply nobody better, ever, than the 45th and now 47th president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. He really has – he really has, and Lara has done an incredible job. What a pleasure. They were fighting. They had so many lawyers. They were fighting the enemy like you wouldn’t believe. I mentioned Tom Homan, but especially he’s going to do so well. A friend of, mine who I haven’t seen in a little while, Matt Gaetz, is here. Donald Trump: Where’s Matt? He’s around here someplace. Matt Gaetz. He’s got a big career set up. And I just want to say hello to Matt. And Arizona GOP chair, Gina Swoboda. Wow. She’s – she is very – Gina? Where’s Gina? Because we’re going to be backing Gina to run again. There she is. Gina? Gina, are you going to run again? Donald Trump: Yes? Because if you do, you have my endorsement, so that should be good. Thank you. Thank you, though. Great job you’ve done. A great professional golfer, a friend of mine. He’s really a good golfer. Tom Pernice is here someplace. Tom, wherever you may be. Hello, Tom. Don’t play him in golf. Play him in other things but not golf. Donald Trump: Trish Duggan is here, who is just a fantastic – where is Trish? She’s one of my great friends. Thank you very much. Has she helped – Trish has helped us so at a level that very few people can even dream of, so I want to thank you very much. Trish Duggan, please. Thanks. Where’s Trish? Thank you, Trish. Donald Trump: I think I see Kari Lake. Is that Kari Lake? Yes. Hi, Kari. Stand up, Kari. Hi. Hi. Good job. Worked hard. That was – she’s a good – a good woman. And she’s going to be doing something very big, maybe bigger. It’s a big one that you have. So, good luck with it. You’re going to do well. You’re going to turn that around like nobody ever saw before, so thank you very much for accepting it. Sergio Gor, a friend of mine, who’s doing a fabulous job. Donald Trump: He’s doing a fabulous job leading the presidential personnel. He’s really working hard. Where’s Sergio? Is he around here someplace? Sergio, where is he? Hi, Sergio. Good job you’re doing. We have some big announcements over the next few days, two big ones. A great actor has been with us for a long time, when it wasn’t fashionable, Rob Schneider. Donald Trump: Rob. He was here with a few of his friends when it wasn’t quite as fashionable, right, Rob? But you were here. Thank you very much. Great job you’re doing, too. Karen Robson. Where is Karen? Karen is here. And she’s – are you here? Running for governor – she’s going to be running for governor. Where’s Karen? Donald Trump: Hi, Karen. Hello, Karen. Are you running for governor? I think so, Karen, because if you do, you’re going to have my support, OK? You’re going to have my support. A man that is very non-controversial, a very unique – he really is a unique person, but he doesn’t like controversy. His name is Steve Bannon. Donald Trump: Has anyone ever heard of Steve? Where’s Steve? Hello. Hi, Steve. A big, powerful voice he’s got. His show is phenomenal, “War Room.” And thank you, Steve. There’s nobody like Steve. Thank you very much, Steve. And a Phoenix police officer who was shot eight times in the line of duty, Tyler Moldovan, who I just saw backstage. Donald Trump: Where’s Tyler? Oh, he’s got to be right there. There he is. Hi, Tyler. Thank you, Tyler. Hi, Tyler. Wow. Thank you, Tyler. Eight times, can you believe that? Think of that, eight times, and he’s looking great. Thank you very much and to your family. Beautiful wife. With the stroke of my pen, on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high school. And we will keep men out of women’s sports. [Audience chants “Trump”] Donald Trump: And that will likewise be done on day one. Should I do day one, day two, or day three? How about day one, right? [Audience calls out “Day one”] Donald Trump: Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. It doesn’t sound too complicated, does it? To rescue our economy, I will sign day one orders to end all Biden restrictions on energy production; terminate his insane electric vehicle mandate; cancel his natural gas export ban; reopen ANWR in Alaska, the biggest site, potentially, anywhere in the world; and declare a national energy emergency. Donald Trump: And do we have great people in energy, head of energy, Chris Wright? And Doug Burgum is the interior. And they – I merged both of them. You know, the energy had no energy. It just had the right to do energy. And interior – great friends. They’re both very talented people. We’re going to have so much oil and gas and other things, you won’t know what to do with it. You’ll say, “Please, President Trump, stop. Donald Trump: We have too much. The prices are going too low, sir.” Remember, we were $1.84 a gallon gasoline. Wouldn’t that be nice? I will direct every cabinet secretary to cut 10 old regulations for every new regulation – we’ll be getting rid of a lot of – we got a lot of – last time, last term, for me, we had – we did something special. Donald Trump: We cut more regulations by four times than any other president in history, and we’re going to top that record. Some of those ridiculous regulations were immediately put back on, and they were just hurting our country. That’s why we had the best job numbers ever, because of what we did with regulation. You know, we cut taxes more than any president in history, and we cut regulations more than any president in history. Donald Trump: And when I asked the people that run the big companies, “Which is more important, cutting the taxes or cutting the regulations?” Every single one of them so far has said the regulations were more important for jobs and everything else. Who would think that? But I will order federal workers to get back to the office in person or be terminated from the job immediately. Donald Trump: And we will create the new Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk. And, no, he’s not taking the presidency. I like having smart people. You know, the – they’re on a new kick, Russia, Russia, Russia; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, all the different hoaxes. And the new one is, “President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk.” No, no, that’s not happening. Donald Trump: But Elon’s done an amazing job. Isn’t it nice to have smart people that we can rely on? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: Don’t we want that? He’s done a great job. And I’ll tell you, he – he landed that rocket a few months ago. It landed. It’s coming down so fast, 17,000 miles an hour, he says, and coming down. It looks like it’s getting ready. And then, all of a sudden, the jets go on, it slows it down, then it’s almost stopped it. And it guides it over left, right, up, high, down. Donald Trump: I said, what the hell is going on? Because nobody ever saw this before. And then, it has the big gantry, very expensive. It looks like it’s going to be smashed to smithereens. And then, those jet engines roared from the bottom. It’s coming in this way a little hot. And the engines, pushed it straight, it landed. Donald Trump: And it was like you’re hugging a beautiful baby, baby. No, not that, baby. But it was – it was the most incredible thing. And then, he got into his car and/or plane, or whatever – however he went, and he went to Pennsylvania. And he stayed up there for a month and helped us to win that state, which we won by a lot. Donald Trump: So, he was really good. And he supplied Starlink for North Carolina, where they had no form of communication. They said, “Sir, do you know Elon Musk?” “Yeah.” He said, “We can’t get Starlink. It’s very hard to get.” And I called Elon, we have to get some up there, you got to get some up there. And he got over 2,000 units, that’s a lot. Donald Trump: And they flooded it with Starlink, and it was so good. It saved a lot of lives, so we want to thank him. But, no, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you. And I’m safe. You know why? He can’t be. He wasn’t born in this country. But the fake news knows that. No, he’s a great guy, and we want to have him, everybody. Donald Trump: So, many people are in this audience that have helped to an extent that you wouldn’t believe. But we’re going to bring transparency and accountability back to our government. And we’ll be – very soon, you’re going to see it drain the swamp. We’re going to be draining that swamp at levels never seen before. Donald Trump: And I hope everybody goes home and reads the congressional report on the criminal activities of the unselect committee of political thugs, J6 committee. What they did is so illegal. And Congress has done a fantastic job on that. They just put out a report. They call it an interim report, it’s brutal. On them, not on me, on them. Donald Trump: And it’s terrible. What they’ve done – what they’ve done to this country is just absolutely terrible. But we’ll end the left’s campaign of racial discrimination and restore equality to our land and all over our land. And you see that happening so much with the vote and the kind of vote we got. Nobody ever expected anything like that. Donald Trump: And I’ll end all of the Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion policies across the entire federal government immediately. And at the same time, we will ban these unlawful policies from the – we’re going to ban them from the private sector as well. In America, we believe in the merit system, the merit system. Donald Trump: And now, because of the major decision handed down recently by the Supreme Court, our country has again gone back to the merit system. That’s what made our country great. And I want to just thank the Supreme Court because that took a great deal of courage for them to do that. And some people were surprised by it, but that’s what made us great. Donald Trump: Merit made us great. I will direct our military to begin construction of the great Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will be made all in the USA, much of it right here in Arizona. You know, Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many, many years ago, but they didn’t really have the technology. It’s lucky that he didn’t because they didn’t, but they have it now and can knock a needle out of the sky. Donald Trump: And as commander-in-chief, I will restore the proud and historic names of our great military bases like Fort Bragg. We’re going to get them back. And woke has to stop because, along with everything else that’s destroying our country. We’re going to stop woke. Woke – woke is bullshit. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: As an example, in addition to the military bases, I understand they want to now rename 14 ships. We’re going to rename them. Some of these ships have had a great and glorious past. They want to take the name off and put another name down. I don’t know. I can imagine whose name they’re going to put up. It’s not going to happen with me. It’s not happening with me, I can promise you that. Donald Trump: The actions I have described today are just a small preview of the common-sense revolution because that’s what I call it, a common-sense revolution. That’s coming soon to America, to a theater near you, right? But it’s coming to you through your president, Donald J. Trump. The people have given us their trust, and in return, we’re going to give them the best day one, the biggest first week, and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any president in American history. Donald Trump: And in conclusion, on January 20th, the United States will turn the page forever on four long, horrible years of failure, incompetence, national decline. And we will inaugurate a new era of peace, prosperity, and national greatness. It’s going to be national greatness. It will be something very, very special. Donald Trump: And you could use a little of that because you haven’t seen any of it in four years. What’s happened to our country is so sad. We’re going to cut your taxes, end inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages, and bring thousands of factories roaring back to America, and right back here to Arizona, because [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: – because when I agreed to do this – and I had to do it for Charlie, because he’s special. But I said, “Charlie, I’ll do it.” But this has to be also a real tribute to Arizona because they gave us such a big win. And I said, I’ll get in my plane at 4:45 in the morning, and I’ll fly here. But we have to really acknowledge and take care of the people of Arizona because you were fantastic. Donald Trump: And I just want to thank you for that big win, not an easy win. And we’re going to build American, we’re going to buy American, and we will hire American. I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East. And I will prevent, I promise, World War III, and we’re very close to World War III. Donald Trump: We will crush violent crime. We’re going to stop violent crime. We’re going to have to be tough. Please get ready, you’re going to have to be tough. We can’t let this happen. Our cities are crumbling. And give our police the support, protection, resources, and respect they so dearly deserve. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And I rebuilt our entire military at a level that it had never been. Unfortunately, we gave a big chunk of it to Afghanistan. You believe that one? What a terrible thing. [Audience boos] Donald Trump: But we will, again, rebuild those sections of our military that have been so badly hurt, plus we give so much of it away. You know, when I came in the last time, we had no ammunition. Can you believe it? This is – I was greeted with a general, “Sir, we’re very low, almost no ammunition.” I said, “Keep it quiet. Donald Trump: Let’s not let the enemy know that.” That doesn’t sound too good. Steve Bannon would say, “That’s not a good thing.” No ammunition is not good. Right, Steve? And I built so much ammunition so fast. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. We give a lot of our ammunition away, as you know. And we have to take care of ourselves, we have to protect ourselves. Donald Trump: And we have to make our country great. We just can’t keep doing what we’re doing, especially when these wars never had to start. They never had to start. We will rebuild our once-great cities, including our capital in Washington, DC, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again. And we’ll do it quickly. We’ll teach our children to love our country, to honor our history, and to always respect our great American flag. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: We will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools. And we’re going to get it out of our schools very fast. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: I will defend religious liberty, I will restore free speech, and I will defend the right to keep and bear arms. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And after years of building up foreign nations, defending foreign borders, and protecting foreign lands, we are finally going to build up our country, defend our borders, and protect our citizens. We’re going to protect our citizens. And we will stop illegal immigration once and for all. It’s going to stop. Donald Trump: You’re not going to have an invasion of our country any longer. That will stop in just a few very short weeks. We will not be occupied. We will not be overrun. We will not be conquered. We will be a free and proud nation again, a nation led by competent people, a nation that we can be proud of. We’re going to be so proud of our nation. Donald Trump: We already are. It’s already happened. Remember what I said, there’s new light all over the world, not just here, all over the world. Everyone will prosper, every family will thrive, and every day will be filled with opportunity and hope and will be filled with a thing called the American dream. You can have the American Dream back. Donald Trump: For the past nine years, you and I fought side by side against the most sinister and corrupt forces on Earth. And in our magnificent victory on November 5th, you showed them once and for all that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: That’s what happened. It was hardworking patriots like you who built this country. And in 2024, it was hardworking patriots like you who turned out and voted and saved our country. That’s what happened. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: After all we have been through together, we now stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. We’re going to make these the four greatest years in the history of our country. With your help, we will restore America’s promise. We will rebuild the nation that we love, and we will do it very, very fast. Donald Trump: That’s what we want. We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. We will never give in, we will never give up, we will never back down, and we will never, ever, ever, ever surrender. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: Together we will fight, fight, fight, and we will win, win, win. We’re going to win a lot. And together, we will make America powerful again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: We will make America wealthy again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: We will make America healthy again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: We will make America strong again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: We will make America proud again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: We will make America safe again. [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: And we will make America great again. [Audience calls out “Make America great again.”] Donald Trump: Thank you very much.
Date: 2024-12-25
I just left Wayne Gretzky, “The Great One” as he is known in Ice Hockey circles. I said, “Wayne, why don’t you run for Prime Minister of Canada, soon to be known as the Governor of Canada - You would win easily, you wouldn’t even have to campaign.” He had no interest, but I think the people of Canada should start a DRAFT WAYNE GRETZKY Movement. It would be so much fun to watch!
Date: 2024-12-25
Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago), always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in “repair” money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about “anything.” Also, to Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose Citizens’ Taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World. Likewise, to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes and, who want the U.S. to be there, and we will!…
Date: 2025-01-06
Hugh Hewitt: Joined now by the President-Elect. Mr. President, welcome back. Congratulations on the biggest upset win in 2016, and now the greatest political comeback in American history. Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. I hope it wasn’t really an upset, but you know, call it what you want. But we had a great campaign. It was a great campaign, and a lot of great people involved. So I see – Hugh Hewitt: It is a big – Donald Trump: We are going to make America great again. Hugh Hewitt: I know. Donald Trump: We’ll make America great again. Hugh Hewitt: I’m looking forward to it. I’m so looking forward to it. Donald Trump: Good. Hugh Hewitt: I want to begin by thanking you, though, for calling Dennis and Sue Prager after Dennis’ injury. It meant a lot to them. It’s not something you have to do. I appreciate it. Everyone who’s a friend of Dennis appreciates that. I was talking to Sue Prager about the call the other day. She forgot to tell you she wants E-Verify made mandatory. Hugh Hewitt: She asked me to relay that to you today. Donald Trump: Oh, okay. Well, I’ll think about that. He’s a fantastic man, and boy, what a terrible fall that is, right? What a fall he’s had. Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, he’s coming back. I’m hopeful. Mr. President, Mike Johnson told the Republicans on Saturday that you favor one big, beautiful bill. I do, too. Tell us about your thinking on that? Donald Trump: Well, I favor one bill. I also want to get everything passed. And you know, there are some people that don’t necessarily agree with it. So I’m open to that, also. My preference is one big, as I say, one big, beautiful bill. Now to do that takes longer. You know, to submit it takes longer, actually. But, so it’s a longer process. Donald Trump: I would say I’d live with that. I believe we’d get, I don’t know, to me, it just is a cleaner, it’s cleaner. It’s nicer. Now with that being said, we’d get some border work done a little bit earlier, et cetera, et cetera. But the border work, you know, we have a lot of money that we’re going to be clawing back from the green new scam and all of the trillions of dollars, billions and trillions. Donald Trump: You usually have to use the word trillions nowadays, unfortunately. But from the trillions of dollars that we’re going to be clawing back, and we have money. We don’t need it desperately, immediately. You know, if two months is going to make a difference, so I can just say this. The border is going to be secure. Donald Trump: We’re going to start it immediately. Tom Homan is central casting. He’s going to do a great job, and that whole group is going to be fantastic. And I did it before, and we’re going to do it again. We had the best border we’ve ever had, and we’ll have the best border we’ve ever had times two. I would prefer one, but I will do whatever needs to be done to get it passed. Donald Trump: And you know, we have a lot of respect for Senator Thune, as you know. He may have a little bit of a different view of it. I heard other senators yesterday, including Lindsey, talking about it. They’d prefer it the other way. So I’m open to either way as long as we get something passed as quickly as possible. Hugh Hewitt: The reason I want one bill is because tax certainty matters to small business people like me and like everyone listening to this show. They’ve got to know what the rules are going to be in 2026. You’ve got a great Trump tax cuts, but they’re expiring at the end of the year. Donald Trump: Right. Hugh Hewitt: The sooner we know, you’re a businessman, you know the better off we are. Donald Trump: Well, it would be awfully hard to imagine. You know, in the old days, politicians would get up and talk about tax cuts, right? We will cut your taxes. We will cut your taxes. That was like a sure way to get elected. Because the Democrat Party is so loused up, it’s so terrible and so, they’ve lost their confidence. Donald Trump: They’ve lost a lot of confidence. But they get up, and they’re the only party I’ve ever heard that say we’re going to raise your taxes. With that being said, I can’t imagine that they would not approve. This would be the largest tax increase in the history of the world, okay, let alone in this country. And I can’t imagine the Democrats would do that to this country, and do that to the people just because they happen to dislike Republicans or me. Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, I can’t, either, but they are Democrats, so we don’t know. Donald Trump: You never know. Hugh Hewitt: Mr. President, you’ve got four big things coming up in this term. You’ve got our 250th birthday on July 4th next year, 2026. But we actually have the 250th birthday of Lexington and Concord in April. That’s a big deal. That’s the shot heard around the world. Are you going to go up there for a speech on the 250th anniversary of that? Donald Trump: I think so. I like the idea. I think so. People have talked about it. I would do it. Hugh Hewitt: Then, you’ve got the Olympics. You’ve got the World Cup. You have the very sad 25th anniversary of 9/11 coming up. Which of these do you think is going to be the most fun in terms of, obviously not 9/11, but is Olympics, World Cup, the 250th birthday, what are you looking forward to the most? Donald Trump: Well, I got them, and it was very interesting. They called me. The World Cup, I did that with Gianni and the people at the World Cup, and I got them. They wanted it here. They really fought very hard, and I was the one that got it when I was president. And so I said to myself the sad part is this was before the election, before a certain election that took place that we won’t talk about. Donald Trump: But I said the sad part is I got the Olympics, and I got the World Cup for our country. And I will not be there as president. And look what happened? I’m going to be there as president. So it’s sort of very nice. And obviously, the 25th anniversary, it’s hard to use the word anniversary, but that 25th anniversary is also very important. Hugh Hewitt: It’s going to be very, very somber. Donald Trump: Yup. Hugh Hewitt: And I’m looking forward to your speech that day. Donald Trump: It will be in a very different way. Hugh Hewitt: But I’m really looking forward, the bicentennial, not the bicentennial, the 250th birthday will be quite a big day. Mr. President, the Powerline guys posted your testimony about the U.N. from 2005 over the weekend, so a lot of people got to see that. I have told everyone I’ve ever known watch that testimony. Hugh Hewitt: That’s Donald Trump, the developer, talking about getting things done. Is that the same momentum you’re bringing in this time? You just want to get things done? Donald Trump: Got to get things done. We don’t get them done, I see it just came over that Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory. It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately. I will unban it. I have the right to unban it immediately. What’s he doing? Why is he doing it? You know, we have something that nobody else has. Donald Trump: I mean, nobody has to the extent we have it, and it’ll be more by the time we’re finished, because I’ll be able to expand. You know, we’re going to expand our country. And it’ll be more. We have oil and gas. And whether you manufacture widgets or gadgets, or whatever you happen to be doing, some countries have to work very hard to do that. Donald Trump: We do, too, and we will, but we have oil and gas at a level that nobody else has. And we’re going to take advantage of it. And when I see somebody saying he’s going to ban 625 million acres, he doesn’t know what that is. He doesn’t even know what 625 million acres would look like, and we can’t let that happen to our country. Donald Trump: It’s our greatest, it’s really our greatest economic asset. And we’re not going to let that happen to our country. We’re going to be great again. Hugh Hewitt: I saw that. I don’t believe he’s making any of these decisions. He might be signing, someone might be guiding his hand, but do you think he’s competent for the last two weeks, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Well, the things he’s doing with Soros and other elements, giving very, very important and distinguished awards, medals and certifying that they are wonderful people for our nation, these are people that have done tremendous harm, in cases. I don’t know, I really don’t believe that this is the same man that I used to watch 25 years ago. Donald Trump: He was sort of semi-conservative. I wouldn’t call him conservative, but he was a little bit in the middle, at least. And now, he’s gone radical left, and they just lost an election because they were radical left, and they’re going to lose another one. They’re going to lose a lot of elections if they keep this going. Donald Trump: But you’re giving up the biggest assets that we have. I mean, all of that, if you ever look at it on a map, what 625 million acres is, he’s giving this all up? What is he doing? Hugh Hewitt: It’s extraordinary, and I think it’s an abuse of that statute, and I do think you can reverse it, if not. Donald Trump: Well, the good news is I can change it immediately. Hugh Hewitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’ll be changed on Day One. I can change it immediately. Now, they’ll do everything they can to make it as difficult as possible. You know, they talk about a transition. They’re always saying oh, no, we want to have a smooth transition from party to party, for, you know, of government. Well, they’re making it really difficult. Donald Trump: They’re throwing everything they can in the way. They’re giving out trillions of dollars in nonsense and green new deal crap that isn’t worth a damn thing. In fact, it’s a negative for the country, not a positive. And they’re giving out money at levels that nobody’s ever seen just to get the money. They’re throwing it at people. Donald Trump: They’re throwing it at people that don’t even want it. Hugh Hewitt: They’re throwing it at Syria this morning. The State Department announced this morning they’re sending humanitarian aid to Syria. We don’t know who’s running Syria. I don’t know who’s running the State Department, but it’s kind of crazy. Donald Trump: It’s what they’re doing. They’re just taking money and throwing it hand over fist. It’s money that should have never been given to them anyway. It should have been blocked. And I mean, it’s so sad that they got it, but they’re throwing it, and they’re throwing it any direction. They just want to get rid of it. It’s the worst abuse of power I’ve ever seen. Hugh Hewitt: So Mr. President – Donald Trump: Other than what they did, other than what they did to me, of course. Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, yes. Let’s go to Israel. We’ll get to Jack Smith in a moment. I hope to get to the Archivist in a moment. Will Israel have a friend in the White House again, because Joe Biden’s been a yo-yo with Israel. Will you continue military aid uninterrupted, and depart from the Biden policy of micromanaging? Hugh Hewitt: We’ve got about a minute to the down the line folks. Go ahead. Donald Trump: Well, I’m the best friend that Israel ever had. You look at what happened with all of the things that I’ve gotten, including Jerusalem being the capital, the embassy getting built. I got it built. I not only said we’re going to, I said, you know, we got it built. We have a beautiful embassy. All of the different things, the magnificent mount on high, you know what I’m talking about there, everyone said that couldn’t be done, and I got it done. Donald Trump: It was, what we’ve done, and of course, the Abraham Accords, you look at the Abraham Accords, every single thing that, every major event that’s happened to Israel over the last fairly short period of time has been given through me. So I’m with Israel. I think that’s pretty obvious to everybody. Hugh Hewitt: It is. I’m going to continue talking now with the President – Donald Trump: I’m also for this. I’m also for this. I do have to add I’m also for peace. It’s time. This fight’s been going on for a long time, longer than people would understand, longer than people will know. Hugh Hewitt: 15 months. Donald Trump: And I want peace. Hugh Hewitt: And what do you mean, and by the way, to our audience, we’ll be continuing to talk to the President and come right back to us on the Salem News Channel. Mr. President, when you said there’ll be hell to pay if the Americans are still being held hostage, what did you mean? Donald Trump: Exactly what it says. If those hostages aren’t released by the time I get to office, there will be hell to pay. I don’t think I have to go into it anymore. This, it won’t be the word don’t. You know, I heard the word don’t. You can add that into it, but that would just be a small part of it. No, there will be hell to pay. Donald Trump: Those hostages have to get out. They have to get out now. Hugh Hewitt: All right, Mr. President, let’s turn to your legacy. You already have a legacy on the Supreme Court. I was talking about it when you joined me. And you’ll add more judges, and you might get another justice. You’ve had the most important impact on the Court of any president in my lifetime. It will get bigger. Hugh Hewitt: I want to talk to you about the Navy. The greatest presidents of the 20th Century – Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and Reagan, all built the Navy. Do you intend to rebuild the Navy? Donald Trump: I do. We have a great gentleman, you know, as you know. Perhaps you should get him on your show. Hugh Hewitt: John Phelan. Yeah. Donald Trump: He’s fantastic. John is fantastic, very, very successful business person. Very successful. Top. And he’s in charge of it, and we’re going to do something with ships. We need ships. And we may have to go a different route than you would normally go. That’s, you know, starting to build. We haven’t, we don’t build ships anymore. Donald Trump: We used to build a ship a day. We don’t build ships anymore. We want to get that started. And maybe we’ll use allies, also, in terms of building ships. We might have to. We need ships. China’s building, from what I’m hearing, every four days, they’re knocking out a ship. And we’re sitting back watching. And we’ve suffered tremendously. Donald Trump: During the Biden administration, all he knew about was the green new deal building nonsense, giving money away, putting windmills all over the place and destroying every beautiful plain and field and mountain. Oh, it’s so sad when you fly over the country and you see all these horrible looking structures. Donald Trump: Half of them are closed down, rusted and rotted. Their life is over. You know, they last a very limited period of time, and then everybody just leaves them. They go to the next rip-off, and all the subsidy they get. You know, the subsidies are ridiculous. But what they’ve done to this, I mean, they’re just destroying the beauty of our country. Donald Trump: I’ve, it’s hard to believe environmentalist like windmills, okay? It’s the most expensive energy you can have. Hugh Hewitt: They are, they are not my favorite thing. But I want to say on ships for a moment. Up in Maine at the Bath Iron Works during World War II, they turned out a destroyer every 17 days. Now, they do one and a half a year. Can you change that? Can you bring the developer’s point of view to shipbuilding and get new docks, graving docks built, new ship lines open – Donald Trump: Yes. Hugh Hewitt: Production? Donald Trump: Well, that’s what you need. You know, in Wisconsin, I gave out a great contract for essentially destroyers. Beautiful, they were beautiful. I even had something to do. I’m a person that believes in the beauty of a ship. It doesn’t cost any more to have the right angles, and it was really beautiful. And they were going and really doing a good job, and the generals, you know, the Biden admirals and generals and all of the people that are involved, they started playing around and tinkering and changing the design, and this, you know, that costs. Donald Trump: That costs a lot of money, because now they say oh, it’s going to cost more money for something that’s not as good. But they started playing around with the design. I heard about that a year later. They took what I had. It was perfect. And what it is, is you build it. No changes, no change orders, no extra money, no nothing. Donald Trump: You build it. They were doing a great job. But the generals or the admirals went in and they said oh, why don’t we make it a little bit wider? Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we do that? And it was designed specifically for speed and other things. When you start making it wider, you start making it slower. Donald Trump: And it was also designed on a ship that was unbelievably successful in that same class, you know, design-wise. Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, Fincantieri designed it, and you bought it. Donald Trump: And we had it down, and they made changes. They always have to make changes. You know, these guys get in there, and they think they’re smart, and in many cases, unfortunately, they’re not smart, and they take something and they make it worse for a lot more money. That’s what they do. I mean, they spend more money to make it worse. Hugh Hewitt: To get a Navy up to even 330 ships, much less more, you would have to say every day what have we done for the Navy today. Is that the kind of focus you’re bringing in like call Phelan every day? What have you done today, Mr. Secretary of the Navy? Because that’s the focus. Donald Trump: Well, I’ll be doing that. Yeah, I’ll be doing that. But we’re going to be announcing some things that are going to be very good having to do with the Navy. We need ships. We have to get ships. And you know, everybody said oh, we’ll build them. We may have to go to others, bid them out, and it’s okay to do that. Donald Trump: We’ll bid them out until we get ourselves ready. We’re not prepared for ships. We don’t have docks. You know, Biden is closing everything. It’s almost like they have a death wish for this country. He wants to close docks. He doesn’t want anybody building anything. All they talk about is green new deal. That’s the only thing they really talk about. Donald Trump: And you know what? It doesn’t work. People don’t care about it. They’re so tired of it. You know, we had the cleanest air and water that any, that we’ve ever had during the Trump administration. And all you hear about it what they want to do. They want to destroy our country, and that’s what’s happened, and that’s why the election was such a tremendous success from the Republican standpoint. Donald Trump: Hey, look, we had seven swing states. You and I would talk about it. Seven swing states. Hugh Hewitt: Yup. Donald Trump: Well, if you can win three or four, it would be great. We won all seven, and we won them by a lot. You know, they weren’t close. Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, you’ve got a mandate. That’s why I want you to put everything into one big, beautiful bill, because I don’t think they can say no. I want to know, though, would you put regularization of the DREAMers into that bill to attract some Democrats? Donald Trump: I don’t think it has to be in that bill, but I’m okay with talking about the DREAMers. It’s been a long time. You know, everybody’s been talking about the DREAMers, right? These are people that have been here since, in many cases, birth. They’ve been here for many years. They were very young, and now they’re middle-aged people. Donald Trump: In some cases, they’re old people. It’s been talked about, and I’m certainly open to talking about it. Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, I think they could put it in the one big, beautiful bill. Let me move onto the Archives. You know, all of your problems in Florida at Mar-a-Lago started because the Archivist complained to the DOJ, because he hated you. Now the Archivist who’s there now is not the one who screwed you over, but it’s a new Archivist. Donald Trump: Correct. Hugh Hewitt: Are you going to replace this Archivist and get someone who actually protects the legacy of the United States and doesn’t persecute political appointments? Donald Trump: Well, the one who was there was a disaster, and he turned out to be wrong. And then you saw the Biden stuff come out where Biden had years, 50 years of documents. And what he had was just outrageous. And he didn’t have the right to have them. You know, I have the Presidential Records Act. He had nothing, because he wasn’t president at the time, so he wasn’t covered by it. But I was. Donald Trump: And we also had a very brilliant and very fair judge on the case. And as you know, we won that case, and we won it convincingly. And Jack Smith was sent, I assume he’s heading back to the Hague where he can execute people. Hugh Hewitt: [Laughs] Donald Trump: He shouldn’t be allowed to execute anybody. His judgment is so bad and so evil. But he’s a bad person. I call him Deranged Jack Smith. But we won that case. That was the big case, and we won those cases, you know, the one in Washington, also. But the judge in Florida was really a brilliant woman. Hugh Hewitt: She is smart. She handled it well. I just want a new Archivist so we don’t have to do this again when you leave office again. Donald Trump: Well, I think I can tell you that we will get somebody, yes, I’ll have, let me just put it, yeah, we will have a new Archivist. Hugh Hewitt: Now Xi Jinping, he is actually your rival. He’s the only guy that is remotely as strong as the United States. He’s a tough guy. Are you going to be able to deal with him? Donald Trump: I believe we will. You know, their economy is not doing very well right now – Hugh Hewitt: Right. Donald Trump: And they need us very badly. I believe we will, you know, I had a great relationship until COVID. That was a bridge too far. But I had a great relationship with President Xi. It was, you know, very solid, very strong, very friendly. He’s a strong man, powerful man. You know, he’s certainly revered in China. Donald Trump: But they are having problems, and I think we will probably get along very well, I predict. But you know, it’s got to be a two-way street. China is ripping off the United States for a trillion dollars a year. Would you say that’s a lot of money, a trillion? One trillion. Hugh Hewitt: Yup. Donald Trump: With a T. We’re no longer in the billions. We’re in the trillions. And you know, when they build all these ships that you’re talking about, that money comes from the United States, believe it or not. And we had it way down. It was moving, and then we had to fix the COVID stuff. That was really, you know, obviously, that was a gift from China. Donald Trump: We had to fix that. And so we sort of, it was a different, you had to be in a different mode. You couldn’t do both. It would be inappropriate to have done both. But no, I had a good relationship with him until COVID. After that, it was, you know, it was a very different thing. Look, what happened, what came out of China from the Wuhan labs caused 60 trillion dollars worth of worldwide damage. 60 trillion. Donald Trump: That’s more than China, America, it’s more than all of us put together could afford. 60 trillion dollars and millions and millions of lives all over the world. So that was a real, as I said, that was a bridge too far. But I think we will have a very good, and we’ve already been talking. Hugh Hewitt: It’s going to be an interesting first meeting when you sit down with him. Donald Trump: We’ve been talking through their representatives, and talking. Hugh Hewitt: All right. Mr. President, are you going to name an envoy for Ukraine pretty soon? Donald Trump: I will be, and we’ll have some great people. One thing we have, we have unbelievable people wanting to serve. I don’t think they felt the same way. You know, in my first term, people were fighting me all the way. They were just fighting me. In this term, it’s so different. I think, I don’t want to say people have given up, because that’s not nice. Donald Trump: But they recognize that we really do have that mandate. You know, getting the popular vote by millions and millions of votes, something a Republican doesn’t do that often, to be honest, okay? Hugh Hewitt: It’s been a while. Donald Trump: Getting, it’s been a while. But getting the popular vote, I used to hate it when they said well, he won the election, but he didn’t win the popular vote. You know, they’d always say that. And now, they can’t say that. Now, they can say that we won the election in a landslide. We have a great mandate to do things. Donald Trump: And I just find, like even if you take, talk to the tech companies. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg and the people, you know, they’ve all been here. The people from Google have been here, Sundar, Sergei. They’ve all been to Mar-a-Lago. Hugh Hewitt: Well, they need the tax bill. Donald Trump: And I consider that, yeah, but I consider that paying respect to the country, not paying respect to me, paying respect to the country. Tim has been, from, we have from every company, you have no idea how many I’m seeing. So I’m seeing a combination of leaders. You have Tim Cook, I see the leaders coming from business, and I see also the leaders coming from other countries. Donald Trump: As you know, I had the prime minister of Italy – Hugh Hewitt: The prime minister of Italy, yeah. Donald Trump: She was great. She flew over, we had dinner, and she flew back. So that’s a sign of respect for our country. Hugh Hewitt: Well, that is, the G7 is not exactly strong. I think Trudeau might resign today. Are you looking forward to working with Pierre Poilievre, the new guy? Donald Trump: I am. I am, if that’s what happens. Certainly, it will be very good. Our views would be more aligned, certainly. But you know, we have a situation with Canada that’s very interesting. People at first smiled when I mentioned the concept. We lose 200 billion dollars a year. We subsidize Canada by 200 billion dollars a year. Donald Trump: Why are we doing that? There’s no reason. We don’t need their cars. We can make the cars here. In fact, it would be much better if we made the cars here. We should be making the cars here. We shouldn’t be having cars made in Canada. You know, we’re the United States. We’re not Canada. We have all the lumber in the world. Donald Trump: All we have to do is free it up a little bit. And we have more lumber than they do. We have everything. We have all of the gas and oil and everything you need in terms of energy. We have more than they do. We have everything. We don’t need anything from Canada. Why are we subsidizing them to 200 billion dollars. Donald Trump: It’s actually much more than that. Hugh Hewitt: I think you got their attention. Last question, Mr. President. You got a 15 million dollar settlement from ABC and George Stephanopoulos. I hope that goes to build the fake news wing in the Trump library. Bigger question. Do you think legacy media is bleeding out in real time before us? Donald Trump: I do. I think they’re disrespected. I think they’re not taken so seriously. Look at me. They were totally opposed to me for four years, but many years before that. But let’s say from the time I started campaigning three years ago, three and a half years ago, because I sort of started maybe when I got out. Donald Trump: But they were opposed to me at levels never seen before where Biden would get good stories, and the guy couldn’t walk down a hallway. And I did something great, and they try to make it as bad as possible. So every, almost every one of them, I mean, we had some support, but for the most part, every one of them. Donald Trump: And I won. It’s almost impossible. You know, I was told you need Google, you need Facebook, you cannot win without then. You cannot with without the Times, without the Washington Post, you know the various – and how about ABC and CBS and NBC and CNN. And you know, Fox gives me a little trouble, too, even, I must say. Donald Trump: And then you have MSNBC. I was opposed at levels never seen before, and I won in a landslide. Well, what does that tell you about the media? Hugh Hewitt: That they’re out of touch. I think they’re bleeding out. I don’t think they’re going to last your term, because I hope you don’t deal with them too much. But obviously – Donald Trump: Well, I hope we do. I hope they do last. I hope they turn it around. All we want is a fair, I think it’s important to have a fair media, actually. I don’t want them to, you know, when you say bleeding out, that’s a tough expression. But that’s, only you could do that. But the fact is that I want them to do well, but I want them to be fair. Donald Trump: They’re very unfair. And only somebody like me would know, because I know the facts. Hugh Hewitt: But Mr. President, they’re, they can’t reform themselves. They’re full of left-wing Trump haters. How are they going to change? Donald Trump: Yeah, well, they go out of business, and they come back in a different form, is probably the way. Hugh Hewitt: Well, that’s our New Year wish. Congratulations again. Biggest comeback in American political history. I am so pleased by that, and looking forward to it. Good luck in this amazing four years ahead, and in having a Trump boom 2.0. I hope it’s one big, beautiful bill, and it’s in a hurry, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Hugh. Thank you. Hugh Hewitt: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Great job.
Date: 2025-01-06
Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!
Date: 2025-01-07
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be with you. Many things are happening that are exciting, very exciting for our country, and we’re honored to welcome one of the most respected business leaders in the Middle East, indeed the world. He’s a founder and chairman of DAMAC Properties, Hussain Sajwani, very respected gentleman. Donald Trump: And I’m thrilled to announce today that DAMAC will be investing at least $20 billion over a very short period of time into the United States and they may go double or even somewhat more than double that amount of money. It’s a great thing and I believe he will say that he’s doing it because of the fact that he was very inspired by the election. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t do it without that election. I can tell you a lot of people wouldn’t. You saw last week where we have somebody who was going to go from $100 to $200 billion and we have many other people and we’ll be bringing some of them out. Some of them like to do it somewhat more quietly and some don’t and they feel so strongly about the country that they want to let people know about it. But it’s an honor to have such a great investor investing in our country. Donald Trump: The investment will support massive new data centers across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence. He’s very big into the data centers and that’s going to be a very hot item in the coming years, as you know, with AI in particular. Donald Trump: The first phase of the project will be in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, those plaes. And Hussein, I’d love you to come up and say a few words. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hussain Sajwani: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. It’s been amazing news for me and my family when he was elected in November. We’ve been waiting four years to increase our investments in US to very large amount of money. We are a company operating in more than 20 countries around the world. We have delivered more than 45,000 luxury units and another 45,000 in the pipeline. Hussain Sajwani: In data center, we are in 10 countries around the world, in Asia, Europe and Middle East and we’re very, very excited now with his leadership and his open strategy and policy to encourage businesses to come to US. For the last four years, we’ve been waiting for this moment and we’re planning to invest $20 billion and even more than that if the opportunity in the market allow us. But at the moment, we’re planning $20 billion in data center catering for the AI and cloud business for the hyperscalers. Donald Trump: Fantastic. Hussain Sajwani: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Great Honor. Thank you very much. So nice. And that man knows what he’s doing. He knows. So Hussain, we’re going to work with you and make sure everything goes smoothly. We have powers that haven’t really been used in terms of environmental. If you invest over $1 billion in the United States, we’re going to give expedited reviews to everybody because everyone’s afraid they’re going to come in and get caught in the quagmire, which is very prevalent in the United States, unfortunately, the quagmire of environmental and various other regulations and rules. Donald Trump: And I made it a point of telling people if you invest $ 1 billion or more and we’ll do this for people with far less too, but we guarantee it, we’re going to move them quickly through the environmental process. Sometimes people are held up 12, 13, 14, 15 years. I saw it with plants in Louisiana where I got it approved and literally a week. Donald Trump: They were through the review in one week after spending 14.5 years trying to get it and they were going nowhere. It was a terrible thing. So I’ve been a victim of that myself over the years and I think I know all the games and all the tricks that are played and much of it is just done to stop progress. So we’re going to be helping you and everybody else that comes to the United States and wants to invest their money, that you don’t get tied up for the rest of your life and you can’t do anything. Donald Trump: This commitment further underscores that many of the greatest business leaders on Earth are seeing a very bright economic future for America. Since the election, as you know, a lot of positive things have happened. We are inheriting a difficult situation from the outgoing administration and they’re trying everything they can to make it more difficult. Donald Trump: Inflation is continuing to rage and interest rates are far too high. And I’ve been disappointed to see the Biden administration’s attempt to block the reforms of the American people and that they voted for. We had a landslide election. We won every swing state. We won the popular vote by millions and millions of people. Donald Trump: Nobody even knows how many people, millions, and they’re still counting in some areas. You know, they’re still counting the vote in some areas. Can you believe this? What a place, what a horrible place. One of the things we’re going to do is we’ve got to fix the election so that we get honest counts and they get done by 10:00 in the evening or something thereabouts. Donald Trump: They have places where they’re still counting votes. President Biden’s actions yesterday on offshore drilling, banning offshore drilling will not stand. I will reverse it immediately. It will be done immediately and we will drill baby drill and we’re going to be drilling in a lot of other locations and the energy costs are going to come way down. Donald Trump: They’ll be brought down to a very low level and that’s going to bring everything else down. That’s what caused it to go up along with the ridiculous spending on the Green New Scam. All this money, trillions of dollars, it’s like throwing it right out the window, what they’re doing and they’re trying to spend so much now. Donald Trump: They’re just taking money and giving it to anybody that wants it for any project at all, if it’s certified under the Green New Scam. And they don’t work and it’s too expensive. And they told me that we’re going to do everything possible to make this transition to the new administration very smooth. It’s not smooth because they’re doing that. Donald Trump: They’re playing with the courts, as you know. They’ve been playing with the courts for four years. Probably got me more votes because I got the highest number of votes ever gotten by a Republican by far, actually by a lot. And you know, we had a great election, so I guess it didn’t work. But even to this day, they’re playing with the courts, have their friendly judges that like to try and make everybody happy on the Democrats’ side, it’s called lawfare. Donald Trump: It’s called weaponization of justice and it’s happened at a level that nobody’s ever seen before. So many I defeated deranged – Jack Smith. He’s a deranged individual. I guess he’s on his way back to The Hague, and we won those cases. Those were the biggest ones. And the press made such a big deal out of him, but we did nothing wrong. Donald Trump: We did nothing wrong on anything. And the people saw that. When they vote – when a Republican, it’s not easy for a Republican. When the Republican wins the popular vote by millions and wins all seven of the swing states, people said well, he could win four. We won all seven and we won them by a lot. That tells you we won. Donald Trump: And they’ve been watching this injustice – this – I call it the Injustice Department, what they’ve done is so bad, the whole world has watched that. And it took work, but it got me a lot of votes because when explained, I mean, we have a judge in New York who’s a very crooked judge. I’m under a gag order. Donald Trump: I can’t even talk about aspects of the case that are the most vital aspects. I’m under a gag. Do you know that I’m the president-elect of the United States of America, I’m a former very successful president. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We had borders that were sealed and beautiful. Donald Trump: We had – everything was good. We had no wars. We defeated ISIS. We had no wars. Now I’m going into a world that’s burning with Russia and Ukraine, with Israel. You took a look at that attack on October 7th, the attack on Israel with the horrible way they got out, not the fact that they got out, I would have been out before them. Donald Trump: But we would have been out of Afghanistan with dignity and strength as opposed to looking like a bunch of fools with 13 dead and many, many badly, horrifically injured. Nobody ever talks about them, no arms, no legs. Nobody ever talks about them. The way they got out was outrageous, leaving billions of dollars of brand-new military equipment, that I bought, in the hands of the Afghans and specifically the Taliban, it’s the group. Donald Trump: And we were doing very well, we would have been out, we would have been respected. I think it’s one of the reasons – it was so badly handled that withdrawal where people are jumping onto airplanes, falling off the sides of airplanes when they’re 3,000 feet in the air and nobody’s ever seen anything like that, the worst. Donald Trump: And because of that, I think Russia went and attacked Ukraine. When they saw that they said these guys are incompetent, they don’t know what they’re doing. But we know what we’re doing now and that’s going to all end, and we have a great military. I defeated ISIS, as you know, we were in no wars. I just finished a couple, and we got also our soldiers guarding Syria and Turkey were in the middle. Donald Trump: We had 5,000 soldiers there, would have been gobbled up with two armies. We had one army 300,000, we had another one 500,000 or 600,000 looking, getting ready. We had 5,000 people in the middle. I said to a general how do 5,000 people do in that case? And the general just looked at me and said, not well, sir, not well. Donald Trump: And I took him out and you know what happened? Nothing. I got criticized. I saved 5,000 lives actually. And we did a great job and we’re going to do an even better job because now we have a tremendous amount of experience. We have people that I can rely on, but the 625 million acres – people can’t realize, it’s like the whole ocean, take an acre, you know, an acre. Donald Trump: You have a house on a half an acre, on a quarter of an acre, or an acre. If you have an acre, you have a big deal. Now you multiply that by 625 million acres. It’s like – feels like the whole ocean and that’s our strength. You know, people can say we manufacture, we don’t manufacture a thing we have – we have oil and gas more than anybody in the world, and we’re going to have more of it too. Donald Trump: But they took away 625 million acres of offshore drilling. Nobody else does that. And they think they have it but we’ll put it back. I’m going to put it back on day one. I’m going to have it revoked on day one. We’ll go immediately – if we need to. I don’t think we should have to go to the courts, but if we do have to go to the courts, you know they try to be sneaky. Donald Trump: They go in and they say, remember, this is a man that said he wants the transition to be smooth. Well, you don’t do the kind of things – you don’t have a judge working real hard to try and embarrass you because I did nothing wrong. By the way, I did nothing, absolutely nothing wrong. If I did something wrong, I wouldn’t be standing here right now because I’ve won all these cases. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever won so many cases as I have against the Justice Department. I mean, Jack Smith had cases all over the place. People were being subpoenaed; lives were being ruined. They were spending everything they had, money – we were helping them out. We had to – they were being – they were subpoenaing people from – that had no idea what they were even talking about. Donald Trump: That’s a sick group of people, and it was all to influence the election. It was all a fight against a political opponent. We’ve never had that in this country. We have had that in certain countries. We’ve had that in third tier countries, we’ve had that in banana republics, but we’ve never had that in a place like the United States. Donald Trump: I don’t even know if it’s been on a small level. I’m sure it has been on a small level, but this was the largest level ever. They brought this moron out of The Hague. He’s a mean guy. He’s a mean, nasty guy. His picture was perfect because you look at his picture, you say that’s a bad guy with his robe, his purple robe, and he executes people. Donald Trump: He shouldn’t be allowed to execute people because he’ll execute everybody. He’s a nut job. But we won all of those cases with him. And I mean, I don’t know the judge in Florida, but we had a brilliant judge in Florida that saw right through it, and we won the case. She was a brilliant judge with great courage. Donald Trump: You know, the left as we call them, the radical left, they have a way – they play the ref and they play it very hard. They play the ref. They go and say horrible things about judges and prosecutors. And some judges and prosecutors say, look, the only way I’m going to get these people off my back is to give victory to them. Donald Trump: They’re playing the ref. I think it’s illegal, what they do. It’s almost like talking – it’s worse than talking to a judge. But the judge in Florida, Judge Cannon, was brilliant and tough and she didn’t stand for it. And I don’t know her and never met her until the case, and I don’t believe I said even one word to her, but she was very, very strong and very, very brilliant. Donald Trump: And her opinion was so brilliant that they dropped their appeal, they couldn’t beat the appeal. So, that’s what we’re up against. So, they say we’re going to have a smooth transition. All they do is talk, it’s all talk, everything they do is talk. We’re going to have a smooth transition and then they take 625 million acres, and they essentially landmark it so you can’t ever drill there again. Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to be drilling soon. We’re going to be opening up ANWR. We’re going to be doing all sorts of things that nobody ever thought was even possible. But remember when – just to get off the subject, because I couldn’t believe it when I heard it yesterday. I couldn’t believe the size of it. I mean, you put down a map and put this up, it’s just massive. Donald Trump: And remember that that’s worth probably – I mean, I’ve had estimates $40 trillion to $ 50 trillion. That’s more than our national debt. Essentially, he’s thrown it away, he’s thrown it away. He’s taken $50 trillion. So, if we owe $35 trillion, he’s taken $50 trillion of value and thrown it right out the window. Donald Trump: We can’t do that; nobody can do that. One other thing he did yesterday which was in many ways worse, it’s hard to believe it can be worse. He wants all gas heaters out of your homes and apartments. He wants them to be replaced by essentially electric heaters. I don’t know what it is with electric. This guy loves electric. Donald Trump: We’re going to be ending the electric car mandate quickly, by the way. This guy loves electric and he – we don’t have enough electricity. And then we have AI where we need more, and he wants to get – he wants everybody to have an electric heater instead of a gas heater. A gas heater is much less expensive, the heat is much better. Donald Trump: It’s a much better heat. As the expression goes, you don’t itch. Does anybody have a heater where you go and you’re scratching? And that’s what they want you to have. They don’t want you to have gas where you don’t have the problems of the electric and the source is plentiful. They’re much cheaper to operate. Donald Trump: They’re much better, they work much better, they look much better. 60 percent of homes and apartments have gas heaters. He wants them all removed quickly. These people are crazy. There’s something wrong with them. There’s something wrong with them. They also want to go back, and they have already started that, to when you buy a faucet, no water comes out because they want to preserve. Donald Trump: Even in areas that have so much water you don’t know what to do. It’s called rain, comes down from heaven and they want to do – no water comes out of the shower. It goes drip, drip, drip. So, what happens, you’re in the shower 10 times as long. No water comes out of the faucet. You want to wash your hands; they want to go back to even stronger than what they have right now. Donald Trump: As you know, I ended that policy. You can have all the water you want; it makes no difference, it comes. Especially in certain areas we have so much water, we don’t know what to do with it. But these are all things they want – very, very little water to go into your dishwasher, almost none. And you know what people do? They just keep pressing, pressing, pressing, keep it going. Donald Trump: They end up using more water. Likewise, washing machines, they want in your washing machine to have very little water coming out of the washing machine. So, when you wash your clothing, you have to wash it four times instead of once. You end up using more water. We’re a party of common sense and things that I’m telling you now is really all about common sense. Donald Trump: On January 20th, we’ll turn the economy around very quickly because right now we are – when I think of our economy, I think about it inflation. That’s what we have. We have inflation, I believe at a level that we never had before. There’s never been anything like it. And over the next four years, the United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Donald Trump: But really, it’s already doing it, if you take a look. Just last month, SoftBank announced the $200 billion. I think it will be $200 billion. He said between $100 billion and I said how about making it $200 billion. And he sort of said yes, but let’s say it’s $100, but it might be $200, right Brian, dollars, United States creating more than 100,000 jobs. Donald Trump: Hussain just announced a tremendous investment that he’s going to make and that’s money that’s in the bank. He’s going to come and do it, and he’ll do a great job and he’ll build the best centers in the country, I guarantee, because I know the way he builds. Since my election, the stock market has set records. Donald Trump: The S&P 500 index has broken above 6,000 points for the first time ever, never even close. In a single month, small business optimism soared 41 points. It’s not at 41. It went up 41 points and that’s the largest in the 39-year history of the group that does it. According to Gallup, the American people’s confidence in the economy has just surged to the highest level in history. Donald Trump: That’s why I have a news conference like that. I take the greatest business leaders in the world. I say, hey, do you want to say you’re going to invest the money? They’re not looking for news conferences. They’re saying what am I doing here? They go in and they invest money. But it’s good to know where the smartest business people in the world are investing and they’re investing in the United States. Donald Trump: So we’ve done this all in two months of not being there. We haven’t been there and it’s pretty amazing and we think we’re going to do some really great things, really great things. We’re being respected again all over the world. The Panama Canal is a disgrace, what took place at the Panama Canal. Jimmy Carter gave it to them for $1 and they were supposed to treat us well. Donald Trump: I thought it was a terrible thing to do. It was the most expensive structure ever built in the history of our country, relatively. It would be the equivalent of substantially over $1 trillion today. We lost 38,000 people. Think of it, 38,000 people. They died from malaria, mosquitoes. They were unable to stop the mosquitoes. Donald Trump: They paid people five times more to take the job. Many of those people died. We gave it away for a dollar, but the deal was that they have to treat us fairly. They don’t treat us fairly. They charge more for our ships than they charge for ships of other countries. They charge more for our navy than they charge for navies of other countries. Donald Trump: They laugh at us because they think we’re stupid, but we’re not stupid anymore. So the Panama Canal is under discussion with them right now. They violated every aspect of the agreement and they’ve morally violated it also. And they want our help because it’s leaking and not in good repair and they want us to give $3 billion to help fix it. I said, well, why don’t you get the money from China, because China is basically taking it over. Donald Trump: China is at both ends of the Panama Canal. China is running the Panama Canal and they come to see this Biden, this guy who should never have been allowed even to run for president. Of course, she shouldn’t have either because that never happened. I had to beat two people, not one. But they want $3 billion to fix the Panama Canal that’s run by China and makes a lot of money, China. Donald Trump: One of the most profitable structures ever built, because you have ships lined up back to Florida, frankly, and they just keep going through. And the numbers are staggering $0.5 million to $1 million a ship. And they took it away from us, meaning we gave it to him for a dollar, but not going to happen. What they’ve done to us, they’ve charged us – they’ve overcharged our ships, overcharged our navy and then when they need repair money, they come to the United States to put it up, we get nothing. Donald Trump: Those days are over. Working with the republican majorities in Congress will cut taxes, slash regulations, raise wages and boost incomes at a pace the world has not seen before and certainly not from our country. We had a big chunk of it for the first three years, prior to COVID coming in and my administration. Donald Trump: We had the greatest economy in history. We cut the most regulations in the history of our country and I did that all in four years, by four times more than any other president cut. We did that in four years, and we were just getting started. We’ll impose new tariffs so that the products on our stores will once again be stamped with those beautiful words, made in the USA, and we are not treated well, as you know, by Canada. Donald Trump: Canada is subsidized to the tune of about $200 billion a year, plus other things. They don’t essentially have a military. They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It’s all fine, but they’ve got to pay for that. It’s very unfair. I have so many great friends. One of them is the great one, Wayne Gretzky. Donald Trump: I said run for Prime Minister, you’ll win in a – it’ll take two seconds, but he said, well, am I going to run for Prime Minister or governor, you tell me? I said, I don’t know, let’s make it governor, I like it better. But no, something’s going to have to be done. Same thing with Mexico, we have a massive deficit with Mexico and we help Mexico a lot. Donald Trump: They’re essentially run by the cartels and can’t let that happen. Mexico is really in trouble, a lot of trouble, very dangerous place. And we’re going to be announcing at a future date pretty soon. We’re going to change because we do most of the work there and it’s ours. We’re going to be changing sort of the opposite of Biden, where he’s closing everything up, essentially getting rid of $50 trillion to $60 trillion worth of assets. Donald Trump: We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name and it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them. Donald Trump: And we’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada because Canada, they come through Canada too, and the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers, record numbers. So we’re going to make up for that by putting tariffs on Mexico and Canada, substantial tariffs. And we want to get along with everybody, but it takes two to tango. Donald Trump: We’re approaching the dawn of America’s golden age. It’s going to be a golden age for America. We have things that nobody else has. We have more natural resources. Number one, nobody knew that until I came along. I made us number one. We’re number three, I made us number one in a very short period of time, in drilling. Donald Trump: And you know, you can talk about windmills. They litter our country. They’re littered all over our country like dropping paper, like dropping garbage in a field. And that’s what happens to them, because in a period of time, they turn to garbage, most expensive energy ever. They only work if you get subsidy. Donald Trump: The only people that want them are the people that are getting rich off windmills, getting massive subsidies from the US government, and it’s the most expensive energy there is. It’s many, many times more expensive than clean, natural gas. So we’re going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built. Donald Trump: Off the coast of new Jersey, they want to build like 200 windmills that people are going crazy. Nobody wants them and they’re very expensive. They don’t work without subsidy. You don’t want energy that needs subsidy. Energy is a good business. You don’t need subsidy. But when you build these massive towers, and they’re 25 stories tall, 40 stories, they have 170 stories tall. Donald Trump: The blades, they take three ships to ship them. It’s crazy. They’re dangerous. You see what’s happening up in the Massachusetts area with the whales, where they had two whales wash ashore in, I think, a 17-year period, and now they had 14 this season. The windmills are driving the whales crazy, obviously. Donald Trump: And they had, actually, over, I think, 125 or something over a number of years and we don’t want that to happen. It’s a disaster for them. It’s amazing the way a true environmentalist would say, oh, we love wind. It sounds good but that’s about where it ends. After 10 years you have to redo them. And what happens is they don’t do that. Donald Trump: They let them stand and they rust and they say because of the environment. I’m not a believer in this, but they say you can’t because it’s a certain fiberglass, that the blades cannot be buried in Earth, that that’s an environment – so what do you do with them? What do you do with them? And I don’t know if you’ve ever gone to Palm Springs, California, or any of these places where you have long-term windmills standing. Donald Trump: They’re a disaster. They’re rusting, rotting, closed, falling down. This is as you enter Palm Springs. And they put new ones next to them because nobody wants to take them down, because why should they take them down? It’s very expensive to take them down and you can’t do anything with them because the blades, you can’t bury them because of the environmental p rotection, we’ll look at that – doesn’t make sense, but that’s what they say. Donald Trump: So, we are at the beginning of a great, beautiful golden age of business. And I think we’re also at a golden age of common sense, because everything I’m saying to you, from a simple water faucet that doesn’t allow water to come out appropriately, to all of the other elements of what we do and what we’re going to do. To take $50 trillion to $60 trillion off our country’s balance sheet because some man that has no idea what he’s doing – has no idea. Donald Trump: You know it, I know it, the democrats know it. What they did is a crime by allowing that to happen. And I’ll bet you if you asked him today, how much acreage did you submit? Essentially, did you destroy? You destroyed the economic viability of drilling in the ocean. And with AI coming along and all – you know, a lot of people don’t realize that AI is going to be a big thing, but you’ll need double the electricity at least that we have right now. Donald Trump: So, right now, we produce electricity for many, many different things. AI is a very big deal in terms of the future. China is already building electric facilities, big bold electric facilities. And you know how they’re being fired up? With coal, they’re being fired up with coal. And we’re going to build bigger and better ones. Donald Trump: People like Hussein, that are doing the same thing as he is. I’ll bet they don’t do it as well because I know how he does it, but they’re doing a lot of things. The problem is they can’t get their permits because they say build the plant with the building. So, with the structure build the plant, because if you go on to grid, the grids are old. Donald Trump: So, they said that’s a great idea. In other words, build your electric facility alongside of your plant, and you could have extra output if you want, because once you build it, you can make it larger pretty inexpensively. You could have extra output which you’ll sell to the public but build it with the plant and people are loving that idea. Donald Trump: So, we’re going to have a lot of fun making America great again and it’s going to happen I think very, very quickly. It’s already happened. So, I would say this, and this has been pretty openly reported by the news – there’s never been anything like what’s happened in the last – since we won the election a couple of months – since we won the election the whole perception of the whole world is different. Donald Trump: People from other countries have called me, they said, thank you. Thank you. The perception of the whole world is different. We’re going to have to settle some big problems that are going on right now. We’re going to have to settle up with Russia, Ukraine – that’s a disaster. I look at numbers every week. Donald Trump: The number of people being killed in that war, people don’t know, mostly soldiers now, but the towns have been obliterated. This was a Biden fiasco that he got us – that should have never happened. If we had a real president – if we had a president that knew what he was doing, Russia would have never ever gone in. But they did go in and we have a mess. Donald Trump: The cities are all blown up, the people have largely left, and the soldiers are killing each other at levels that haven’t been seen since the Second World War. So, we’ll have to get that one straightened out too. That’s a tough one, much tougher than it would have been before it started, I can tell you that. Donald Trump: A deal could have been made just by an average dealmaker; a deal could have been made on that. So, thank you all for coming. We’ll take a couple of questions. Yeah, go ahead, please. Question: Mr. President, thank you. I wanted to touch on the world on fire that you mentioned, but let’s start if we could with your references to Greenland and the Panama Canal and so forth. Can you assure the world that, as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion? Donald Trump: No. Question: And can you tell us a little bit about what your plan is? Are you going to negotiate a new treaty? Are you going to ask the Canadians to hold a vote? What is the strategy? And I – Donald Trump: I can’t assure you – you’re talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. But I can say this, we need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military. Question: [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: I’m not going to commit to that. Now it might be that you’ll have to do something. Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China – China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama; we didn’t give it to China. And they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift. It should have never been made, by the way. Donald Trump: Giving the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election, in my opinion, more so maybe than the hostages. The hostages were a big deal. But if you remember, and nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal now because it’s inappropriate, I guess. But – because it’s a bad part of the Carter legacy. But he was a good man. Donald Trump: Look, he was a good man, I knew him a little bit and he was a very fine person, but that was a big mistake. Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake. We lost 38,000 people. It cost us the equivalent of $1 trillion, maybe more than that, probably the most expensive – they say it was the most expensive structure, if we call it a structure, which I guess you can ever build. Donald Trump: And giving that away was a horrible thing. And I believe that’s why Jimmy Carter lost the election even more so than the hostages, those two things. Question: If I could just follow up on Ukraine and Iran, the two negotiations you’ll be heading into. On Ukraine, you said just before, it’s a lot more complicated now. Donald Trump: Much more complicated. Question: Do you believe – Donald Trump: Because it would have never started. Question: Right. But it has started, you’ve got – Donald Trump: Well, not only started, the cities are largely knocked down. They’re – Question: So, you’ve got what you’ve got. At this point, would you – to hold on to leverage in dealing with President Putin, would you make a commitment to the Ukrainians that you will keep supporting them during the negotiations? Donald Trump: Well, I wouldn’t tell you if that were the case. Question: Would you make a commitment to provide a security guarantee if they do enter into an armistice or a ceasefire along the lines that the French and the Germans – Donald Trump: So, you know, a big part of the problem was Russia for many, many years, long before Putin, said, you could never have NATO involved with Ukraine. Now they’ve said that – that’s been like written in stone. And somewhere along the line Biden said no, they should be able to join NATO. Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep and I could understand their feeling about that. Donald Trump: But there were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation. And when I heard the way that Biden was negotiating, I said you’re going to end up in a war and it turned out to be a very bad war. And it could escalate – that war could escalate to be much worse than it is right now. Question: [Inaudible] they can never join NATO. Donald Trump: Well, my view is that it was always understood. In fact, I believe that they had a deal and then Biden broke it. They had a deal which would have been a satisfactory deal to Ukraine and everybody else. But that Biden said, no, you have to be able to join NATO. And that’s always been, and nobody knows more about NATO than I. You know, years ago when I first started this, I didn’t know too much about NATO, but I got it right anyway. Donald Trump: I said they’re taking advantage. I’m the one that got, and the secretary general was here, as you know, two weeks ago, saying that if it weren’t for me, NATO wouldn’t even exist right now. Because I raised, from countries that weren’t paying their bills, at that time 28 countries, 20 of them were not paying their bills, 21 to be exact. Donald Trump: They weren’t paying and – or they were paying a very small portion, and I raised over $680 billion, that was the number he gave, by saying, if you don’t pay, we’re not going to protect you. And as soon as I said that the money came pouring in. But Obama could have said it, other people could have said it, Bush could have said it. Nobody said it but me. I took a lot of heat. Donald Trump: They said, oh, that’s a threatening statement. Well, they weren’t paying their bills. I said we’re not going to protect you if you’re not paying the bills. So, in a true sense, I saved NATO, but NATO has taken advantage of us. And one of the problems that I have, and I’ve said it openly, I said it to President Zelenskyy. Donald Trump: Europe is in for a tiny fraction of the money that we’re in. Now, whether you like that situation or not, Europe is much more affected than the United States. We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right? Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe? And you know, they’re a similar size, a little smaller, but they’re a similar size economy as the United States when you add them up. And yet Europe is in for a small fraction of the number the United States is in. Now, Biden could have called them up during the term. Donald Trump: That’s what I did. I said you have to pay your bills and they all – one stood up, I won’t say who, you’ll probably have it because the papers – the media hated to report on it. But a prime minister stood up from a country, you know, a famous meeting of 28 nations with no press, no anybody in the room, he stood up and he says, does that mean if we don’t pay our bill – and at that point, it was 2 percent. Donald Trump: It should be 5 percent – it should be 5 percent, not 2 percent, but at that point it was 2. But many people didn’t pay. Some people didn’t pay anything, but many people were way – including Germany. Germany was at less than 1 percent. Question: Germany [Inaudible] 5 percent. Donald Trump: Well, I think NATO should have 5 percent, yeah. Question: [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: Well, you can’t do it at 2. I mean at 2 percent, every country – if you’re going to have a country and a regular military, you’re at 4 percent. I think they should be – they’re in dangerous territory. I think you should be – they can all afford it, but they should be at 5 percent, not 2 percent. I’m the one that got him to pay 2 percent. Donald Trump: But a gentleman stood up, a prime minister stood up and he said to – sir, could I ask you a question? You’re saying we have to pay our bills. If we don’t pay our bills, will the United States protect us from Russia? I said, if you don’t pay, you mean you’re delinquent? He said, yes. I said, if you’re delinquent, we will not protect you. Donald Trump: I took a lot of heat. Although it was somewhat closed door, I took a lot of heat from the media. And you know what happened, the money started pouring in. That’s why NATO has money. And the secretary general said it was the most incredible thing he had ever seen in a negotiation. Now, if I would have said, yes, we will, nobody would have paid. Donald Trump: I would have loved to have said, yes, we’ll protect you even if you don’t pay, but that’s not the way life works. Question: Mr. President, two questions related to each other. First, you said on your first day of office you’re going to pardon January 6th defendants. Are you planning to pardon those who were charged with violent offenses? Donald Trump: Well, we’re looking at it and we have other people in there. And as you see, I guess 24 or 28 people came now from the FBI. That came out very quietly. Nobody reported it, but they had people in some form related to the FBI. They had four or five people that were strongly related to the FBI. We have to find out about that. Donald Trump: We have to find out about Hezbollah. We have to find out about who exactly was in that whole thing, because people that did some bad things were not prosecuted. I see it all the time and you see it too. People that were doing some bad things weren’t prosecuted and people that didn’t even walk into the building are in jail right now. Donald Trump: So we’ll be looking at the whole thing, but I’ll be making major pardons. Yes, please. Question: Mr. President, follow up on the previous question. Donald Trump: Please. Question: On Jack Smith’s report – Good afternoon, Mr. President. It’s good to see you again. Two questions about Syria and the ongoing war in Gaza. About Syria, the Pentagon disclosed last month that the US has some 2,000 troops in Syria. That’s almost double the number. Initially, we were told of 900. Will you keep that troop capacity the same upon taking office? Donald Trump: Well, I won’t tell you that because it’s part of a military strategy, but I will say it was Turkey. Turkey has been after that country in different names and different forms and shapes for 2,000 years. Those people that went in are from Turkey. And President Erdogan is a friend of mine. He’s a guy I like, respect. Donald Trump: I think he respects me also. He’s the one that didn’t go after certain people after I requested that he not. You know who I’m talking about, the Kurds. I don’t know how long that’s going to – because they’re natural enemies. They hate each other, but he didn’t do that yet and he didn’t do it in the past also. Donald Trump: He started and I said, please don’t do that, and he didn’t do it. But if you look at what happened with Syria, Russia was weakened. Iran was weakened and he’s a very smart guy and he sent his people in there through different forms and different names. And they went in and they took over, and that’s the way it is. Question: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Do you have concerns about HTS taking control [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: By the way, I have the envoy here. Is that in the back, standing with my son, Eric, is Steve Witkoff, who’s just got back from the Middle East and he’s done a fantastic job. He’s a great dealmaker. I said what we need there is a dealmaker because nobody makes a deal. We have people that understand where the rivers are and where the metes and bounds are, but they can’t talk. Donald Trump: They can’t make deals. Steve’s done a great job. I just want to thank you, Steve. You’ve been working endlessly for months and he’s working specifically on the hostages, trying to get them back. Question: Well, that was my second question, is Hamas – Donald Trump: Steve, come up for a second. Maybe you might want to say a couple of words. Question: Sir, possibly another hostage – Donald Trump: I didn’t know Steve was going to be here, actually. Steve Witkoff: Neither did. Donald Trump: He’s done a fantastic job and it’s a dangerous job too, and we appreciate it. He didn’t know about this kind of danger and the other deal making he does. Now he sees a lot of big danger. Come on up, Steve. Question: Mr. President, can I ask you a second part of that? Donald Trump: Yeah, just one second, please. I’m going to give you a little report on the hostages, if I can. Steve? Thank you very much. Steve Witkoff: Thank you, Mr. President. Wow. Well, I think we’re making a lot of progress and I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha. I’m leaving tomorrow back to go to Doha. But I think that we’ve had some really great progress and I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president. Steve Witkoff: I actually believe that we’re working in tandem in a really good way, but it’s the president, his reputation, the things that he has said that, that are driving this negotiation. And so hopefully it’ll all work out and we’ll save some lives. Question: [Inaudible]? Steve Witkoff: I believe we’ve been on the verge of it. I don’t want to discuss sort of what’s delayed it, no point to be to be negative in any way. But I think it’s the president, his stature, what he’s said he expects, the red lines he’s put out there, that’s driving this negotiation. Question: [Inaudible]? Steve Witkoff: I’m going back probably either this evening or tomorrow night. Question: Are you confident there will be a deal before January 20th or is that something that’s likely to happen – if there’s a deal even at all? We’ve been hearing this now for the better part of, since October 7th. Steve Witkoff: I would say – Donald Trump: They better be. Steve Witkoff: Right. I would say that the president is exasperated. I don’t want to talk for him, but look, I don’t know anyone who delegates better than President Trump. He gives us a lot of authority to speak on his behalf and he exhorts us to speak emphatically and emphatically means you better get it. You better do this, because the alternative – Question: Do you think they’re waiting for President Trump to take office? Steve Witkoff: No, I think they heard him loud and clear, better get done by the inaugural. Question: But when you say all hell will be paid or – all hell must be paid if they don’t release the hostages – Donald Trump: You know what that means, don’t you. Do I have to define it for you? All hell will break out. If those hostages aren’t back, I don’t want to hurt your negotiation, if they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East. Question: Can you elaborate? Donald Trump: And it will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good frankly for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is. And they should have given them back a long time – they should have never taken them. They should have never been the attack of October 7th. People forget that, but there was and many people are killed. Donald Trump: They’re no longer hostages. I have people from Israel and others calling, begging me to get – we had also people there from the United States just so you know. They’re holding some so-called hostages from the US, but I’ve had mothers come to me and father’s crying, can I get the body of their son back? Can I get the body of their daughter back? Donald Trump: That beautiful girl where they threw her in the car, pulled her by her ponytail and threw her in the car like she was a sack of potatoes. I said, what happened to her? Sir, she’s dead. Like a 19, 20-year-old, beautiful girl. And the way they treated her. And I just say this very simply, Steve’s got a job to do. He’s a great guy, great negotiator, great person. Donald Trump: They respect him over there already. It’s what we needed over there. We have people that know everything about the Middle East, but they can’t speak properly. They don’t know. He’s a great negotiator. That’s what I needed. I could have sent that gentleman right over there, Hussain. He’s a great negotiator. Donald Trump: There are people, they’re great negotiators, are very rare, like a great surgeon, but we have the right person. But I tell this, I don’t want to hurt the negotiation. If the deal isn’t done before I take office, which is now going to be two weeks, all hell will break out in the Middle East. Steve Witkoff: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. You’ve done a great job. Steve Witkoff: Thank you. Question: Mr. President, more than 140 police officers were injured by rioters on January 6th. Will you pardon anyone who attacked a police officer? Donald Trump: Well, you know, the only one that was killed was a beautiful young lady named Ashli Babbitt. She was killed and there was actually somebody else that was killed, also a MAGA person, but people don’t give it 100 percent credibility. I’m going to find out about it. We’re going to find out, but Ashli Babbitt was killed. Donald Trump: She was shot. She should have never been shot. She was shot for no reason whatsoever. In fact, they say that she was trying to hold back the crowd and the crowd was made up of a lot of different people. So we’ll see, but I will tell you this, the person that was killed was Ashli Babbitt. The other thing is, when they talk, there was never charges of insurrection or anything like that. Donald Trump: But if there were, this would be the only insurrection in history where people went in as insurrectionists with not one gun. OK? And let me tell you, the people that you’re talking about have a lot of guns in their home, for hunting and for shooting and for entertainment, a lot of good reasons. But there wasn’t one gun that they found and why didn’t they find the bomber, the pipe bomber? Donald Trump: They know who the pipe bomber is. The FBI knows who it is. The status of the FBI has gone down so far and the status of the DOJ or as I call it, the Department of Injustice, it’s the Department of Injustice, being laughed at all over the world. And hopefully with Pam Bondi and with Kash Patel and with other people and that will all come back. Donald Trump: If you do a poll in the FBI, I guarantee you I’m at like 90 percent with the agents of the FBI. But they have hurt – hurt that incredible place. Law enforcement – I mean, you think of the FBI – they raided this house. By the way, they could have told me, could I see this? I would have given them my – I actually told them, come in any time you want, you can see anything. Donald Trump: They raided the house, and the case was dismissed. And now I’m in litigation, I’m suing them for doing that. And I feel so badly doing it. I’m the president of the United States and I’m suing the United States, but I’m suing them for other things too. The FBI has gone so – its reputation has been so horribly hurt. Donald Trump: Between Comey who was the worst and all of the others, what’s happened to the FBI is – and we’re going to make it great again. We’re going to make the FBI great again. We’re going to make the Department of Justice fair and strong, but fair again, because all they did was attack me because I’m their political opponent. Donald Trump: And that includes with local judges like Merchan. You’re going to find out why – ask him, why do I have a gag order where I’m not allowed to speak? Think of it, I’m the president of the United States and I’m not allowed to speak. Why? Because if I did speak, people would understand the scam. It’s a scam and we have very dishonest judges and New York judges are very bad. Donald Trump: We had one that valued this house at $18 million because it was good for their case. He actually valued – that chandelier is worth more than $18 million. He valued this house at $18 million. And we have another one who was so nasty, so horrible, such a brute, the most vicious, vile person, these are New York judges. Donald Trump: But we’ve won most of the cases, so we’re very happy about that. Question: That’s my question. Back up [Inaudible] your position is clear, but have you directed your staff to take any specific actions to draw up plans? And can you elaborate again that you didn’t rule out military coercion in addition to – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, we need Greenland for national security purposes. I’ve been told that for a long time, long before I even ran. I mean people have been talking about it for a long time. You have approximately 45,000 people there. People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. Donald Trump: That’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world. You look at – you don’t even need binoculars, you look outside, you have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen. We’re not letting it happen. And if Denmark wants to get to a conclusion – but nobody knows if they even have any right title or interest. Donald Trump: The people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States. But if they did – if they did do that, then I would tariff Denmark at a very high level. Question: Have you asked your staff to draw up plans for acquisition? Are you acting – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: No, we’re not at that stage, but we have people – I haven’t even entered office yet. Question: Secondly, sir, Elon Musk has drawn some criticism and a lot of attention for some of his actions and provocative statements about foreign affairs, including in Europe. Your reaction to that? Is that appropriate for –? Donald Trump: You mean where he likes people that were – that tended to be conservative? I don’t know the people. I could say Elon is doing a good job, very smart guy. I don’t know the people you’re talking about. He was – I know he said some negative things about a couple of people that are running for office, but that’s not so unusual. Donald Trump: Yes, please. Question: I want to ask you about Ukraine and Putin. How soon do you anticipate going to meet with Putin to discuss the Ukraine situation? Donald Trump: Well, I can’t tell you that, but I know that Putin would like to meet. I don’t think it’s appropriate that I meet until after the 20th, which I hate because every day people are being – many, many young people are being killed, soldiers. You know, the land is very flat and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers from each – many hundreds of thousands from each side are dead and they’re laying in fields all over the place, nobody to even collect, there’s landmines all over, it’s a disaster. Donald Trump: But it’s very flat. It’s great, it’s farmland and it’s very, very flat. And the only thing that stops a bullet is the human body and the human body is stopping a lot of bullets. Question: [Inaudible] conversation within the [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: I hope to have – six months. Question: The first three to six months. Donald Trump: No, I would think – I hope long before six months. Look, Russia is losing a lot of young people and so is Ukraine and it should have never been started. That’s a war that should have never happened. I guarantee you, if I were president that war would have never happened. Question: Who would you like to nominate to replace Michael Barr as vice chair of the Federal Reserve? Donald Trump: I’ll be announcing somebody soon. Question: Mr. President, if we were to work under the assumption that you’re serious about making Canada the 51st state of the United States, the leader of the Conservative Party in Canada said, under no circumstances will I ever be the 51st state. Donald Trump: Maybe he won’t win, but maybe he will. I don’t care. Question: [Inaudible] you had suggested – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Listen, I don’t care what he says. Question: But sir, real fast, you said you were considering military force to acquire Panama and Greenland. Are you also considering military force to annex and acquire Canada? Donald Trump: No – economic force because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security. Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada. But here’s the problem with Canada – so many friends up there. Donald Trump: I love the Canadian people, they’re great. But we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose – in trade deficits we’re losing massive – we don’t need their cars. You know, they make 20 percent of our cars. We don’t need that. Donald Trump: I’d rather make them in Detroit. We don’t need the cars; we don’t need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don’t need their lumber. We have to un-restrict them because stupid people put restrictions on, but I can do that with an executive order. We don’t need anything they have. We don’t need their dairy products, we have more than they have. Donald Trump: We don’t need anything. So, why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada? And I said that to, as I called him, Governor Trudeau, I said, listen, what would happen if we didn’t subsidize you, if we didn’t – because we give them a lot of money. We help them – as an example, we’re buying icebreakers and Canada wants to join us in the buying of icebreakers. Donald Trump: I said, we don’t really want to have a partner on the buying of icebreakers. We don’t need a partner, but –. Question: What [Inaudible] gives the US the right [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: No right, nope, no, right. Here’s what we have, we have a right not to help them with their financial difficulties because we owe $36 trillion too. We’re going to start knocking it out pretty fast, but we’re going to be able to do it because of energy and other things. But no, no, no right, no, no, no right, but why are we supporting a country $200 billion plus a year? Donald Trump: Our military is at their disposal, all of these other things. They should be a state. That’s why I told Trudeau when he came down. I said what would happen if we didn’t do it. He said Canada would dissolve. Canada wouldn’t be able to function if we didn’t take their 20 percent of our car market. Again, they send us hundreds of thousands of cars. Donald Trump: They make a lot of money with that. They send us a lot of other things that we don’t need. We don’t need their cars, and we don’t need the other products. We don’t need their milk. We’ve got a lot of milk; we’ve got a lot of everything, and we don’t need any of it. So, I said to him, well, why are we doing it? He said I don’t really know. Donald Trump: He was unable to answer the question, but I can answer it. We’re doing it because of habit and we’re doing it because we like our neighbors and we’ve been good neighbors. But we can’t do it forever and it’s a tremendous amount of money. And why should we have a $200 billion deficit and add on to that many, many other things that we give them in terms of subsidy? Donald Trump: And I said that’s okay to have if you’re a state, but if you’re another country, we don’t want to have it. We’re not going to have it with the European Union either. European Union, we have a trade deficit of $350 billion. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they don’t take anything. Donald Trump: And so, we’re not going to have it with them either. Brian, go ahead. Question: Yes. Happy New Year, by the way. We have some breaking news. You may not be aware of this, but it looks like Cannon has blocked the DOJ from releasing the Smith’s report until further court proceedings. Get your thoughts on that. Donald Trump: That’s a big story. So, if I get it right, the fake witch hunt started by the DOJ having to do with books and records, and Biden had many more. And he wasn’t protected by the Presidential Records Act, I was. But all of that fake stuff that that took the lives of people, I mean literally destroyed people. Donald Trump: People are destroyed because of what they did, destroyed, but we got to be president. But Biden did it for 40 years. He did it when he was a senator, that was illegal, and they ruled it was illegal. How about that? They said it’s illegal, but he’s unfit to stand trial. So, he can stand and be president of the United States, but the prosecutor found that he’s unfit for trial. Donald Trump: That is a major talking point, but I never got to use it because all of a sudden, I had a new candidate who was also sort of unfit to stand trial, right? But so what you’re saying is that the judge just blocked the – so Cannon was thrown off the case, they dropped their appeal because he had no case. They dropped all of that, the lawsuits against us. They lost the lawsuit. Donald Trump: So this is a deranged Jack Smith. So he dropped the lawsuits. He was told to by the DOJ because they had no lawsuit. They lost in court in front of a very strong and a very brilliant judge, they lost in court, and that pertained to other cases in other courts. So he wanted to do a report just before I take office probably. Donald Trump: So he’ll do like a 500-page report and it will be a fake report just like the investigation was a fake investigation. And I said, well, wait a minute, this guy was thrown off in disgrace, in disgrace. He’s going back to The Hague or wherever they’re going to send him, in disgrace because he failed so badly because it was a fake case against a political opponent. Donald Trump: They thought they were going to use this to beat me. So what you’re saying is, and I’m just hearing that, that they’re not allowed to issue the report. So if they’re not allowed to issue the report, that’s the way it should be, because he was thrown off the case in disgrace. Why should he be allowed to write a fake report? Donald Trump: It’ll only be a fake report. That’s great news, good. Question: And I can just follow up real quickly, do you want to comment? Many Americans are angry that we’re sending millions of dollars every month to the Taliban. Do you anticipate – Donald Trump: It’s not even believable, billions of dollars, not millions, billions. We pay billions of dollars to essentially the Taliban, Afghanistan and that’s given by Biden. That’s the same man that took away $50 trillion to $60 trillion worth of value from the United States. Think of it, probably our most valuable asset, took away our most valuable asset. Donald Trump: This can’t be allowed to happen. We are now a nation of common sense. When he does that $625 million acres, this can’t be allowed to happen. Thank you for the information. Question: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Most other people probably knew about it, but they wouldn’t have told me, right? Question: Mr. President, on the campaign trail, you vowed to bring down the prices at grocery stores very fast. Donald Trump: Yeah, we will do it fast. Question: You recently told Time Magazine that bringing down prices would be very hard. So what can the American people expect when you get into office? When can they go to the grocery – Donald Trump: It’s always hard to bring down prices when somebody else has screwed something up like they did, but we’ll bring them down. We’ll get them down. Energy is going to bring down prices. We’re going to have a lot of energy and energy is what brought it up. Energy and their bad spending is what brought it up and energy is going to bring it down. Donald Trump: We’re going to have prices down. I think you’re going to see some pretty drastic price reductions. As an example, food, bacon, ham, apples, everything has gone through the roof. It’s one of the reasons I won. So as you know, and I said it, inflation was one of the reasons I won, but I think the biggest reason I won was the fact that they are allowing prisoners to come into our country. Donald Trump: They released their prisoners, their murderers. Thousands of murderers are now walking around the streets of our cities and farmland, all over, murders, people that have killed many – 32 percent have killed more than one person. They released them from their jails, their prisons and their mental institutions, and insane asylums, into our country. Donald Trump: I believe that’s the reason we got such a large vote, maybe one or two more questions. Yeah, please, go ahead. Go ahead. Can you go? Question: Sir, President Carter is laying in state today in Washington. You had some harsh words for him about the Panama Canal. Is there any disconnect there? Do you feel a little bit bad about doing that on this day? Donald Trump: No. Look, I liked him as a man. I disagreed with his policy, so hey, he thought giving away the Panama Canal was a good thing. I think it cost him the election, that and the hostages. I actually think that was a bigger factor because that’s the deal that just should not have been made. But again, this was a question that was asked of me. I didn’t bring it up. I didn’t want to bring up the Panama Canal because of Jimmy Carter’s death. Donald Trump: But people don’t bring it up, but you and other people have asked me about it. No, it’s a deal that I was very strongly against. I was a young guy when this took place, but just why would we spend all of that money, lose 38,000 people to malaria, the mosquito. They were dying. It was horrible. What was happening. Donald Trump: They paid them four times more than they would make in the United States, but they knew they were going to go over there and die and they died in the jungles of malaria. There was nothing we could do to stop it, 30th – and then we gave it away for $1. On Congress, sir, are now getting their agenda through Congress. Donald Trump: You appeared to open the door in your radio interview yesterday for two bill approaches. It’s still your preference for one big beautiful bill, as you have said. Well, I like one big beautiful bill and I always have, I always will, but if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker because you can do the immigration stuff early. Donald Trump: Now, you have to understand for immigration and for the wall, we won the case on the wall. They tried to sell the wall for $0.05 on the dollar, by the way. And we had, fortunately, a judge that stopped that, but they were already discarding the wall and $0.05 on the dollar. And you know what they were doing? Donald Trump: They were calling us up and saying we’ll sell it back to you at 200 cents, in other words, double what we paid for it. So they were going to buy it from this guy for $0.05 on the dollar. They were making deals and fortunately, we had a very smart judge that stopped it cold. I think he called for an investigation too and he should, but think of it. They were selling the wall that was exactly the wall that the Border Patrol wanted, that was designed by them, steel, concrete, rebar, exactly as they want, very heavy steel, very powerful steel, hard to cut very, very heavy 7,000-pound concrete, which is a very strong concrete. Donald Trump: Everything was top of the line, very expensive, would be double what we paid for it then, six years ago. But let me just tell you, they were selling it for $0.05 on the dollar to people and those people were calling us asking us to pay them 200 cents because it’s a good deal because we can have it immediately. Donald Trump: And you know what immediately is, just leave it in place. No, no. The papers haven’t written that though. That deal is like all the other things that these people are doing. These people either hate our country or they’re very stupid and I don’t believe they’re stupid because nobody can cheat on elections like they cheat and be stupid. Donald Trump: They either hate our country or they’re stupid. So remember what I said, because nobody wants to report it. They were selling the wall for $0.05 on the dollar and trying to resell it back to us for 200 cents or less. But for 200 cents on the dollar, that’s a nice return. Question: Mr. President, did the Capitol Police stop putting fact checks on posts on its website and – Donald Trump: Say it again. Question: Meta said they would stop putting fact checks on its website and instead allow community – Donald Trump: Yeah. Well, I watched their news conference and I thought it was a very good news conference. I think they’ve – honestly, I think they’ve come a long way, Meta, Facebook. I think they’ve come a long way. I watched it. The man was very impressive. I watched it. Actually, I watched it on Fox. I’m not allowed to say that. Question: [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Do you think he’s directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past with these actions? Donald Trump: Yeah, probably. Question: The last time you were here, you were asked a question about the US possibly launching a preemptive strike on Iran. You said you wouldn’t answer that question. Donald Trump: On who? Question: On Iran. The US launched a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Donald Trump: And I said I don’t talk about – it’s a military strategy. Question: But it is a legitimate question. It’s something – Donald Trump: Well, it’s not really because only a stupid person would answer it. Look, it’s a military strategy and I’m not answering your questions on military strategy. All right. One more. Brian, go ahead. Brian. Question: Could you give us a preview of what you might be talking to leaders of Congress who are expected to come here in the next couple of days and you’ve got a very supportive Congress behind you? Donald Trump: Yeah. They’re great. So we have a wonderful republican Congress. We have a leader that have a lot of confidence and I think he’s going to be hopefully a great leader, a great speaker. And we have a leader, by the way, in the Senate, I think has been great. John Thune has been doing a fantastic job, but it goes through the house first. Donald Trump: And the question is whether or not we do the two bills, the one bill. And you know, look, I can live either way. I like the idea of the one big bill, but I can live either way, but they’ll be coming down. The Senators also will be coming down and then, ultimately, we’ll be meeting in the white House in a few weeks. Donald Trump: But right now, this is the winter season. They sort of call this the Winter White House. It was built – I don’t know if you know this, Marjorie Merriweather Post and E.F. Hutton built this. It was the greatest of all the estates in our country. And I saved it and I got a lot of credit for saving it. Most of these big great houses have been knocked down in Palm Beach. Donald Trump: Just about all of them, actually, and you build 10 mansions on one site, but we saved it. But this was built as the Southern White House and she gave it to the government. And by the way, Jimmy Carter gave it back. He said it’s too expensive for the United States. So I didn’t realize that. Donald Trump: The country – so fortunately for me, he gave it back to the foundation, and I bought it for the foundation.0 Question: [Inaudible] some republicans saying in trade for a massive bill that you and they share the interest in, they want to see big spending cuts. Do you agree with that and– Donald Trump: –Well, I’m okay with spending cuts. I like spending cuts. Just – I’m on the record for spending cuts, and the debt ceiling was given to us. It shouldn’t have been, but it was put in our lap. And what I want in terms of debt ceiling isn’t the ceiling. I just don’t want to see a default. That’s all I want. Donald Trump: I never talked about spending more money necessarily than – all I want to see is no default because nobody knows what would happen if there was a default. It could be 1929, and it could be nothing. But that was put into our lap, and it shouldn’t have been, but it was. And so we’ll handle it. But debt ceiling is not about raising a lot of money. Donald Trump: It’s really just about extending it. I just want to see an extension. Question: [Inaudible] sir, on immigration, um, how much can you do by executive order, are you planning to do on executive order when it comes to immigration? And how much do you want Congress to tackle this issue? And also on day one–. Donald Trump: –Well I had the safest border– Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: –In the history of our country by far. You remember the famous chart that I brought down. I love that chart very much for a lot of reasons. But I had the safest border by far in the history of our country. And when I took it over, it was a mess, nothing like it is now. This is ten times worse. I got elected because of the border the first time, and I think I got elected largely because of the border the third time. Donald Trump: And the second time, I did equally well – well, not as well as the last time, but I did very well. And I will say this was too big to rig, you know? You know the expression, too big to rig. They couldn’t do it. They tried, but they couldn’t do it. Uh, I didn’t get very much from Congress at all. I just said that we’re being invaded, and I took the money out of the military. Donald Trump: Much of the wall – I built 500 – over 500 miles of wall. Much of that wall was built through money that I put into the military. We took it out because we couldn’t get things from Congress in those days, and we took it out, and that wall was built largely with money coming from the military. So very simple. Donald Trump: I went to the military, I said our country is being invaded by very similar – nothing like what’s invading our country now. They weren’t releasing prisoners into our country, and they weren’t releasing mental institutions in, but some – some bad dudes were coming in, right. And I said our country is being invaded, and I took that money largely from the military. Donald Trump: I was sued nine times by the Democrats in Congress, and I won all those suits. And we built five – we ended up building 571 miles of wall. Once that wall was built, they start going around it. So we’re going to add another 200. That would have been up in three weeks. And then we had a very unfortunate election result, and they said we don’t want to put it up, we’ll sell it, and they started selling it for $0.05 on the dollar. Donald Trump: What [Inaudible]. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: So we’ll do this again. I just want to thank everybody very much. I’m just telling you this will be the golden age of America. This is the golden age of America. We’re going to have a great country again. We’re a country right now under siege. We have so many different problems, and nobody respects us overseas, but now they do. The Italian prime minister, as you know, came here the other night, just flew in and flew out. Donald Trump: She wanted to – she wanted to see me, and great respect is being shown. When I went to the cathedral in France, great respect was shown by the prime minister, the president, by everybody. France was – and by the way, I have to say they did a great job in the cathedral. But great respect is being shown to our country again. Donald Trump: And we have a great country, but we have to run it properly. It’s going to be run properly. We want to get back those hostages for Israel and for us. You know, we do have people that are hostages being held. And I’ll just say it again. If this deal is not done with the people representing our nation by the time I get to office, all hell is going to break out. Donald Trump: Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-01-08
Oh Canada!
Date: 2025-01-09
Donald Trump: So, it’s an honor to have the press. And these are people that aren’t timid. They’re not afraid of the press. If you’d like to ask a couple of questions, you may. We had a very beautiful day celebrating a very nice man, a good man, a great humanitarian, Jimmy Carter, funeral. And I thought it was a beautiful service, and it went very well. Donald Trump: And we had some very good victories today as you probably heard. Go ahead. Any questions, Peter? Question: Yes, President Trump. Just a few minutes ago, the Supreme Court ruled that they are not going to slow down the sentencing. It’s on for tomorrow. Now what? Donald Trump: Well, they called for an appeal. And as you know, they acknowledge what the judge said about no penalty, and there is really – there is no penalty. But we’re going to appeal anyway just psychologically because, frankly, it’s a disgrace. It’s a judge that shouldn’t have been on the case. He’s a highly conflicted judge. Donald Trump: And – and they called for an appeal. So, I read it, and I thought it was a fair decision, actually. So, I’ll do my little thing tomorrow. They can have fun with their political opponent. As you know, I’m under a gag order from a judge. This is the first. This was an attack of a political opponent. And if you take a look at it – I’m not supposed to be talking about it, so I won’t. I’m the first president and probably one of the first candidates in history that’s under attack with a gag order where I’m not allowed to speak about something. Donald Trump: And they ought to find out what that’s all about. And this is a long way from finished. And I respect the court’s opinion. It was a – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said. But they invited the appeal, and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it all works out. Donald Trump: I think it’s going to work out well, we beat Jack Smith, he’s back, I hope – at The Hague, but I don’t think he should be there either. He puts people in very bad positions like giving people death penalties. I will tell you, he is a disgrace. We want all of those cases. We won most of the other cases, or they’re limping along. Donald Trump: We’ve had a lot of lawfare. These are all people that understand what’s going on here very badly. This was an attack on the Republican Party. This was an attack on the Republican candidate who just won an election by record numbers, the highest number of Republican votes by far ever gotten. And we won all swing states, seven swing states. Donald Trump: We won the popular vote by millions of people. And this is a – that was the real vote. And I said it a long time ago. The real vote is that – and they tried to stop that from happening. They tried to stop this election from happening, or to bloody somebody up so badly, they couldn’t win. And the people got it. And again, we won by the largest number. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen anything like that. It was conclusive. It was a massive – they say the most consequential election in 129 years. And this is – and these people – the people know everything – everything that you’re asking, they’ve been studying this for two years as it went along. And hopefully, it will never happen again, an attack on a political opponent. Donald Trump: So, Peter, we’ll be appealing the decision. They’re asking for an appeal. And that’s on the fact on what’s going to happen much more importantly than tomorrow. Question: Off the top, you mentioned the Carter funeral today. What were you talking to Barack Obama about? Donald Trump: It did look very friendly, I must say. I didn’t realize it – I didn’t realize it, how friendly it looked. I saw it on your wonderful network just a little while ago before I came in. And I said, “Boy, they look like two people that like each other.” And we probably do. We have little different philosophies, right? Donald Trump: But we probably do. I don’t know, we just got along. But I got along with just about everybody on that. We – you know, we met backstage, as you know, before we went on. And I thought it was a beautiful service. But we all got along very well, which is good. Question: In California, what specifically do you think Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass could have done differently to prepare for this $50 billion fire? Donald Trump: You know, we have great governors in this room. And if you look at the way their states – I think I can say, without exception. Anybody doing poorly in here? I don’t think so. I mean, without exception, we have great governors here that have done a great job with their states. And I don’t think – and you’ll probably – if anybody – if there’s a weak link, you’re going to find it, and you’re going to be asking the next question for that person. Donald Trump: Gavin Newsom had an opportunity to have millions of gallons a week, a day, millions and millions of gallons come down from the north. And I was able to get them federal approval from that from – actually from the Department of Commerce of all departments. I didn’t realize it would go through commerce. I would have thought environmental. Donald Trump: But it goes through commerce. I got all of the approvals. And he said, “I don’t want to sign it. I don’t want the water. We don’t need the water.” I said, “You need the water. Your reservoirs are empty. The whole place – you need the water.” That was five years ago. And I had it all done. The work was all done. Donald Trump: We sent it to him. He refused to sign it. And if you notice, yesterday, the hydrants were empty. They didn’t have any water, many of them. They said 20 percent. But now, I just heard 50 percent. And now, none of them have water and that fire is still raging. When he turned that down, I was going to give him unlimited water. Donald Trump: It would come down – it really comes down from the north, way up north, including parts of Canada. It’s so much water that they wouldn’t know what to do with. Just the opposite would have happened. And that’s the reason that this happened. He wouldn’t do what we wanted – and we’re going to force that upon him now. Donald Trump: But it’s very late because I think it’s one of the great catastrophes in the – in the history of our nation. This is not just in Los Angeles. I’ve never seen anything like that devastation. And we’re talking about homes that cost $200 million, $300 million, $400 million. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. People that – and very influential people worldwide. Donald Trump: I don’t know that they ever go back either because, you know, they weren’t happy with California. They weren’t happy with Gavin Newsom. They weren’t happy with their whole lifestyle there with the crime being out of control, all the other problems. They were not happy. And it’s going to be very interesting to see whether or not they’re going to build, or whether somebody else is going to build and – and build a much lesser home. Donald Trump: These were the most expensive homes outside of Palm Beach County. I see a list outside of Palm Beach. These were the most expensive homes anywhere in the world. And I don’t think – I think a lot of them are just not going to go back and build it. Plus, they don’t want to be part of a construction site. They don’t want to – they’re building a home. Donald Trump: Another one is building a – they’re building in front of them, behind them, alongside of them. So, I think it’s a tragedy. I think it’s an incredible tragedy. It’s also a tragedy for a tax base, and the governors know exactly what I’m talking. And I’d like to hear anybody talk about that. But if you’re the governor of a state, and you lose – you lose thousands of very rich people that were paying a lot of taxes and weren’t happy about it and weren’t happy about what’s happened to California, which has all the advantages of greatness, but they’ve had horrible politicians. Donald Trump: I think that Gavin is largely incompetent, and I think the mayor is largely incompetent. And probably, both of them are just stone-cold incompetent. What they’ve done is terrible. Would anybody have a comment on that? Because when you talk about losing the tax base, that’s – you’re losing a lot of – you’re going to lose a lot of those people permanently. Donald Trump: And those people pay billions of dollars in taxes. Governor, what about you? Jeff Landry: We’ve got some great property in Louisiana. Donald Trump: Yeah, well, they’ll be – they’ll be moving to a lot of your states. They’ll be moving to Florida, I can tell you. I know that. But they’re going to be moving to – you’re going to pick up a lot, Texas. So, it’s a rough situation. I’ve never seen – I think it’s one of the great catastrophes in the history of our country, not even believable. Question: President Biden’s term is almost over. Before he goes, there’s talk that he might trade a GITMO al-Qaida detainee, Muhammad Rahim, for three American hostages held by the Taliban. Should he do that? Donald Trump: Well, I haven’t looked at it. I will be looking at it. They’re showing me tomorrow morning. They’re showing me that there is a trade on. The trades, I have not been in favor of the trades they’ve made. But I’ll be taking a look tomorrow. We’ll announce something tomorrow. Question: Don Jr. and some of your team just got back from Greenland. What’s the price tag? Donald Trump: Well, maybe no price tag. You know, look, we’re going to have to see what happens because Denmark – we need this for national security. We need Greenland very badly. You look at, you know, the Russian ships, the China ships, they’re all over the place. They’re, you know, surrounding – now, they have for a long time. Donald Trump: It’s a lane. But we need that for national security. So, I don’t know that Denmark has any right title and interest, and we’re going to find that out. But I can tell you. You saw the clips that were released. The people of Greenland would love to become a state of the United States of America. I – we were greeted with tremendous love and affection and respect. Donald Trump: The people would like to be a part of the United States. Now, Denmark maybe doesn’t like it, but then we can’t be too happy with Denmark. And maybe things have to happen with respect to Denmark having to do with tariffs. Because they have to do this, I think, for the free world. We need that to protect the free world. Donald Trump: It’s very important and getting more important every year. Question: When you were with other Republican senators yesterday in Washington, which of your nominees do they think are going to have the hardest time getting confirmed? Donald Trump: So, we had a great meeting with almost every senator, Republican senator. And I would say that – first of all, it was a love fest. It was – this is a love fest, too, I believe. I’ll let you know in about an hour. But this is pretty much a love fest. I mean, the governors aren’t exactly chopped liver, right? Donald Trump: This is a group of people that have done a phenomenal job, and especially when you see what’s going on in Los Angeles and all. You look at the – the way they’ve run their states, it’s incredible. I talk about it all the time, the top 25 states. And I don’t believe we have any in the list of crime. So, every one of them is a Democrat-run state. Donald Trump: We want to get along with the Democrats. I’m trying to be nice. We’re going into a new term. It’s going to be a great time for them. I’m going to call it the golden age. I believe we have a chance at the golden age of America. But I have to tell you, you look at the crime, it’s all on the shoulders of Democrats and the way they run their states. Donald Trump: And if these people ran those states, same people, same everything, but you put these people in those states, you wouldn’t have crime like that at all. Question: We’ve been watching over the last couple of couple of weeks, a lot of CEOs, including some who censored you four years ago, have been coming down here basically to kiss the ring. Did they change, or did you change? Donald Trump: Well, maybe we all changed. I think they’ve gained a lot of respect. I think they looked at the mandate that we got. As you know, we won the popular vote. As I said, we won the – all seven swing states. They said, “Well, if Trump would win –” you know, I did – I had to win three because I had a lot of early voting going on, and we had to win three. Donald Trump: And we won all seven, and we won them by a lot. We didn’t win them by a little. We won them by a lot, and we won the popular vote by a lot. I think that had an effect. I also think it’s like let’s get something done. You look at what happened with Facebook today and yesterday, what they announced. That was a big concession from them. Donald Trump: I mean, they went from the – I call them the unlocked boxes. They call them locked boxes, I call them the unlocked boxes because they seem to be unlocked a lot of times. But you went from the unlocked boxes into a statement yesterday that’s really talking about free speech. What a difference that is. And so, we appreciate that. Donald Trump: But I think they’ve gained a lot of respect. We’ve had everybody. Jeff Bezos came, Bill Gates came, Mark Zuckerberg came. Many of them came numerous times. The bankers have all come. Everybody is coming. I haven’t had anybody saying anything bad about me. I’m not used to it. But a lot of it is respect. I think they respect the Republican Party. Donald Trump: The Republican Party has become a much bigger party. It’s become a party for the worker. You know, if you look at all of the union votes that I got. And when I say I, it’s really all of us together because it’s a whole thing. But we won the Teamsters. We did great with the autoworkers. We did, you know, all heavily union. Donald Trump: And nonunion states, we won by a lot. Florida is an example. We won by millions of votes, the highest vote ever gotten. And so, it’s been – it’s been a great period of time. Question: A ton of world leaders have called you as well. We understand, still no call with Putin. Is that a day one or week one call you want to have? Donald Trump: He wants to – he wants to meet. And we’re going to – we’re setting it up. President Xi, we’ve had a lot of communication. And we have a lot of meetings set up with a lot of people. Some have come, but I’d rather wait till after the 20th. Question: And when you say meet with Putin or meet with Xi, do you guys want to have some kind of a summit, or are they going to come here? Donald Trump: To be determined. But President Putin wants to meet. He said that even publicly. And we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess. Soldiers are being killed by the millions. I looked at some very graphic pictures yesterday, the soldiers that are being killed. You know, it’s a flat field. The only thing that stops a bullet is a body. Donald Trump: These – these are very – it’s a very, very flat land. And the soldiers are fighting, and they are dying by the hundreds of thousands. And not to mention the towns and the cities which are, you know, largely demolished, and there are a lot of people in there. But the big surprise, and it’s going to be a very unpleasant surprise is how many people were killed in that war. Donald Trump: It’s much higher than the press is reporting. You know, when a building comes down, these are big buildings at two and three blocks long, different kind of construction. It’s very long and not that tall in many cases, but they’re 20 storeys. But when a building like that comes down and they say nobody was injured, no, no, a lot of people were killed. Donald Trump: I think the numbers are going to be much higher. And that’s a war that would have never happened if I were president, and it’s a war that I’m going to try really to stop as quickly as I can. The number of people dying on a daily basis, and I get the reports every single day, and largely soldiers at this point. Donald Trump: But the number of people, both Russia and Ukraine, it’s – it’s staggering. Question: When you threaten tariffs on Canada a couple of weeks ago, Justin Trudeau rushed down here. He wanted to make nice. Now, he’s on the way out. Is that what you wanted? Donald Trump: I didn’t think he was going to quit. He probably saw the numbers. Look, I called him Governor Trudeau because they should be the 51st state really. It would make a great state. And the people of Canada like it. They pay lower taxes. They have virtually no military. They have a very small military. They pay less than 1 percent. Donald Trump: They’re about the lowest payer in NATO. They’re supposed to pay much more. They haven’t been paying. A lot of – they have a lot of problems. And they – I was with Wayne Gretzky. I said, “Wayne, would you like to be the governor of Canada?” I can’t imagine – I can’t imagine anybody doing any better than Wayne. Donald Trump: Wayne was not too interested, but – but I think he probably would have liked statehood. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a great guy. He’s the great one. We call him the great one, right? He’s a great hockey player. But I will say this, I think that there’s – you know, it was – it was stated pretty strongly a couple of weeks ago about Canada, and people laughed and they – and now, they’re all saying, “Well, it’s very interesting.” And I say from the standpoint of the United States, we’re subsidizing Canada $200 billion and $250 billion a year. Donald Trump: We have massive deficits. They’ve taken about 20 percent of our car business. I’d rather do it here. We could put tariffs on – we don’t have tariffs on them yet, but they will – that will happen. But they’ve taken about 20 percent of our car business. I’d rather have it done in Detroit or have it done in South Carolina or any other state that does cars, and we have a lot of them. Donald Trump: We don’t need Canada for that. We don’t need Canada for lumber because we have big forests that we have, you know, not utilized. In some cases, they’re protected, which I can take that protection off. And you take down a tree and you grow a better tree. And that’s, you know, pretty common. But we don’t need anything. Donald Trump: We don’t need their fuel, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need their oil and gas. We don’t need anything that they have. And I said to Trudeau, I said, “Why – why are we – why are we subsidizing you $200 billion to $250 billion a year?” He said, “I really don’t know.” And I said, “Well, I don’t know either.” I said, “What would happen to Canada if we didn’t?” He said, “Canada would be obliterated if that happened.” I said, “Then, Canada should be our 51st state.” And that’s where we are now. Question: A story that kind of disappeared very suddenly, do you have any idea what ever happened to the drones? Donald Trump: What happened to the drones? Question: Well, you said that you knew that – you thought the government knew what was happening with these drones over New Jersey. There were some by Bedminster. Donald Trump: I don’t know, they were over Bedminster a lot, so I can imagine – I’m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration because I think it’s ridiculous that they’re not telling you about what’s going on with the drones. And it’s not only with me. Glenn was telling me today that, in Virginia, they have drones all over the place, too, and nobody’s reporting it. I don’t know why they’re not. Donald Trump: Do you want to say something about this? Glenn Youngkin: Just – just one quick comment, which is we are home to the largest naval base in the world in Quantico, and we house a lot of the Seal teams and have a huge national security infrastructure. And now, for two years running, we have had drone incursion over secure airspace, and we still don’t know why. And I think that’s absolutely unacceptable. Glenn Youngkin: And I think President Trump and the new leadership coming in, I think we’ll work diligently to understand who’s behind this and what we do in order to stop the digital surveillance of all of our secure infrastructure. Question: Is it dangerous? Jeff Landry: Well, I can tell you, it is. While we were dealing with a terrorist attack in New Orleans, we had drones being flown over our nuclear reactors in Louisiana. And we brought that attention to the FAA. We’ve been asking the FAA to give these states the ability to mitigate these drones, and it’s sitting on some bureaucrat’s desk. Jeff Landry: And that’s real. Donald Trump: Nobody knows. They don’t want to talk about it. Go ahead, Governor, you’re going to say? Mark Gordon: Well, I was just going to say, we have drones in Wyoming flying over our infrastructure as well. And it’s incredibly frustrating that we not only have no way of knowing what it is, but nobody knows how to deal with them. Donald Trump: They don’t want to talk about it, and nobody knows why. They don’t want to talk about it. That could be us sending drones. I hope that’s the case, us doing it and doing research, and maybe they don’t want to talk about it from that standpoint. I hope it’s not an enemy. But we’re going to find out on the 21st, the day after. Donald Trump: You have to give me a little time for the inauguration. But shortly thereafter, we’ll give you a report on it. We’ll tell you exactly what it is. They know, and it’s very strange that they aren’t talking about it. Peter, thank you very much. Does Biden do – I mean, does he do this kind of a news conference? Question: This is – this is my longest-ever interview of a president. Donald Trump: Yeah, well, the longest ever before this was one question, and – and they would rush you out of the room, right? But we have – we have nothing to hide. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-01-13
Rob Schmitt: President-elect Trump joins us now on the phone. And, sir, it’s good to have you back on tonight. Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, Rob. Rob Schmitt: And I want to start, if I can. I just want to play just a quick few seconds from Joe Biden just a few hours ago. Let’s take a listen. Note: [Begin video clip] Joe Biden: [Video clip] I put together one of the most competent foreign policy teams, I would argue, in American history sitting in this room and before my eyes. Note: [End video clip] Rob Schmitt: The State Department speech there. Your thoughts, sir? Donald Trump: Well, look, I don’t want to insult people, and they’re on their way out finally. You thought this day would never arrive. And it’s – what we’ve – what we’ve suffered at the border, you know, people talked about their foreign policy. They talked about the inflation. They talked about all the things that happened. Donald Trump: We wouldn’t have had inflation. We wouldn’t have had any wars. We wouldn’t have had Russia, Ukraine. We shouldn’t have ever had the Israel – Israel would not have been attacked by Iran, which because, ultimately, it was Iran that did it. But when you look at what happened during this last four-year period, I think it was the lowest point in the history of our country. Donald Trump: It’s been so bad. And I watched what he said. And he’s trying to make good of everything like he talks about Afghanistan. Well, I was – we were moving out, too, but it would have been with dignity and grace and strength and all of those things. And, you know, what – what he – what he did with the airplane and the people falling off the plane and the craziness and 13 dead soldiers and leaving billions and billions of dollars worth of equipment in the hands of the Taliban, it’s just – you know, it just couldn’t have been – couldn’t have been any worse than that. Donald Trump: And I think, probably, that’s why Putin invaded. When he saw the incompetence of Milley and these people, he said, “Wow, these people are not so good. We’re going to go and do the invasion of Ukraine.” I really think that was a big – a big factor. No, it’s been a – it’s been a terrible four years. And I think, frankly, the worst thing of all is allowing 21 million people or more, you know, the gotaways. Donald Trump: I don’t even include them, but 21 million people, of which many of them are criminals, many of them are murderers. Many of them are murderers of more than one person. And I think that’s the single biggest thing. It’s – it’s going to destroy our country. Rob Schmitt: And – Donald Trump: You look at – if we don’t get this taken care of – and we have great people, Tom Homan, who you know well. But if we don’t get this taken care of, our country will be destroyed by that. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. You’re preparing a number of executive orders that are going to – next Monday, next Monday afternoon. Immigration is – is the big one, and that’s where I wanted to go to next. How fast do you think Americans are going to see results? We’re going to start seeing deportations. How fast will we feel what you’re about to do? Donald Trump: Immediately. It’s going to be immediate. We have the safest border in history when – during my presidency. When I turned around and looked at that beautiful chart that came down from a crane or wherever it came from, that was a chart on immigration with the best immigration numbers we ever had. And we’re going to have them again. Donald Trump: We’re going to have them maybe even better. But we have – we have to get a lot of people out. We have criminals at a level that nobody can believe, terrorists. And as I said, murderers, people that murdered people, many people, murdered more than one. They came from prisons, and they came from – they came from mental institutions, insane asylums. Donald Trump: They are street gangs from Venezuela and many other countries. Not only – not only South America, they are from all over the world. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: The Congo is well-represented. What they did to us, I just cannot understand how this could be good. They had an open-border policy. As soon as I heard open border, I said, “Wow, you know, we’re going to get all the prisoners from – from these countries.” And I know many of the leaders of these countries. Donald Trump: They’re smart, they’re savvy, you know, street-wise, very street-wise. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And they’re giving – I said, “They’re going to empty their jails out into our country.” That’s exactly what happened. Rob Schmitt: Well, Biden, I mean, I’m not – I’m not going to play the sound bite. It’s a ridiculous one. But Biden today actually claimed that illegal entry went way down when he became the president of the United States, which just, I think, shows you their inherent capacity to lie. Imagine saying that? Donald Trump: Well, they lied about Russia, Russia, Russia. They lied about the son. He lied about his son won’t get a pardon and many other aspects of his son, many, many other aspects. And they lie about everything. They lie about everything. Not only him, everybody, that party. They – they’re going to try and blame the fires in Los Angeles – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: They’ll probably try and blame us for that. You know, I was – when I was president, I demanded that this guy, the governor, accept the water coming from the north – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: From way up in Canada. And, you know, the north, it flows down through – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: Right through Los Angeles. I mean, massive, millions and millions of gallons of water a week, probably, I think, even a day. Massive amounts coming out from the mountains, from the melts – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And even without it, even during the summer, it’s a natural flow of water. They would have had so much water. Rob Schmitt: It’s – Donald Trump: They wouldn’t have known what to do with it. You would have never had the fires. People would have been able to sprinkle their lawns and everything else. You know, the problem is it’s so dry. It was always so dry there. And it’s just a – it’s just a mess. They could have – they could have, you know, maintained their forests and, as I said, they have to do. I said, “You’re going to have a real problem here someday.” Rob Schmitt: I remember when – Donald Trump: Unfortunately, I was right. Rob Schmitt: When you – when you went to Paradise in 2018, and you scolded Newsom about clearance – Donald Trump: Yeah. Rob Schmitt: And brush clearance. Donald Trump: Yeah. Rob Schmitt: But there’s, obviously, so much – there’s so much incompetence at every level with these fires in Los Angeles. Obviously, they have 100 mile an hour winds, and it’s extremely dry. It hadn’t rained in eight months, and I can understand that. But there’s a lot of incompetence, too. But as far as – I mean, it’s amazing to me that – that this state, they send more than 200 billion every year to that state government, and they still can’t figure out water. Rob Schmitt: You still can’t water your lawn in the fall when you live in Los Angeles. I lived out there for a few years. They’re telling people to take short showers. They can’t – they have an ocean right there, and they can’t figure out the most basic things that people need with $200 billion a year. Donald Trump: Yeah, it’s not – it’s not believable. They spend money like you’ve never seen, like – I’ve never seen anything like it. We’re going to – we’re going to do things with Los Angeles. You know, I’m already putting my developer cap on because it looks – literally, I just saw some very guarded pictures of it, and it’s far worse than you even see on television, if that’s believable. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: It literally – I believe it’s greater damage than if they got hit by a nuclear weapon. I’ve never seen anything like it. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: Vast miles and miles of houses just burned to a crisp. There’s nothing standing. Rob Schmitt: It’s a size of Paris. Donald Trump: And they’re going to find many bodies. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: You know, only the dogs will find them, right? You know, German Shepherds will. They can – they can pick out the ashes immediately. It’s amazing. But we’re going to find many bodies. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And many more, many more dead. Rob Schmitt: Newsom – Newsom – Newsom says you’re lying, you’re putting out disinformation about this. He’s also invited you to go see him there. You think he should resign? I think a lot of people in that state believe he should resign. Are you going to go – are you going to go tour this damage with Gavin Newsom like you did in 2018? Donald Trump: Well, this is different than 2018. 2018 was more of a – you know, it was – it was caused by the exact same factor. It was all the underbrush. You know, when I was visited by the presidents of places like Finland and Austria and others, they would – I talk about it because we used to have to give so much money mostly to California for the fires. Donald Trump: And they said, “We have a much more flammable tree, very good wood, but very flammable,” in Austria. And they said, “We don’t have forest fires.” And they raked their floor. You know, they rake the leaves off every – I think, twice every year. And they rake the leaves. And they have it nice and spick and span. Donald Trump: If you look at the trees – even now, I’m watching. I become like an all-time expert at this, but – and when you say Paradise, I looked at Paradise, you know, the place was burned to a crisp. Steel from houses. I mean, they’d have steel beams going across, you know, on some of these houses. And – and it was melted, it was just melted. Donald Trump: And yet, the trees were all standing. It was amazing. And the trees stand because they’re loaded up with water. You know, they suck the water out of the ground. And they’re wet, they’re very wet. And those trees, many of those trees just remain standing. What happens is when the tree falls down, it’s got 18 months before it becomes a matchstick. Donald Trump: And you have to remove those trees because they’re – literally, it’s like lighting a match. And it’s – they don’t do that. And I said, You have to maintain your forest.” I learned from Austria, from some of the – the countries, they said, “We are a forest nation.” Rob Schmitt: Right. Donald Trump: They live in a forest, they don’t have oceans. They don’t have – they live in a forest. Beautiful forest, by the way. You know, it’s beautiful, it’s actually immaculate. But they live in a forest. He said – I remember the one said that – I think it was Finland. He said, “We’re a forest nation.” And we don’t have, you know, anything like what they have there. Donald Trump: And we have a much more flammable tree. And I told this to him. I said, “You got to clean this thing because they’ve never done any of it.” When trees fall down, they’ve been down for 30 years. They’re like – literally, you can – you could – you could take a match – Rob Schmitt: It’s firewood. Donald Trump: And it would catch on fire in two seconds. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s terrible. It’s firewood. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s great firewood, I guess. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: I assume it is good firewood, and therefore, it has a value. And you know, they – Rob Schmitt: So – Donald Trump: But they never – they never did anything to prevent this from happening. Rob Schmitt: Do you – Donald Trump: And it always bothered me sending them so much money. Rob Schmitt: Do you think that’ll – will that change – will that change now? I mean, are – are they going to learn a lesson? I mean, we – we just saw, Trudeau’s out. Do you think Gavin Newsom is next? I mean, is this going to cost him anything politically? Or will California continue to go on at this very, you know, mind-boggling, stupid pace that they’re at? Donald Trump: Well, in terms of the forest, there’s not that much to change. There’s nothing left. You know, it’s – I’ve never seen anything like it. Rob Schmitt: That’s amazing. Donald Trump: The place is just desolate. It literally looks like a bomb – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: A massive bomb was dropped on top of them. It is – the only thing standing are a couple of chimneys. Most of the chimneys were wiped out, too, by the way. But, you know, every once in a while, you see like a chimney standing. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: The place is literally it was bombed. Rob Schmitt: Let me – Donald Trump: I can’t even imagine. Rob Schmitt: Yeah, it’s terrifying. I want to move on because I got a lot of stuff I want to talk about. I want to talk about Israel here for a second. It’s been reported that a hostage deal is very close to being done. Even Reuters today is admitting that this is because you’re coming into power, and obviously, Hamas is terrified of that. Rob Schmitt: You’ve had Steve Witkoff working on this. Donald Trump: Yeah. Rob Schmitt: Is there anything that you can share with us that we don’t know about this potential deal? Donald Trump: Only that we are very close to getting it done, and they have to get it done. If they don’t get it done, there’s going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble like they have never seen before. And they will get it done. And I understand it’s – it’s been – there’s been a handshake, and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. Donald Trump: But it has to take place. It has to – Rob Schmitt: It’s unbelievable that for 500, 600 days, these hostages have been waiting. And it was all because we just couldn’t flex hard enough on this group. It’s – it’s – that’s so sad, you know. Donald Trump: Well, it’s a horrible thing. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And a lot of people have died, and the numbers are – you know, part of the deal is we’re going to bring bodies out. You’re going to bring bodies out. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: Bodies from what? Why would they have died? But they lived in tunnels that were three-feet high in some cases. In some cases, less than that with closed ends. Can you imagine that? Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And they’ve been like this so long. This would have never happened if I was president, I’ll tell you. It never would have happened. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And Iran didn’t have the money to give them. Iran was broke – Rob Schmitt: Broke, yeah. Donald Trump: Essentially. And now, you know, they have a lot of money, although they have been – they have been hurt over the last few months certainly. Rob Schmitt: Yeah, we’ve been funding this war in Ukraine for three years now. You’ve said you want this war ended in six months. What is the strategy to do that? Can you give us any insight? Donald Trump: Well, there’s only one strategy, and it’s up to Putin. And I can’t imagine he’s too thrilled with the way it’s gone because it hasn’t gone exactly well for him either. And I know he wants to meet, and I’m going to meet very quickly. I’d like to – I would have done it sooner. But, frankly, you know, you sort of need a little bit of – like, you have to get into the office. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s some of the things you do have to be there. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And it was – it’s a horrible war. If you would look at the things that I see with the soldiers that are being killed, soldiers are being wiped out at levels that haven’t been seen certainly since the Second World War – you know, they’re very flat fields, and – and that includes the Russian soldiers, too. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: But Ukraine is – is being decimated, and Russian soldiers are being killed in large numbers and – and so are Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: So, it’s a very sad thing. Young – young guys are just being shot. The field is flat, and the bullet basically stops when it hits somebody, and it’s hitting a lot of people. And hundreds of thousands of young soldiers are being killed, and that doesn’t even talk about the cities. You know, the cities are – they’re literally knocked to the ground. Donald Trump: It looks like a demolition. Every city looks like a demolition site. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Yeah. Donald Trump: When I demolish buildings – like in New York, I demolish a building. This is what it looks like. It’s a big demolition site. Many of the cities are gone. They’ll never be rebuilt. Certainly, never be rebuilt with those great golden domes and all the things that they had standing. Such history has been killed. Donald Trump: And this is something that should have never happened. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: This would never have happened. I would have gotten him into a room. Zelenskyy and Putin, we would have worked out a deal. Or even if you didn’t work out a deal, it wouldn’t have happened. This wouldn’t have happened if no deal was worked out. And this was gross incompetence. That’s the only reason this – this war is taking place. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: But we’re going to do everything we can to get it stopped for both countries. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. I want to ask you one final question, and it’s about social media. It’s about TikTok, which is facing this – has to be sold by January 19th to, I guess, an American entity, or else it’s going to be shut down. Is that going to happen? Is TikTok going to be sold? If it – if it isn’t sold, what are – what are you going to do? Are you going to have an influence on this? Donald Trump: Well, they’re waiting to see what happens in the Supreme Court, Rob, as you know. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: And so, we’ll see what happens there. That’s going to have a big influence on whatever is going to happen. But we’ll see. Nobody really knows what that’s going to be. And I will make a decision. I must say, I was on TikTok for the election, and I won the young people by 36 points. No Republicans ever won the young people. Donald Trump: And I won by – you saw that – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: One of the best groups – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: I won by 36 points. I was on TikTok. I had TikTok Jack working for me. He was a young guy, 21-years old. He was great. And we won young people. We won just about everything. But we won young people. And I think that’s a big – you know, a big credit to TikTok. So, I’m not opposed to TikTok. I think – you know, let’s see what happens. Donald Trump: I – I really have to wait to see what happens at the Supreme Court because nobody – nobody knows what they can do and who’s going to do it until they hear from the Supreme Court. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: They’re going to be making a ruling pretty soon. Rob Schmitt: OK, interesting stuff. Donald Trump: But I had a very good experience with TikTok, I would say. Rob Schmitt: I know. But I – Donald Trump: You know – Rob Schmitt: The app’s great. It’s just – it’s who owns it and what they do with the information, I guess, is the scary part, right? Donald Trump: There’s a little truth to that, yes. Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Mr. President, I appreciate you calling in, and it’s great to hear from you. I’m excited for this weekend. Obviously, you’ve got a big rally on Sunday. You’ve got the inauguration on Monday. What a moment. Donald Trump: Right. Well, it’s going to be great, and we’re going to turn it around. You know, we have a little expression that I’m sure you haven’t heard of, MAGA, make America great again. You probably haven’t heard that, but that expression has gone around. And I think it’s going to be – that’s what we want to do. Very simple, make America great again. Donald Trump: Because right now, we’re a laughing stock – Rob Schmitt: Yeah. Donald Trump: All over the world, and that’s not going to happen. Rob Schmitt: Yeah, one week to go. Mr. President. Thank you so much. Good to talk to you. Donald Trump: Thanks, Rob. Thank you very much. Rob Schmitt: All right. Donald Trump: Great show.
Date: 2025-01-16
Dan Bongino: All right. Welcoming back to the show, a very special guest, a great friend, a great patriot, and thankfully, coming Monday, our next president. President Donald J. Trump, welcome back to the show. Donald Trump: Hello, Dan. We are friends, aren’t we? How – when you think about it, good friends. Dan Bongino: Yeah, you’re a good man. You’ve always been good to me and my family. I will never forget that. Outside of the politics and you being the change we need, you’ve always been a good man, and that means a lot to me. Mr. President, you will be taking over shortly. Thank the Lord. However, President Biden is claiming ridiculously that he’s looking for a smooth transition. Dan Bongino: But out the door, he’s suing Elon Musk, taking Cuba off the terrorism list, shoveling our money out the door, changing the line of succession to basically screw you over, and destroying our capability to drill offshore for oil and gas we need. Mr. President, this is not a smooth transition. He’s trying to hurt you as you get into office. Dan Bongino: There’s no doubt about that. Donald Trump: It’s 100 percent right, and it started right from the beginning. And it’s a disgrace what’s happening. And if you take a look, 635,000 acres – you know what that is? That’s half the ocean. Take a look at it. He took it off. It’s probably $60 trillion worth of value. That’s more than – double the debt that we own, and he takes it off the value, just writes it off. Donald Trump: It’s like you write it off, but we’re going to be redoing these things as soon as I get in. And literally, on the day that I get in, we’re going to be having executive orders that’s going to reverse most of it. And whatever we can’t reverse, we’re going to court. We’re going to win them all in court very easily, quickly. Dan Bongino: Good, good, good. That’s great to hear. I’m talking to President – Donald Trump: But he’s making the transition absolutely – he’s making everything so difficult. He’s been a terrible president. I read your statements every week where you go, “The worst president in the history of our country.” And he really is. He’s the worst president in the history of the country. And he’s always talking about a smooth transition, and then he goes out and wipes out 635 million. Donald Trump: Think of it, 635 million acres. It’s like – Dan Bongino: Yeah. Yeah. Donald Trump: I want to do a plot – a plot map. It’s got to be – it’s got to be the whole ocean. He’s just – they’re very bad people. They’re very evil people, Dan. Very sad. Dan Bongino: Yeah, they are. Donald Trump: And the weaponization that he did – and it probably worked out to my advantage. But the weaponization that he did with Jack Smith, a deranged human being – the weaponization he did should never happen to this country again. Dan Bongino: Yeah, I agree with you. I think it is one of many reasons you got elected, but the weaponization was – was revolting to many Americans. My second question, Mr. President, big, huge news yesterday about this proposed Israel-Hamas deal. Listen, it’s clear that the Biden team was ready to capitulate to, basically, all of Hamas’ demands. Dan Bongino: Biden was basically negotiating for Hamas against Israel. Did your team make clear to the terrorist Hamas that this is the best deal they were going to get, that it was only going to get worse from here when you take office on Monday? And basically, if they didn’t accept the release of some of these hostages and stop demanding to remain in control, that they were going to be wiped out because there’s no deal without you winning the election. Dan Bongino: That – that’s a fact. Donald Trump: If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would have never happened, no deal would have happened, and the hostages would never have probably seen life again, but they certainly wouldn’t have been released for a long time. No, we – we changed the course of it, and we changed it fast. And frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office. Donald Trump: And I assume it is now. You know, we shook hands, and we signed certain documents, but it better be done. But no – and it was so ungracious of Biden to say, oh, he did it. He didn’t do anything. If I didn’t do this, if we didn’t get involved, the hostages would never be out. They would have never come out. Donald Trump: Very much like the Jimmy Carter situation with Reagan. Dan Bongino: Well, Mr. President, your team has actual proof of this from Biden’s own mouth. He’s not that bright. He gives his speech yesterday, Mr. President, Biden, and he says – this – these are his exact words. He says, “This is the exact framework I’ve been proposing since May.” OK. So, why didn’t they agree to it then until you won the election? Dan Bongino: He basically made himself look like an idiot. He – he acknowledged there was no deal without you winning. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t do it and – they wouldn’t have done it and his – and they were never doing it. They would have never done it. And his principal spokesman yesterday said, “Thank you to President Trump and the Trump administration.” Now, he did that because he knew it wouldn’t have happened without us. So, it’s – look, I’m not looking for credit. Donald Trump: I want to get these people out. They’ve lived like – for three years, they’ve lived like in hell, and we got to get them out. And it will be great when we do. But, you know, there are dead people, many dead people. That October 7th tragedy would have never happened if I were president, Dan. Would have never happened. Donald Trump: No chance. Dan Bongino: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve said that on the air many times. I believe Joe Biden’s weakness led to Ukraine, led to China’s saber rattling – saber rattling and all of this stuff. Mr. President, Americans voted for you the third straight time. They’re – three for three. Donald Trump: Right. You’re right, about that, Dan. Third – third time. You’re right. Thank you. Dan Bongino: It’s not like Meat Loaf, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” but Americans are expecting shock and awe to repair the really unimaginable damage – unimaginable damage from the Biden years. This guy has been a forest fire for America. I think the momentum is there for what you would call one big, beautiful reconciliation bill. Dan Bongino: And let me just explain in 10 seconds or less why. You’ve got the momentum now. The country is behind you. Even though we have a slim margin in the House, it’s one big cause we can all get behind where we can fix the border, the defense industry, our national defense, the tax policy. We can do it all. The momentum is there. Dan Bongino: Have you changed your mind on that? Are you committed to one bill or maybe two separate bills? Donald Trump: Well, I really think you can do it either way. The end result is going to be the same or should be the same. But I actually think the one big bill. And now, it’s – it’s been, you know, helped. And I have to say that, unfortunately helped. But it’s been sort of pushed along by what’s happening in Los Angeles, the worst tragedy. Donald Trump: I mean, it’s not even – I know 30 people who have lost their homes. These are well-to-do people. These are good people. They work hard. They’re, you know, very respected people. They’ve lost their homes. They’re walking around – they have no idea what happened. And, you know, just before I answer your question, I offered them about seven – six years ago. Donald Trump: I offered them millions of gallons of water a day from coming down from up north, you know, Canada and up north, pouring down millions and millions. And, you know, that water comes down, and it’s – it’s sent out into the Pacific with the changing of a big valve like a valve on your sink but slightly bigger like by a million times. Donald Trump: With the changing of a valve, they would have had – and they still didn’t change it. They still – so, everything was dry. The sprinklers in the houses were dry. They had nobody – nobody talks about that. The fire hydrants were dry. It’s a disgrace. I’d like to see one bill. And because of Los Angeles because that – you think that’s a Democrat thing. Donald Trump: They want that money going – it’s so fast. Because of Los Angeles, I think the concept of one big, beautiful bill has been helped greatly. You understand what I’m saying, Dan, because they want it so badly. Dan Bongino: I do. Yeah. And I think you have – you and your – your rallies have become a source of serious political capital and power. Donald Trump: Yeah. Dan Bongino: If we had one thing – remember, Newt had the contract with America? Donald Trump: Yeah. Dan Bongino: Americans will rally behind this. And, Mr. President, do you want to be the one congressman to sink this thing? With your – with your true social feed alone, you could end this man or woman’s political career. We have the ability right now to do big things. I – I personally think one big bill is the way to go, but, obviously, you’ve got a team of people around you. Donald Trump: Well, I think we’ll get a lot of Democrat votes, too. I think we’re going to get – if we had a couple of negative Republican votes, I think we’re going to get Democrat votes, too. But when you add Los Angeles into it – this is a new thing that, two weeks ago, we didn’t talk about. If you add Los Angeles into it, then you can really do one big, beautiful bill because, frankly, they want that so badly. Donald Trump: They want the money to go out there so badly. And I don’t think we should do a bill until Los Angeles is included. And when Los Angeles is included, we get everything we want. Dan Bongino: Yeah, good point. We’re talking to President Donald J. Trump. Mr. President, there was unexplained drone incursions in the northeast, an area you’re obviously familiar with, being a New Yorker like me, that Tristate region. They appear to be a pretty major security threat, from good sources I have, to the homeland. Dan Bongino: Not all of them, but the unexplained ones, a lot of them. When you take office next week, Americans are scared about this. They’re a little anxious. And nobody’s panicked about it, but it appears we don’t have control of our own skies. Can we get an answer to what this is, who is controlling them? Obviously, with the respect for, you know, national secrets, we get that. Dan Bongino: And what we’re doing to control this, this seems like a really big problem. Donald Trump: We’ll be getting answers fast, and there’s no reason why they’re not giving an answer. I don’t know. They must be – they’re embarrassed about something, or possibly, it’s us doing it and, you know, they want to keep it top secret for whatever reason. But they should certainly have – let the people know. Donald Trump: It’s – it’s right over my house in New Jersey. You know, the activity is taking place over my – over Bedminster and areas near Bedminster. So, it’s a little weird, but we’ll know soon, and you’ll be one of the first to know, Dan. Dan Bongino: Thank you. Donald Trump: Absolutely, they should let people know. You can’t do that. And it’s not only there. You know, they have it in Virginia. I was talking to Glenn Youngkin, and he said, “We have a serious drone problem there, too, where drones are coming from nowhere.” And it’s very interesting. It’s a very similar problem. Donald Trump: So, something is going on. We’re going to find out very quickly. It will be one of the first things I look into. Dan Bongino: Mr. President, one last question. Your team asked for 15 minutes. I’m going to respect your time, so I’ll wrap it up here. You hinted at a recent presser, a story I’ve been practically obsessed about for a long time, the identity of the infamous January 6th pipe bomber. It seems bizarre to me that the FBI continues to manipulate the American public about this case. Dan Bongino: The phone records – saying they didn’t have the phone records, that they were corrupted, when the phone company said they weren’t corrupted. They have all this video that appears to be manipulated. And you seem to hint that they may know the identity of this person. They just don’t want you to know. I believe that is the case. Dan Bongino: Can we get an answer between you, Pam Bondi, and hopefully Kash Patel on who this person is and have the FBI open the books because I believe this is a huge scandal and a massive cover up? Donald Trump: I think we will, and I think we’re going to find out about Ray Epps. And I think we’re going to find out about Scaffold Man. You know who Scaffold Man is, right? Dan Bongino: Yeah, yeah. Of course. Donald Trump: The guy was screaming to everybody, go into the – “Go into the building. Go into the building.” We’re going to find out who Scaffold Man is, and we’re going to find out some other things. And I think you’re going to be very happy with what I do with respect – I call them the J6 hostages because I consider them hostages. Donald Trump: You know, they did a beautiful song, and they asked, would I do the – the words, the words, not the singing, the words. And I did. That song went to No. 1 for so long, it was beating out Taylor Swift. I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift, but that’s OK. And everybody else, beating – beating them all out for a long time. Donald Trump: And it was pretty amazing, actually. The song and the whole thing, those people, they – nobody’s ever been treated so badly as those people. Dan Bongino: Yeah. Mr. President, thank you so much for spending time. Congratulations on a massive political win, for reorienting the Republican Party in a better, more effective direction with actual diversity, not the left’s version of it. And I hope you have a wonderful time on Monday. America is breathing a collective sigh of relief now that you’ve won. Dan Bongino: Thanks for everything you’ve done for the country, Sir. We appreciate it. Donald Trump: And I think you’re going to be very, very happy on Monday and your audience, which is very large, by the way. Congratulations, you have a great success. But you’re very large audience is going to be very happy with the things I’m going to be announcing on Monday. Dan Bongino: Wow. We’re all looking forward to it. Mr. President, you have us tantalized here. We appreciate it. Thanks for your time, Sir. Appreciate it very much. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, Dan. Dan Bongino: You’ve got it. There you go, folks. How about – pretty much nailed it right there. It was everything I wanted to get in. I didn’t – I wasn’t sure we’d be able to squeeze all those questions in.
Date: 2025-01-20
Unidentified: Sir – Donald Trump: Is this – Unidentified: Yes, sir. First, we have a list of pardons and commutations relating to events that occurred on January 6th, 2021. Donald Trump: OK. And how many people are these? Unidentified: I think this order will apply to approximately 1,500 people, sir. Donald Trump: So, this is January 6th, and these are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 for a pardon. Unidentified: Yes. Donald Trump: Full pardon. Question: Full pardon or commutations? Donald Trump: Full pardon. We have about six commutations in there where we’re doing further research. Question: OK. Donald Trump: Nice to see you again. Question: And you, sir. Donald Trump: So, this is a big one. Anything you want to explain about this? We hope they get them – we hope they come out tonight, frankly. They’re expecting it. Approximately 1,500 people. Six – six commutations. Question: Were there any cases you did not commute or pardon [Inaudible] Donald Trump: We’re looking at different things, but the commutations would be the ones that we’ll take a look. And maybe it will stay that way or it will go to a full pardon. Unidentified: And the order does require the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately on receipt of the pardons and commutations orders. Donald Trump: Yeah. Unidentified: Sir, this is a – an – Donald Trump: Why don’t we get that down so they can get them going right now? Unidentified: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Is that OK? Unidentified: Yep, absolutely. This is a proclamation guaranteeing the state’s protection against invasion based on the current crisis at the southern border. It invokes various executive powers relating to the ongoing invasion at the southern border. Question: Mr. President, what makes you confident that those are not going to be blocked by the court? Donald Trump: I don’t think they will. I don’t think they can be. They’re very straight up. Why don’t you take that and go over here? Can you get him over here, not on the side angle? Do you mind? Just go right over here with your friends. OK. Unidentified: Sir, this is an executive order realigning the United States Refugee Admission Program to better align with American principles and American interests. Donald Trump: OK. OK. Unidentified: Thank you, sir. This next executive order is about protecting America from foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats. Again, crisis at the border, but it goes beyond that. Implicates other executive powers as well. Donald Trump: OK. Question: President Trump, with cartels are now going to be seen as foreign terror organizations. Would you think about ordering U.S. Special Forces into Mexico to take them out? Donald Trump: Could happen. Stranger things have happened. Unidentified: That was actually – Question: Mr. President, how will you make sure that Maduro would accept Venezuelans? Donald Trump: Say it? Question: How will – how will you make sure that Maduro will accept Venezuelans? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to see Venezuela. We’re looking at Venezuela very strongly. It’s a country I know very well for a lot of reasons and it’s – well, it was a great country 20 years ago, and now, it’s a mess, right? Question: Sir, can we expect ICE raids starting tomorrow in major cities? Donald Trump: What does that mean? Question: Can we expect ICE raids in major cities? [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I don’t want to say when, but it’s going to happen. It has to happen, or we’re not going to have a country left. Unidentified: This is actually an executive order designating the cartels and other organizations to be foreign terrorist organizations. Donald Trump: That’s a big one. Unidentified: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: People have wanted to do this for years. So, they are now designated as terrorist organizations, foreign. And Mexico probably doesn’t want that, but we have to do what’s right. They’re killing our people. They’re killing 250,000, 300,000 American people a year, not 100, like has been reported for 15 years. Donald Trump: It’s probably 300,000. Unidentified: This is an executive – Question: Sir, you just said Mexico doesn’t want that. How are you going to deal with this? Donald Trump: I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them. Unidentified: Sir, this is an executive order entitled, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, which, again, deals with the southern border and the unprecedented admission of illegal – illegal aliens across the southern border. Donald Trump: OK. Question: What do you see the biggest national security threat to the US, Mr. President? What’s going to be your priority on foreign policy? Donald Trump: Say? Question: What’s going to be your priority on foreign policy? What you see is the biggest emergency situation – Donald Trump: Foreign policy is a big statement. I mean, my priority on foreign policy is going to keep – is going to be to keep America safe. Very simple. That’s a big question, though. That’s a very big question. Question: Who is going to be the first foreign leader that you plan to meet, or who will they call tomorrow for your first day in office? Donald Trump: I’ve already been meeting people. I’ve been meeting them. I’ve been talking to them. He’s – I – I met with Prime Minister Trudeau, like all Governor Trudeau. I met with numerous foreign leaders. Go ahead. Question: Sir, what might be your first step? Unidentified: This – this next order relates to the definition of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment of the United States. Donald Trump: That’s a good one. Birthright, that’s a big one. Question: What about that one in the courts? That one is likely to be – Donald Trump: Could be. We think we have good grounds, but you could be right. I mean, you’ll find out. It’s ridiculous. We’re the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know. And it’s just absolutely ridiculous. But, you know, we’ll see. We think it – we have very good grounds. Unidentified: Sir – Donald Trump: People have wanted to do this for decades. Unidentified: Sir, this is a proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border of the United States. Donald Trump: That’s a big one. A lot of big ones, huh? You know what that means, right? Question: President Trump, did President Biden leave you a letter? Donald Trump: He may have. Wait. Don’t they leave it in the desk? I don’t know. Oh – Question: What’s in there? Donald Trump: Thank you, Peter. It could have been years before we found this letter. Wow, thank you. Question: Can – what does it say on the outside? Donald Trump: Maybe we should all read it together. Question: Let’s read it. Donald Trump: Well, maybe I’ll read it first and then make that determination. Question: That sounds great. Donald Trump: Peter, thank you very much. I may not have seen this for months. Question: Happy to help with the passing of the torch. Donald Trump: I did. I left him one in the desk just like this. Question: What did – what did you talk to him about in the limo? Donald Trump: Unification of our country. You know, I didn’t know that he gave a pardon to his family because he did it during my speech. Question: He didn’t tell you in the limo? Donald Trump: No, he didn’t tell me. No, no. He did it – they released it during my speech. I mean, during my speech, so all I could do was say, “Excuse me, I’d like to come back and speak some more.” So – now, we were surprised by that. Question: Mr. President, where are you – Donald Trump: It’s a bad precedent, obviously. Question: Where are you thinking on tariffs on Mexico given these actions you’re signing on the border? Donald Trump: Well, we’re thinking in terms of 25 percent on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing vast numbers of people. Canada’s a very bad abuser also. Vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in. Question: When do you think you would enact those – Donald Trump: I think February 1st. Question: Are you planning on giving notice of that [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I think – I think we’ll do it February 1st. Question: Twenty-five percent on both, sir? Unidentified: Sir – Donald Trump: On each. Question: On each, yes. Unidentified: This is an executive order taking a large number of executive actions to secure our southern border. Donald Trump: OK, sounds reasonable. Question: President Trump, we remember four years ago, Barack Obama had told you that the top threat to the country was going to be North Korea. Did Joe Biden tell you what he thinks the top threat to the country is [Inaudible] Donald Trump: No. No. Question: Why not? Donald Trump: I think we have a lot of them. Right now, we really – I think we have a lot. I think North Korea turned out to be good. I – I was very friendly with him. He liked me; I liked him. We got along very well. They thought that was a tremendous threat. Now, he is a nuclear power, but we – we got along. I think he’ll be happy to see I’m coming back. Question: And – Donald Trump: I think he has tremendous condo capability. He’s got a lot of shoreline. Unidentified: Thank you, sir. Question: Are you going to work with countries from South America to coordinate on immigration? Donald Trump: About who? Question: About immigration in general. Unidentified: This is an executive order – sorry, sir. Donald Trump: I’m fine with legal immigration. I like it. We need people, and I’m absolutely fine with it. We want to have it. We need it because we’re going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs. You know, if you don’t want tariffs, all you have to do is build your plant in the US. So, we’re going to have a lot of workers coming in, but we have to have legal immigration. Question: Do you have a date in mind for when you want to put in on the China tariffs which you were talking about? Donald Trump: Which one? Question: Sixty percent? Donald Trump: You’re talking about which? Say it again. Question: The China – China tariffs, the [Inaudible] tariffs. Donald Trump: Oh, China. Well, as you know, I put on large tariffs on China, and they’ve really been forced to leave them. And if we didn’t leave them, you wouldn’t have one steel mill that’s open in this country because they were dumping massive amounts of steel. We’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars from China because they were unable to terminate the tariffs that I put on China because it was too much money and the budgets didn’t work. Donald Trump: And other reasons, too. No. I mean, we’re going to have meetings and calls with President Xi. I spoke to President Xi last week, as you know. Did you know that? I had a very good phone call, long – Question: [Inaudible] with NATO this moment. Are you planning to meet your NATO allies? Donald Trump: No. NATO has to pay more money. NATO has to pay five percent. We are – we’re under the Ukraine war by $200 billion more than NATO. It’s ridiculous because it affects them a lot more. We have an ocean in between, and we’re – we’ve spent $200 billion more on Ukraine than NATO has spent. And they’ve got to equalize. Question: Did you talk to Xi about – did you talk to Xi about the Ukraine war? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Because China and Brazil together has a proposal to bring Russia and Ukraine to talk. Donald Trump: Well, that’s good. That’s fine. I’m – I’m ready. That’s good. Question: When are you going to talk with the Brazilian president? Donald Trump: How did Brazil get involved? Question: Brazil is involved. Donald Trump: This is a new one. Question: When are you going to talk to Lula? Donald Trump: Are you from Brazil? Question: I’m from Brazil. Donald Trump: Ah, that’s – that’s why they’re involved, I guess. Question: When are you going to talk with the Brazilian president? How do you see a relationship with Latin America and Brazil? Donald Trump: Great. It should be great. They need us much more than we need them. We don’t need them. They need us. Everybody needs us. Question: Mr. President, it sounds like you will not proceed with additional China tariffs necessarily depending on how talks go with President Xi. Is that correct? Donald Trump: What does that – define that? Question: Well, we were asking – you pledged from to the campaign potentially a 10-percent tariff on China and as much as – Donald Trump: Because of fentanyl. Question: Right. So, I’m asking what are your thoughts are now. Donald Trump: That’s only because of fentanyl. There are other things, too. Question: Are additional China tariffs – Donald Trump: And a very big thing is the Panama Canal. China controls the Panama Canal. What’s that all about? They’re not supposed to be – when Jimmy Carter gave it, which was a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake – he didn’t do it. He didn’t give it to China. He gave it to Panama, and China controls the Panama Canal. Question: So, China tariffs are [Inaudible] Donald Trump: And we’re not going to going to allow that to happen. Question: Are they still on the table, or is that on hold? Donald Trump: We’re not – no. We’re not going to allow that to happen. Unidentified: Thank you, sir. Question: What can we expect of the countries in NATO that spend the least amount of money like Spain, France, below the five percent – Donald Trump: Spain is very low. And yet, are they a BRICS nation? Question: What? Donald Trump: They’re a BRICS nation, Spain. You know what a BRICS nation is? Well, you’ll figure it out. But – and if the BRICS nations want to do that, that’s OK. But we’re going to put at least a 100-percent tariff on the business they do with the United States. You know what the BRICS is, right? You guys know. Question: Yes. Brazil, Russia – Donald Trump: You know what I’m saying, right? You know what I’m saying. Question: But Spain is not under the BRICS. Donald Trump: So, it’s not even a threat. In fact, since I made that statement, Biden said, “Well, they have us over a barrel.” I said no. We have them over a barrel, and there’s no way they’re going to be able to do that. Unidentified: This is an executive order relating to – Question: So, they are risking 100-percent tariffs, those countries like Spain? Donald Trump: As a BRICS nation, yes. They will have 100-percent tariff if they so much as even think about doing what they thought. Question: Can you explain how is – Donald Trump: Which – which – and therefore, they’ll give it up immediately. And so will China give it up. Unidentified: Sir, this is about reforming the system of hiring in the federal government to ensure that merit is the lodestar of hiring decisions – Donald Trump: As per the Supreme Court. Unidentified: Other matters – yes, sir. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: Here’s a big deal, merit. Our country is going to be based on merit again. Can you – can you believe it? Question: Mr. President, you had said you would end the Russia-Ukraine war on the first day in office. Where do things stand right now? And how do you make that – Donald Trump: Well, this is only half a day. I have another half a day left. We’ll see. We want to get it done. Unidentified: Sir, this is an order creating and implementing the Department of Governmental Efficiency, known as DOGE. Donald Trump: OK, that’s a big one. Question: Is Elon Musk going to get a West Wing office? Donald Trump: No. He’s getting an office for about 20 people that we’re hiring to make sure that these get implemented. We have a problem in this country. You sign an executive order, it doesn’t get done for six months. As an example, when we allowed the J6 hostages to go out, it might not be approved under the old days by – for two weeks, three weeks, six months. Donald Trump: You know, they had a good ruling from the Supreme Court, and it’s like nothing happened. That ruling was six months ago. You know that. And it was like they didn’t have a ruling. They’ve been treated very unfair. The judges have been absolutely brutal. The prosecutors have been brutal. Nobody has ever treated people in this country like that. Question: Mr. President, are you commuting the sentences of anyone who assaulted a police officer on January 6th? Donald Trump: Well, we’re looking at two police officers, actually, that Washington police officer who went after an illegal. And things happened, and they ended up putting them in jail. They got five-year jail sentences. You know the case. And we’re looking at that in order to give them a – we got to give them a break. Question: But is the clemency in your actions today for [Inaudible] assault of a police officer? Donald Trump: Well, it would be a pardon. That would be a pardon. The one I’m talking about would be a pardon. Unidentified: Here you go, sir. Question: Should there be punishment for the people who assaulted law enforcement officers that day? Donald Trump: Well, I will say this. They’ve been in jail for a long time already. I see murderers in this country get two years, one year, and maybe no time. So, they’ve already been in jail for a long time. These people have been destroyed. What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like it in history in the history of our country. Donald Trump: And even people that were aggressive and, in many cases, I believe, they happen to be outside agitators. But, you know, what do I know, right? But I think they were. I think they were outside agitate – there were outside agitators involved. And obviously, the FBI was involved because Wray admitted the FBI was involved. Donald Trump: Didn’t he say 23 people indirectly or directly were involved, and it was then 26? That’s a lot of people. No. We have – we’ve got to take care of – these people have been treated so badly. It’s never happened before. What happened in Seattle where they took over a big portion of the city? What happened in Portland where they burn down the city every day and people die? Donald Trump: Nothing happened to anybody, but they go after these people violently. I mean, they’re still going after brand-new people. They found somebody else with a picture. There’s never been anything like this. And, you know, it’s almost 100 percent. Think of this, almost 100 percent of the people are convicted, 100 percent. Donald Trump: It’s Washington, D.C. People go into a trial and they say, “Oh, I have a wonderful lawyer, and I didn’t do anything wrong.” And they end up in shackles almost immediately and jail. No, we’re not going to let it happen. Question: How about Greenland? Do you have some interest in buying it. But is there any other option that would satisfy you? Donald Trump: About what? Question: Greenland. Instead of buying it – Donald Trump: Finland? Question: Greenland. Greenland. Greenland. Donald Trump: Oh, Greenland. Greenland is a wonderful place. We need it for international security. And I’m sure that Denmark will come along. I think – it’s costing them a lot of money to maintain it, to keep it. The people of Greenland are not happy with Denmark if you know. I think they’re happy with us. We had representatives – my son and representatives went up there two weeks ago, and they like us. So, we’ll see what happens. Donald Trump: But Greenland is necessary – not for us. It’s necessary for international security. You have Russian boats all over the place. You have China boats all over the place, warships, and they can’t maintain it. Question: [Inaudible] President Putin, sir? Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump: Who? Question: Would you plan to meet President Putin, sir? Donald Trump: I’ll be meeting with President Putin. Question: When do you think? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I can’t – it’s being set up. Question: Do you know what your first trip, foreign trip might be, sir? Donald Trump: So, first foreign trip typically has been with UK, but we did it – I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our product. I said, “I’ll do it, but you have to buy American product.” And they agreed to do that. They bought 450 billion. It was the least reported story I’ve ever been involved in. Question: And now, where are you planning to go now? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know. If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another 450 or 500, we’ll up it for all the inflation. Question: Mr. President, you say you were going to end the wars first day. Donald Trump: I think I’ll probably go – Question: How do you plan to end the Ukraine war? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to try and get it done as quickly as possible. Question: Do you want to push Israel and Saudi Arabia – Donald Trump: It should have never started. You know, the war with Ukraine and Russia should have never started. It would have never started if I were president. Question: Will you push Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations? Donald Trump: I don’t think you have to push them. I think it’s going to happen, but maybe not quite yet, But they’ll end up being in the – in the accords, the Abraham Accords. Question: President Trump – Donald Trump: I think Saudi Arabia will end up being in the Abraham Accords. Question: This year? Donald Trump: Could be, but, you know, soon. Not in a very long way. Ooh, look at that. It says TikTok. My, my, my, what is that all about? Unidentified: First, we have Alaska, sir. This is an executive order relating to unleashing Alaska’s potential as an energy reservoir for the entire nation. Donald Trump: And what about ANWR? Unidentified: I believe that would be included in aspects of the order. Donald Trump: So, we’re opening up ANWR. Question: On the TikTok piece, President Trump, you and your – members of your team now used to warn about the dangers of TikTok spying on Americans. What changed that you’re not worried about that anymore? Donald Trump: Well, it depends on the deal. I mean, I may not do the deal, or I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless, worthless if I don’t approve it. It has to close. I learned that from the people that own it. If it – if I don’t do the deal, it’s worthless, worth nothing. If I do the deal, it’s worth maybe $1 trillion, a trillion. Donald Trump: So, if I do the deal for – I’m talking about doing it for the United States. If I do the deal for the United States, then I think we should get half. Question: The TikTok – Donald Trump: In other words – wait. I think the US should be entitled to get half of TikTok. And congratulations. TikTok has a good partner. And that would be worth – you know, it could be $500 billion or something. It’s crazy. The numbers are crazy, but it’s worthless if I don’t – if the president doesn’t sign, then it’s worthless. Donald Trump: If the president does sign, it’s worth maybe $1 trillion. So, I think like a joint venture. I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We’ll see what happens. I mean, that’s one of many ideas I’ve had. Question: So, [Inaudible] did he say that he’s open to that idea? Donald Trump: Who? Question: The CEO of TikTok is around. Donald Trump: Oh, I think he’d probably like it because he’s got nothing. They really have nothing. It’s passed in Congress. It gives the president the right to make – make a deal or to close it. And we have 90 days to make that decision. But I could see making a deal where the US gets 50 percent of TikTok, polices it a little bit or a lot, depends on them. Donald Trump: But remember, they make telephones in China. They make all sorts of things in China. Nobody ever complains about that here. They’re complaining about this. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: There’s so many different products made in China. Nobody ever complained about it. The only one they complain about is TikTok. And TikTok is largely young people. Donald Trump: I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally. But, you know, I went on TikTok, and I won young people by 36 percent, Peter. And Republicans typically don’t do too well with young people. But it’s a different Republican Party. Unidentified: Here’s the TikTok executive order, sir. Question: Would the US government by a portion of TikTok then? Or how would it get that 50 percent? Donald Trump: No, you – you’d take 50 percent of TikTok for the approval that TikTok can continue in business. And they’d have a great partner. The US would be their partner, but the US essentially would be paid for doing that, half of the value of TikTok. Question: Would there be a private sector owner as well? Donald Trump: Could be. Yeah, it could be a lot. I’ll tell you what, every rich person has called me about TikTok. Question: You wanted to block TikTok. Why did you change your mind? Donald Trump: Because I got to use it. And remember, TikTok is largely about kids, young kids. If China is going to get information about young kids, I don’t know. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I think – I think – to be honest with you, I think we have bigger problems than that. But – but, you know, when you take a look at telephones that are made in China and all the other things that are made in China, military equipment made in China, TikTok – I think TikTok is not their biggest problem. Donald Trump: But there’s big value in TikTok if it gets approved. If it doesn’t get approved, there’s no value. So, if we create that value, why aren’t we entitled to like half? Question: Sir, [Inaudible] will you shut them down? Donald Trump: Does Biden ever do news conferences like this? How many news conferences, Peter, has he done like this? Question: Like this? Donald Trump: None. Question: Zero. Donald Trump: And it would be zero for the next infinity. For infinity, it would be zero. Question: Mr. President [Inaudible] is Elon Musk going to help implement the executive orders? I think you mentioned the implementation in your previous answer. Donald Trump: No. No, no, no. Elon, no. He’s – Elon is very busy sending rocket ships up to various places with lots of satellites on them. Question: What is your reaction to the confirmation of Marco Rubio? And what does it mean for Latin America? Donald Trump: Which one? Question: Marco Rubio as secretary of State. Donald Trump: Marco Rubio. You said Maco, Maco. Marco. Question: Marco – Marco Rubio. Donald Trump: Yeah. He’s – I think he’s great. I think Marco is doing a fantastic job. I think he’s going to get a lot of votes. I think he’s going to be at 90 percent or something. I mean, I’m hearing very good – people know him. They know him in the Senate. They know he’s good. He’s doing a good job. I don’t know. Donald Trump: I can’t tell you. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. He’s got – he’s got some very strong ideas, you know, Marco. Question: You signed it. Which one did you sign, Mr. President? Did you sign the TikToK order? Donald Trump: Yeah. Unidentified: Yes, that was just signed. Question: Where has Marco Rubio [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Just signed it. Question: Still changing Venezuela, change in power. Are you still committed with Maduro leading power in Venezuela? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to find out about that, too, because we’re going to probably stop buying oil from Venezuela. We don’t need their oil. Question: Another embargo like the first term? Donald Trump: Well, it could be, but we don’t want to buy. We don’t have to buy their oil. We have plenty of oil for ourselves so – Question: President Trump – Donald Trump: That will change Venezuela quite a bit. Question: President Trump, there’s a lot of concern about this during the campaign. The question that only works today: Are you a dictator on day one? Donald Trump: No. No. I can’t imagine even being called that. No. I believe in the sanctity of the vote. The Democrats didn’t because they cheated like dogs, but I believe in the sanctity, and this was too big to rig. This last election was just too big to rig. Really the opposite. Question: Mr. President, when do you plan to speak to President Putin? Donald Trump: It could be very soon. Question: And you talked a bit about Ukraine and Russia, but how long do you think it would take to end that conflict? And – Donald Trump: I have to speak to President Putin. We’re going to have to find out. He’s not – he can’t be thrilled. He’s not doing so well. I mean, he’s grinding it out, but most people thought that war would have been over in about one week. And now, you’re into three years, right? So, he can’t be – he can’t be thrilled. Donald Trump: It’s not making him look very good. Now, eventually, you know, I mean, it’s a big machine, so things will happen. But I think it’d be very well off to end that war. We have numbers that – almost a million Russian soldiers have been killed. About 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers are killed. Russia is bigger. They have more soldiers to lose, but that’s no way to run a country. Question: What [Inaudible] TikTok worried you, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Just gave me the right to sell it or close it. Essentially with TikTok, I have the right to either sell it or close it. And we’ll make that determination. And we may have to get an approval from China, too. I’m not sure, but I’m sure they’ll approve it. And if they don’t approve it, it would be somewhat of a hostile act, I think. Donald Trump: But it’s good for China if it gets approved. Question: Would you – so, you’re not guaranteeing that TikTok will be around after 90 days [Inaudible] Donald Trump: No, but it could very well be. It makes sense for it to be because it’s got tremendous value. But if we create the value by approving, you know – in other words, that approval gives it tremendous value. If that’s the case, then we should be entitled to 50 percent as a country. You haven’t heard that one before, right? Donald Trump: That’s called a joint venture, and nobody ever thought that way before. Question: Who will be your partner? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know. I think it’s – I think you have a lot of people that would be interested in TikTok with the United States as a partner. Question: Mr. President, what was it like walking into the Oval Office this evening as president? Donald Trump: Oh, what a great feeling, one of the better feelings I’ve ever had. Question: Do you like this town better now than in 2017? Donald Trump: Well, we’re very experienced now. You would say nobody’s ever had experience like I have. I’ve dealt with some very good people. I’ve dealt with some very bad people. And I know who the bad ones are and the good ones are. You know, don’t forget, I was very successful in, primarily, the real estate business. Donald Trump: And people used to say, “Who’s worse, a politician or a vicious real estate developer?” And I’d always say – you know, the real estate developer is far worse. But after about three months and getting to know scum like Adam Schiff and other people like that, I said, “No. Actually, real estate people are quite nice by comparison.” Question: You said you plan to speak with President Putin soon. What about President Zelenskyy, and what’s your message? Donald Trump: Yeah, I would. But he’s told me he wants to make a deal. I mean, he wants to make – Question: Zelenskyy – Donald Trump: Zelenskyy wants to make a deal. Question: What kind of – Donald Trump: I don’t know if Putin does. He might not. I don’t know. He should make a deal. I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia’s going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy, you take a look at the inflation in Russia, so I would – I would hope – I got along with him great. Donald Trump: And, you know, I would hope he wants to make a deal. Question: Mr. President, are you keeping US sanctions on Russia until he makes a deal? Donald Trump: Well, sanctions or tariffs – I think the word tariff is much better because it keeps your dollar stronger. I think tariffs are more effective. I used sanctions on Iran. Iran was broke. When I left office, Iran was broke. They had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah, none. They were flat broke, and October 7th would have never happened. Donald Trump: And I think you all know that. It would have never happened. They had no money. Now, they’re rich, but, you know, they’re weakened in a different way. I would say that the one attack by Israel really set them back. It really set them back, the pages, the pages, and others. You know the attack on air defense was a – that was a bad attack for Iran. Question: What are you – what are you signing now, sir? Unidentified: It’s an executive order relating to reforms to the federal workforce, including to the senior executive service. Donald Trump: We’re getting rid of all of the cancer. I call it cancer – the cancer caused by the Biden administration. Unidentified: Sir. Question: How confident are you, Mr. President, that you can keep the ceasefire in Gaza and conclude [Inaudible] the end the year [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I’m not confident. That’s not our war. It’s their war. Unidentified: I apologize, sir. Donald Trump: But I’m not confident. But I think they’re very weakened on the other side. Question: Do you support a two-state solution? Donald Trump: Gaza – I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is – it’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way. Question: Do you plan to help rebuilding Gaza? Donald Trump: I might. You know, Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea, the best weather, you know, everything’s good. It’s like some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting. But some fantastic things could be done with Gaza. Question: How do you see the future in governance for Gaza? Donald Trump: Well, it depends. I can’t imagine you could have – well, you certainly can’t have the people that were there. Most of them are dead, by the way. Most of them are dead, but they didn’t exactly run it well. Run viciously and badly. You can’t have that. Question: Mr. President, on TikTok, sir, do you pause any decision on Chinese tariffs until you know what the resolution on TikTok will be? Are those fixed – Donald Trump: No. No. If China didn’t approve it, we could put tariffs on China. Don’t forget, China charges us tariffs, and we charge them very little, except for what I did. I put a lot of – we took in hundreds of billions of dollars. But until I came along, China never paid $0.10 to this country. They ripped us off and they never paid anything. Donald Trump: But like if we wanted to make a deal with TikTok and it was a good deal and China wouldn’t approve it, then I think, ultimately, they’d approve it because we’d put tariffs on China. Maybe. I’m not saying I would, but you certainly could do that. And if we said, “Well, if you’re not going to approve it, then that’s a certain hostility and we’ll put tariffs of 25, 30, 40, 50 percent, even 100 percent.” And if we did that, I think they’d approve it. Question: President Trump, you’ve seen the other living been presidents a couple of times in the last few months. If you ever had to call on one of them for advice about anything that’s going on here, which one would you call? Donald Trump: That’s an interesting – well, I thought Bill Clinton was a very good politician. I don’t think he was used properly. I think they disrespected him. When Hillary was running, he came back and he said, “You know, you better get up to Michigan and Wisconsin.” You remember that, Peter. Every house has a Trump sign on it, and they all laughed at him because the Republicans had won Michigan and Wisconsin for decades, a long time. Donald Trump: And they all laughed at Bill Clinton like, “The hell does he know?” And he turned out to be right because I won both of them, and there was – just won both in this election, too. We won Wisconsin and Michigan and every other swing state. We won all the swing states, all seven. They talked about seven swing states. Donald Trump: We won them all. So – but I – Bill Clinton was – he had a great political sense, I think. Question: You looked like you were having a good conversation with President Obama at President Carter’s funeral. Donald Trump: I was. And you’d like to know what I it – ooh. Question: Yeah. What you talked about. Everybody wants to know. Donald Trump: Everybody wants to know. And I – I wouldn’t want to. But we were having some crazy conversation. Question: About? Donald Trump: Why do you – asking a question like that? You know, I don’t think you want to know. You might not – Question: Can you tell us [Inaudible] Donald Trump: You might be insulted. Unidentified: It’s an executive order relating to holding former government account – government officials accountable for unlawful disclosure of sensitive information. This next one, sir, is a declaration of a national energy emergency. Question: Sir, you also have – Donald Trump: That’s a big one. You know what that allows you to do. That means you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem, and we do have that kind of an emergency. Question: President Trump, at some point will you use your powers of the presidency to tell Americans who are concerned about drones? Donald Trump: Yeah. Oh, good. I will. Question: [Inaudible] what exactly is happening? Can you tell us now? Donald Trump: In fact, I’d like – no. Because I just got here. Question: What do you think – Donald Trump: I got – I just came here. I’ve been here for, what, 15 minutes. No. Question: To the people listening, because this is going out live – Donald Trump: And I got to read this letter, too. Because of you, I found this letter. Question: I can read it for you. Donald Trump: It’s interesting. Yeah, I know you would. Your father would, too. Question: But is it anything – these drones, is there anything that people need to be worried about? Donald Trump: No, I think it’s – I think it’s terrible. I would like to find out what it is and tell the people. Question: And can you commit to some kind of [Inaudible] Donald Trump: In fact, I’d like to do that. Could we find out what that was, Susie? OK? Yeah, why don’t we find out immediately? I mean, I can’t imagine it’s an enemy or there would have been – you know, people would have gotten blown up all over. Maybe they were testing things. I don’t know why they wouldn’t have said what it was. Donald Trump: They had a lot of them flying over Bedminster, which is interesting. Question: And with the events today and yesterday, was everything moved inside just for cold weather, or was there some kind of a security concern? Donald Trump: No, no, no. No security because they had everything shut down to drones. You know, you can shut that down pretty easily if you’re sophisticated. They’re very sophisticated, these people. No, it was just cold weather. And we made a good move because, first of all, I thought it was incredible in the Capitol today. Donald Trump: You know I liked it because I got great reviews on that speech. I got great reviews. Can you believe it? They actually were fair. Maybe the fake news is changing. Unidentified: This is unleashing energy production, sir. Donald Trump: Yeah, unleashing energy production. But I thought it was – I think having it in the Capitol is great. Obviously, you can take care of the people you have to take care of. The city was booming. And if we would have done it outside, people would have been hurt because it was really cold. You know, it was like – looked sunny, but when you stood outside for 10 minutes, people were running back in. It was really cold and really windy. Donald Trump: The wind brings it down a lot. So, we made the right decision. You couldn’t have stayed. I don’t think you could have had it out. You know how cold it was today. It was – people went out for a little while just to test it. They couldn’t stay out more than 10 minutes. They all came back in. So, we would have had a disaster if we did that, and people would have been hurt. Question: Mr. President, the unlawful disclosure, was that related to the Hunter Biden situation? Donald Trump: Which one? Question: The one on unlawful disclosures by federal officials? Is that related to [Inaudible] Donald Trump: No. I think it’s just more general than that. It’s not Hunter Biden. I was – I was surprised that President Biden would go and pardon his whole family because that makes him look very guilty. You know, I could have pardoned my family. I could have pardoned myself, my family. And I said, “If I do that, it’s going to make me look very guilty.” I don’t think I’d be sitting here, frankly. Donald Trump: If I did that, I don’t think I’d be sitting here right now because I would have – would have shown that you’re guilty. But by pardoning his brother or brothers, by pardoning all of those people that he pardoned, by pardoning – pardoning J6 – the unselect committee, they destroyed all of the documents. Donald Trump: They deleted all of the information. There’s no information. And a lot of the information pertains to Nancy Pelosi because she was given 100 – I mean, you know this. It’s on tape with her daughter. Nancy Pelosi was responsible for not taking advantage of 10,000 soldiers or 1,000 you wouldn’t have needed – you could have used 400. It was a relatively small crowd. Donald Trump: It wasn’t the crowd that was at the mall. It was a small crowd. So – I was – I was a little bit surprised that he did it because it makes him look guilty. I mean, he’s going to have to live with that. Now, with that being said, it’s an unbelievable precedent it creates for a president. But the precedent is unbelievable. Donald Trump: Now, maybe every president that leaves office, they’re going to pardon every person they ever met, so they don’t have some lunatic like Deranged Jack Smith, who’s a total lunatic, by the way – not a smart guy. He’s a dummy. But we beat the hell out of him, and I helped my reputation. Question: Do you think you’d have to do the same thing at the end of this term? Donald Trump: Well, I guess now, I have precedent to do it. I don’t – I wouldn’t want to do that. No, I think it makes you look very guilty. I think it makes Biden look very bad, very weak, and very guilty. And I mean, he – he pardoned everybody. How about this J6 committee? How do you – why is he pardoning them? The reason is because if you delete and destroy documentation, everything – they have nothing because they were guilty as hell. Donald Trump: They rigged it. It was a rigged deal. And when you do that, they look very bad. But I was a little surprised he did it. Liz Cheney, I mean, she’s a lunatic. And she lost by the greatest margin in the history of a politician running for Congress, like 40 points. The reason it was the greatest is because anybody losing that badly is going to drop out. Donald Trump: But she’s a nut job. She doesn’t drop out. You know, she just keeps chugging forward, and she lost by almost 40 points. That’s the biggest number anybody has ever lost by. But why would Biden do that? He pardoned her and pardoned everybody. The reason is that they destroyed documents. And if you’re even in a civil case, which this wouldn’t be – I mean, people go to jail for a long time for doing that. Donald Trump: What’s this one? Unidentified: That’s unleashing American energy, sir. Relates to easing permitting processes and other regulatory systems to ensure that we can produce energy efficiently to drive the American economy forward. Donald Trump: Good. Question: President Trump, looking around the office, we noticed some changes in the way that Biden had it set up. Can you confirm that you have added back the Diet Coke button? Donald Trump: I think this – we – first of all, I just got here. So, my people came in. They have extraordinary decorator sense, right? Let me just see some of the pictures. That’s a good one. I could live with him. I could live with George Washington, I can tell you. I can live with Thomas Jefferson. I can live with most of them. Donald Trump: They took a very safe route. They didn’t have – they don’t have any bad ones up there. Unidentified: This is withdrawing from the – Donald Trump: What is this one? Unidentified: Withdrawing from the World Health Organization, sir. Donald Trump: Ooh, that’s a big one. So, we paid $500 million to World Health when I was here, and I terminated it. China, with 1.4 billion people, we have 350 – we have – nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally. But let’s say we have 325. They had 1.4 billion. They were paying 39 million. Donald Trump: We were paying 500 million. It seemed a little unfair to me. So, that wasn’t the reason, but I dropped out. They offered me to come back for 39 million. In theory, it should be less than that, but you know – And when Biden came back, they came back for 500 million. He knew that you could have come back for 39 million. Donald Trump: They wanted us back so badly. So, we’ll see what happens. Question: Mr. President, you spoke – Donald Trump: Pretty sad, though. Think of it. China pays 39 million, and we pay 500 million. And China’s a bigger country. Question: Mr. President, you spoke about inflation today in your remarks. What actions are you taking today that will have a direct impact for Americans on their everyday costs to bring the cost down? Donald Trump: Well, the biggest thing and factor for inflation is energy. They screwed up my energy policy, and then they went back to it. You know, they – they hurt it really badly, and then they went back to it, and they started drilling more. But by that time, it was too late. Many of these things that we’re signing and that Doug Burgum is going to be signing and Chris Wright, who’s phenomenal, you know, energy – Department of Energy. Donald Trump: We’re going to be taking a lot. We’re going to make a lot of money from energy. We have a – we have more than anybody else. We’re going to make a lot of money from energy. We’re going to make a lot of money from tariffs. You know, European Union charges us. They have a VAT tax of 20 percent, but it’s really much higher than that. Donald Trump: And that’s the equivalent – almost the equivalent of a tariff. And they’re tough. They’re very tough. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our farm product. They don’t take almost anything, and yet, we take their cars and we take their farm product. We take a lot from them. So, you know, we have like a $300 billion deficit with the European Union. Donald Trump: So, we’ll straighten that out with either tariffs or they have to buy our oil. The one thing they can do – oil and gas. The one thing they can do to catch up quickly, buy our oil and gas. Question: Will you travel – Donald Trump: And they should do that. Question: Will you travel to China this year? Donald Trump: Yeah, it could be. I’ve had the invite. Question: President Xi invited you to come this year? Donald Trump: I would do. Yeah. Question: Talking about the European Union and the tariffs, like what do you mean when you say that the European Union [Inaudible] is part of BRICS? Donald Trump: That it what? Question: BRICS? Donald Trump: Oh, BRICS. No. I was talking about BRICS. BRICS is six nations. I think it’s seven nations. And they were looking to do a number in the United States. And if they do that, they won’t be happy about what’s going to happen to them. Question: Are you still considering a universal tariff, Mr. President, of all countries? Donald Trump: I might? Yeah, but we’re not ready for that yet. We may – we may put it – wrap it because, essentially, all countries take advantage of the US. We don’t – we don’t make any good deals in the US. It’s amazing in a way that we exist. We don’t make good deals. We don’t have any good deals. We have a – we have a deficit with almost, not all. Donald Trump: There are a couple. I won’t tell you their names because I don’t want them to find out about it because they’ll feel stupid. But there are a couple of countries that – there are a couple of countries that actually don’t make money with us, but I don’t want to let you know because they’ll immediately change that. Donald Trump: We’re going to – we’re going to do – I tell you what. We have – our country has an amazing economic future. I really believe that. Question: What kind of universal tariff if you did do one [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Well, you’d put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the United States because they’re coming in and they’re stealing our wealth, they’re stealing our jobs, they’re stealing our companies, they’re hurting our companies. Question: Is there a number – Donald Trump: So, you put a – you put a tariff on to keep them from doing that. Question: Mr. President, you surround yourself with a whole bunch of billionaires today. President Biden, as he – in his farewell address warned about oligarchy. I was wondering about your response to that. Donald Trump: Well, he was – he had a lot of guys. And then they found out that he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, and I think they deserted him. Unidentified: Here, sir. Donald Trump: They deserted him, those same guys. Look, I don’t make pretenses, smart guys, but there are a lot of smart people around, but they did desert him. They were all with him, every one of one of them. Now, they’re all with me. I don’t know. Not going to get anything from me. I don’t need money, but I do want the nation to do well. Donald Trump: And they’re smart people, and they have – you know, they create a lot of jobs. And if they don’t do it, China’s going to do it. You know, what they’ve done is they’ve taken industries, and they’ve taken it away. They outsmarted China. And, you know, we sort of like that. It’s OK. They’ve done a great job. Donald Trump: A lot of them, not all of them. Unidentified: Protecting women from radical gender ideology. Donald Trump: Ooh. Question: Mr. President, going back to the World Health Organization, you were the president during COVID. Don’t you see the importance of organization like that to coordinate a global response? Donald Trump: Sure, I do, but not when you’re being ripped off like we are by the World Health. World Health ripped us off. Everybody rips off the United States, and that’s it. It’s not going to happen anymore. Thank you very much, everybody. Unidentified: All right, guys. Let’s go.
Date: 2025-01-21
Unidentified: Hello, everybody. Mr. President, thank you. Donald Trump: Hello, everybody. Unidentified: Mr. President, [inaudible]. Donald Trump: Thank you. Nice to see you. Some very familiar faces. Well, thank you very much and it’s an honor to be here today. We have first full day as president. We’re back, and we had a great first term, but we’re going to have an even better second term. And I think we’re going to do things that people will be shocked at. We’re starting off with tremendous investment coming into our country at levels that nobody has really ever seen before. Donald Trump: And they’re very happy with the fact that I won the race and that they feel confident in their investments. And it’s big money and high-quality people. So, my first day back from having a nice life, it’s my honor to welcome three of the world’s leading technology CEOs. And in the case of Larry, Larry Ellison, it’s well beyond technology, sort of CEO of everything. Donald Trump: He’s an amazing man and an amazing business person. But to announce the largest AI infrastructure Structure project by far in history, and it’s all taking place right here in America. As you know, there’s great competition for AI and other things and they’re coming in at the highest level. We’re joined by Oracle executive Chairman Larry Ellison. Donald Trump: SoftBank CEO, my friend, Masa, Masayoshi Son and CEO of Open AI, and I would say by far the leading expert based on everything I read, Sam Altman. So, that’s great that you’re coming in together. That’s a massive group of talent and money. Together, these world leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate. Donald Trump: So, put that name down in your books because I think you’re going to hear a lot about it in the future, a new American company that will invest $500 billion at least in AI infrastructure in the United States and very, very quickly, moving very rapidly, creating over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately. Donald Trump: This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential under a new president. Let me be a new president. I didn’t say it, they did. So, I appreciate that, fellas, but it will ensure the future of technology. What we want to do is we want to keep it in this country. China is a competitor and others are competitors. Donald Trump: We want it to be in this country and we’re making it available. I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency. We have to get this stuff built. So, they have to produce a lot of electricity, and we’ll make it possible for them to get that production done very easily at their own plants if they want, where they’ll build at the plant, the AI plant, they’ll build energy generation and that will be incredible. Donald Trump: But it’s technology and artificial intelligence all made in the USA. Begin immediately, Stargate will be building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of advancements in AI. And this will include the construction of colossal data centers, very, very massive structures. I was in the real estate business, these buildings, these are big beautiful buildings that are going to employ a lot of people and physical campuses in locations currently being scouted nationwide. Donald Trump: They’re making their choices of locations. I think they have their choice. I’d like to ask Larry, Sam and Masa to say a few words and just talk a little bit about what they’re doing and if you have any questions and then we’ll go into a couple of other subjects also. But this is, to me, a very big thing, $500 billion Stargate project. Donald Trump: I think it’s going to be something that’s very special. It will lead to something that could be the biggest of all. So Larry, maybe we’ll start with you and we’ll go down the line. Thank you. Larry Ellison: OK. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. President, we certainly couldn’t do this without you. It would simply be impossible. AI holds incredible promise for all of us, for every American. We’ve actually been working with Open AI for a while and with Masa for a while. The data centers are actually under construction. Larry Ellison: The first of them are under construction in Texas. Each building is a half a million square feet. There are 10 buildings currently being built, but that will expand to 20, and other locations beyond the Abilene location, which is our first location. The kind of applications that we’re building, to give you an idea, maybe the most charismatic and the one that I think touches us all is electronic health records, not just maintaining electronic health records, but by looking at electronic health records, understanding the condition of doctors better understanding the condition of their patients and being able to provide health care plans that are much better than they otherwise would be. A doctor in Indian River reservation would be able to see how a doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering would treat the patient, or a doctor at Stanford would treat the patient. Larry Ellison: We actually provide all of that information, all of that guidance to the doctors who are treating cancer patients or patients with any other kind of disease, made possible by AI. I’m not going to take a lot of time. I’m going to pass it to Masa, but this is a very exciting program for Oracle to be a part of. Thank you. Masayoshi Son: Oh, Thank you. That would be helpful. That’s good. That’s great. I feel tall now. Thank you. Well, Mr. President, last month, I came to celebrate your winning and promised that we will invest $100 billion. And you told me, oh, Masa, go for $200 billion. Now I came back with $500 billion, because this is the, as you said yesterday, this is the beginning of golden age – Donald Trump: Golden age. Masayoshi Son: – Of America. This is one great example, I think, right? Donald Trump: I hope. Masayoshi Son: We wouldn’t have decided to do this. Donald Trump: I hope so, and I think so. Masayoshi Son: This is the beginning of golden age. We wouldn’t have decided unless you won. And yesterday, we agreed, we signed to make this happen. Donald Trump: That’s great. Masayoshi Son: Because of this day. Donald Trump: That’s very nice. Masayoshi Son: So, we would make this happen. We would immediately start deploying $100 billion, with a goal of making $500 billion, within the next four years within your term, right, because of your success. So we are very, very excited to do this and our partner is of course SoftBank, Open AI, Oracle and additionally investing partner with MGX. Masayoshi Son: On top of that, we have the technology partner Nvidia. And of course, Microsoft has been very, very supportive to Sam and continued to support all our success. This is not just for business. As Larry said, this will help people’s life. This will help solving many, many issues, difficult things that otherwise we could not have solved with the power of AI. I think AGI is coming very, very soon. Masayoshi Son: And after that – that’s not the goal. After that, artificial superintelligence will come to solve the issues that mankind would never ever have thought that we could solve. Well, this is the beginning of our golden age. Thank you, very much. Donald Trump: Thank you, very much. Fantastic. Masayoshi Son: Sam. Sam Altman: I don’t have too much to add, but I did want to say I’m thrilled we get to do this in the United States of America. I think this will be the most important project of this era. And as Masa said, for AGI to get built here, to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, to create a new industry centered here, we wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President and I’m thrilled that we get to. Sam Altman: I think it will be an exciting project, I think we’ll be able to do all of the wonderful things these guys talked about. But the fact that we get to do this in the United States is, I think, wonderful. So, thank you very much. Donald Trump: Can you just say one word – I hear so many positive things about what it’s going to do for medical research and for solving things, cancer and all the different problems. How will AI help us with the fight against various problems, diseases, etc.? Sam Altman: These guys can maybe share more about some of the work they’re doing there. I think they’ll jointly be some of the leaders about driving progress here. But I believe that as this technology progresses, we will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate. We will be amazed at how quickly we’re curing this cancer and that one and heart disease, and what this will do for the ability to deliver very high-quality healthcare, the costs. Sam Altman: But really to cure diseases at a rapid, rapid rate, I think will be among the most important things this technology does. Donald Trump: Very good. Thank you. Larry Ellison: Let’s dig in and answer that question, Mr. President. So, we’re currently working on – should I step on this? OK. All right, no, no, no, no, I’m not that, I’m not that tall. I’m not that tall. I’m not that –. Donald Trump: You look even better now. Larry Ellison: Thank you, Mr. President. One of the most exciting things we’re working on, again using the tools that Sam and Masa are providing, is a cancer vaccine. It’s very interesting, early – it turns out, I’ll be quick, all of our cancers, cancer tumors, little fragments of those tumors float around in your blood. Larry Ellison: So, you can do early cancer detection if you can do it – using a – you can do early cancer detection with a blood test. And using AI to look at the blood test, you can find the cancers that are actually seriously threatening the person. So, we can, again, cancer diagnosis using AI has the promise of just being a simple blood test. Larry Ellison: Then beyond that, once we gene sequence – once we gene sequence that cancer tumor, you can then vaccinate the person, design a vaccine for every individual person to vaccinate them against that cancer. And you can make that vaccine, that mRNA vaccine, you can make that robotically again using AI in about 48 hours. Larry Ellison: So, imagine early cancer detection, the development of a cancer vaccine for your particular cancer aimed at you, and have that vaccine available in 48 hours. This is the promise of AI and the promise of the future. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thanks. All right. Question: Can we ask some questions? Donald Trump: Yeah, just one second, we’ll finish up, but these are highly respected guys. I was shocked with Larry because I don’t even think Larry does this stuff. You did a very good job for a guy that doesn’t do it much, right? But he’s so respected and the group and it’s really an honor. But for Larry to be here and do this is very unusual because he doesn’t do this stuff. Donald Trump: He doesn’t need it. He does – and you don’t need it, do you? You don’t need it. But I just – I think it’s an honor to the country. It’s a great honor that this group – these are the top people that they – they’re going to do it and they’re going to do it here and we’re going to make it as easy as it can be. A $500 million Stargate Project comes in addition to a separate pledge between $100 billion and $200 billion from – as we know, from Masa we talked about before, also $20 billion from DAMAC, which was great, and we have many others that are coming. Donald Trump: Some I just say just announce it, it’s easier, but with some I know them and they’re so highly respected, I’d rather do it this way. Many would like to do it this way. But we’re letting the world know what’s happening. This is money that normally would have gone to China or other countries, but in particular China. Donald Trump: In total, before the end of my first full business day in Washington in the White House, we’ve already secured nearly $3 trillion of new investments in the United States and probably that’s going to be $6 trillion or $7 trillion by the end of the week. Tremendous amounts of money are coming in for many things other than even AI. AI seems to be very hot. Donald Trump: It seems to be the thing that a lot of smart people are looking at very strongly. Our country will be prospering like never before. I think that’s true and it’s going to be the golden age of America. As I say, yesterday, we had the had the most ambition – ambitious action-oriented day of any administration in history. Donald Trump: There’s never been a first day like yesterday, as you know. I signed a sweeping slate of executive orders to stop the invasion of our borders. I launched a government-wide effort to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life and bring down the cost of energy, magnificently bring it down. And when energy comes down, Larry, I’d say generally speaking, when energy comes down everything else comes down. Donald Trump: The prices of food and the prices of everything else come down. Energy is the big – that’s the big baby. And we declared a national energy emergency to drill baby drill, our term that we use. We’re going to drill baby drill like never before. We ended destructive DEI mandates across the federal government and returned our country to a merit-based system and a commonsense system. Donald Trump: As you know, the Supreme Court gave us a decision on merit where things in this country can be based on merit now instead of a lot of different rules, regulations and things that really put our country at a big disadvantage. We permanently stopped government censorship and restored free speech, that was signed yesterday. Donald Trump: We renamed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America – sounds so beautiful, the Gulf of America – and returned the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley. They took off the name. And he was actually a great president. He was a very, very successful businessman. He ran for governor of Ohio. Donald Trump: He won and did a great job as governor. Ran for president and he won. He was assassinated ultimately in his second term, unfortunately. But he was the Tariff King and he – I don’t think he was as bad as I am. I think I believe in them even more than him, but he believed in them very strongly. And he raised massive amounts of money. Donald Trump: Our country was at its richest from – from 1870 to 1913 we had the most – that was when we were the richest, relatively speaking we. Were the richest during that period of time. That was tariffs from other countries. And our administration is moving with unprecedented urgency and speed to confront every single crisis facing us and we’ll get the job done. Donald Trump: And again, I want to thank Sam and Masa and Larry for being here. It’s an honor to have them, and we’ll take a few questions if you want. Question: Asking about some of the executive orders. You would agree that it’s never acceptable to assault a police officer. Donald Trump: Sure. Question: So, then if I can, among those you pardoned, DJ Rodriguez, he drove a stun gun into the neck of a DC police officer who was abducted by the mob that day. He later confessed on video to the FBI and pleaded guilty for his crimes. Why does he deserve a pardon? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know, was it a pardon? Because we’re looking at commutes so we’re looking at pardons. OK, well, we’ll take a look at everything. But I can say this, murderers today are not even charged. You have murderers that aren’t charged all over. You take a look at what’s going on in Philadelphia, take a look at what’s going on in LA where people murder people, and they don’t get charged. Donald Trump: These people have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously. It’s a disgusting prison, it’s been horrible, it’s inhumane, it’s been a terrible, terrible thing. I also say this, you go to Portland where they did – where they wrapped police officers, shot police officers. Nothing happened to anybody. Donald Trump: You go to Seattle where they took over a big chunk of the city and people died. Portland, a lot of people died. Wait a minute, and you go also take a look at Minneapolis because I was there and I watched it, and if I didn’t bring in the National Guard that city wouldn’t even exist today. People were killed and nobody went to jail. Donald Trump: So, these people have already served a long period of time, and I made a decision to give a pardon. Joe Biden gave a pardon yesterday to a lot of criminals. These are criminals that he gave a pardon to, and you should be asking that question. Why did he give a pardon to all of these people that committed crimes? Donald Trump: Why did he give a pardon to the J6 Unselect Committee when they burned and destroyed all documents which showed that they did what was wrong, not me? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Why did they give a pardon to all of his relatives? His brother who made millions of dollars, to all these different people he gave pardons. Donald Trump: That’s the question you should be answering. All right, go ahead. Yes, please. Question: Can I just follow up on that really fast? Donald Trump: No, no, no, no, that’s enough. Go ahead. Question: You said you will tell us about your meeting with Speaker Johnson, Senator Thune. Did you reach any conclusion on this one big – Donald Trump: Pretty much. I think we have a good situation. Now it’s been in some ways made simpler by Los Angeles because they’re going to need a lot of money and generally speaking, I think you’ll find that a lot of Democrats are going to be asking for help. So, I think maybe that makes it more one-sided. I think we’re going to do very well. Donald Trump: Look, we’re going to take care of Los Angeles. I’m going there. I’m going to North Carolina, which has been abandoned by the Democrats and I’m going to North Carolina very importantly, first. I’ll be there on Friday and then I’m going from there to Los Angeles. And then I’m going to Nevada and I’m really going to Nevada to thank them for the vote because we won Nevada overwhelmingly and that’s usually a Democrat vote. Donald Trump: And I just want to go there to thank the people of Nevada for the big vote. So we’ll be making that. Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were freed following their pardons yesterday. At the time back in 2021, you urged them to stand back and stand by. Is there now a place for them in the political conversation? Donald Trump: Well, we have to see. They’ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive. One of the guys took down a flag that was an anti-American flag and he was given years in jail. I don’t know the exact number, but he was given many years in jail. I thought it was very excessive and at least the cases that we looked at, these were people that actually love our country. Donald Trump: So, we thought a pardon would be appropriate. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, is it also true in your conversations with republicans today that you asked them to consider recess appointments for cabinet officials? Donald Trump: I think, yeah, if it’s needed. I don’t think it’s going to be needed. Marco, as you know, got passed overwhelmingly with 99 to nothing, which is pretty amazing. Marco is going to do a great job, Secretary of State, but he just got – I guess he was the first one and just got approved. That’s some vote, 99 to nothing. Donald Trump: And the nothing was a vote that he would have gotten if we wanted to do it, but you know whose vote that was, who’s doing a great job right now as vice president. Question: Did you also talk about some sort of a trade or a deal involving wildfire relief, an extension for a debt – Donald Trump: What I really want to have done, I was talking about this with the guys back in the Oval Office. Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it. All they have to do is turn the valve. And that’s the valve coming back from and down from the Pacific Northwest, where millions of gallons of water, a week and a day even, in many cases, pours into California. Donald Trump: Goes all through California, down to Los Angeles, and they turned it off. It’s off now. The valve goes – it turns toward the Pacific Ocean and all that water goes pouring into the Pacific Ocean. If they did what I told them to do, they wouldn’t do it because politically they didn’t think it was good. I think it’s great politically. Donald Trump: I think they’re dead politically. What they’ve done, they’ve destroyed the city. What they’ve done to that city is unbelievable. The sprinklers, their sprinklers in there like these right here that you see, none of them had any water in them. They didn’t have any water. The fire hydrants, 40 percent of them had no water. Donald Trump: The brush was just dry. Everything was dry. The sprinklers on the lawn weren’t allowed to even be used. So, everything was dry and it was an inferno. They created an inferno. So, we’re demanding that they turn the valve back toward Los Angeles right now. It’s not even believable that they haven’t done it. Just so you know, they have a valve and it turns. Donald Trump: Think of a sink but multiply it times many thousands of times the size of it. It’s massive. And you turn it back to what Los Angeles. Why aren’t they doing it? They either have a death wish, they’re stupid or there’s something else going on that we don’t understand. But we want the water that they’re throwing away to be used for California, and that includes the farmers of California. Donald Trump: When you drive up north, you see all of the land. I couldn’t believe it. I was with Devin Nunes when he was a Congressman and some other Congressmen from the area and we’re driving up and we’re on the highway. And I keep looking at these farms and the land is bone dry and then you’d see an acre, about an acre or two acres with the most beautiful green plants growing in it, the most beautiful you’ve ever – it’s rich stuff, and you look at the soil and it’s so rich. Donald Trump: That soil is almost equivalent to like Iowa soil. It’s phenomenal, but it’s got no water. But the reason it has no water – I said, do you have a drought, no. I said what do you mean you don’t have a drought? Look at the thing, it’s dry as a bone. The reason you have like an acre is because they say you can farm one acre but no more because they didn’t want to want to waste water, but they throw the water into the Pacific Ocean. Donald Trump: These people are crazy. So, we’re going to be issuing an executive order demanding that they immediately let that water come down to through California farmers, even people living in Beverly Hills. Now, those people have been – I mean, a lot of them are wiped out. Believe it or not, they were having restrictions. Donald Trump: Larry, you know about this. They wanted to restrict you to 38 gallons of water a day. That sounds like a lot, but it’s not when you’re a rich person and you like to take a shower. 38 gallons doesn’t last very long. And they have all this water and it’s really good water, up high, pacific northwest. Some comes in from Canada, a nice country, by the way. Donald Trump: Comes in from Canada and it comes all the way through California and they’re restricting it. You even have the half pipes, the half pipes, the cut pipes, big ones, bigger than this room. And they’re going all the way the way down and they’re bone dry and they could be loaded up with water. No, but isn’t it incredible that they don’t do it? And it’s to protect the delta smelt. Donald Trump: It’s a fish that’s doing poorly anyway. But I said how are you protecting the delta smelt by not giving it water? It’s a fish, it needs water. Nobody can answer that question. Question: Can I ask about – On TikTok, Mr. President – Donald Trump: Well, let me do this first. Question: Are you open to Elon buying TikTok? Donald Trump: What’s that? Question: I would be, if he wanted to buy it. Yeah. And on your inauguration – Donald Trump: I’d like Larry to buy it too. I have the right to make a deal. So, the deal I’m thinking about, Larry, let’s negotiate in front of the media. The deal, I think is this uh and I’ve met with owners of TikTok, the big owners. It’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit. It’s not like, oh, you can take the US. The whole thing is worthless. Donald Trump: With a permit, it’s worth like $1 trillion. So, what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we’ll give you the permit and they’ll have a great partner, the United States. And they’ll have something that’s actually more valuable because they have the ultimate partner. Donald Trump: And the United States will make it very worthwhile for them in terms of the permits and everything else. So, think of it, you have an asset that has no value or has $1 trillion value. It all depends on whether or not the United States gives the permit. So, what I’m saying is let the United States give the permit and the United States should get half. Donald Trump: Sounds reasonable. What do you think? Larry Ellison: Sounds like a good deal to me, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Yeah, he can afford it too. Question: Mr. President, you’re a president who has long said that you back the blue, but aren’t you sending the message that assaulting officers is okay with these pardons? Donald Trump: No, the opposite. In fact, I’m going to be letting two officers from Washington Police DC. I believe they’re from DC., but I just approved it. They were arrested, put in jail for five years because they went after an illegal and I guess something happened where something went wrong and they arrested the two officers and put them in jail for going after a criminal. Donald Trump: A rough criminal, by the way, and I’m actually releasing – no, I’m the friend of – I am the friend of police more than any president that’s ever been in this office. Question: More than 400 of the people that you pardoned though assaulted officers. So, I want to ask you about the Vice Presiden, JD Vance. He said, if – this is a week ago. He said if you committed violence on January 6th, obviously you should not be pardoned. Why is your vice president wrong? Donald Trump: Well, only for one reason. They’ve served years in jail. They should not have served – excuse me, and they’ve served years in jail and murderers don’t even go to jail in this country. And we had 1,500 – we have 16 under review. As you know, we commuted about 16 of them because it looks like they could have done things that were not acceptable for a full pardon. Donald Trump: But these people have served years of jail. Their lives have been ruined and in many – and in many cases – listen to me for a second. Stop interrupting. Question: I apologize. Donald Trump: They served years in jail. And if you look at the American public, the American public is tired of it. Take a look at the election, just look at the numbers on the election. We won this election in a landslide because the American public is tired of people like you that are just one-sided, horrible people in terms of crime. Donald Trump: You don’t talk about all the people that have been killed and what happens to those murderers. Murderers get no time. You take a look at some of these DAs. They go after political opponents, but they don’t go after people that shoot people in the street. They’re caught. They know where they’re living. They know everything. Donald Trump: They don’t even go up to pick them up anymore, they just let them live there. They know all about it. They have their pictures; they have the tape of the shooting, and they don’t even go up and talk and you’re talking about this. No, we pardoned people that were treated unbelievably poorly. In the history of our country there’s never been anything take place like this. Donald Trump: They’re still looking for them, but they’re not looking for the murderers, the people that are killing everybody. We are though, and we’re getting them out of the country. We just started that. We’re getting them out of the country and they’re going to be gotten out of the country fast. They came in illegally from jails and from prisons. Donald Trump: They killed many people. Some of them killed many people. About 50 percent of them killed more than one person. They were released into our country. That’s what we’re focused on, not the kind of nonsense you’re talking about. Question: You called for a ceasefire in Ukraine. If Vladimir Putin doesn’t come to the table to negotiate with you, will you put additional sanctions on Russia? Donald Trump: It sounds likely. Yeah. Question: Do you think that the war should be frozen currently – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: The war should have never started. If you had a competent president, which you didn’t, the war wouldn’t have happened. The war in Ukraine would have never happened if I were president. But that couldn’t happen because the election was rigged. Yeah, go ahead. Question: Mr. President, there’s been some debate within your orbit over whether or not to keep or eliminate H-1B visas. What is your position on that? Do you want to keep H-1Bs or do you want to – Donald Trump: Well, I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country, even if that involves them training and helping other people that may not have the qualifications they do. But I don’t want to stop – and I’m not just talking about engineers, I’m talking about people at all levels. Donald Trump: We want competent people coming into our country. And H-B1, I know the program very well. I use the program. Maitre d’s, wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters – you’ve got to get the best people. Now then you go into people like Larry, and he needs engineers and Masa needs, and this gentleman needs engineers like nobody’s ever needed engineers, right? Donald Trump: So, we have to have the quality people coming in. Now by doing that, we’re expanding businesses and that takes care of everybody. So, I’m sort of on both sides of the argument, but what I really do feel is that we have to let really competent people, great people come into our country. And we do that through the H-1B program. Question: Mr. President, are you looking to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico in an effort to force negotiations sooner on USMCA? Donald Trump: No, it’s really not – USMCA, it has nothing to do with that. They’ve allowed – both of them, Canada very much so – they’ve allowed millions and millions of people to come into our country that shouldn’t be here. They could have stopped them, and they didn’t. And they’ve killed 300,000 people last year, my opinion, have been destroyed by drugs, by fentanyl. Donald Trump: The fentanyl coming through Canada is massive. The fentanyl coming through Mexico is massive. And people are getting killed and families are being destroyed. I mean, the son gets killed and the family is a basket case for the rest of their lives. I mean, I’ve seen mothers that thought they’d heal, they never heal. Donald Trump: They say it gets worse with time; it gets worse with time. They lose their boy, they lose their baby, they lose their young daughter to fentanyl poisoning. And I had that talk with President Xi the other day too, of China. I said we don’t want that crap in our country. We’ve got to stop it. I would have stopped it. I had to deal with him where he was going to give the maximum penalty, which in China is the death penalty, for drug dealing and he was all set. Donald Trump: He was going to give the maximum penalty to fentanyl dealers if they send to the United States, they were going to get the death penalty. And of course, Biden didn’t pick that up. I had that deal all done. It was all wrapped up. We were going to have it done and then the election went – let’s put it nicely. Donald Trump: It didn’t go the proper way. I’m doing – I’m trying to be nice about it. It was rigged and we had an incompetent president elected and he never followed up on that deal. But he should have followed up because if they got the death penalty, they wouldn’t be sending fentanyl to Mexico, Canada and other places. Question: Mr. President, how much will the – Donald Trump: We’re thinking about that too, we’re talking about a tariff of 10 percent on China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada. Question: What did he write in that letter to you, sir? How soon on those tariffs. Donald Trump: Probably February 1st is the date we’re looking at. For Mexico and China, we’re talking about approximately 25 percent. Question: [Inaudible] update on the Gaza ceasefire. Are you planning to travel to the Middle East soon? Donald Trump: We’re thinking about going to the Middle East. Not yet, we have a thing called the hostages are coming back going on right now and they are coming back. Some of them have been very, very damaged. You look at the young lady with her hand practically blown off – you know how that happened, right? Did you know how that happened? Donald Trump: When you find out, you’re not going to be too happy because it was terrible. But the hostages are starting to come back. Oh, if I weren’t here, they wouldn’t be back ever, they would have never come back. They would have all died. If this were done a year earlier, if Biden would have done this deal a year and a half, two years ago – or frankly it should have never happened, October 7th should have never happened. Donald Trump: Nobody should be dead, but through weakness they allowed it to happen and then it was a disaster from there. But you go back just six months ago, many of these young people were living – you know, young people don’t die like that. They’re just dying, and young people aren’t dying at 22 and 23 years old. Donald Trump: They don’t die. But now they’re dying. And you wonder why they’re dying; they’re being killed, and they have been killed. But they say six months ago, you would have had 11 more living hostages. Think of that, six months ago. But Biden couldn’t get it done. And it was only the imposition that I put on as a deadline that got it done. Donald Trump: But it’s a very sad situation. It should have never happened. I’ll tell you two things should have never happened – three things, inflation should have never happened. It would have never happened except for what they did to energy and their crazy spending, and Ukraine would have never happened. Never, by the way, Russia never would have gone into Ukraine. Donald Trump: I had a very strong understanding with Putin. That would have never ever happened. He disrespected Biden, very simple. He disrespects people, he’s smart, he understands, he disrespected Biden. And also, the Middle East would have never happened because Iran was broke. They had no money, they had no money for Hamas, they had no money for Hezbollah. Donald Trump: It would have never happened. October 7th would have never happened. But it did happen. So, this is the cards I’ve been given and we’re getting the hostages back. That would have never happened under Biden, they would have never come back. They were just dying very – not that slowly, they were dying or being killed, but that was what was happening. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – going to keep sending weapons to Ukraine or are you going to turn off the tap soon? Donald Trump: Well, we’re looking at that. We’re talking to Zelenskyy. We’re going to be talking with President Putin very soon, and we’ll see how it all happens. We’re going to look at it very – one thing I do feel, the European Union should be paying a lot more than they’re paying because under Biden, I mean we’re in there for $200 billion more. Donald Trump: Now it affects them more than it affects us. We have an ocean in between, right, little thing called an ocean. The European Union should equalize. We’re in there for $200 billion more than the European Union. I mean, what are we, stupid? I guess the answer is yes, because they must think so. But the European Union takes advantage of us tremendously on trade and they now take advantage of – and always have. Donald Trump: If I didn’t get involved years ago in my first term, one of the first things I noticed was that they’re not paying enough, they’re not paying and a lot of those countries weren’t even paying – the NATO countries, they weren’t paying. Only seven out of 28 were paying, we were one of them. And Poland was one and they had a few of them that were paying, and some were paying very proudly. Donald Trump: Usually, the closer to the borderline of Russia they were, the faster they paid, OK. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: The ones that were further away tended not to pay so fast. And one thing on that, I think they should lift their number not to 2 percent, but to 5 percent. NATO should be at 5 percent, not at 2 percent, 2 percent is ridiculous. Yeah. Question: I missed President Xi and your conversation about Ukraine. You asked him to get involved in helping settle that. Can you tell us about that? Donald Trump: Yeah, I did. Yeah, I said you ought to get it settled because he’s not done very much on that. He’s got a lot of power, like we have a lot of power. I said you ought to get it settled. We did discuss it. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, you [Inaudible] a crypto coin the other day. Do you intend to continue selling products that benefit yourself personally while you’re president? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know if it benefited, I don’t know where it is. I don’t know much about it other than I launched it. I heard it was very successful. I haven’t checked it. Where is it today? Question: You made a lot of money [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: How much? Question: Several billion dollars it seems like in the last several days. Donald Trump: Several billion. That’s peanuts for these guys. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – Sir, you talked about the letter from President Biden. Can you give us some sense broadly speaking? Donald Trump: Yeah, he wrote me a nice letter. I mean, I did open it last night and I didn’t know – Peter said, did you get the letter? I said, wait a minute, let’s see the letter. It’s sort of a tradition. You put it in the drawer, especially of the beautiful Resolute Desk, right? Donald Trump: And I opened the door and there it was, said to number 47. And it was a very nice letter. I mean, I could show it because I think it was a nice letter. Maybe I will. I think – Question: Message wise. What did it say in terms of – Donald Trump: Just basically, it was a little bit of uh, an inspirational type letter, you know, enjoy it, do a good job. Important, very important, how important the job is, but I think it was a nice letter. I think I should let people see it because it was a positive for him in writing it. I appreciated the letter. Question: Mr. President, were security concerns at all factor when deciding to move your inauguration indoors? Donald Trump: No, not at all. No, not at all. It was just cold. Look, if we would have – I just went out to the helicopter – we said goodbye. That’s a tradition. As long as helicopter – before, it used to be a stagecoach and then helicopters came along. But that’s been a tradition, you go out and you do that and we stood there for 10 minutes. Donald Trump: And I’ll tell you what, people would not have been able to get through that day. That was called. It was sort of interesting. Don’t let the sun fool you. Tell me something, sunny days can get very cold, can’t they? Because that was so freezing yesterday. You couldn’t have gotten through it. It would have been – And the answer is no, it wasn’t secured. Donald Trump: With that being said, I thought the Capitol, the rotunda was beautiful, 72 degrees, unbelievable sound. You know, it’s like being in an opera house. I could see people wanting to do it there rather than outside. Question: Why did you remove John Bolton’s security clearance, sir? Donald Trump: Because I think there was enough time. We take a job. You take a job. You want to do a job. We’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we? I thought he was a very dumb person, but I used him well because every time people saw me come into a meeting with John Bolton standing behind me, they thought that he’d attacked them because he was a war monger. Donald Trump: He’s the one that got us involved, along with Cheney and a couple of others, convinced Bush which was a terrible decision to blow up the Middle East. We blew up the Middle East and we left and we got nothing out of it except a lot of death. We killed a lot of people and John Bolton was one of those guys, a stupid guy. Donald Trump: But no, you can’t have that for life. You shouldn’t expect it for life. Question: [Inaudible] that meeting that you mentioned with President Zelenskyy, will that take place here and when and where will he meet with? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I mean, look, President Zelenskyy would like to have peace. He’s told me that very strongly. He’d like to have peace, but it takes two to tango. We’ll see what happens. Question: Will you meet with President Putin? Donald Trump: Anytime they want, I’ll meet. I’d like to see that end. Millions of people are being killed and they’re being killed. It’s a vicious situation and they’re now largely soldiers. A lot of people have been killed and the cities they look like demolition sites, buildings, massive buildings, bombed and coming down. Donald Trump: The thing with Ukraine is that many more people died than you’re reporting. You’re not reporting the real numbers and I’m not blaming you for that. I’m blaming maybe our government for not wanting to release those numbers. Many more people died than what you know about. When those big buildings come down and they say two people were injured, no, no. Many people, thousands of people are being killed, but the people, the real killing now is on the war front. Donald Trump: It’s a very flat land. And the only thing that stops a bullet is somebody’s body and you have young soldiers. So, Russia has lost about 800,000 soldiers now. Ukraine has lost about 600,000 or 700,000. I think the numbers are low that they’re giving out. But they’ve lost massive numbers of young soldiers and that war should stop. Donald Trump: It’s very flat. It’s beautiful farmland and it’s flat and really beautiful in a different kind of way, but they don’t have any protection. The only thing that stops a bullet is a body and those bodies are stopping a lot of bullets. And they’re being decimated, both sides. Question: [Inaudible] your conversation with President Xi? What did you tell him in terms of when to expect tariffs and what can he do to avoid them? Donald Trump: About which one? Question: Tariffs – Donald Trump: Tariffs? We didn’t talk too much about tariffs, other than he knows where I stand. Look, I put large tariffs on China. I’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars. Until I was president, China never paid not $0.10 to the United States. With me, they paid hundreds of $600 billion or so or more, more than that, even, of tariffs. Donald Trump: And if I didn’t do that, you wouldn’t have a steel mill open in the United States right now. You wouldn’t have one steel mill open in the United States. So what I did is I saved the steel industry. I saved other industries too with other tariffs. Other countries are big abusers also. It’s not just China. Donald Trump: China’s an abuser, but the European Union is very, very bad to us. They treat us very, very badly. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our cars at all. They don’t take our farm products, essentially. They don’t take very much. We have a $350 billion deficit with the European Union. They treat us very, very badly. Donald Trump: So, they’re going to be in for tariffs. Question: Mr. President – Mr. President – Mr. President – Donald Trump: It’s the only way you’re going to get back – it’s the only way you’re going to get fairness. You can’t get fairness unless you do that. But the European Union has treated us very badly, but essentially everybody treats us badly. Everybody treats us badly. Yes, go ahead. Because we allow them to, because we’ve had stupid people doing this and we can’t have – I’d like to have these three people negotiate for us just for one week and we’d be a rich country again, but we’ll be rich. Question: Mr. President, on AI data centers, will you rescind President Biden’s executive order that opens up federal land – Donald Trump: On which centers? Question: On data centers. Will you rescind President Biden’s executive order that opens up federal lands for data centers and energy production? Donald Trump: No, I wouldn’t do that. That sounds to me like it’s something that I would like. I’d like to see federal lands opened up for data centers. I think they’re going to be very important. Again, we have a lot of competition for that. So, it’s an honor to have these three great people, great, great CEOs and great geniuses, all three. Donald Trump: It’s an honor that they want to come to our country, but we’re going to make it as easy as we can for them because other countries want them too. I’m going to have to go now. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Question: [Inaudible] question. Do you have TikTok on your phone? Donald Trump: No, but I think I might put it there. I think I’ll get it right now. By the way, again, we won the young vote. I think I won it through TikTok. So, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok. OK? Thank you. Thank you very much. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Unidentified: Amazing. Thank you.
Date: 2025-01-23
Donald Trump: Okay, very good. We’re going to sign some executive orders. They – uh, very important in just about every case. And it – we’ll go through the first one, please. Will Scharf: Do you want to – David Sacks: – Yeah, Mr. President, this is an executive order on crypto, we’re going to be – oh, sorry, we’re – sorry. Mr. President, this is an executive order on AI. We’re basically announcing the administration’s policy to make America the world capital in artificial intelligence and to dominate and to lead the world in AI. Donald Trump: Do you want to say your name, your full name and serial number. David Sacks: David Sacks, AI and crypto czar. Donald Trump: David is one of the greatest in the world at AI, most respected probably there is. So, that should take us to the forefront, right? David Sacks: Absolutely, we got to win. Donald Trump: Ok. Thank you. Thank you and this, David, is – David Sacks: – Yeah, this is the crypto EO. We’re going to be forming an internal working group to make crypto – to make America the world capital in crypto under your leadership. Donald Trump: Which is really going up, right? David Sacks: Absolutely. Donald Trump: All right, David, that’s for you. David Sacks: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: You find them exciting? They might not be excited, but they’re going to make a lot of money for the country. David Sacks: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: And so is David. You have to check him out. There’s nobody like this guy. They said how did you get David Sacks; how did you do that? And he’s doing it for the country more than anything else. So, we appreciate it, David. Thank you very much. David Sacks: This is an executive order establishing a presidential commission, an advisory commission on science and technology. Donald Trump: Good. Do you want to explain that a little bit? David Sacks: The basic idea is to get together top people from government, the private sector, technology industry as well as educational institutions to make sure that America maintains its leadership position with respect to science and technology development in the years ahead. Donald Trump: Good, that’s great. David Sacks: Next, sir, we have a presidential memorandum, encouraging departments and agencies in your government, including the Department of the Interior, to promote federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Donald Trump: I love the Lumbee Tribe. So, this is their first big step, right? David Sacks: This would be a huge step for them, sir. Donald Trump: Yeah, they were with me all the way. They were great, North Carolina, Lumbee Tribe. OK, you’ll send them a copy of that. David Sacks: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: They were great. Ok. David Sacks: If you’d like, I could get them that pen, sir, as well. Donald Trump: Yeah, let’s do that. David Sacks: Next we have a set of pardons for peaceful pro-life protesters, who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights. Donald Trump: Do you know how many? David Sacks: I believe it’s 23, sir. Donald Trump: 23 people that were prosecuted, they should not have been prosecuted. Many of many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this. They’ll be very happy. So, they’re all in prison now? David Sacks: Some are, some are out of custody. Donald Trump: It’s ridiculous. Ok. David Sacks: Lastly, sir, we have an executive order ordering the declassification of files relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Donald Trump: That’s a big one, huh? A lot of people are waiting for this – for a long – for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed. OK? give that to RFK, Jr. David Sacks: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: OK. OK. Thank you very much. Question: Mr. President, a US judge temporarily blocks the birthright citizenship order. Do you have any reaction? Donald Trump: No. Obviously we’ll appeal it. They put it before a certain judge in Seattle, I guess, right? And there’s no surprises with that judge. Question: Mr. President, senators Collins and Murkowski have now said they will vote against Pete Hegseth. Are you worried about his confirmation and your reaction? Donald Trump: And no surprises there, it’s too bad. It’s just the way – the way it is, too bad. Question: And when would you adjourn congress to make recess appointments, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Well, I’d take a look at that. I listened to John Thune. He’s doing a fantastic job. We’re moving along. The Democrats are trying to delay government, as they always do, they can’t help themselves. Even John Ratcliffe, who’s very, very strong, very popular and liked by the Democrats. I guess he gets a lot of democrat votes. Donald Trump: That’s taken a long time, and it shouldn’t be taking a long time. They’re maxing everything out so they can delay everything as much as possible. Question: Does Senator Thune support an effort to use recess appointments if you choose to do that? Donald Trump: I’d be willing to use recess appointments. It’s up to John. We’ll see. And John Thune is a great guy, a great senator and knows his stuff inside out and backwards. But I would use recess appointments if he wants to do that. Absolutely. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: The Democrats are just delaying. They always delay. Question: Mr. President, you spoke with the Saudi crown prince yesterday. Donald Trump: Who? Question: The Saudi crown prince. How was the call? Donald Trump: Great. Question: And this $600 million – billion they can invest. Donald Trump: $600 billion, I’ll ask them for a trillion. Question: You said you can ask for $1 trillion. Will Saudi Arabia be the first foreign country you will visit since they invested that much money? Donald Trump: If they do that, I would – yeah, I would be glad to do that. I did it, as you know, four years ago we did $450 billion, meaning the money all goes to American companies and they purchase jets, and they purchase computers and everything else. And we did $450 billion, and I guess we’re at $600 billion, $650 billion. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I’ll see if I can talk him into it again. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – again. You showed great confidence in Steve Witkoff. Why you said that you doubt that the ceasefire in Gaza will hold since you appraised his progress? Donald Trump: No, no, I think he’s great, but it’s a very tricky place. It’s very tricky and we’ll see. And if it – if something does happen, they will not be happy. Question: Sir, following up on that one. In terms of Steve Witkoff, are you going to put him in charge of Iran’s strategy? And do you want him talking directly with the Iranians? Donald Trump: No, but he’s certainly somebody I would use. He’s done a fantastic job. He’s a great negotiator. He’s a very good person, great – a very popular person, gets along with people. I have great negotiators; they have no personality whatsoever and then have some that do. Steve has a wonderful way about him and people like him. Donald Trump: And even in this case both sides like him and he was able to make a deal. That deal would have never been made without Steve. The Biden people couldn’t make the deal. They were working on it for a year and a half. They couldn’t make a deal; we got it done prior to the inauguration. We said it has to be before the inauguration. Donald Trump: I mean the deal should hold, but if it doesn’t hold, there’ll be a lot of problems. Question: Related to your, AI EO, just hours after you made that big Stargate announcement, Elon Musk tweeted that they don’t actually have the money. Is that true? Donald Trump: I don’t know if they do, but they’re putting up the money. The government is not putting up anything. They’re putting up money. They’re very rich people. So, I hope they do. And I mean Elon doesn’t like one of those people. So – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Are you worried that AI is going to replace many American jobs? Does that worry you? Donald Trump: No, no, no. It’s going to create tremendous numbers of jobs. It’s going to also create a lot of benefits medically for cancer research and other things. It’s going to have a huge positive impact. And we want to be ahead of China. We’re right now way ahead of China. David Sacks is one of the all-time experts, you know, that people are amazed that he – you just met him. Donald Trump: I don’t know if he’s still here. Oh, there he is. But one of the most respected people in that world, it’s a world – that’s a whole different world. And we’re ahead of China now because of what I’m doing, and I think it’s going to be very successful. Question: Mr. President, you just asked the Davos forum again that NATO countries should spend 5 percent of GDP on defense. The United States don’t spend 5 percent. It should also apply to the United States. Donald Trump: We’re protecting them. They’re not protecting us, we’re protecting them. So, I don’t think we should be spending – I’m not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them. But they should up their 2 percent to 5 percent. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, you said earlier during your speech at Davos that you would like to see interest rates come down. How much would you like to see them come down? Will you talk to Powell? Donald Trump: I’d like to see them come down a lot and oil prices will come down. And when oil prices come down, everything is going to be cheaper for the American people and actually for the world, but for the American people. So, I’d like to see oil prices come down. And when the energy comes down that’s going to knock out a lot of the inflation that’s going to automatically bring the interest rates down. Question: Are you worried that – Mr. President, you said that you would demand – Are you worried that there’s too much going on at once if you’re trying to bring interest rates down and get the economy back going? Donald Trump: No. It just works that way. I mean it just economically works that way. When the oil comes down, it will bring down prices, then you won’t have inflation and then the interest rates will come down. Question: You said that you would demand that the interest rates come down. Donald Trump: Well, I would put in a strong statement. Question: Do you expect the fed to listen to you? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Are you going to talk to Powell about this and bring the rates down? Donald Trump: At the right time I would. Question: Sir, do you – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – people you pardon that were participating in the January 6, 2021 [Inaudible], do you plan to meet with any of them or meet with them at the White House? Donald Trump: I don’t know, I’m sure that they probably would like to – I did them something important, but what they did is they were protesting a crooked election. And I mean, people understand that also and they were treated very badly. Nobody’s been treated like that. So, I’d be open to it, certainly. I don’t know of anything like that, but I think they’re going to meet in some of the congress people, congressmen, women want to meet. Donald Trump: But, I’d certainly be open to it. Question: Have you spoken to them since you issued the pardons? Donald Trump: I haven’t spoken to any of them yet, but I know they’re very happy. I gave them their life back. Their life was taken away from them unnecessarily and unfairly. I gave them their life back. So, I can imagine they probably would like to. Question: Mr. President, what did you mean when you said that Biden took bad advice in not pardoning himself yesterday? Donald Trump: Well, he did. I think he did, because he pardoned all these people that are crooked as hell. Look, the congressmen, they’re crooked. What they did is they destroyed evidence. When you destroy evidence, especially criminally like that. They did it criminally. And the reason they destroyed the evidence is because it proved that I was right. Donald Trump: They didn’t destroy evidence for no reason, they destroyed it because they found many documents saying that I offered 10,000 soldiers. If they had 500 soldiers or National Guard, there would have been no problem. If they had 200 that would have been – I offered 10,000 If they needed them, there would have been no problem. Donald Trump: That’s been now totally disproven and it’s also been disproven by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, who has her on tape saying it was her fault, that she has full responsibility for this. But – and they have all that stuff. They destroyed everything, and they go through a year and a half, two years of nonsense. They come up with tremendous evidence and they destroyed evidence. Donald Trump: And Schiff knew about it, that’s why he’s on there. He knew all about the destruction of evidence. A lot of people said he’s the one that got them to do it, and he’s a crooked guy, a totally crooked politician. And so, he’s pardoned, and some other people are pardoned, and these are crooked politicians, every one of them. Donald Trump: Benny Johnson, what he did is incredible. I mean, he was the leader of the committee, and he did it. Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, all of them. They destroyed evidence and deleted everything. There’s nothing – there’s no evidence now. They’re crooked politicians and they should be punished. You know, that’s – even in a civil trial, you go to jail for a thing like that. Donald Trump: They destroyed every document from what I understand, every document because it proved that I was totally innocent. Question: Do you plan to send up to 10,000 troops to the southern border, sir? Donald Trump: Yeah, southern border? Question: Yes, the border. Donald Trump: You said southern border. When I said 10,000 troops, I was referring to the capital. Question: Oh, I see. And – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – when is that – when do you plan to do that? Donald Trump: You’ve got to look; I was referring to the – I offered 10,000 troops for the capital before January 6th. Question: And as for the 1,500 at the southern border, sir, to clarify – what exactly do you want them to be doing right now? Donald Trump: Making sure that the border is safe and secure and that criminals don’t come into our country. Question: Mr. President, do you think that sanctions on Russia will force President Putin to negotiate? Donald Trump: I don’t know. But I think he should make a deal. Question: Mr. President, does it bother you that Elon Musk criticized a deal that you made publicly that he said that he tweeted that? Donald Trump: No, it doesn’t. He hates one of the people in the deals. Question: Have you spoken to him since then? Donald Trump: No, no. Well, I’ve spoken to Elon, but I’ve spoken to all of them actually. No, the people in the deal are very, very smart people. But Elon, one of the people he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too. Question: Sir, on China, what do you think Xi Jinping can do on the Ukraine-Russia war? Donald Trump: Which one? Question: Ukraine-Russia war, what can Xi Jinping do about that? Donald Trump: China? Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: They have a lot of power over Russia. They supply energy to Russia. And Russia supplies energy to them, they supply other things too. It’s really a very big trade. It’s a very big trading partner, but Russia supplies a lot of energy to China that China pays them a lot of money for that. And I think they have a lot of power over Russia. Donald Trump: So, I think Russia should want to make a deal. Maybe they want to make a deal. I think, from what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we’ll meet as soon as we can. I’d meet immediately. Every day we don’t meet soldiers are being killed on the battlefield. And that battlefield is like no battlefield since World War II, that’s – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – and I have pictures that you don’t want to see. Soldiers are being killed on a daily basis at numbers that we haven’t seen in decades. It would be nice to end that war. It’s a ridiculous war. Question: You said that Ukraine is ready to make a deal. Did President Zelenskyy tell you that personally? Donald Trump: Well, sure. He’s ready to negotiate a deal. He’d like to stop. He’s somebody that lost a lot of soldiers. And so did Russia, lost a lot – Russia lost more soldiers, they lost 800,000 soldiers. Would you say that’s a lot? I’d say it’s a lot. Question: You said that you wanted to make Dr. King’s dream a reality. What’s your response to his children and civil rights leaders who say that your DEI orders are a contradiction of his dream and could further drive racial [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: I haven’t heard. Question: Mr. President, you put the Houthis back on the terror list, how do you see the war in Yemen? Donald Trump: Well, we’ll see what happens, but they can’t shoot down our ships. The Houthis, they can’t shoot down our ships or any ships and that’s what they’ve been doing. So, they’re on the terror list. That’s not good for them. Question: Sir, why did you revoke security protections for former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and Brian Hook? Donald Trump: Well, the same reason I do. When you have protection, you can’t have it for the rest of your life. Do you want to have a large detail of people guarding people for the rest of their lives? I mean, there’s risks to everything. Question: So, would you support us tracking Iran’s nuclear facilities? Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Would you support Israel, for example, striking Iran’s nuclear facilities? Donald Trump: Well, I’m not going to answer that – obviously, I’m not going to answer that question. We’ll have to see. I’m going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days and we’ll see. But hopefully that can be worked out without having to worry about it. It would be nice – it would really be nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step. Question: And who are you going to meet with? Donald Trump: Well, I’d rather not say that. But very high-level people, but hopefully that can be worked out. You know, look, Iran hopefully will make a deal. And if they don’t make a deal, I guess that’s Ok too. Question: And Mr. President, just to follow up, you said you think the fed should listen to you. Can you elaborate on why you think it should? Donald Trump: With regard to interest rates? Question: Correct, yes. Donald Trump: Because I think I know interest rates much better than they do. And I think I know certainly much better than the one who’s primarily in charge of making that decision. But no, I’m guided by them very much, but if I disagree, I will let it be known. Question: Sir, your terrorist plans for China and Mexico are much tougher – the ones for Canada and Mexico are much tougher than the one for China. Why is it softer for China? Donald Trump: Well, China is already paying a lot of tariffs because of me. And when you add them up, I’d say they’re paying a lot. They’ve paid hundreds of billions of dollars. They never paid $0.10 until I came along. When I came along, they pay hundreds of – they’ve paid hundreds of billions of dollars, never paid anything. Donald Trump: And so, they’ve already started at a higher base. Question: Is February 1st the date for the Chinese tariffs as well, sir? February 1? Or was that just Mexico and Canada? Donald Trump: It’s Mexico and Canada, but we’re talking about China too. Look, China is sending us tremendous amounts of bad drugs, fentanyl, really bad stuff. Most of it comes through Mexico and we’re losing I think 300,000 lives a year because of that. People say 150,000, 100,000, 120,000. I think 300,000 lives a year. Donald Trump: Those are old numbers. The lower number is a low number, and we can’t have that. They’ve got to stop sending it. I had a deal with President Xi, but it was a deal that wasn’t followed up by Biden of course, where they were going to issue the death penalty to people that make fentanyl and that would have stopped it. But we’ll have to stop it with tariffs. Donald Trump: Ok, thank you very much, everybody.
Date: 2025-01-23
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, Klaus. And hello to everyone in beautiful Davos. This has been a truly historic week in the United States. Three days ago, I took the oath of office and we began the Golden Age of America. The recent presidential election was won by millions of votes in all seven, every one of them, all seven swing states. Donald Trump: It was a massive mandate from the American people like hasn’t been seen in many years. And some of the political pundits, even some of my so-called enemies said it was the most consequential election victory in 129 years. That’s quite nice. What the world – Has witnessed in the past 72 hours is nothing less than a revolution of common sense. Donald Trump: Our country will soon be stronger, wealthier, and more united than ever before and the entire planet will be more peaceful and prosperous as a result of this incredible momentum and what we’re doing and going to do. My administration is acting with unprecedented speed to fix the disasters we’ve inherited from a totally inept group of people and to solve every single crisis facing our country. Donald Trump: This begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration. Over the past four years, our government racked up $8 trillion in wasteful deficit spending and inflicted nation wrecking energy restrictions, crippling regulations, and hidden taxes like never before. Donald Trump: The result is the worst inflation crisis in modern history and sky high interest rates for our citizens and even throughout the world. Food prices and the price of almost every other thing known to mankind went through the roof. President Biden totally lost control of what was going on in our country, but in particular with our high inflation economy and at our border. Donald Trump: Because of these ruinous policies, total government spending this year is $1.5 trillion higher than was projected to occur when I left office just four years ago. Likewise, the cost of servicing the debt is more than 230 percent higher than was projected in 2020. The inflation rate we are inheriting remains 50 percent higher than the historic target. Donald Trump: It was the highest inflation probably in the history of our country. That is why from the moment I took office, I have taken rapid action to reverse each and every one of these radical left policies that created this calamity, in particular with immigration, crime and inflation. On day one, I signed an executive order directing every member of my cabinet to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and reduce the cost of daily life. Donald Trump: I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze, and I created the new Department of Government Efficiency. I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful Green New Deal. I call it the Green New Scam. Withdrew from the One-Sided Paris Climate Accord and ended the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate. Donald Trump: We’re going to let people buy the car they want to buy. I declared a national energy emergency, and it’s so important, national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and pave the way for rapid approvals of new energy infrastructure. The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth and we’re going to use it. Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, it will make the United States a manufacturing superpower and the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto. Donald Trump: My administration has also begun the largest deregulation campaign in history, far exceeding even the record setting efforts of my last term. In total, the Biden administration imposed $50,000 in additional regulatory costs on the average American household over the last four years. I have promised to eliminate 10 old regulations for every new regulation, which will soon put many thousands of dollars back in the pockets of American families. Donald Trump: To further unleash our economy, our majorities in the House and Senate, which we also took along with along with the presidency, are going to pass the largest tax cut in American history, including massive tax cuts for workers and families and big tax cuts for domestic producers and Manufacturers and we’re working with the Democrats on getting an extension of the original Trump tax cuts, as you probably know by just reading any paper. Donald Trump: My message to every business in the world is very simple, come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth. We’re bringing them down very substantially even from the original Trump tax cuts. But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff, differing amounts, but a tariff which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt. Donald Trump: Under the Trump administration, there will be no better place on earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA. Already, American’s economic – you can see this, I think maybe even in your – in your wonderful, wonderful room that you’re all gathered together, so many of my friends, but Americans, the economic confidence is soaring like we haven’t seen in many, many decades, maybe not at all. Donald Trump: Upon my election, it was just announced that small business optimism skyrocketed by 41 points in a single month. That’s the highest ever. There has never been anything like that. SoftBank has announced between a 100 and $200 billion investment in the US economy because of the election result. And just two days ago, Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI announced a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure. Donald Trump: Other companies likewise have announced billions and billions and billions adding up to up to trillions of investment in America in the United States. And it’s also reported today in the papers that Saudi Arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in America. But I’ll be asking the crown prince, who is a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion. Donald Trump: I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them. And I’m also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil. You got to bring it down, which frankly I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election. That didn’t show a lot of love by them, not doing it. I was a little surprised by that. Donald Trump: If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue. You’ve got to bring down the oil price. You’ve got to end that war. They should have done it long ago. They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent for what’s taking place. Donald Trump: Millions of lives are being lost. With oil prices going down, I will demand that interest rates drop immediately. And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world. Interest rates should follow us. All over, the progress that you’re seeing is happening because of our historic victory in a recent presidential election, one that has become quite well known throughout the world. Donald Trump: I think a lot of things are happening to a lot of countries. They say that there’s light shining all over the world since the election. And even countries that we aren’t particularly friendly with are happy because they understand what – there is a future and how great the future will be under our leadership. Donald Trump: America is back and open for business. And this week, I’m also taking swift action to stop the invasion at our southern border. They allowed people to come in at levels that nobody has ever seen before. It was ridiculous. I decided a – and declared to – to – to do and very, very importantly a national emergency on our border immediately halted all entry of illegal border crossers of which there were many and began promptly returning the illegal trespassers back to the place from which they came. Donald Trump: That action, as you’ve probably seen, has already started. Very strongly, I’ve deployed active duty U.S. military and National Guard troops to the border to assist in repelling the invasion. It was really an invasion. We will not allow our territory to be violated. After four long years, the United States is strong and sovereign and a beautiful nation once again. Donald Trump: It’s a strong sovereign nation. In addition, I’m pleased to report that America is also a free nation once again. On day one, I signed an executive order to stop all government censorship. No longer will our government label the speech of our own citizens as misinformation or disinformation, which are the favorite words of censors and those who wish to stop the free exchange of ideas and, frankly, progress. Donald Trump: We have saved free speech in America and we’ve saved it strongly. With another historic executive order this week, I also ended the weaponization of law enforcement against the American people and, frankly, against politicians and restored the fair, equal, and impartial rule of law. My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense. Donald Trump: And these are policies that were absolute nonsense throughout the government and the private sector. With the recent yet somewhat unexpected great Supreme Court decision just made, America will once again become a merit based country. You have to hear that word, merit based country. And I’ve made it official, an official policy of the United States that there are only two genders, male and – And female, and we will have no men participating in women’s sports and transgender operations, which became the rage, will occur very rarely. Donald Trump: Finally, as we restore common sense in America, we’re moving quickly to bring back strength and peace and stability abroad. I’m also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago. It was only at 2 percent, and most nations didn’t pay until I came along. Donald Trump: I insisted that they pay, and they did, because the United States was really paying the difference at that time, and it was unfair to the United States. But many, many things have been unfair for many years to the United States. Before even taking office, my team negotiated a ceasefire agreement in the Middle East, which wouldn’t have happened without us, as I think most of the people in the room know. Donald Trump: Earlier this week, the hostages began to return to their families. They are returning and it’s a beautiful sight, and they’ll be coming in more and more. They started coming back on Sunday. Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now hopefully underway. It’s so important to get that done. Donald Trump: That is an absolute killing field. Millions of soldiers are being killed, and nobody has seen anything like it since World War II. They’re laying dead all over the flat fields. It’s a flat field farmland and there’s millions of Russians and millions of Ukrainians and nobody has seen anything like it since World War II. It’s time to end it. And here in America we have big events coming up. Next year we have the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. Donald Trump: I’m so honored to be president during that. That’s been a big event. They’ve been talking about it for 10 years. We also have the World Cup, and I understand Gianni is in the room, Infantino. He was very instrumental in helping us get it. He’s there with you someplace I think, and I want to thank him for that. Donald Trump: And then we have the Olympics coming up, which I was instrumental in getting also in my first term. And who would have known that by skipping a term, I would get the Olympics. I was upset, I said, you know, I got the Olympics to come, and I won’t be president. But it turned out through a stroke of luck, or whatever you might call it, that I’m going to be president during the World Cup and the Olympics and the 250th Anniversary. Donald Trump: So, that’s going to be three big events. And we’ve accomplished more in less than four days – we have really been working four days – than other administrations have accomplished in four years and we’re just getting started. It’s really an amazing thing to see; and the spirit and the light over our country has been incredible. Donald Trump: Under the last administration our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to bring it back and make it greater, bigger, stronger, better than ever before. I want to thank everybody for being with you. I would have been there myself, except the inauguration was two days ago. I thought it might be a little bit quick to make it the first stop, but we’ll get there one day, we hope to get there. Donald Trump: But I do appreciate – I heard the audience is fantastic and many of my friends are in the audience and I will be taking questions now from some very distinguished people. Thank you all very much. Borge Brende: Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for that very powerful speech. And I think you could hear the applause all the way from Davos to the White House. But next year it will be even better because then you can get the applause here in Davos. So, we wish you welcome to our village next year. We hope to see you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Borge Brende: So, we also know, Mr. President, that you open up for interaction here. We have a great panel with some of the most distinguished businesspeople in the world. Let me start with someone that you know really well that I think is almost a neighbor of you in Mar-A-Lago in Florida. Mr. Steve Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone Group. Borge Brende: So, Steve, the floor is yours. Stephen Schwarzman: Well, Mr. President, I’m sure the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia will be really glad you gave this speech today. You’ve had the busiest four days that anybody can imagine, and congratulations for that. And my question is about some of the things I’ve observed here at Davos. It’s a terrific forum. I’ve met lots of people, as usual. Stephen Schwarzman: I think I’ve been here 30 years. And a lot of the European businesspeople have expressed enormous frustration with the regulatory regime in the EU. And they attribute slower growth rates here because of the numerous factors, but especially because of regulations. And you’ve taken a completely different approach in this area. Stephen Schwarzman: And if you could explain the theory of what you’re doing, how you’re going to do it and what you expect the outcome to be, I’d appreciate it. Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much and congratulations, Steve. You’re a friend of mine, but on a great career you have had an amazing career, and it continues. I just want to congratulate you, you’re very inspirational to a lot of people. I want to talk about the EU because you mentioned specifically that I’ve also had a lot of friends and leaders of countries. Donald Trump: I’ve gotten to know them all my first term and a little bit during this period of four years and know them well, like them a lot. But they’re very frustrated because of the time everything seems to take to get approved, environmental impact statements for things that you shouldn’t even have to do that and many, many other ways that it takes. Donald Trump: And I’m going to give you a quick little example. In the private life, my beautiful private life before I had all these things happening, the world is a little different. I had a nice simple life, you knew that. But when I had that simple life, I did projects, and I had a big project in Ireland, and it had to get approval on something that would have made it even better. Donald Trump: And I got the approval from Ireland in a period of a week, and it was a very, very, very efficient good approval. And they informed me though the problem is you’re going to have to get it from the EU and we think that will take five to six years. And I said you have to be kidding, and this was before politics. Donald Trump: And I said, wait a minute, it’s not that important. I don’t want to go five or six years, but it would have been a big investment. It would have been nice, and it would have been good for the project. And I sent the people to the EU to see if they could speed it up and basically it was a five- or six-year wait just to get a simple approval that Ireland gave me in a period of literally not much more than a week. Donald Trump: And I realized right then – that was the first time I really was involved with the EU. But I realized right then that’s a problem and I didn’t even bother applying to do it. And or if I did, I pulled it very quickly. I don’t want – I have to be very accurate because I don’t want to be criticized. He did apply actually. Donald Trump: Now I want to be very accurate. So, I don’t think I did, but if I did, I pulled it very quickly. It was just something you couldn’t wait five years or six years to get an approval. So, a lot of – in a very big business sense, a lot of people are claiming that’s the problem. From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly. Donald Trump: They have a large tax that we know about and a VAT tax and it’s a very substantial one. They don’t take our – essentially don’t take our farm products and they don’t take our cars. Yet they send cars to us by the millions. They put tariffs on things that we want to do like, for instance, I think they actually, in terms of these are non-economic or non-monetary tariffs, and those are very bad and they make it very difficult to bring products into Europe. Donald Trump: And yet they expect to be selling, and they do sell their products in the United States. So, we have hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits with the EU and nobody’s happy with it and we’re going to do something about it. But nobody is happy with it. So, I think the EU has to speed up their process. Friends of mine that are in some of the nations within the EU, great people, they want to be able to compete better and you can’t compete when you can’t go through the approval process fast. Donald Trump: There’s no reason why it can’t go faster. So, I’m trying to be constructive because I love Europe. I love the countries of Europe, but the process is a very cumbersome one and they do treat the United States of America very, very unfairly with the VAT taxes and all of the other taxes they impose. One other just to finish up, I got a call from the A head of a major airline, one of the biggest airlines in the world, and he said, sir, could you help us? What – landing in Europe is brutal. Donald Trump: They charge us fees for everything and it’s so unfair. I said how does it compare to China? He said it’s – it’s much worse. And the other thing, as you know, they took court cases with Apple and they supposedly won a case that most people didn’t think was much of a case. They won $15 or $16 billion from Apple. Donald Trump: They won billions from Google. I think they’re after Facebook for billions and billions. These are American companies, whether you like them or not, they’re American companies and they shouldn’t be doing that. And that’s as far as I’m concerned, it’s a form of taxation. So we have some very big complaints with the EU. Thank you. Borge Brende: Thank you very much, Mr. President. We’ll now go to one of your friends in the EU, Patrick Pouyanné. He’s the Chairman and CEO of Total Energies. I guess you have a question ready, Patrick, for the President. Patrick Pouyanné: Mr. President, as we understand, energy is at the top of your agenda and it’s an honor for me to represent the energy industry tonight in this panel. Total Energy is indeed the fourth largest oil and gas and electricity company in the world. I will not ask you a question about the oil price. It’s quite clear what you expect from us. I will go to gas more and that we – our company is the largest number one exporter of LNG from the US company. Patrick Pouyanné: We are a strong contributor to and we invest in a mammoth LNG projects in Texas, $20 billion. It’s far from 200, but it’s $20 billion. And we contribute with that to security of supply to Europe as we export this LNG to Europe. Some experts fear that if there are too many projects developed in the US on LNG, this could have an inflationary impact on the US domestic gas price and they recommend a pause on these projects. Patrick Pouyanné: I would ask you the following question, what are your views on about such a pause on investments on LNG in the US? What would happen if you would observe an increased domestic gas price because of its exports? And final question, which is important for Europe, would you agree to guarantee security of supply of US LNG to Europe? Donald Trump: Well, in the last part of your question, yes, I would. I would make sure that you get it. If we make a deal, we make a deal, you’ll get it because a lot of people do have that problem. They make a deal and then they can’t get supplied because of war type problems and other problems. So we would absolutely do that. Donald Trump: LNG is very interesting because when I took office for the first term, one of the first things I looked at was two – there were two very massive plants in Louisiana, a state that has been very good to me. Won it by many, many points. And I felt strongly indebted to it actually and they said there are two plants that have been under environmental consideration for more than 10 years and they were costing, as you say, you know how expensive those plants are, but they were costing like $12 billion and I think $14 or $15 billion. Donald Trump: But they couldn’t get their permits. It was – they were in review for years, many, many years like a decade or more. And I said it’s so ridiculous. I know so much about that because in the construction industry, I had to go through it, too. But I got good at it after a while, but I went – I saw the projects and you’re talking about a total investment of $25 to $30 billion and it looked like it was going to end. Donald Trump: They couldn’t get their permits and I got them done in less than a week. It was done, completed. In fact, when they called them to announce that it was done, the countries, largely countries, Japan was involved and another country and some very big investors, they couldn’t believe it. They actually couldn’t believe it. And I said just do yourself one favor. Donald Trump: Don’t pay any consultants because the only one that got it done was me. I got it done because it was the right thing to do for the US and for the world. But the consultants had nothing to do with it. You know, the consultants go in and they say give us millions of dollars because Trump did it. Nobody called me about it. I just heard it was a problem for years and I got it done because it was the right thing to do for the US. And the right thing to do for beyond. Donald Trump: It had to do with energy. Very important. So I think it’s very important. I think the – you know, I disagree with, one, I think the more that you do, the lower the price is going to go. And what I’d like to see is rapid approvals. We’re going to give very rapid approvals in the United States like with the AI plants, talking to many people want to build them. Donald Trump: That’s going to be a very big thing. We’re going to build electric generating facilities. They are going to build. I’m going to get them the approval. Under emergency declaration, I can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting. And the big problem is we need double the energy we currently have in the United States, can you imagine, for AI to really be as big as we want to have it because it’s a very competitive – it will be very competitive with China and others. Donald Trump: So I’m going to give emergency declarations so that they can start building them almost immediately. And I’m – I think it was largely my idea because nobody thought this was possible. It wasn’t that they were not smart because they’re the smartest, but I told them that what I want you to do is build your electric generating plant right next to your plant as a separate building connected and they said, wow, you’re kidding. Donald Trump: And I said no, no. I’m not kidding. You don’t have to hook into the grid, which is old and, you know, could be taken out. If it’s taken out, they wouldn’t have any way to get any electricity. So we are going to allow them to go in a very rapid basis – basis to build their plant, build the electric generating plant. Donald Trump: They can fuel it with anything they want and they may have coal as a backup. Good, clean coal. You know, if there were a problem with a – with a pipe coming in, as an example, you’re going with gas oil or gas and a pipe gets blown up or for some reason doesn’t work, there are some companies in the US that have coal sitting right by the plant so that if there’s an emergency, they can go to that short term basis and use our very clean coal. Donald Trump: So that’s something else that a lot of people didn’t even know about. But nothing can destroy coal, not the weather, not a bomb, nothing. It might make it a little smaller, it might make it a little different shape, but coal is very strong as a backup. It’s a great backup to have that facility and it wouldn’t cost much more – more money. Donald Trump: And we have more coal than anybody. We also have more oil and gas than anybody. So we’re going to make it so that the plants will have their own electric generating facilities attached right to their plant. They don’t have to worry about a utility. They don’t have to worry about anything and we’re going to get very rapid approvals. Borge Brende: Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. President. We’ll now go to another CEO that you know very well. Brian Moynihan, the CEO and Chair of Bank of America. Brian Moynihan: Good afternoon, Mr. President, and congratulations and obviously an eventful week for you and your family. If you remember, five years ago, you came here and we walked among 150 CEOs from all over the world and you engaged with them about your policies and procedures. This year, you’re not here and yet this week was eventful from the orders that you mentioned earlier, literally a wave of orders coming out on immigration, on trade, and many other matters. Brian Moynihan: And so as a representative of the United States here, we got a lot of questions about what does all this mean and how would the president square this with his clear focus on growth, prosperity, market growth, stock market growth, a good bond market, and bringing down prices? So how do you think about the impact of all these orders and how fast they come out and how you’re going to balance them with that scorecard of being successful in both continuing GDP growth, bringing down inflation, and also having – Note: [Gap in audio feed] Donald Trump: – down to 21 percent, the corporate tax and it was actually – if you look at state and city, it was in many cases much higher than 40 percent. I got it down to 21 percent, and now we’re going to bring it down from 21 percent to 15 percent. If – there’s a big if – if you make your product in the US. So, we’re going to have the lowest, just about the lowest rate, it will be – the 21 is on the low side worldwide; the 15 is about as low as it gets – and by far the lowest of a large country, a large, rich, powerful country by far, not even a contest. Donald Trump: So, we’re going to bring it down to 15 percent if you make your product in the USA. So, that’s going to create a tremendous buzz. We’re also probably going back to the one-year deduction where we deduct – we did that originally. And that was amazing what impact that that had, the one-year deduction, which built up over a period of time and then it expires. Donald Trump: But we’re going to go back to that when we do the renewal of the Trump tax plan. We have to get democrats to approve it. But if the democrats didn’t approve it, I don’t know how they can survive with about a 45 percent tax increase because that’s what it would be. And so, I think they’re going to be – we’ve been working along with them pretty well. Donald Trump: I think it’s very hard for a political group to say let’s charge people 45 percent more. So, I think we’re in good shape. But we’re actually doing a reduction for business and small businesses where you’re going to bring it down to 15 percent, which is really something. And by the way, speaking of you and you’ve done a fantastic job, but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank. Donald Trump: And that included a place called Bank of America, this conservative – they don’t take conservative business. And I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what. But you and Jamie and everybody, I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong. Brian Moynihan: Mr. President, I will say that your friend Gianni said hello – told me to tell you hello and we look forward to sponsoring the World Cup when it comes both this summer for the club and next year. So, thank you for getting that for the United States. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Brian. Borge Brende: Thank you, Mr. President. We’ll now go to Ana Botin. She is the Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, one of the big European banks, and also in the US. So, Ana? Ana Botin: Mr. President, congratulations on a historic victory. I believe you don’t know me as well as my fellow panelists, so a few words. Santander is one of the largest banks in the world by number of customers, 170 million. That’s more than my friend Brian and my friend Jamie have. And those – Borge Brende: If they fix the regulations. Ana Botin: That’s coming. That’s coming. Borge Brende: That was cheeky. Ana Botin: We are a big investor in the United States. We have many million customers, 12,000 employees. We’re one of the largest auto lenders, and we recently launched a fully digital bank called Openbank. We strongly believe banks have a pivotal role in the economy and we can accelerate growth and help many more customers. Ana Botin: That’s what we’re doing in the United States. So, as Brian pointed out, we very much welcome your focus on deregulation and reducing bureaucracy. So, my question is what are your priorities in this regard? And how fast is this going to happen? Thank you very much. Donald Trump: I think it’s going to – thank you and congratulations. I know very much about your bank, and you’ve done a fantastic job. Congratulations. We are going to move very quickly. We’ve moved very quickly. We’ve done things in the last three days that nobody thought were possible to do in years and it’s all taking – it’s all taking effect. Donald Trump: It’s going to have a huge impact on the economy, a huge positive impact. Money was being wasted on crazy things. I mean the Green New Deal was such a total disgrace, what – how that was perpetrated. And it was conceived of by people that were average students, less than average students I might add, and never even took a course in energy or the environment. Donald Trump: It was just a game. Remember, the world was going to end in 12 years. Remember that? Well, the 12 years has come and gone. It was going to end; it was going to all foam into earth. But you know, the time has come – these people, and they really – they really scared the democrats. I can’t say the republicans, the republicans maybe could have fought harder to stop it, but it’s been a tremendous waste of a tremendous waste of money. Donald Trump: You know, during my four years we had the cleanest air, we had the cleanest water and yet we had the most productive economy in the history of our country. We had the most productive economy until COVID came. We had the most productive in the history of our country by far and actually, you can look worldwide. Donald Trump: We were – we were beating everybody from China to everybody else. So – and we think we really now, with what we have learned and all of the other things that have taken place, we think we can even far surpass that – actually far, far surpass it. But we do – one thing we’re going to be demanding is we’re going to be demanding respect from other nations. Donald Trump: Canada, we have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We’re not going to have that anymore. We can’t do it. It’s – I don’t know if it’s good for them. As you probably know, I say you can always become a state and if you’re a state, we won’t have a deficit, we won’t have to tariff you, etc., etc. But Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years. Donald Trump: And it’s not fair that we should have a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit. We don’t need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don’t need their lumber because we have our own forests, etc., etc. We don’t need their oil and gas, we have more than anybody. So, just as an example, with Mexico, we’re dealing with Mexico I think very well. Donald Trump: And we’re just – we just want to be treated fairly with other nations because there’s hardly a nation in the world, and I blame this on us and I blame it on politicians, that for some reason I’m – probably mostly it’s stupidity. But you could also say other reasons, but mostly stupidity, they’ve allowed other nations to take advantage of the US, and we can’t allow that to happen anymore. Donald Trump: You know, we have debt. It’s a very small debt when you compare it to value, the value of the assets that we have. But we don’t want to do that. We want to just have debt be obliterated, and we’ll be able to do that fairly rapidly. And a lot of good things are going to happen. And honestly, good things are going to happen for the world and good things are going to happen for the people that are dealing with us, allies and beyond allies. Donald Trump: One thing very important, I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon and get that war ended. And that’s not from the standpoint of economy or economy or anything else, it’s from the standpoint of millions of lives are being wasted. Beautiful young people are being shot in the battlefield. Donald Trump: You know, the bullet – very flat land as I said, and the bullet goes, there’s no hiding and a bullet – the only thing going to stop the bullet is a human body. And you have to see – I’ve seen pictures of what’s taken place. It’s carnage and we really have to stop that war. That war is horrible. And I’m not talking economy, I’m not talking economics, I’m not talking about natural resources. Donald Trump: I’m just talking about there’s so many young people being killed in this war, and that’s not including the people that have been killed as the cities are being, you know, knocked down building by building. So, we really should get that stopped. Likewise in the Middle East, I think we ve made a lot of progress in the Middle East, and I think that’s going to come along pretty well. Donald Trump: Thank you. Borge Brende: Thank you, Mr. President. We know that most consequential relationship in the world is between the US and China, US 28 percent of the global economy, China close to 20 percent. That’s almost half of the global GDP. And we know that you called President Xi Jinping last Friday. We heard that you had a good discussion. Borge Brende: How do you see the relationship between the US and China in the next four years under your leadership? Donald Trump: He called me, but I see it very good. I think that we’re going to have a very good relationship. All we want is fairness. We just want a level playing field. We don’t want to take advantage. We’ve been having massive deficits with China. Biden allowed it to get out of hand. His $1.1 trillion deficit is ridiculous. Donald Trump: And it’s just an unfair relationship and we have to make it just fair. We don’t have to make it phenomenal; we have to make it a fair relationship. Right now, it’s not a fair relationship. The deficit is massive, as it is with other countries, a lot of Asian countries actually. But we have deficits that are very big, and we can’t keep doing that. Donald Trump: So, we’re not going to keep doing that. But I like President Xi very much. I’ve always liked him. We always had a very good relationship. It was very strained with COVID coming out of Wuhan. Obviously, that strained it. I’m sure it strained it with a lot of people, but that strained our relationship. But we always had a great relationship, I would say, and we look forward to doing very well with China and getting along with China. Donald Trump: Hopefully, China can help us stop the war with, in particular Russia, Ukraine. They have a great deal of power over that situation, and we’ll work with them. And I mentioned that with – during our phone conversation with President Xi, and hopefully we can work together and get that stopped. We’d like to see denuclearization; in fact, with President Putin, prior to an election result, which was frankly ridiculous. Donald Trump: We were talking about denuclearization of our two countries and China would have come along. China has a much smaller, right now, nuclear armament than us or field than us, but they’re going to be catching it at some point over the next four or five years. And I will tell you that President Putin really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear. Donald Trump: And I think the rest of the world, we would have gotten them to follow, and China would have come along too. China also liked it. Tremendous amounts of money are being spent on nuclear, and the destructive capability is something that we don’t even want to talk about today because you don’t want to hear it, it’s too depressing. Donald Trump: So, we want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think that’s very possible. And I can tell you that President Putin wanted to do to do it. He and I wanted to do it. We had a good conversation with China. They would have been involved, and that would have been an unbelievable thing for the planet. Borge Brende: Mr. President, when you’re back here in Davos next year, will there be then a peace agreement with Ukraine and Russia by then? Donald Trump: Well, you’re going to have to ask Russia. Ukraine is ready to make a deal. Just so you understand, this is a war that should have never started. If I were president, it would never have started. This is a war that should have never ever been started. And it wasn’t started during my – there was never even talk about it. I knew that it was the apple of President Putin’s eye. Donald Trump: But I also knew that there was no way he was going in and he wasn’t going to go in. And then when I was out bad things happened, bad things were said, a lot of stupidity all around, and you end up with what you have. Now you have all these bombed out cities, they look like demolition sites with many people killed. Donald Trump: I think the thing that you’ll see about Ukraine is that far more people have died than is being reported. And I’ve seen that. But far, far more people have died. When you look at a city that’s become a demolition site where big buildings have been collapsed by missiles hitting them and everything else, and they say one person was slightly injured, no, no. Many people were killed. Donald Trump: Those are big buildings. I was surprised at how that was my business. These are buildings that go two and three blocks long, they’re 20 stories high. They’re big, powerful buildings and they were knocked down and there were a lot of people in those buildings and announce that two people were injured. That’s not true. Donald Trump: So, I think you’re going to find that there were many more people killed in Ukraine, in the Ukraine war than anybody has any idea. But if you look now, so many of the people being killed are soldiers just facing each other with guns, rifles and drones, the new form of warfare, drones, and it’s a very sad thing to see. Donald Trump: And when you see pictures of the fields that I see, nobody wants to see it, you will never be the same. Borge Brende: Thank you very much, Mr. President. On behalf of all the 3,000 participants here in Davos, we really, really underline that joining us the third day in your presidency live, taking questions here, it’s so appreciated. And we are already ready for receiving you next year in person. So, thank you very much and all the best from Davos. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Date: 2025-01-24
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. Everybody thought I was going to California. I said, “No, no. I’m stopping in North Carolina first, because they’ve been abused by what’s happened.” I mean, it’s terrible. It should have been done. It should have been – a lot of things should have happened that didn’t happen. So, we’re here. Donald Trump: We’re going to fix it out. We’re working with the gentleman behind me, and you know who they are. And we’re going to fix it, and we’re going to fix it as fast as you can. It’s a massive amount of damage. FEMA has really let us down, let the country down. And I don’t know if that’s Biden’s fault or whose fault it is, but we’re going to take over, and we’re going to do a good job. Donald Trump: We’re going to assign Mr. Whatley – who’s fantastic, frankly – and the governor and everybody else that’s going to work. We’re going to supply the money – we’ll supply a lot of the money. Maybe you have to chip in something – you’ll chip in a little something, like – Josh Stein: We will. Donald Trump: – maybe 25 percent or whatever. But we’re going to get it done as quickly as we can, and we want to take care of the people of North Carolina. It’s so interesting. Everybody is talking about California, and that’s a mess. But I said, “I’m not going to California until I stop in North Carolina.” So, here we are. Donald Trump: We’re going to go visit the site, and we’re going to work with probably three of the congressmen – Republican congressmen – who’ve been fantastic – whose areas have been affected, and with Michael Whatley, the governor, and whoever else is – you know, we decide to get involved. Probably less FEMA, because FEMA just hasn’t done the job. Donald Trump: And we’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I like, frankly, the concept: When North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it, meaning the state takes care of it. To have a group of people come in from an area that don’t even know where they’re going in order to solve immediately a problem is something that never worked for me. But this is probably one of the best examples of it not working. Donald Trump: And there’s been some others, like in Louisiana, et cetera. So, we’re going to be doing something on FEMA that I think most people agree. I’d like to see the states take care of disasters. Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen. And I think you’re going to find it a lot less expensive. Donald Trump: You’ll do it for less than half, and you’re going to get a lot quicker response. So, that seems to be the recommendation, but we’ll be making that recommendation over the next couple of weeks. We’re going to go to the site now, and we’re going to figure out a plan – a plan for really demolition and cleaning, because not a lot has been done. Donald Trump: And we’re very disappointed in the Biden administration, but we’re going to make up for lost time. And I said I’d do that, and this is about the earliest we could possibly be here, and we’re honored to be here. This has been a great state. They’re great people, and they’ve really been mishandled. But it’s all – this group is going to be great, and we’re going to get it taken care of. Any questions? Question: How – how will you respond – Question: How will you make those changes to FEMA? Do you do you expect to ask Congress for additional aid for North Carolina and California? Donald Trump: Yeah, it will be direct. In other words, the aid will go through us. So, rather than going through FEMA, it will go through us. And I think maybe this is a good place to start, because – and in all fairness to the governor, in all fairness to everybody else, FEMA was not on the ball, and we’re going to turn it all around. Donald Trump: Yes. Question: A lot – a lot of Americans think that this is symbolic of what your campaign was all about: America first, putting your prior- – priorities to Americans, even going to California, where their policies might mo- – have been one of the biggest reasons why they’ve had these problems. But you’re putting the American people first. Question: Your thoughts on that? Donald Trump: We are. We’re puttin- – thank you. I like that question. Boy, I want more questions like that. That’s even a statement. Thank you very much. Question: Thank you. Donald Trump: He’s a good man, that guy, and he’s also a very professional reporter, I have to say. Thank you very much. Question: You’re welcome. Donald Trump: Yeah, we’re putting America first. We’re putting, in this case, North Carolina and California – we’re going to do a good job in California. That is a disaster like – I don’t know if we’ve ever seen anything like it, frankly. They say “the biggest in the history of California.” I think – has anything bigger than that happened in the whole country ever? Donald Trump: It looks like – I don’t want to say what it looks like, but you know what I’m going to say. It looks like something hit it. Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: And we won’t talk about what hit it, but it is a bad, bad situation. And I guess I’m going to meet with some government officials, but, I mean, much more importantly – and in California, just to revert to it for a second, millions of gallons of water are waiting to be poured down through already the half pipes that are already built. Donald Trump: I mean, they’ve been up for 40 years. And about 20 years ago, they turned off the water. And it’s the water that comes from the Pacific Northwest – some of it comes out of Canada – and it flows there, and it probably has flowed there for a million years. And they turned it off, and they route out to the Pacific. Donald Trump: And in the meantime, you don’t have water in the hydrants. You don’t have water in the sprinkler systems. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. And everyone’s trying to figure out: Why aren’t they turning it back? They say it’s the delta smelt – it’s a fish – but I find that hard to believe. But we’ll – Question: Mr. President, what you are – Donald Trump: – figure it out. And without – and without doing that, you’re going to continue to have problems. Question: Mr. President, what are you prepared to do, sir, if OPEC doesn’t respond to your call to cut oil prices? Donald Trump: Well, we want to see OPEC cut the price of oil, and that will automatically stop the tragedy that’s taking place in Ukraine. It’s a butchering tragedy for both sides, by the way. A tremendous number of Russian soldiers are dead; a tremendous number of Ukrainian soldiers, and a lot of people are dead from the bombing of the cities. Donald Trump: But right now, it’s just bullets whacking and hitting men – mostly men – almost in all cases, men. And they’re – over a million men are killed, and they’re lo- – they’re losing thousands of people a week. It’s crazy. It’s a crazy war, and it never would have happened if I was president. Would never have happened. Donald Trump: This is crazy that it happened, but we want to stop it. Now, one way to stop it quickly is for OPEC to stop making so much money and to drop the price of oil, because they have it nice and high. And if you have it high, that war is not going to end so easily. So, OPEC ought to get on the ball, and they ought to drop the price of oil, and that war will stop right away. Question: Will you withhold funding to Los Angeles because of its sanctuary city policy? Donald Trump: I want to see two things in Los Angeles: Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state. Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest president that California have ever – has ever seen. Question: Will there – Donald Trump: I want the water to come down and come down to Los Angeles and also go out to all the farmland that’s barren and dry. You know, they have land that they say is the equivalent of the land in Iowa, which is about as good as there is anywhere on Earth. The problem is it’s artificial, because they artificially stop the water from going on to the land. Donald Trump: So, I want two things. I want voter ID for the people of California, and they all want it. Right now, you have no – you don’t have voter ID. People want to have voter identification. You want to have proof of citizenship. Ideally, you have one-day voting, but I just want voter ID as a start. And I want the water to be released, and they’re going to get a lot of help from the U.S. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: I’ll see you in a little while. Question: Will there be [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: We’ll see you at the site. Question: Will there – Question: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: We’ll see you at the site. Question: Can you tell us more about the deportation flights? Where are they going from? Where – Donald Trump: It’s going very well. Question: – are they going to? Donald Trump: Deportation is going very well. We’re getting the bad, hard criminals out. These are murderers. These are people that have been as bad as you get, as bad as anybody you’ve seen. We’re taking them out first. Thank you.
Date: 2025-01-24
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, everybody, please. Hi, Virginia. Well, thank you very much. A little cold outside, but you’re getting used to the cold. And one of the things that are very important to me and one of the reasons I’m happy that we won so convincingly is to help North Carolina get fixed up. They supported us in record numbers and I’m supporting them in record numbers too. Donald Trump: And they had me set – I wanted to go to Los Angeles and see what was going on with California, why they aren’t releasing the water – millions and millions of gallons of water. They’re sending it out to the Pacific. Someday somebody is going to explain that one. In the meantime, they have no water in Los Angeles where they had the problems. Donald Trump: But – so we’re going there, but I said, well, what about North Carolina? Well, you could do that. No, I can’t. I said, we’re stopping in North Carolina first and then we’re going to Los Angeles. And we just appreciate the outpouring of love that we’ve had here. Laura was, as you know, very instrumental in the campaign. Donald Trump: And she lived here and is loved, and we appreciate it. And Michael Whatley has been incredible, wherever Michael is. Hello Michael. Michael Whatley has been great, and your congressmen have been great. And what we thought we’d do is take a quick look around. First, we wanted to do this, I want to say that we’re very disappointed in FEMA. Donald Trump: Your new governor, it’s not his fault, he’s brand new to the whole situation. But we’re going to work together with the governor. We’re going to work together with the senators, but really, we’re going to work a lot with your congressmen, especially the three that are in the area and Michael Whatley. And I’d like to put Michael in charge of making sure everything goes well. Donald Trump: And Franklin Graham has been unbelievable. We’ve made a big contribution to Franklin, and we’ll continue to do so. But I’ve been hearing nothing but praise for the job that Samaritan’s Purse has done with Franklin, and we appreciate it. Where is Franklin? He’s around here someplace – and a good-looking guy. Donald Trump: He’s always been a good-looking guy. His father was a good-looking guy too, I’ll tell you. We loved his father, right. I saw his father in the latter years, and I said, well, he doesn’t have long to go. He was having a hard time, and he lived about three or four years after that, right? He was – they say it was good stock. Donald Trump: He had the ultimate good stock. But I want to thank you, Franklin, you’ve been fantastic here and everywhere he goes. He’s always the first one I see. People don’t realize that, how good it is. A lot of people, they go, well, maybe it’s for the people that he’s got, and you guys know because you’re here, but the people that he’s got have done amazing work. Donald Trump: So, I just want to thank everybody. We’re going to get over and take a look. We’ll say a few words. I want to just – I do want to introduce some of the people that we have and – our first lady. We’ll start with our first lady. She wanted to be here because of North Carolina. And then I said, well, you can do that, but you’re going to have to come to California too, and she said that’s OK. And we’ve got to fix that one up too. Donald Trump: That’s – did you ever see anything like that one? Who would have thought that could have happened? So, Governor Josh Stein. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. And we’re going to have a very long and good relationship. Representatives, maybe stand up, if you would so we – the press can see, Representative Chuck Edwards. Donald Trump: Chuck, thank you. Thank you, Chuck. Tim Moore. Virginia, you know Virginia Foxx, a legend, she is such a powerful woman. Pat Harrigan, Pat, thank you very much. Your agriculture commissioner who I hear is excellent, Steve Troxler. Steve, thank you very much. Good job, Steve. You’ve got plenty to do, right? Donald Trump: More than you ever thought. North Carolina Speaker, Dustin Hall. Thank you, Dustin. Thanks, Dustin, very good. House Majority Leader, Brendan Jones. Brendan, thank you very much. We’re making progress, Brendan. State Representatives, Dudley Greene, Karl Gillespie. Thank you very much, fellas. Good, good. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. State Senators, Kevin Corbin, Warren Daniel, thank you. Thank you very much, Kevin and Warren. And County Commissioner, Jennifer Best. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. So, Hurricane Helene was one of the worst natural disasters in American history. It was far worse than it was even billed. Donald Trump: I have never seen such water damage. It was largely water damage, wind damage, but water damage nobody’s ever seen. I’ve been here, as you know, numerous times, but now I’m here in a position where we can do something, meaning I’ve been in office for four days and I wanted to come sooner, but actually they had a little problem with getting logistically in here. Donald Trump: But I would have been here even sooner. 1-0-4 –104 North Carolinians have – at least have lost their lives. Is that now a fairly firm number or are they still finding people? You know, what do you think? They’re still finding people pretty much, OK? It’s a lot of people. 104 people lost their lives, 73,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed. Donald Trump: And I’ll tell you, I’ve been to a lot of them, and this was like lots of hurricanes in one. I’ve never seen such damage done by water and the water came, it was violent, and it left, and there was like nothing left. It’s really pretty amazing. At one point half of the emergency calls to FEMA went unanswered. Donald Trump: That’s real bad. FEMA was not doing their job. The city of Asheville went without running water for two months. A whistleblower testified that some FEMA employees refused to help people who displayed Trump signs on their property. I think that’s true, isn’t it? I read that, it’s not nice. That’s not too nice, is it? But whoever those property people were, thank you very much. Donald Trump: Michael, is that true? That’s not good about the property owners. You put a Trump sign on, they wouldn’t help, FEMA. Earlier this year, FEMA kicked 2,000 North Carolinians out of their temporary housing into below freezing temperatures. What was that all about? Is that – do you know about that? What happened? Donald Trump: Tell me. Unidentified: We had an incompetent administration under Biden, and we had a disaster – we call it the disaster after the disaster. That was the FEMA response. Donald Trump: You had nothing but disaster since then. It doesn’t matter at this point. Biden did a bad job. Some residents still don’t have hot water, drinking water or anything else. And many of them don’t have quarters. They don’t have anything. They got a stipend for what they lost and we’re going to take care of it. This is totally unacceptable. Donald Trump: And I’ll be taking strong action to get North Carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild. We’re working on it very hard. And I think if Michael Whatley does half as good a job for North Carolina as he did for my campaign, we’ll be very happy. Him and Laura were a very powerful team. Donald Trump: So, you think you can handle it, Michael? I don’t know. I’m not sure, Michael. I think this is maybe in many ways easier, OK, maybe easier. But you’re going to lead the team. Do you want to say who the congressmen are that you want to appoint? Do you want to introduce them? Michael Whatley: We have Virginia Foxx and Chuck Edwards and Tim Moore whose districts encompass the area. Donald Trump: And they are – the districts that were most severely impacted, right? You were affected [Inaudible]? Unidentified: I lost my own [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: Really? I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA – or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA. Donald Trump: And then FEMA gets here, and they don’t know the area. They’ve never been to the area, and they want to give you rules that you’ve never heard about. They want to bring people that aren’t as good as the people you already have. And FEMA has turned out to be a disaster. And you could go back a long way; you could go back to Louisiana; you could go back to some of the things that took place in Texas. Donald Trump: It turns out to be the state that ends up doing the work. It just complicates it. I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away, and we pay directly, we pay a percentage to the state, but the state should fix this. If the state did this from the beginning, it would have been a lot better situation. I think you guys agree with that, right? Donald Trump: So I just want to tell that – say that Asheville, I know it well, it’s a great place and we’re going to have it be a great place again, that was the one that was most severely affected. But North Carolina is going to come back bigger, better, stronger than ever before and you’re going to be very thankful and you’ve already seen, I know that it really began four days ago, but you’ve already seen more action than you have in the last three months. Donald Trump: And we’re going to get it together, we’re informing the Army Corps of Engineers to get going because you have a lot of river breaks and a lot of areas that you’re going to need some pretty big work and they’re on their way. They’re going to be working very much harder than they’ve been working in the past and we’re going to take care of it. Any questions from the press? Donald Trump: Of any of the congressmen, governor, anybody? Question: Sir, signed an in the second quarter on FEMA, getting rid of it. Can you say more about signing an executive order to get rid of FEMA, please? Donald Trump: Uh, FEMA has been a very big disappointment. They cost a tremendous amount of money. It’s very bureaucratic and it’s very slow. Other than that, we’re very happy with them, OK? And I think it’s – I think when there’s a – when there’s a problem with a state, I think that, that problem should be taken care of by the state. Donald Trump: That’s what we have states for. They take care of problems and a governor can handle something very quickly. You know, one of the things I’ve noticed because I’ve been doing this for a while and we had a pretty good FEMA, but I also noticed that when they come, they end up in arguments of they’re fighting all the time over who does what. Donald Trump: It’s just – it’s just not a good system. Uh, this system is so beautifully designed over 250 years approximately, you know, and we’ll soon be celebrating the – the 250th year. It’s going to be a very big celebration, but it’s been designed very well and we’re going to leave it that way when North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee. Donald Trump: When everybody knows the governor of Tennessee, I think everybody. Do you know everybody here? Pretty much. I never thought of it, but you’re right over the ridge – right over the right over. So you’re here to help. That’s great. Unidentified: The people in this region including Tennessee, the people of Appalachia are grateful that you are here and that you haven’t forgotten them and that there are other disasters. But this one was enormous for both North Carolina and Tennessee. So thank you. Donald Trump: You know, I’ve seen a lot of disasters and this when I came – I came here right after the day after and when I came here, I couldn’t believe it actually. I couldn’t believe the damage, and I’ve seen a lot of them. This was, uh, this was more like a tornado than it was what we witnessed. So we’re going to get it very much – very much taken care of good job, that’s nice that you came. Donald Trump: And so you call it right, You’re right over the ridge, right, Tennessee? I like Tennessee too. Let’s see where did I get more votes, Tennessee or North Carolina. I hate – I hate to tell you North Carolina, it was Tennessee. Unidentified: There’s one of the counties in this disaster that at 88 percent for you. Donald Trump: So 88 percent, yeah. It’s – it’s – the people are just incredible people. Yeah, so do you have any questions, press? Question: Mr. President, you talked about conditions being placed on aid to California, voter ID and the like. Are there any conditions that you’re going to put on aid to North Carolina? Donald Trump: We’re going to do a lot for North Carolina. You know, they’ve been very slow. I don’t know why it’s been so bad. This has been one of the worst I’ve seen. Katrina, of course, you know, was somebody something that obviously there was a long time ago that was not good, but this has been very slow. I don’t know if that was for political reasons because they lost the state. Donald Trump: You know, Biden lost the state, maybe he felt he doesn’t care. Maybe there were other reasons I don’t know, but this has been very slow. By any standard, this has been very slow and we’re going to – we’re going to make up for lost time. Question: With no conditions, you’re going to push for aid? Donald Trump: Well, in California. I have a condition. In California we want them to have voter ID so the people have a voice because right now, the people don’t have a voice because you don’t know who’s voting and it’s very corrupt. And we also want them to release the water. If they release the water, they wouldn’t have had a problem. Donald Trump: If they released the water when I told them to – because I told them to do it seven years ago, if they would have done it, you wouldn’t have had the problem that you had. You might have – you might not have even had a fire. So – but here I don’t have that. It’s a different thing. You got hit by a storm. Donald Trump: The people are incredible, they worked really well. Franklin was fantastic and other groups, by the way, other groups came in that were also fantastic and other states came in, Tennessee and a couple of others came in and they really helped. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. No, this is a different kind of a thing. Question: Mr. President, have you decided how much funding you would allocate for disaster relief? Donald Trump: About what? Question: Have you decided how much money you would allocate for disaster relief? Donald Trump: I haven’t – I have to see what it is. Question: Mr. President, are you disappointed that Senator Schiff hasn’t joined you on this trip? It was reported that you invited Senator Schiff to join you on this trip and he was too busy. Are you disappointed? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I was told that Schiff was going to travel with us to California. I wasn’t thrilled to be honest with you and I saw him last night on television. It looks like he got hit with a baseball bat or something. What happened to him? Something happened to him, it was – it looked like he got hit, it looked like he got beat around, but – but I’ll ask Caroline to find out what happened to him. Donald Trump: No, If he wanted to come out, I would have done that. But I don’t know, somebody said that he wanted to come on the plane, but I think he’s staying back for the votes. There’s some pretty good votes going on. Yeah? Question: Mr. President, what is your timeline for getting rid of FEMA? Donald Trump: For the – for this one? For this one? Question: You talked about possibly getting rid of FEMA. What timeline are you looking at and how would you do that? Donald Trump: Well, we’re looking here – here. You’re talking about to start? We’re going to start immediately timeline and to finish it’s going to be a period of time. You know, people are also rebuilding their houses. How long does it take to build a house? It takes the time and I want them to build houses bigger, better nicer than they had before, so they can have at least they get something out of this disaster. Donald Trump: This was a real disaster. No timeline will be fast in terms of infrastructure, I think very fast. I want to thank Elon because Elon was able to get us communication systems, as you know Starlink, we had no communication. The first day I got here, I was asked by one of the people, one of the really great representatives, professionals that is there any way you could get Starlink here? Donald Trump: Because they had no communication whatsoever and I called up Elon Musk and he had, you know, hundreds of units brought here like brought immediately and it’s hard to get – they couldn’t get them before. And that made a lot of difference. I think it saved a lot of lives actually. Yeah, infrastructure wise we’ll do it quickly. Question: Sir, can you just talk about how long you might – you think it might take to get rid of FEMA? What’s the timeline on that if you’re going to roll it back? Donald Trump: Yeah, I would say, look, as far as I’m concerned, uh, I’m not really thinking about FEMA right now here. I’m thinking about Michael Whatley and I’m thinking about the three Congress people that you just heard from and also the other people in Congress. And they’ll be working with the governor. They’ll be working with the governor. Donald Trump: So that’s what I see. Question: Change the subject real quickly. Uh, the Laken Riley Act was signed by Mike – Speaker Johnson yesterday. When do you – when do you anticipate to sign that? Donald Trump: Well, we’re honored by that. Laken Riley, I was there at the time and we had a big meeting with the parents right after that horrible thing took place. And we have an act, you all know what that act represents and it was a bipartisan bill. Many Democrats signed – signed onto it. That’s something that is a tribute to Laken, a beautiful young lady who was killed viciously by an illegal alien. Donald Trump: And we passed a very powerful bill and it was just approved and we’ll have a ceremony sometime very shortly. I’ll be signing it. In other words, if you’re asking, I will definitely be signing it. OK. Yeah? Question: Mr. President, the security detail for Anthony Fauci was terminated last night and I’m wondering if you have any comment? Donald Trump: About what? Question: The security detail for Anthony Fauci was terminated last night, sir. Do you have a comment? Donald Trump: No, I think, you know, when you work for the government at some point your security detail comes off and, you know, you can’t have them forever. So I think it’s very standard. If it would be for somebody else, you wouldn’t be asking the question. The question is very fair, but, you know, you work for government. Donald Trump: We took some off other people too, but you can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government. Yeah, we’ll see what happens. Question: Do you feel partially responsible if something would have happened to say Dr. Fauci or John Bolton? Donald Trump: No – no. You know, they all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too. All the people you’re talking about. They can go out. I can give them some good numbers of very good security people. They can hire their own security. They all made a lot of money. Fauci made a lot of money. They all did, so if they, you know, felt that strongly. Donald Trump: I think that certainly I would not take responsibility. Question: And North Carolina is a state that relies on trade and manufacturing. Are you going to have an announcement on new tariffs coming soon? Is there a timeline now? Donald Trump: Yeah, the tariffs are going to make our country rich. They’re going to be a rich, rich country. Very soon tariffs are going to make it rich and competence. We have common sense, competence and tariffs. The word tariff is one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary. Question: Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary of the United Kingdom, said that there’s an even trade between the US and the UK, so they shouldn’t have tariffs. Does trade imbalances or a balanced trade affect tariffs and your decisions? Donald Trump: Yeah, unbalance and balance and also deficits. Like with Canada, we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. That’s because we allow them to make cars. We allow them to take lumber. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their food products because we make the same products right on the other side of the border. Donald Trump: It’s sort of crazy. So we’ve just allowed that – bad management has allowed it over the last four years, in particular, to become very imbalanced. And I said to, I call him Governor Trudeau, but his Prime Minister Trudeau when he was prime minister. I asked him, why would we do that, why? And he was unable to give me an answer. Donald Trump: He said, I don’t know. And I said, do you think it’s fair that we’re paying $200 billion to keep Canada going? And what would happen? I said, I asked him, what would happen if we didn’t do that, if we didn’t subsidize Canada? He said, we’d be a failed nation. And I said, then you should be a state, because why are we paying all of that money to Canada when we could use it ourselves, right? Donald Trump: So we take care of their military. We’re going to order about 40 Coast Guard, big icebreakers, big ones. And all of a sudden, Canada wants a piece of the deal. I said, why are we doing that? I mean, I like doing that. If they’re a state, but I don’t like doing that if they’re a nation. Also, they’ve been very nasty to us on trade. Donald Trump: Historically, Canada has been very, very bad to us, very unfair to us on trade. So we’ll see how it all works out. I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut, a tremendous tax cut because they’re very highly taxed. And you wouldn’t have to worry about military. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t have to worry about many of the things. You’d have better health coverage. They’d have much better health coverage. So I think the people of Canada would like it, if it’s explained. But just to start off, they’d have a massive tax cut and they’d have a lot more business because then we’d let businesses go to Canada routinely and there’d be no tariffs. Donald Trump: If we did that, there’d be no tariffs. Question: The United Kingdom might be in a better spot then? [Inaudible] Reverend Franklin Graham has been a great asset to this state. Can you talk a little bit about the way Samaritan’s Purse has helped North Carolina? Donald Trump: Yeah. Say it once again, the first part. Question: Reverend Franklin Graham has been a big part of Samaritan’s Purse and their aid to North Carolina. I just want to get your thoughts on that. Donald Trump: Well, Franklin Graham has been a big asset to the state. His father was a big asset to the state, to the country, both of them. I just think this, I think Franklin and other people that are doing what Franklin have done, but I’ve known Franklin so long. He was at the inauguration. He made a speech, beautiful speech, beautiful prayer, just he does a great job. Donald Trump: And we made a big donation and it was money well spent. Sometimes you make donations, it’s not well spent. He’s done a great job here. He’s done a really great job. So I want to thank you. We’re going to the site now, one of the sites, and I think you’ll, for those that haven’t seen it, you won’t even believe it, but not enough work was done. Donald Trump: We’ll get it done fast and I can speak for the republican congressman, we’re going to knock it out, right? We’re going to knock it out. And I think we take it very personally because North Carolina was very unfairly treated, very, very unfairly treated and it was obvious. It was too obvious and we’re going to make up for lost time. Donald Trump: So thank you to the people of North Carolina. Thank you, everybody.
Date: 2025-01-24
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. This is an honor to be with you. Unfortunately, it’s a very sad period. But what makes you feel good is I met so many of the homeowners, and every one of them, a lot of them, and every one of them said to me they want to rebuild. I said, “Will you go elsewhere?” “No, no, no, no.” It wasn’t even like a question. Donald Trump: They love the area. They love the people. It’s like a family. It’s incredible, actually, when you see some things like that. We just left North Carolina, and we had just a similar type of disaster. It was water instead of fire. But boy, that water did damage like I’ve never seen before. And then you come here, and you see this. Donald Trump: But the people are so amazing, and your fire department was so beautiful. Every one of them is in perfect physical shape. I said, “What do you guys do?” They have very high standards. I can tell you. And we took pictures with all of them. But very nicely, they gave us a little helmet. And I said, “You wear this, huh? Donald Trump: Is this real?” And they said, “Yeah.” I said, “It’s awfully heavy. You have to be very strong to wear that.” But that’s the original, right? So, it’s pretty good. But I just wanted to thank everybody. We’re going to be with you. Your governor met us at the plane, and we had a good talk, very, very positive talk. Donald Trump: We have to work together to get this really worked out. I don’t think you can realize how rough it is, how devastating it is until you see it. I didn’t realize. I mean, I saw a lot of bad things on television, but the extent of it, the size of it. We flew over it in a helicopter. We flew to a few of the areas, and it is devastation. Donald Trump: It’s incredible. It’s really an incineration. Even some of the chimneys came down, OK? When you have the chimneys come down, you know that’s pretty hot stuff, and a lot of them were down. That was a bad sign, too. But I just want to commiserate, and we’re going to celebrate. We’ll be back to celebrate one day soon. Donald Trump: I hope soon. The federal government’s standing behind you 100 percent. The first lady and I are in California to express a great love for the people of California. We – we’ve had – I’ve had great support always in California. We did very well recently, as you know, relatively speaking, at least I can say. Donald Trump: And it’s been amazing. I have a property in California, not too far away, actually, right up the road in Palos Verdes. It’s a big property, and I’ve always loved it. I’ve always loved being here. But we have to grieve for the 28 Californians who have tragically perished. And sadly, you’re going to be finding more. Donald Trump: And that’s going to be very sad because I know people are missing. And when you look at that kind of incineration, you know what’s going to happen. You’re going to find some more. But with all that we’ve gone through, I watched your firefighters, and they were really fighting at a big disadvantage. I got to know a lot of them just now, and they’re incredible people. Donald Trump: They were so happy. They were saying, “Congratulations, sir.” You know, they’re thinking about the country maybe even before this location that they all love. But I’m pleased to be joined by many of the great California leaders, both Democrat and Republican. And it’s an honor to meet some of you I didn’t know, but I know every one of you by name. Donald Trump: LA County supervisor, Kathryn Barger. Thank you, Kathryn, very much. Mayor Karen Bass. Thank you, Karen. It’s nice to meet you. Representatives Jay Obernolte. Where’s Jay? Jay? Hi, Jay. It’s been a tough period, Jay, right? Vince Fong, Kevin Kiley. Vince? Vince and Kevin, hi. Hi, Vince. A man I know very well. Donald Trump: I know him too well, actually. And I say that, actually, with love because he’s a great – he’s actually been a great congressman for a long time, and he’s a great leader. And he loves the area as much as anybody, right? Darrell. So, Darrell Issa. Young Kim. Congratulations on an excellent career. I appreciate it. Another one I know pretty well, to put it mildly, is Tom McClintock, and he’s with – he’s been with us for a long time. Donald Trump: We have some interesting things going on in Washington, and it’s an honor that you have – that you guys are here. Thank you very much, Tom. George Whitesides. Good George. Thanks. It’s a great name, too, by the way. Brad Sherman. Oh, I know Brad well. I know Brad, but that’s all right. We’re on the same side at this one. Donald Trump: I know that. We’ll work together, Brad, very well. A lot of respect. And presidential envoy Ric Grenell, who’s done a fantastic job for me over the years. He was ambassador to Germany, and he was fantastic. So, two and a half weeks ago, over 100-mile-an-hour winds transformed the Palisades fire and other areas, too, into absolute infernos of death and destruction. Donald Trump: And this is already the most expensive natural disaster, they say, in American history. That’s pretty amazing. The numbers are going to be staggering. Most importantly, we have to get it built, and we have to hopefully find as few people as possible. We have already too many, too many. Twenty-eight, at least, they say. Donald Trump: We’re going to work very hard with the mayor, the governor, the supervisor, and everybody and get the resources behind you. We have some amazing people, and we have some amazing fighters for things like this. I also had the concept of getting some of the best developers in the country. I’ve had so many calls from developers, and they want to come in. They don’t want anything. Donald Trump: They just want to come in and help, and they really know how to get things done and get things built. I would ask that the local officials because we’re going to waive just about – essentially waive all federal permits. We’re going to have you go very quickly because a federal permit can take 10 years. We’re not going to do that. Donald Trump: We’re not going to – we don’t want to take 10 days. I would – So, we’re declaring this a national emergency. By doing that, I can give you immediate – like immediate permits. I’d ask that the local permitting process be the same. Some of the people were saying they’re going to have to – they’re going to be forced to wait 18 months for their permits, and I don’t think you’re going to do that. Donald Trump: I can’t imagine that. So, they are literally in a position right now. They’d like to start tonight, and they’ll clean their site. They’ll do everything. They just want to start. And they were very concerned with the 18 months. So, I’m sure you can get it down to, I would say, not even 18 days. They are ready, Mayor. Donald Trump: They are ready to start. Karen Bass: They’re ready. Donald Trump: They’re – I met so many of them. The fire took place. It’s nice and cool there now, and they want to start taking the debris. They want to take the debris. They want to do everything. They’ll get rid of everything. They’re going to do it by their own hand, and you’re going to see some amazing things happen. Donald Trump: So, we’re waiving the federal permits. Either waive them or give them to you so rapidly. It’s not going to – it’s going to be essentially the same thing, but we’re going to try and just waive them, and we’ll rely on the local. But the local, I hope, is going to do the same exact thing. They’re literally ready to start right away tonight. Donald Trump: So, if you could do almost the same thing or the same thing, it would be great. For a building permit, you’re going to have to, you know, check things out a little bit. A lot of them, every single one of them said they’re going to rebuild. I didn’t have one person say they’re selling or they’re leaving or they’re disgusted. Donald Trump: They love their community, and it’s incredible. We even had one from your neck of the woods, right? Melania Trump: Yes. Donald Trump: You want to stand up? It was so nice the way you – she greeted – She greeted my wife in an – in a very different language, right? And it was very nice to see. And you’re staying, and you’re going to rebuild and everything else. Yeah. Everybody. Everybody. So, it’s really great. So, I’m signing an executive order to open up the pumps and valves in the North. Donald Trump: We want to get that water pouring down here as quickly as possible and let hundreds of millions of gallons of water flow down into Southern California, and that’ll be a big benefit to you. Look, if you don’t want it, you’re going to tell me, but just – I can’t imagine it. I tell you who does like it is the fire department. Donald Trump: When I said that, they were very happy with that. They didn’t mind hearing that. But we have a lot of water that is available. And I hope you can work that out among yourselves, but I think this will show that we have to have that water. We have to have that water. You’re talking about unlimited water coming up from the Pacific Northwest, even coming up from parts of Canada. Donald Trump: And it pours down naturally. It has for a million years, for a million years. It pours down. You’ll never run out. You’ll never have shortages, and you’ll – you won’t have things like this. And when you do, you’ll have a lot of water to put it out. So, I’m going to ask that you figure that out, but I am – I really strongly recommended this seven years ago, and I think I’m going to just do it. If you have big problems, you’re going to let me know, but I just can’t even imagine it. But we’re also surging federal resources and assistance to the state, and California must adopt the commonsense policies to prevent fires. Donald Trump: And we all know that, you know, we were talking – seven or eight years ago, I was talking to people from Austria, people from Finland, people that live in forests. One of the gentlemen, the top – one of the great leaders of Austria said, “We don’t have forest fires, and we have trees that are actually far more flammable than they have in California.” But they literally rake their forest. Donald Trump: They take down – if a tree comes down, they take it down. They say you have 18 months. After that, it’s like a matchstick. And I know environmentally – some environmental groups like the trees to just melt into the ground, but when they do melt into the ground, they become an inferno. So, I think you’re going to have to change your ways in terms of that. Donald Trump: You have 30 years of leaves, and those leaves are dry as a bone, and they burn. You know, interestingly, because I was at Paradise – who is the general? Right? A long time ago, I was at Paradise. What a beautiful paradise it was. And how is it doing, by the way? Unidentified: Rebuilding. Donald Trump: Are they rebuilding? Right? Remember when – he said, “You were up here, President.” I went there. I never saw anything like it. But you know what amazed me? I’ll never forget it. The trees were OK because the trees are loaded with water. They sucked that water out of the ground. This was an inferno, just like, I would say, no different than this. Donald Trump: And it was also the wind that caused a lot of problem. I mean, you had tremendous winds that there’s not a lot you’re going to do with. It was – you had up to 100-mile-an-hour winds. It’s unheard of. But when I was in Paradise, I noticed that the trees, they were dark on the bottom, but they were absolutely living, and they lived because they’re soaking wet. Donald Trump: But the trees that were on the ground, within 12 to 18 months – they say 18 months at a maximum. You have to cut them up, take them away because they’re matchsticks. But we saw that. You saw that with me. I commented at the time. I said, “Look at this.” The house is burned down, and the tree is standing, other than being a little different color on the bottom, and it went through an inferno. Donald Trump: It’s amazing. It’s soaking wet. So, I think they have to do it. It’s called management of the floor. And when the gentleman from Austria and also Finland and other countries, they said, “We manage the forest floor very, very carefully, and we don’t have forest fires.” You know, they just don’t have them. Donald Trump: So, I’m sure you’re going to do the same thing. So, there can be no golden age without the Golden State. It’s a great state. It’s a fantastic place, and we’re going to have a – we’re going to have a big celebration soon. We’re going to come back, and we’ll come back as much as you need, and we’re going to turn it around, and we’re going to open the coffers. Donald Trump: You know, America wants us to be taken care of. This was a horrible thing to watch and the way it just kept going and going. And then they’d find another area. It was like a genius on the other side. The fire was a genius, the way it kept moving, but we’re not going to stand for it. I just met with the Olympic people, and they’re all set to do a real job. Donald Trump: So, we have the Olympics, and I got them. You know, it was very interesting. I made the deal with the Olympics. I was called by your former mayor, and he said, “Would you call the Olympics?” Because I must tell you, the Democrats, as you know, were not calling. They wouldn’t do it. I don’t know. It was a bad experience somehow. Donald Trump: And I did, and I got along great with the Olympic Committee, and we got the Olympics. And then we got you the World Cup. That one, I focused on with Gianni. Gianni was great, the head of it. So, you have that coming. And then we have the 250 years coming up, which is going to be a great celebration. But I’ll never forget when I got the Olympics and then I got the – well, I was president when I got them. Donald Trump: I said, “Oh, boy. It’s too bad I won’t be president.” Who knew this was going to happen, right? I said, “I won’t be president,” because it would have been the four years. And in fact, I’d be retired by four days right now, I guess, right? So, anyway, so I got them, and at least I’ll be able to celebrate the Olympics, the World Cup, and the 250 years is going to be a very big deal. Donald Trump: So, we have the three biggest there are, and it was an honor to get. If you have any questions, please let me know. And if you have a statement to make, I’d love to have politically, if you’d like to make a statement. Brad, go ahead. Karen Bass: Mr. President? Donald Trump: OK. I’ll do it. Brad Sherman: Mr. President, thank you for coming – Donald Trump: Sure. Thank you, Brad. Brad Sherman: To the 32nd congressional district and – Donald Trump: Thank you. Brad Sherman: Making people – most people don’t have adequate insurance because they couldn’t get it. So, one company dropped 1,600 policies just in the last six months. We’ve got 16 times as much property damage here as from Hawaii. And I’m hoping that we get at least 16 times the federal appropriation for the CDBG program that helps people rebuild. Brad Sherman: And I know you’ve talked about policies of California that you’re not a fan of, but I’ve been in Congress for 28 years. I really disagree with Louisiana on their abortion policy. I disagree with them on their campaign finance policy. I disagree with North Dakota on their gun policy. And I would never turn to somebody from Louisiana and say, “You keep living on your cousin’s couch because we’re not going to help you rebuild until Louisiana agrees with me on a woman’s right to choose.” So, I’m hoping that we can get these funds and that we don’t punish individuals for the policies of their state. Brad Sherman: You can disagree with them, and I think you’ve got some ideas. Donald Trump: I do. I look forward to us listening. Also, on tariffs, I often agree with you on tariffs, but how about no tariffs on building materials for the next three years? We’ll take a look at that, actually. We’ll take a look. Karen Bass: Mr. President? Donald Trump: Mayor, please. Karen Bass: Yes. First of all, let me just take the opportunity to officially welcome you to Los Angeles. Really appreciate you coming and especially you come just a few days after your inauguration. Donald Trump: Thank you. Karen Bass: So, I want you to know that your presence here is very much appreciated. Let me also say that I know you had an opportunity to see the devastation. You’ve seen the extreme loss, the grief that people are going through here. And we are 100 percent committed to getting this neighborhood rebuilt again. You mentioned a couple of things in terms of us expediting. Karen Bass: So, I signed executive directives right away so that we could cut the red tape. We could get people back building as fast as possible, and we’re going to continue doing that. Donald Trump: Yeah. The one thing is they are saying they will not be allowed to start for 18 months. Karen Bass: No. That will not be the case. Donald Trump: OK. I just hope that that – Karen Bass: You can hold me to it. Donald Trump: Four groups said that. Karen Bass: No. No. Donald Trump: That would be – they should be able to do it. They should be able to start tonight. Karen Bass: That will not be the case. You know, first, we have to take care – to make sure that there’s not – getting rid of the hazardous waste, cleaning things up so that people can start right away. And just like you said, if somebody – their house was destroyed and they’re going to rebuild essentially the same, maybe a little bit longer, a little bit higher, they really shouldn’t have to go through much of a process. Karen Bass: So, I want you to know that we are expediting that. We absolutely need your help. We need the federal help. You’re a builder. Donald Trump: You got it. I told you. You will have no permit problem. There will be zero delay. And as far as I’m concerned, you already have the permits. Karen Bass: And the resource. Donald Trump: I am more worried because I met at least eight groups of homeowners, and you know, I’m much more worried about the fact that they said it’s 18 months exactly, and they were devastated. They want to start now. They want to start removing things. They’re not allowed to do it now. And you mentioned hazardous waste. Donald Trump: Well, the hazardous waste, what’s hazardous waste? I mean, you’re going to have to define that. We’re going to go through a whole series of questions on determining what’s hazardous. Karen Bass: Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Donald Trump: I think you have to allow the people to go on their site and start the process tonight. Karen Bass: And we will. Donald Trump: OK. Good. Karen Bass: You can come back and check. Donald Trump: It’s very important. Judy Chu: Mr. President? Donald Trump: Yes. Judy Chu: I’m Congressmember Judy Chu, and I represent the areas of Altadena and Pasadena. Donald Trump: Yes. Judy Chu: That’s the Eaton fire. And there is a world of hurt there. I know that you’ve gone to the Palisades, and you’ve seen the devastation, but it’s apocalyptic in Altadena. And thank goodness I have a partner with Supervisor Kathryn Barger in working to help people get back to normal and to rebuild. But right now, they have nothing. Judy Chu: And there have been 9,500 structures burned. Most of the deaths have occurred in our area with the Eaton fire, and thousands of people are without homes. And these are working people. These are working-class people. They are people like Dr. Jackie Jacobs who was an educator all her life and then finally became the first Black administrator of her educational institution, Pasadena City College, and then retired, now 88 years old. Judy Chu: And then her home of 30 years burned in Altadena. She has nothing. She left without – with only the clothes on her back. She has nothing. And so, they need this help, and I just want to make sure that you remember the people in Altadena and Pasadena and that you can come there and see how terrible the devastation has been there so that they can get the help that they need. Donald Trump: Just remember one thing, and I like the way you express yourself beautifully, actually. But I’ve only been here three days, and I’ll do a great job. But we had another president, and this took place during the life of another president, not me. But I’m going to be the president that’s going to help you fix it because he would not have been able to help you fix it, OK? So, we’ll take care of it. We’ll take care of it. And we’ll work closely. Donald Trump: Yeah. We’ll work closely. And I know your community was really devastated incredibly. So, we understand that. Thank you very much. Kathryn Barger: Mr. President, I’m just going to follow up. Donald Trump: Yes, please. Go ahead. Kathryn Barger: Supervisor Kathryn Barger. And I also represent Altadena. And what I tell people is people of Altadena are the exact people you talked to when you were running. You’ve got individuals from every walk of life. And it is the, actually, at one time, was the only place African Americans could purchase homes. Kathryn Barger: It was redlined. And so, you’ve got a lot of generational wealth there. And one of the commitments I’ve made, and we’ve had meetings with some of your people in HUD that you’ve got there now, to work with them and work with your administration to see how we can help. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I know on HUD, we’ve got some ask that we – are going to be working with you on. But more importantly, I just really want to emphasize what Congresswoman Chu said, and that is that these are individuals who are feeling forgotten. Kathryn Barger: And what I tell them is – and when we invited you out here, I told, when I went to the AME Church, “This president was talking to you when he was running.” You understand the difficulty in making ends meet. You understand the high cost of living. And now, their biggest fear is that that’s going to impact their ability to rebuild. Kathryn Barger: And I have made them this commitment, because this is my last term, that for the next four years – you talk about 18 months. I’ve told our county staff that if you’re going to get in the way, then get another job because we are an all-hands-on-deck. And quite frankly, if the bureaucracy can’t get out of the way, we’ll just roll over it. And we’ve said that. Kathryn Barger: We’ve made it clear. The governor has waived CEQA, which I feel should be completely reformed if not eliminated. And if it’s being eliminated for this – Donald Trump: How are they doing with CEQA? Kathryn Barger: How are they doing that? Donald Trump: How is it? What’s been the attitude of the people running that whole situation? Kathryn Barger: It adds sometimes years on to an application. Donald Trump: Can’t do it. Can’t do it. Kathryn Barger: No. And the governor has waived – Donald Trump: And Coastal Commission also. Kathryn Barger: He waived that. Donald Trump: They’re going to have to override the Coastal Commission because – I’ve dealt with the Coastal Commission for a long time, and they are considered the most difficult in the entire country. And we cannot have them play their games and wait 10 years to give somebody a permit. In fact, I’m going to override the Coastal Commission. Donald Trump: I’m not going to let them get away with it, their antics. OK? Thank you. Thank you, Barger. Vince Fong: Mr. President, I just wanted – I just want to thank you for your leadership on California water policy. You made it a priority from Day 1. For those of us in the Central Valley in Northern California, we have catastrophic wildfires as well. California is a wildfire-prone area, so ensuring reliable, stable water supplies is critical. Vince Fong: And so, your leadership, your executive order, moving more water, maximizing flows throughout the state of California, building more water storage, getting more conveyance, coordinating the – Donald Trump: It would have a great impact on – I know your area very well. It would have an unbelievable impact on your area. Vince Fong: Absolutely. We just want to thank you for making it a priority. Donald Trump: You know, even beyond the fire stuff, the farms. I drive up – I was driving up with Congressman a few years ago because they were complaining they had no water. And I was driving up, and you’ll see all of this incredible land, but it’s absolutely bone-dry. And then you’ll see little green patches, and the green patches are so beautiful. Donald Trump: You know, they have that land. It’s – they say it’s as good as Iowa farmland, but it has no water. And it’s artificial, has no water. They send the water out into the Pacific Ocean. And when we let that water come through your valleys and down to Los Angeles and everything, you’re going to have a different place. Donald Trump: It’s going to be a whole different place. And you guys have to get together and say, “Gee, we want it.” It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. So, at least you said that, and I appreciate it. Because your farmers will be able to – instead of having one acre out of 100, which is all they have, they’ll be able to have 100 acres out of 100, and it’s among the best. Donald Trump: They say it’s the best farmland just about in the country, as good as any place there is. But you can’t – it’s so good without water. So, that’s beyond the fire stuff. But today, we’re talking about fire, but it’s good for everything. So, I hope you can lead a group. And Darrell, if you can lead a group, I know how you feel, and, you know, support what I’m doing because what I’m doing, I guess, is controversial. Donald Trump: I don’t know what’s – I don’t know what’s controversial about sending millions of – sending millions and millions of gallons of beautiful fresh water from the Pacific Northwest and further up than even that into an area that’s bone-dry. We have to. You know, I have a house in Beverly Hills, and you get notices every once in a while. Donald Trump: They want you to go down to 38 gallons per person or something, per house, per person. I say, “You mean, you can only have –” You know, 38 gallons sounds like a lot. It’s not a lot. And they want to do that every once in a while, and you just think it’s ridiculous when you have – you have, like, just about as much water as anybody in the country, and we shouldn’t be in a position where you have tumbleweed that’s dry as a bone, that even tumbleweed can be nice and green and rich and loaded up with water, and it’s not going to burn. Donald Trump: You don’t even have to remove it. It’s not going to burn. But it’s just dry. So, I hope you can all get together and say, “I’m so happy with the water that’s going to be flowing down,” because I just don’t see anything – they talk about the delta smelt, which is a fish that’s this big, but it is really not – doesn’t have to be protected because it’s in other areas. Donald Trump: It’s in numerous other areas, so it doesn’t have to be protected. The people of California have to be protected. Kevin Kiley: Mr. President? Mr. President, can I just speak for a moment? Kevin Kiley, California. Donald Trump: Yes. Kevin Kiley: First of all, you’re absolutely right about the Coastal Commission. I’ve introduced legislation to reign them in. We’ve been talking with Ric about this. Donald Trump: They’re out of control. Kevin Kiley: Absolutely out of control. It’s insane, the things they’ve been getting away with. Donald Trump: I think they thrive on it, actually, if you want to know the truth. So ridiculous. Kevin Kiley: That’s right. They even tried to stop SpaceX from launching rockets. Donald Trump: It’s true. Kevin Kiley: But you mentioned your predecessor and how he didn’t fix the situation, which is absolutely right. Not only that, during the Caldor Fire, which was a few years ago, which was in my district, 600 people lost their homes in a town called Grizzly Flats. He came, and he promised that he would help them out. But he broke that promise many times. Kevin Kiley: He never delivered them the individual assistance they were asking for. So, this has underscored for me the importance of helping the helping the victims, making sure in this situation, every fire, we get money to the victims, and we make sure that nothing stands in the way of that. But I just want to thank you for your focus on bringing sanity to California water and fire policy. Kevin Kiley: There’s no place that needs a revolution in common sense quite like California. Donald Trump: You have so much water. Use it and be happy about it. Joel Pollak: Mr. President? Donald Trump: Be happy. Joel Pollak: Mr. President, my name is Joel Pollak, and I am a journalist with Breitbart News, but I happen to live in the Pacific Palisades, as do other colleagues. One colleague, John Conn, wrote the song “Fighter,” which you played at your campaign rallies. He lost his house and the studio he wrote that song in. We were lucky because I was able to fight the fire on my fence. Joel Pollak: But when I got to my house, there was no water in the pipes. So, I got inside, and I picked up the flower vases because I give my wife flowers every week, and there was water there. And we started with that. Then I found my son’s bucket of baseballs, and I dumped the baseballs on the ground, and I used the bucket. Joel Pollak: But there was still no water, except for the water in the gutter coming from the burnt homes uphill. So, I went to and fro to my gutter and my fence with my bucket. Two guys showed up in a truck, two neighbors. We found two more buckets, bucket after bucket after bucket. Many of my neighbors, including some here, tried to fight the fires. Joel Pollak: They couldn’t. We were lucky our house was saved. But we should not have to rely on buckets to put out a fire. Donald Trump: That’s right. Joel Pollak: You can’t stop an 80-mile-per-hour wind or a 100-mile-per-hour wind. But there were many things that went wrong here that are basic and small. We did not have traffic police to guide the evacuation. So, there was gridlock on sunset. They’ve removed the vehicles now, but there were dozens of vehicles that were abandoned by drivers who fled for their lives because there were no traffic cops available. Joel Pollak: The fire department wasn’t pre-deployed, even though there was an extreme wind event coming. And many of my neighbors lost their fire insurance in the days before the blaze. So, I asked my neighbors, what would they want to know if I could ask the president a question? And the No. 1 thing was insurance. Can you work with the insurance companies to get people back to where they were before they lost the coverage because of California’s regulations? Joel Pollak: And can you make California change its rules so that when we build again, we can get fire insurance, and we don’t have to worry? And there’s one other point I want to make. I really appreciate my congressman advocating for money. We need the money from the federal government. But I also understand Americans who are tired of spending money on California and disasters happen, and the California government passes $50 million to oppose your policy. Joel Pollak: So, they have $50 million for that but not for moving people into rental homes or helping people relocate or rebuild. I would like to ask you to follow the 9/11 Commission precedent and appoint a special master to watch the money, to make sure that every federal dollar that gets spent here is spent on fire relief and rebuilding and not on everything else. Donald Trump: Good idea. Here’s a good one right over here. I don’t know if you – do we all like Ric? Joel Pollak: He’s very busy. Donald Trump: He was ambassador to Germany. He was fantastic. Angela Merkel’s happiest day ever in her history, and she had a long history, was the day I removed him from there and put him in charge of a very high level of intelligence and intelligent people, but they were not intelligent enough to fool him. But Ric Grenell has been fantastic. Donald Trump: And he lives here. And I don’t know if you want to either think about it or recommend some people or get together and recommend some people as a group, which is fine. But Ric would be somebody that I would certainly consider. And Breitbart is fantastic, by the way. Congratulations on that. And I was so impressed with the firefighters I met before. Donald Trump: And they said that – you know, I asked them, “How many of the pumps – how many of the hydrants were working?” And it was a – you know, a large percentage of them were not working at all. They had no water. And the ones that did have water didn’t have a lot of pressure. And one of the things that was missing – many of you have sprinklers over your living room, in your bathroom, in your kitchen. Donald Trump: I mean, if those sprinklers worked with some pressure, you would have had a lot of – you would have had a much different outcome. So, we’re going to work on that. I think in terms of that, Ric Grenell would be good. Or, Ric, you’ll head up a group of people that would recommend a few people to me, maybe a commission, set up a commission. Donald Trump: I like it because we’re talking about a lot of money. The other one is – Kelly Loeffler is now the head of Small Business. And Small Business is big business. It’s one of the – it’s actually one of the biggest banks in the world. We call it the Small Business Administration. And she’s a cabinet member, full cabinet member. Donald Trump: She’s fantastic. Her husband is the head of the New York Stock Exchange, so they know something about money and other exchanges, actually. Fantastic people. And she wants to come here almost immediately after she gets approved. She wants to come here and open up Small Business to the area because you can have – they have a lot of a lot of money. Donald Trump: I always say the Small Business is actually a very big business when you add it all up. And she’s going to come here, and it’s a very important thing. I want to thank also the first lady because she wanted to come here. She wanted to be here. She has so many friends, and she also wanted to see North Carolina because that was another disaster that was so bad, so different but so bad. Donald Trump: And she just wanted to go there. We said we’re going to stop at one, and then we’re going to the other. In many respects, it was a depressing day, but in many respects, it was a beautiful day because the spirit is so incredible. North Carolina and here, very, very similar situation, so different and yet so similar, actually. Donald Trump: And so, I just thought it was very nice. You wanted to be here, and we appreciate – we appreciate that. Unidentified: [Inaudible] So, we’re all sitting here now – Donald Trump: Is that local? Unidentified: Yeah. It is. Donald Trump: You got to do – you got to – I don’t want to be the only one to give you permits, like, in one day, and then I find out that the cities, the towns, and the state is not going to give you permits because – and, you know, the problem with permits, it only takes one. You might need seven different permits. Donald Trump: You shouldn’t have any at this point. You should just let them build. And, you know, you’re only as good as the weakest one. So, if you have one that’s going to hold you up but the others are going to give it to you in 24 hours, it’s not going to help you very much. So, they have to work on that. Unidentified: We were told last night, 18 months. That’s not the answer [Inaudible] Donald Trump: It’s what everybody said. Karen Bass: Let me just tell you that we are going to do everything we can, slashing regulations, expediting everything so that people can begin the process right away. You know, we have the Disaster Recovery Center on Pico and Westwood. We have building and safety there. People are already contacting the local agencies. Karen Bass: We’re bringing our city departments together so that people don’t get caught in the loop of going from one room to the next. We want them all to be in the same room so that you can get busy rebuilding ASAP. Unidentified: We have to clear the lots. Karen Bass: Absolutely. Unidentified: We have to clear the lots. Karen Bass: Yes. Yes. And we will clear the lots, absolutely, in the city and in the county. We are working together. Both levels of government are working in unity. Unidentified: We were told last night [Inaudible] Karen Bass: Yes. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Six months is no good. Karen Bass: And the No. 1 thing that we are going to do immediately, and you will see this happen, is to clear out the debris. And you know we’re concerned right now over the weekend because of the potential rain, but we are going to move as fast as we can. But we want you to be safe, and we want you to be back in your homes immediately. Donald Trump: But the people are willing to clean out their own debris. It doesn’t cost a lot. Karen Bass: Yes, and they can. And they are able to – no, no, no. They can do that. Donald Trump: You should let them do it because by the time you hire contractors, it’s going to be two years. Karen Bass: If a family – Donald Trump: The people are willing to get a dumpster and do it themselves and clean it out. Karen Bass: And they can do that. Donald Trump: There’s not that much left. It’s all incinerated. Karen Bass: That’s right. Donald Trump: And, you know, it’s just going to take a long time if you do – you can do some of it, but a lot of these people – I know that guy right there that’s talking. I know my people. You’ll be on that thing tonight, throwing the stuff away, and your site will be – it’ll look perfect within 24 hours, and that’s what he wants to do. He doesn’t want to wait around for seven months till the city hires some demolition contract that’s going to charge him $25,000 to do his lot. Donald Trump: I think you have to – you have emergency powers just like I do, and I’m exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them also. Karen Bass: I did exercise them. I signed an emergency declaration. Donald Trump: Because, look, I mean, you have a very powerful emergency power, and you can do everything within 24 hours. Karen Bass: Yes. And if individuals want to clear out their property, they can. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Karen Bass: Yes. But you know that you will be able to go back soon. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Karen Bass: We think within a week. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: That’s a long time, a week. I’ll be honest. To me, everyone’s standing in front of their house. They want to go to work, and they’re not allowed to do it. A week is a long time. Karen Bass: And the most important thing is that people to be safe. Donald Trump: They’re safe. They’re safe. You know what they’re not safe? They’re not safe now. They’re going to be much safer. A week is actually a long time, the way I look at it. I watched hundreds of people standing in front of their lots, and they’re not allowed to go in. It’s all burned. It’s gone. It’s done. Nothing’s going to happen to it. It’s not going to burn anymore. Donald Trump: There’s nothing to burn. There’s almost nothing to burn. And they want to go in. The people are all over the place. They’re standing, and I say, “Why aren’t you going in?” “We’re trying to get a permit.” And the permit’s going to take them – everybody said 18 months. You said 18 months. You said 18 months. Unidentified: That was last night. That was last night. And you guys – Donald Trump: And that was last night. Unidentified: [Inaudible] right now. We are blocked from entering our [Inaudible] yesterday. Jay Obernolte: Mr. President, we’re going to be together next week. And during the interim, many of us are involved in – and Tom McClintock, who you know has been an expert on this for years. Donald Trump: That’s right. Jay Obernolte: We are going to be putting conditions on the money that do two things: require that it be done timely and affordable; and then secondly, that we protect those who will come afterwards. As we speak, there are 6,000 acres burning in my district on the Mexican border. There will be more fires until we include, in any disaster relief, items which will prevent it or at least mitigate it from happening again. Jay Obernolte: So, you’re going to see us proposing both of those. Donald Trump: Like water. Little things like water. You know, the party of common sense. See, we’re the – Brad, we’re the party of common sense. You’re not, in all fairness. Brad Sherman: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: We like water to put out fires. It’s really quite efficient. All right. Jay Obernolte: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I’m Jay Obernolte. My district is just a bit east of here. Donald Trump: Yep. Jay Obernolte: And you were talking about the need to better manage our forests and our wild lands to prevent this from happening again, and you were so right about that. Just last year, a couple months ago, in October, they put out a fire. The line fire in my district was over twice as big as the Palisades fire. And they put it out less than a mile from my house, in an area where we had done the thinning, and they stopped the fire, Mr. President, on a fire break that we had built a couple of years ago. Jay Obernolte: We have an area just on the other side of my community that hasn’t been thinned in decades because it’s being held up by a lawsuit from an environmental group that says we’re going to reduce habitat. Mr. President, we need to – in addition to getting resources and boots on the ground to do this treatment, we need to reform our legal system to prevent these lawsuits from tying up these projects for years and years and years. Jay Obernolte: And not to say that they should – the merit shouldn’t be heard, but we need to hear them, and we need to move on, resolve them. Donald Trump: Is this a state group? State or federal group? Jay Obernolte: This is a local group, actually, Mr. President, but they have help from the state. Donald Trump: They use the environment to make themselves feel good, and they’re destroying our country. And you’ve got to – at some point, you’ve got to put your foot down. I know exactly what you’re talking. You have local and state groups, and you have federal groups, too, and you got to fight them the right way because you’ll never – even if the mayor gives, you’re going to have a local group come in and sue. Donald Trump: You’re not allowed to go on your property. They’re going to talk about asbestos and every other thing. They want to go on their property, and they want to clean out their property. And you cannot let anything get in their way. And you’ll have this place built up quickly, beautifully. It’ll be more beautiful than before. Donald Trump: And I would do one other thing. I’d give them a 10 percent, 15 percent bonus on their house because they went through hell, and they should be allowed to build a little bit – give them a little bit lot line bonus, give them a bonus on size, maybe a little bonus on height. They went through hell. You know, some of them had houses where they were restricted. Donald Trump: They have to have an eight-foot ceiling. You let them have a 10-foot ceiling. Let them build a nice house, a nicer house than they had before. But I would give them a 10 or a 15 percent bonus on their plans. And I think it would be very well received because they’ll be able to build a little bit nicer house. Donald Trump: Do you like that idea, by the way? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: They deserve it. Because you know what? It’s not their fault that this fire took place. This fire took place, could have been stopped. It’s not their fault. It’s not the homeowner’s fault. And I think they should be entitled to a bonus on their house. OK. Young Kim: Mr. President. Donald Trump: Please go ahead. George Whitesides: Thank you. Some good news from Paradise. We stood together there six years ago along with the governor. Donald Trump: That was that – George Whitesides: Thirty-four hundred homes have been rebuilt out of the 18,000 lost, and there’s 400 more in the wings. And so, FEMA was very helpful. Now my colleague who has Altadena here, probably a very similar situation. Clearing the lots, they’re probably going to have to clear about a foot worth of soil underneath those foundations to get the toxicity out. George Whitesides: So, they’ll need a lot of help. Those are working-class folks in Altadena. Donald Trump: And we did a good job with your people. George Whitesides: And FEMA was extremely helpful. Donald Trump: That was the old days, when FEMA was good. FEMA is no good anymore. That was when we ran it. FEMA was very good, but now FEMA is not good. George Whitesides: We got to get them on track. But on the water, thanks so much for your strong efforts on that. Right now, Lake Shasta, which is in my district, is dumping more water than what is coming in. So is Folsom Lake. And those are federal projects that should be building up because we’re in latter January here. And there’s not – you can’t count on the rain and the snow coming every year. George Whitesides: And so, if we don’t fill those projects, then my colleague in San Joaquin Valley isn’t going to get his water for his farmers. Well, it might be all right up in the North. They aren’t going to get it. And then the water needs to go through aqueduct for Southern Cal to refill maybe the Santa Ynez Reservoir that was empty during this – Donald Trump: You know, you don’t even need reservoirs. With the water coming down, you don’t need the reservoir. You have so much water. You don’t need it. You only have reservoirs because you tried to hold water. But you have natural water coming down along the coast. For a million years, it’s been coming. You know that, right? George Whitesides: Yeah. Donald Trump: In addition to that, you have a lot of half pipe. In other words, you have the half pipe that’s built, and it hasn’t been used. You see, it’s bone-dry. No water’s been in that half pipe for years and years. It was closed up years ago. George Whitesides: Had the reservoir – sorry. Donald Trump: It’s already there. Yeah. George Whitesides: Had the reservoir above the Palisades been full, they wouldn’t have run out of water in a few hours. It would have gone for at least a few days with 40 acre feet out of 600,000 acre feet – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: That reservoir has been empty for a long time. George Whitesides: Yep. Donald Trump: It shouldn’t have been empty. OK. Any other questions? George Whitesides: Thank you. Donald Trump: Yeah. Please. Traci Park: Mr. President, my name is Traci Park. I represent the people of the Pacific Palisades on the LA City Council. I wanted to thank you for your loyal support to our military, our police officers, and especially our firefighters. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Traci Park: My top priority going forward is to get these men and women home as soon as possible and open up the pathway to begin their rebuilding process. It was the Army Corps of Engineers who announced last night that it would be 18 months. I am fully committed to doing my part on the ground with our state agencies and our city and our county partners to speed this up. Donald Trump: Good. Traci Park: I just ask for your ongoing partnership with FEMA and the EPA and our other federal agencies to make sure that we have a commitment across all layers of government to get these people back home. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: I do – and I do – thank you very much. It’s well said. I do have to say FEMA’s a big disappointment. We had it working well. We had great people, but FEMA’s not good anymore. What FEMA did in North Carolina – you know, they still haven’t even gone to certain areas. They don’t know what they’re doing. And I say you don’t need FEMA. You need a good state government. Donald Trump: And when you have a problem in Los Angeles or when you have a problem even in the state of California, you have your own. Essentially, FEMA, you fix it yourself. You don’t have somebody coming in from a state where they have no idea. Like Florida, they come in from hurricanes. They have people staying in Alaska. Donald Trump: And now they see, “Oh, this is very nice.” But by the time they get familiar with it, they don’t know anything. FEMA is a very expensive, in my opinion, mostly failed situation. We had great people. We did some great jobs. But each state should take care of their problem and get money from the federal government. Donald Trump: It would be so much better, so much more efficient. So, we’re looking at that because we have had – and you’re going to have problems with FEMA, too. You’ve already had problems with FEMA. FEMA doesn’t even show up. It takes weeks before they even show up. And what happens is the state then relies on FEMA, and nobody does anything because FEMA doesn’t show up. So, it’s not a good situation, so we’ll make some recommendations on that. Donald Trump: But you have to push like hell to get the permits because I’m just hearing things that I don’t like to hear. I think you’re not going to get your permits as fast as people are saying. We have to get them. And, Mayor, if I can help you at all in that regard, you’ll let me know. But you’re going to have all your federal permits. Donald Trump: That’s going to be the easy part, which, by the way, is by far the hardest part. You know, who controls your water is Department of Commerce, and I already have that approval. And that’s usually a very long process, but that’s – the hard part was the federal, but we already have that done. So, anything I can do, please let me know. Donald Trump: Please go ahead. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: You lost all your schools. You lost four? You lost your four schools? Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Were they completely burned down, the schools? Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: Wow. All of them? All of them? Unidentified: Pretty much all of them. Yeah. [Inaudible] Donald Trump: No. You can’t. No. Karen Bass: That’s right. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Well, I’m going to ask Ric to set, I think, right from this table. You might put a couple of the fire guys back there on that I just met, OK? Because they’re really good. But get a group and figure out how we can do the processing faster. Brad Sherman: Mr. President, if I can just defend FEMA a little bit. Donald Trump: Yeah. Brad Sherman: They brought thousands of people in. I don’t know how they’re doing in other states. They’re doing a good job for us here. They’ve got a huge center that’s open from 9 in the morning till 8 at night. But also, when you have a disaster this size, you need to be able to deploy thousands of people, which they’ve been able to do. Now, California, if we did it on our own, maybe we’d have thousands of people. Donald Trump: You do. Brad Sherman: But if Rhode Island has a Palisades disaster, are they then supposed to keep thousands – Donald Trump: How many people do you have in California? Thirty-six? How many million? How many million people do you have? You have 40 million people. You’re not going to get a few thousand people. The problem with FEMA is they come from all over the country. They end up in arguments with your people from California because they want to do it a totally different way. Donald Trump: And I can live either way, but you haven’t gotten very much done with FEMA because – and all you have to do is look at North Carolina. It’s one of the great disasters of all time. Brad Sherman: And Mr. President, you can’t have Rhode Island maintain a staff of thousands and thousands of people, waiting to see if they have a disaster. Donald Trump: You know who came in and fixed North Carolina or in the process? Other states. People from all over the country came. And you have the same thing. You have a lot of people from all over the country. Getting the people is not a problem. Getting the organization’s a big problem. FEMA’s incompetently run, and it costs about three times more than it should cost. Brad Sherman: I’m hoping you give – Donald Trump: We can spend money on schools instead of giving money to bureaucracy. It takes you so much longer. Brad Sherman: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Brad Sherman: – FEMA for helping our people. Donald Trump: FEMA has a standard, Brad. And I’m a builder. I build – I was a good – very good builder. FEMA has a standard that’s so slow. They want permit on permit on permit, and then they want permits on top of that. If you use FEMA, you’ll be here for a long time. What I’m saying is get the city, get the state to give you immediate 24-hour permits. Donald Trump: These people are going to build their own homes. They’re going to get them built fast. How many of the people – could I ask you one question? How many of the people – what are people going to do for financing? What are people going to do? How many people can build a home, percentage-wise, like, where they don’t have to go out and get funds? Donald Trump: Some people are just not going to be able to rebuild their home because they have a beautiful home, but they don’t have cash, right? So, what are people looking to do in that case? You’re going to have a big percentage, I would assume, Brad, like that. What are they going to do? Go ahead. Brad Sherman: Mr. President, without your help, they’re only going to get $43,000 from the federal government, even if they have a $0.5 million limit in the laws. Donald Trump: Well, you know, you did something, Brad. Every insurance company in the country left California. That’s why you have no insurance because you made it so impossible. People that think like you made it so impossible. And Brad – Brad Sherman: Me? Mr. President, I don’t know what you know about my thinking. Donald Trump: Every insurance company – I’ll tell you this. I’ve never seen a state where almost nobody has insurance. And I said, “What happened?” And they said, like, “Six months ago, they all left.” And two years ago, they had different, you know, quadrants, but they left. And you have very little insurance here. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it. Brad Sherman: We had a lot of insurance companies pull out, but I have no idea what – Donald Trump: And insurance companies actually have been warning you. Now I’m not a big fan of insurance companies, OK? They have their big drawbacks, too. But the insurance company, I’ve been reading – I read the papers very well. And, you know, they’ve been warning California for a long time. They’ve also been saying, “We want water.” You don’t have water. Donald Trump: You know, you’re supposed to get fire insurance. And the insurance company goes, “You don’t have any water in your fire hydrants.” So, it’s a tough situation. I’m not a big fan of insurance companies. I get that. Brad Sherman: They’re pulling out of Florida as well. Donald Trump: You lost your insurance company six months ago because the state wouldn’t give them what they had to have. Tom McClintock: And Mr. President, I remember the – Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Go ahead. Ed Ring: I’m Ed Ring from the California Policy Center. And in the matter of prevention of fires, in the matter of the cost of rebuilding, both of which affect insurance rates, I think one, to support something one of the other participants said, a reform you might consider, and it could be an act of Congress, is that the losers in environmentalist lawsuits pays the legal fees. Ed Ring: And I think that would be a big step in the right direction. Donald Trump: The loser? Ric Grenell: The losers of the lawsuit should pay all the fees. Donald Trump: Oh, you mean loser pays. I love that. Well, if you did loser pays, you could cut your courts in about – you could cut them down about 90 percent. Loser pays. You know what would also benefit? Medical. If you had loser pays for medical, your medical cost would go down by 50 percent. That’s an interesting thing. Donald Trump: You know, I’d bring that up. But you know the only problem? The strongest lobby in the world. You know what it is? The lawyer lobby. So, when you go back to your local congressman – hello, Congressman. How about – Tom McClintock: I’m not a lawyer. Donald Trump: How about going against the lawyers for a little while? No. Loser pays, you know, very good in Europe. They use it in certain parts of Europe, and they have very little litigations, right? Yes, please. George Whitesides: Mr. President, I represent the 27th congressional district, which is on the north side of the North San Fernando Valley through Santa Clarita and Lancaster and Palmdale. I just wanted to tell you a story of heroism. Yesterday, we had another big fire. We had several big fires across. And this fire was moving fast. George Whitesides: It was moving 1,000 feet per minute. But what these heroes did, the firefighters and the sheriffs and the law enforcement officials, they mobilized 4,000 people within about six hours. They mobilized 20 air attack aircraft and helicopters, and they saved the city of Castaic. And so, I just wanted to ask you to join us in recognizing those amazing heroes. Donald Trump: I love that. I love that. George Whitesides: I think the thing that we all – and I’m very encouraged by your words. We are all here to help the folks here, right? Donald Trump: That’s right. George Whitesides: And your words about building quickly, building well but building quickly is what I think we are all here to do. And I think if we can take that spirit out of today, it is really important that you and your wife are here. If we can take that spirit, we’re going to help these people as quickly as possible, get them back on their feet, and recreate these amazing communities that we have here. Donald Trump: You’ll take the word spirit. Such a great word. Such an important word. You’ll take their guts away. You’ll take their spirit away if you don’t give them the permits. You’re going to take their guts. They’re going to say, “Oh, we –” All of a sudden, they’ll start looking for houses, and your whole thing is going to blow up on you. Donald Trump: These people want to get going. This place can go quickly, but you don’t want to take their spirit away, and that will take their spirit away. So, you’re 100 percent right. Yes, sir. Unidentified: Mr. President, thank you for being here. Donald Trump: Thank you. Unidentified: I love my home. My in-laws love their home. I want to make you aware of something that I know you know [Inaudible], but the insurance company gives you the check on the name of the mortgage company, not you. They offer you two percent interest on that money. The treasuries are four percent. [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Right. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Oh, you like – you noticed that. Oh, look at this guy. He studies that. No. Bank of America, they’re not nice. Sounds very nice. The Bank of America. They’re not nice. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Well, we’re starting to do – we’re doing numbers on banks. Yeah. We’re doing this. Is that Leonard Boxer next to you? Leonard? Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: We have Leonard. We have – oh, there’s Skip. I have them all here, huh? Look at Skip. I haven’t seen you in a long time. You used to be a very good golfer. Are you still a good golfer? And he’s a good guy, too. Hi, Skip. You got them all. Got Leonard, Skip. Thank you. Go ahead, please. Unidentified: Mr. President, I just wanted to say Paradise is coming back because of the help that you gave us, and we really want to thank you for that. And that’s why we’re here also is because we want to help our – Donald Trump: We did a god job with Paradise, didn’t we? What a fire that was. Unidentified: It was a terrible fire. Donald Trump: We had – many, many people were found, and only the certain type of German Shepherd could even find it, right? You could not tell. The dog would go right up. There’s the body. And the incineration was so horrible, so horrible. Unidentified: And when we see what – we see the same devastation – Donald Trump: So, Paradise is going good, right? Unidentified: It’s going good. We’re coming back, and it’s because of the help, and we want to help our brothers and sisters here in LA to come back, too. And I know that’s what you’re going to do, and so we really appreciate that. But from Paradise to the Palisades, the problem is fuel. It’s the fuel, the vegetation, the dry grasses, the chaparral. Unidentified: There’s a tremendous amount of it, and we’re not – Donald Trump: You got to remove it. You got to remove it. And you got to remove it, and you got to do the other things that we’ve said 10 times. I mean, you got to remove it. You just can’t have it. Even now, I saw the fire. We flew over it, and you got a lot of dry stuff. It’s bone-dry. Unidentified: And the environmental – Donald Trump: And, you know, I predicted this seven years ago. I said, “Do it. Get it done.” And nobody – everybody laughed. They thought it was – I said forest management. They thought it was such a funny term. That’s so funny. Now it’s not funny anymore, you know. We were right. Unidentified: It’s the No. 1 cause of these fires. No. 1 cause. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t have any fires. Unidentified: Right. And if we just remove those environmental regulations, NEPA, CEQA at the state level – they get in the way of us doing those projects. Donald Trump: It’s all a con job. You know it, right? It’s all a big con job. Unidentified: Right. The town of Berry Creek in my district, CEQA stopped them from doing a fuel reduction project. They said 18 months. That’s where 18 months comes from because at least 18 months on a CEQA review. That community is no longer here today because of the North Complex fire. We didn’t build that project. Unidentified: We need to make sure that never happens again. We have to stop those things from happening, so we don’t have – Note: [Crosstalk] Unidentified: – Palisades. Donald Trump: Well, it will happen here unless you’re very strong as a group of people and demand that you have the right to go onto your property and start the process immediately, like tomorrow. How many people did I see on your street where they’re standing in front of their lot, the house is – there’s really not much demolition. Donald Trump: It’s incinerated, right? So, it’s not like a lot of stuff. It’s not like you have three stories’ worth of concrete. It’s all incinerated. And all of the people were standing there, and they weren’t allowed to even go onto their lot. You got to let them do – if you if you can do that, you’re going to see this thing go like wildfire. Donald Trump: And if you don’t, you’re going to see – you’re going to have those lots for years because people are going to leave. They’re going to – as much as you love your location and your place – and you’re in the real estate business. As much as you love your location and your site, your housing sites, they’re going to leave. Donald Trump: They’re going to leave. They’re going to find other things. They’re not going to put up with it. They have spirit now, but in a year from now, they won’t have spirit if you don’t let them go. So, just harness it. Well, I think – look, I’m going to give you everything you want. I’m going to give you more than any president would have ever given you if – most presidents wouldn’t be here, number one. Donald Trump: They certainly wouldn’t be here after three days. They would not be here. I can tell you that. And we’re going to override all of permitting. The only thing you have to do is get your state people, which should be very easy because that’s literally so easy to do. And I know the mayor, and I know she’s working very hard, but she’s got very powerful emergency. Donald Trump: It’s called an emergency petition. And you can petition very quickly. And I just hope you can give them because it’s very rare that the federal government would be ahead of the state government because the federal government – federal permits are much tougher, but you essentially already have your permits. Donald Trump: You can just go and go wild. Brad, as soon as you can get those permits, whatever you can do, if you can put that genius of yours to work on getting a permit, you’ll be doing much better than some of the other things you’ve said, OK? But we do appreciate you. So, Mayor, could I just leave you with that? It’s a big permitting deal. Donald Trump: We’re going to be back, and we’re going to – I’m going to put Ric in charge of just representing me for a period of time until we figure out exactly who we want to do it, whether we want a commission or an individual. You know, if you have a good individual – if you have a really good individual, and they are rare, but if you have a really good individual, it’s always better than a commission because the commission gets bogged down a little bit, Darrell, right? Donald Trump: So, it’s – if you had the right individual – and I know we do. We have a lot of great individuals in this community. But it’s an honor to be with you. It was an honor to be with your firemen before and your policemen. We met some great people, and these are people that are leaders, and they’re just fantastic – it’s a fantastic group of people, and they were very brave. Donald Trump: I want to tell you, your firepeople are so well thought of. You had big fires, and it was hard to put them out, but, boy, were they brave. They were really fighting against a tough thing, and everybody in the country knows it. Everybody in the country knows it. And it was an honor to be with you. Donald Trump: So, I’ll be back, and we’ll work very hard. And I hope you guys can start doing your cleanup starting, like, tomorrow at around 12 o’clock, OK? Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Brad. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for that. Nice to meet you. Thank you, Tom. Appreciate you.
Date: 2025-01-25
Question: Welcome back, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Hello, everybody. How are you? Question: Welcome back. Donald Trump: Welcome back to you. Question: How are you liking Air Force One so far, sir? Donald Trump: I think it’s nice. Hasn’t changed. Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: Hasn’t changed very much. How’s everything going? Good? Everybody happy? Question: Yes, very much so. Donald Trump: You’re getting a little bit more access to your president than you did the last time, slightly – like, by about 5,000 percent. [Laughter] We had a very good week – first week. Almost complete. I guess one day is left, if you think about it. We’re heading to Florida. We’re going to be at Doral because I’m making a speech there the following day for a group – a very important group. Donald Trump: And then, I guess we come back to Washington. So, we’re heading, as you know, to Miami – Doral. Okay. Any questions? Question: Are you going to get a round of golf in? Donald Trump: No, I don’t think so. It’s so busy. Question: What’s your favorite part on the plane, Mr. President? What do you like – you know? Donald Trump: Which plane? Question: Like, this one. Air Force One. When you were back, what did you like – Donald Trump: The plane? No, I’ve been on the plane many, many times, as you know. It’s a great plane. It’s a special plane. Question: Do you still want to change the colors? Donald Trump: Who? Question: Do you still want to change the colors – the exterior? Donald Trump: I would change them. Sure. It’d be a much more appropriate plane, rather than the baby blue. We want power blue, not baby blue. But no, you know, this is nice, but everything has its time and place. We’ll be changing the colors. Question: Can you talk to us about the firing of the inspectors general? Why did you do that? And is it the – Donald Trump: Because it’s a very common thing to do. And not all of them. Michael Horowitz, we’re keeping. I thought his report on Comey was incredible, actually. It was such an accurate, well-done report. I only wish Bill Barr used it, which he chose not to. But it was – it was an incredible report. Michael Horowitz wrote the definitive report on James Comey and the FBI. It really got that going. Donald Trump: And I understand. I don’t know them, but some people thought that some were unfair or some were not doing the job. And it’s a very standard thing to do, very much like the U.S. attorneys. Question: Do you plan to bring your own people in those positions, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Which people? Question: The – in the – in the inspectors general role? Donald Trump: It’s not my people. They’re not my people. I don’t know anybody that would do that, but we’ll put people in there that will be very good. Question: Mr. President, there’s reports that Elon Musk now must go through Susie Wiles and that he doesn’t have an office in the West Wing. I’m curious if – how you feel about that. Donald Trump: No, no, not – it’s not Elon’s office. We have an office that’s set up for purposes of – when I do an executive order, that the order is carried out, not that it sits around for three months. And we’ll have about 20 people, maybe more, working out of that office. It’s really an office for a lot of people that go and make sure that the executive office – You know, when I do an executive document, very important executive do- – I want to make sure that that is done. Donald Trump: And there’s about 20 or 25 people that will be working out of that office, and it’s really a “go get ‘em” office to make sure it gets done. That’s what that is. Question: So, you’re a week in now to your presidency. How does it compare to your first week in 2017? Did you learn any lessons or are you trying to do something differently? Donald Trump: Well, I come in now with great knowledge and experience and you could say that no – if you call it “new president” has ever had this kind of experience, that’s for sure. Whereas before, I had never done it before, but we did well. We had a very – we had a great presidency, but this one could be really outstanding. Donald Trump: I think you’re seeing the same reports that I see. And you write the reports. Most of you are writing the important reports. We’re getting A-pluses on the work done and also the amount of work done. I mean, nobody else has done this. You go to North Carolina. Then you go to Los Angeles. And then you stop on the way home and – and that was “no tax on tips,” but it was really a stop to thank the people of Nevada for having been – you know, it’s a very hard state to win as a – as a Republican, and we won it very conclusively. Donald Trump: So, it was really more of a thank you to the people of Nevada. So, I stopped there. And I have a lot of meetings once I get back, once I get to Miami. But no, it’s – I think we had – people are saying it was the most successful first week that anybody can remember a president having. Question: Mr. President, you were so nice to Governor Newsom yesterday. No “News-” – you know, “Governor Newscum.” What was that about? Donald Trump: I decided to be nice. It was nice that he came to the plane, honestly. You know, I didn’t know he’d be at the plane. It was nice that he came to the plane. And in the end, you know, we have the same goal. We want to make – take that catastrophe and make it as good as possible. We disagree in some things. Donald Trump: I guess he’s not so set on water, and I like water for putting out fires. I find it to be extremely good. Very – a little old fashioned, but about the best thing that God has ever created for putting out fires. And so, we’re going to be doing something on that. But no, I get along – I actually always got along with him well until fairly recently. Question: If I could ask you about the first lady – Donald Trump: And I very much – you know, I very much predicted that was going to happen. Because if you go back, like, six years, I said, “If you don’t start getting this place taken care of and mitigating some of the problems that are here, you’re going to end up with a fire like you had ever seen.” I turned out to be right. Question: If I could ask you about the first lady. She seems to be taking a more public-facing role. I just wonder how you envision her spending the next four years. Donald Trump: Well, I think she was always very much involved, but you didn’t see her – more behind the scenes. But she was always a “front of the scenes” person, and I think she really wanted – she felt badly about North Carolina, and she felt very badly about California. Los Angeles – got a lot of friends. I have a lot of friends in North Carolina and – and both. Donald Trump: And she has a lot of friends in California. So, she wanted to be with me for that. Yeah. For both of them. Question: Mr. President, is your preference for Larry Ellison to work to obtain TikTok? Or do you have any preference on how this deal is going? Donald Trump: I haven’t spoken – Larry is a friend of mine. Lives in – you know, right in – near Mar-a-Lago, right down the road. I never spoke to Larry about TikTok. Question: But there is – Donald Trump: I’ve spoken to many people about TikTok, and there’s great interest in TikTok. And as you know, I have the right to sell it or close it, depending on what I think is best for the country. So, we’ll make a decision over the next 90 days or so. Question: There is a report, Mr. President, that says that you are putting together a deal with Oracle and outside investors to help them buy TikTok and save TikTok. Is that happening? Donald Trump: No, not with Oracle. With – numerous people are talking to me – very substantial people – about buying it. And I’d make that decision over the next – probably over the next 30 days. I have 90 days. Congress has given 90 days, and we’ll see. If we could save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing. So, we’ll make a decision. Donald Trump: We have a lot of interest in it. And the United States will be a big beneficiary if we do it. I’d only do it if the United States benefits. I mean, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won on TikTok – and I ended up winning by a lot – young people. And as you know, Republicans historically – I don’t think – ever won young people, and I won them by a lot. Donald Trump: So, I do have a little bit of a warm spot. But, you know, it’s a very popular site, and the kids are loving it, and some of the parents are loving it. And if we can save it, I think that would be a very good thing. And I think it would be economically good for America. Question: Mr. President, could I ask you about Ukraine? Do you have any update on when you are going to talk to Russian president Vad- – Russian President Putin? Donald Trump: He wants to speak, and we’ll be speaking soon. And I’ve spoken to President Zelenskyy numerous times, and they’d like to see peace. They would like to see an end to the war. And I think President Putin would like to see an end to the war too. So, we’ll see if we can help it along. Question: On the – Donald Trump: I think it’s a shame. It’s a war that would have never happened if I were president. It’s a shame. Question: We’ve seen a lot of people being fired from the federal government. What’s the sort of criterion you’re using for this? Is it loyalty to you? And can we expect more of these purges? Donald Trump: You have to show up to work, basically. You have to show up to work. You have to go to your office, and you have to work. And otherwise, you’re not going to have a job. Question: Do you worry that that limits the pool of talent? Donald Trump: No, I think the talent is deep. We have very deep talent. But we also have a lot of excess people. You know, this was just a – this was a gimmick for Democrats, to a certain extent. But we have a lot of excess people, but the talent is very deep. Question: Now that you’ve done your first domestic trip, have you given any thought to where you want to go for your first international trip? Donald Trump: Well, it could be Saudi Arabia. It could be UK. Traditionally, it’s been UK. Last time, I went to Saudi Arabia because they agreed to buy 450 billion dollars’ worth of United States merchandise, including a lot of military equipment and farm equipment and other equipment. And if that offer were right, I’d do that again. Question: If you go to the UK, do you think you’ll get along with Keir Starmer and the Labor government? Donald Trump: I do. I mean, I’ve met him already three times. He’s come over to see me twice. I have a call – he and I have a call over the next 24 hours. No, I get along with him well. I like him a lot. He’s liberal, which is a little bit different for me. But I think he’s a very good person. I think he’s – he’s done a very good job thus far. Donald Trump: He’s very new on the job, but he’s represented his country in terms of his philosophy. I may not agree with his philosophy, but I have a very good relationship with him. I’ve seen him twice. Had dinner with him at Trump Tower, as you probably know. You know that, right? Question: Just on Saudi, Mr. President. You spoke to the crown prince. Did you discuss a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi? Donald Trump: No, I discussed getting oil prices down. Because if you get oil prices down, Russia will stop the war, and Biden should have never allowed them to go up so high. When Biden let them go up to that level, he was just inducing Russia, which sells oil, to go into a war. So, he should have never allowed – the Democrats, namely Biden, allowed oil prices to go up. That’s one of the reasons that you have the Ukraine catastrophe. Question: How do you bring the prices down? Donald Trump: Volume. Yeah. Question: [Inaudible] increasing production. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Can you tell us about your call with the king of Jordan today, please? Donald Trump: It was a very good call. He’s a friend of mine. I know him very well. I’ve gotten along with him over the years very well, and he’s done a wonderful job. He really houses, you know, millions of Palestinians, and he does it in a very humane way. And I compliment him on that. But he really – Jordan has done an amazing job of housing largely Palestin- – Palestinians. Donald Trump: And he’s done it in a very successful way. Question: So, what was the subject of discussion? Was it – was it – Donald Trump: It was that. I said to him,”I’d love you to take on more.” Because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess. Question: So, you’d like Jordan to house people from Gaza? Donald Trump: You have to take people. I’d like Egypt to take people. I’m meeting with – I’m talking to General el-Sisi tomorrow – sometime, I believe. And I’d like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people. I can – I mean, you’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. Donald Trump: It’s – you know, it’s – over the centuries, that’s – that’s many, many conflicts, that site. And I don’t know. It’s something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything is demolished, and people are dying there. So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change. Question: Temporary? Or would they – would they ever go back? Donald Trump: It could be either. It could be temporarily, could be long term. Question: Go ahead. Question: You’ve spoken about artificial intelligence quite a bit this week. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Do you have any concerns about the risks to – to humanity about artificial superintelligence? Donald Trump: Well, look, artificial intelligence is the – it’s where all of the smart countries want to be going. Great for coming up with cures to disease, great with coming up with everything, but there are always risks. And it’s the first question I ask: How do you absolve yourself from [Inaudible], et cetera? Because it could be the rabbit that gets away. Donald Trump: We’re not going to let that happen. But it’s going to be the biggest field – maybe the biggest field in the world, and we’re going to be equipped to take it. And we’re already leading. I mean, we’re going to be leading. Very shortly, we’re going to be leading by a lot. What they do need is tremendous energy. Donald Trump: They need electricity at levels that nobody has ever seen before, and we’ll be able to supply that electric. I’m going to use – Question: The Pentagon – Donald Trump: I’ll be using emergency power to give that electric. Question: The Pentagon, Mr. President, just lifted a hold on 2,000-pound bombs for Israel, which was blocked by Biden. Can you – do you have a comment on that, sir? Donald Trump: On the what? Question: On the 2,000-pound bombs – Donald Trump: Oh. Question: – that Biden had put a hold on. Donald Trump: We released them. Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: We released them today, and they’ll have them, and they paid for them, and, you know, they’ve been waiting for them for a long time. They’ve been in storage for a long time. But we released them today to Israel. Question: Why did you do that, sir? Donald Trump: Because they bought them. Question: There are reports, Mr. President, that you spoke to the Danish prime minister and she told you Greenland is not for sale. Will you take no for an answer on that? Donald Trump: Who are you with? Question: CNN. Donald Trump: Oh. Question: [Laughs] Your favorite. Donald Trump: No, they’re terrible. Honestly, that’s why they’re going out of business. It’s terrible. Or they’ll be bought cheap. Maybe some rich guy will buy them cheap. But anyway, it’s just the tone of your question every time. I think Greenland will be worked out with us. I think we’re going to have it. And I think the people want to be with us, as you know. Donald Trump: There’s 55,000 people there. They want to be with us. I don’t know, really, what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen. Because that’s for protection of the free world. It’s not for us; it’s for the free world. Right now, you have Russian ships. Donald Trump: You have China ships. You have ships from various countries. It’s not a good situation. And I believe we’ll get that. Yeah, I do believe it. I think we’ll get other things too that you’re talking about, that nobody knows. But I think we’ll get other – other things. But I do believe Greenland we’ll get, because it really has to do with freedom of the world, not just freedom of – it has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom. Donald Trump: They can’t. They can’t. I mean, they put two dog sleds there two weeks ago. They thought that was protection. Question: But the other thing is Canada – Donald Trump: And you know what? The people don’t like the way they’ve been treated by Denmark. They don’t like the way they’ve been treated by Denmark. And they do like us. Question: Mr. President, on the Senate confirmations, Senat- – or Vice President JD Vance had to come and – to pass the tiebreaking vote. I’m curious if you’re concerned at all about any of the other nominees. Donald Trump: No. Whatever it is, it is. I think they’re doing well. I think we just had a big – a big win today, as you know. Kristi Noem, I think, will be outstanding at Homeland. And we have some other ones going. And no, I don’t – you know, I don’t see any major problems. Question: The U.S. – the U.S. has suspended most foreign aid, including PEPFAR, which is a program that’s credited with saving millions of lives in Africa. Is there a timeline for opening up U.S. aid? Is there a review – Donald Trump: We’ll see – we’ll see about that. But we want other people to join us, because we’re like a one-way street. So, we want other people to help us, and we want other people to join us. We’re spending billions and billions and billions of dollars, and other countries that are wealthy are spending zero. And we want them to help. Donald Trump: Why should we be the only one? So, they understand that. They’ve been told that. It’s a little like NATO. I mean, we were spending – we were almost paying for all of NATO. And yet, they were taking advantage of us on trade. Similar countries. The same and similar countries. And after I got involved, they were paying a lot of money on NATO. The Secretary General was very generous in his statements about me with respect to NATO. So, we’ll see. Donald Trump: I think NATO should be more too, though. I think it should be more than the two. It should be – should be five, actually. Question: The CIA, Mr. President, prefers to – prefers the lab leak theory to explain COVID’s origins now. I was curious to hear your thoughts on that. Donald Trump: Well, you have a good man there. A very good man. And John is – he’s just gotten approved, as you know. John Ratcliffe also got approved. And I’d rather have you ask him that question. He’ll be – he knows everything about it right now. Question: Have you had a chance – have you given any thought to the future of the air base at Diego Garcia, which, as you know, is part of the Chagos Islands, which Britain is returning to the Mauritius islands. There are concerns that could open it up to spying by Iran or China. Do you have – Donald Trump: I mean, it hasn’t been number one on my list, I’ll be honest with you. That was not number one. Question: [Inaudible] you didn’t talk about Canada, about the Panama Canal. You mentioned today expansion – Donald Trump: I think Canada has been treating us very unfairly on trade, and they’ve taken advantage of us for years, and we’re not going to allow that to happen. I love Canada. I have so many friends up in Canada, and they like us and they like me. But Canada has been taking advantage of the United States for years, and we’re not going to let that happen. Donald Trump: And without our subsidy, Canada, you know, doesn’t exist really. It’s very – it’s – Canada is totally reliant on us, therefore they should be a state. Canada – we lose $250 billion a year on Canada. I could stop that in one day. And if I stopped that, Canada wouldn’t exist as a state, you know, as a – as a country. Donald Trump: And I think if that’s going to – if we’re going to have to give that kind of subsidy – and we’re not even talking about tariffs yet, but that’ll happen on February 1st. But if we’re going to lose $250 billion for the sake of supporting a country, it’s not fair to us. And they do about almost 90 percent of their business with the United States, whereas with us, it’s the opposite. Donald Trump: It’s, you know, relatively small. So, I don’t want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on supporting a country unless that country is a state. And if it is a state, the people of Canada would pay a much lower tax. You know, their taxes would be cut in half. They would have no military problems. They’d be much more secure in every way. Donald Trump: And I think it’s a great thing for Canada. And I view it as, you know, honestly, a country that should be a state, and they’ll get much better treatment, much better care, and much lower taxes, and they’ll be much more secure. Thank you very much, everybody. Question: Thank you for coming back. Donald Trump: Thank you.
Date: 2025-01-25
Donald Trump: Hello, Las Vegas. Hello, Las Vegas. Hello, Nevada. Thank you. Thank you. [Audience chants “Trump”] Donald Trump: Well, we won. We won. We won. And it’s great to be back in this beautiful city to celebrate the historic first week in the White House. That was definitely historic. And I had a lot of help in winning. Joe Lombardo, your governor, is here someplace. Where’s Joe? Thank you, Joe. You’re looking good, Joe. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: What a grouper. Look at who you have next to you. How can you fail with that guy? Also, Lieutenant Governor Stavros Anthony. Stavros, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Where are you? There you are, Stavros. You’re very good. Is he doing a good job, Joe? I think so, huh? He’s all right, huh? Nevada GOP chair, Michael McDonald. Donald Trump: He did something which not a lot of people have been able to do. But I think Republicans are going to start winning this thing. You know, typically, they don’t necessarily do so good. We did really well. We won a landslide. That’s really why I’m here. I must be honest with you. Republican National Committeewoman Sigal Chattah. Donald Trump: Sigal, thank you, wherever you may be. Hi, Sigal. Thank you very much. Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid. That’s a hell of a beautiful name, but I know the name’s so long, it’s easy to say. One of the greatest people, I’ll tell you, a man who’s done so damn well. I don’t know what it is with him. Donald Trump: He’s just a legend. He’s one person. You know, we can all sort of be replaced, although we don’t like to think that. Maybe it’s not true. But this is a guy that can’t be replaced. There’s nobody like him. Dana White. Where’s Dana White? Where is Dana White? Where the hell is he? UFC. [Audience member calls out “Nelk Boys.”] Donald Trump: Are the Nelk Boys here? Oh, yeah. There they are, the Nelk Boys, right there. And Rick Harrison. Rick, thank you very much for being here. You’re around here someplace with Dana. Mr. Phil Ruffin; his wife, Alexandra; and their two beautiful children, Richard and Marlena. Phil? Where’s Ruffin? Where’s Phil Ruffin? Donald Trump: He’s right here. So, he’s some legend, I’ll tell you. He’s a legend in Las Vegas and beyond. Phil, he’s here. He’ll be coming out. Today, we talk about how we’re going to end the economic suffering and stagnation and disaster of the past four years and create the four greatest years in the history of our country. Donald Trump: That’s what’s going to happen. That’s what’s going to happen. And as I said in my inaugural address, which, by the way, it got the highest rating in the history of Fox. Can you believe that? That’s nice. The golden age of America begins right now. But I have to be honest with you. I’m really here for a different reason. Donald Trump: I’m here to say thank you. I went to North Carolina yesterday, and then I flew to see just an unbelievable problem and just a mess in Los Angeles, right? And I said, “You know what I ought to do? I want to come to a state known as Nevada.” Has anyone ever heard of it? And don’t ever mispronounce the name. Donald Trump: You’re not allowed to do that. You know, you mispronounce the name, you’ve got a problem. You ever see somebody when they say it’s Nevada? Nevada? Oh, they’re in deep trouble. I want to come to Nevada to pay my respects because this is the only Republican win of this state in decades, and it was a very big landslide. Donald Trump: But I think Republicans are going to win a lot now. But it was a big – we had a big win, and it was an early win, and that was a bad signal for the Democrats. They heard that we were leading so big here, and Joe helped us so much. And a lot of people in this room helped us a lot, special group, special group. Donald Trump: And so, I said, “You know what I’ll do? We’re going to fly around it.” And I said, “Let’s fly right over it. Let’s land, and I’ll do something, and I’ll just say it.” But I want to say it, and I’m almost saying it right here for the media. I just came here because I wanted to thank the people of Nevada for giving us such a big win. [Audience chants “USA”] Donald Trump: A lot of great friends. I better not introduce them, or I’ll be here all day. Under our leadership, we’re going to defeat inflation, bring down prices. We’re going to raise those wages. They’re going to go up. They’re going to go up. Put more money in your pockets, secure our borders, restore law and order to our cities, and we’re going to make America great again. Donald Trump: And for four long years, the last administration waged war on the American middle class and everybody else. They had a lot of wars. We had no wars when I left. You know, they had – we defeated ISIS, and we stayed out. Nobody wanted to mess with us. They had a lot of wars. We’re still – we’re trying to put them out. Donald Trump: We’ll get them put out. Don’t worry. We’ll get them put out. We were headed to World War III. I’m telling you. We would have had problems like you wouldn’t believe. They shut down American energy, buried you in crippling regulation, imposed hidden taxes, and spent trillions and trillions of dollars on waste, corruption, and radical left lunacy. Donald Trump: These were lunatics. The result was the most brutal inflation in half a century, perhaps ever, in this country, I think ever, and soaring prices for food, groceries, and other household goods. The people of Nevada are now paying nearly $1,200 per month more to make ends meet since I left office. Think of that. $1,200 at least. Donald Trump: But since I became the 47th president at noon on Monday, I’ve been moving with urgency and historic speed to fix every single calamity of the Biden administration that they’ve created. And this week alone, I took nearly 350 executive actions to reverse the horrible failures and betrayals that we inherited from a group of people that didn’t know what the hell they were doing, what they’ve done to this country, especially the open borders, where they have, think of it, 21 million people came in. Many of them are criminals, murderers. Donald Trump: Well, we’re getting them out. You see it. You see it yesterday, first step. Our message could not be more clear. America’s decline is over. American decline is over. We’re laughed at all over the world. Now, we’re not laughed at anymore, I’ll tell you. What the world witnessed this week is nothing less than a revolution of wealth creation for everyone and also common sense. Donald Trump: It’s about common sense. It really is. We’re the party of common sense. On Day 1, I directed every member of my cabinet to – and by the way, Pete Hegseth got approved. And Kristi Noem just got approved, Governor. She’s going to keep it. She’s tough. She’s a tough one. She’s a tough one. And she’s going to do a great job. Donald Trump: On Day 1, I directed every member of my cabinet to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life. We want to bring prices down. Too high. They went way up. They didn’t come down. I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze. Donald Trump: Oh, that’s a nice one. And I created the new Department of Government Efficiency. And we’re going to have a lot of good people. Elon. We’re going to get Elon Musk to get involved in that a little bit. He already is. People like him. I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful Green New Scam. Wasn’t the environment supposed to eat us up like in 12 years? Donald Trump: But that was like 13 years ago. What happened? We’re still here. We’re still here. “Remember, we have 12 years to live.” Remember that? Done by somebody that never even took a course on the environment. AOC plus three. Do you remember those three? They were telling us about the environment. AOC plus three. Donald Trump: This action alone will save hundreds of billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money. I withdrew from the one-sided Paris climate accords. And I canceled the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate, keeping my sacred pledge to America’s autoworkers. Boy, did we get a big vote with the autoworkers out there. Donald Trump: And the Teamsters. Any Teamster in the room? We got a tremendous vote from the Teamsters. Thank you. And they’re pointing like one guy. But they voted for us in the millions. So, we have a – we had a lot of Teamsters voting for us. They withdrew from the World Health Organization, where we paid $500 million a year and China paid $39 million a year despite a much larger population. [Audience boos] Donald Trump: Think of that. China is paying $39 million to have 1.4 billion people. We pay $500 million. We have – nobody knows what the hell we have. Does anyone know? We have so many people pouring in. We have no idea. We go up, but we’re going down a little bit now. You don’t mind that, do you? Going to take some bad ones out. Donald Trump: I withdrew four years ago, but Biden immediately went back for even more money. I mean, he went back. And, you know, they offered me $39 million. They said, “We’ll let you back in at $39 million. So, we’re going to reduce it from $500 million to $39 million.” I turned them down because it became so popular. Donald Trump: I didn’t know if it would be well received even at $39 million. But maybe we would consider doing it again. I don’t know. Maybe we would. They have to clean it up a little bit. But China pays $39 million for 1.4 billion, and we’re paying $500 million for 325 million. I don’t know. What the hell is wrong with these people? Donald Trump: And then when Biden went back in, you know, they immediately went back in. They paid more than we were paying in the first place. They paid more than the $500 million. So, they knew they could have had it for $39 million. They paid more. You wouldn’t do that, Joe, right? Now think of it. They know they have a deal at $39 million. Donald Trump: So, they went back in at $525 million. What the hell? Man, oh, man. It just – it infuriates you, doesn’t it? I declared a national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and paved the way for rapid approvals of the new energy infrastructure. The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we may be a very substantially enlarged country in the not-too-distant – isn’t it nice to see? Donald Trump: You know, for years, for decades, we’re the same size to the square foot. Probably got smaller, actually. But we might be an enlarged country pretty soon. And one of the things we’re going to be doing is drill, baby, drill because that’s going to bring everything down. It’s going to bring everything down. Donald Trump: My administration has also begun the largest deregulation campaign in the history of our country, far exceeding – I had the record for you. We had a great economy, the greatest economy that we’ve ever had four years ago. But this is going to be better. You watch. This will be better even than the first term. Donald Trump: And the reason I got elected was because of the first term. You know, somebody said, “What was the reason you got elected? I mean, you won by so much.” I said, “My first term.” You know, that’s all I did. I just said, “Well, take a look at the numbers. Take a look at the numbers.” In total, the Biden administration imposed $50,000 in additional regulation costs on the average American. Donald Trump: And think of this. The average American was paying much more than $50,000. And, you know, just think of it. Nobody can even believe the numbers. I promised to eliminate 10 old regulations for every new regulation. So, if we put in a regulation, we have to get rid of 10. That’s what I did. I did it one in seven. Donald Trump: We’re going to do one in 10 this time, which will soon put many thousands of dollars back into your pockets, in the pockets of American families. As a result of the reforms, we’ve just begun to implement economic confidence, and it’s soaring. So, this week, Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank announced Stargate, a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure, which is going to be very big for Nevada, I have to tell you, the largest in history, and which will create an estimated 100,000 American jobs. Donald Trump: Saudi Arabia just said that they’re going to invest at least $600 billion just because of the election, by the way. And I believe they’ll make it a trillion. I’m going to ask them to make it $1 trillion. What the hell? The money means nothing to them. You know where they made their money? From liquid gold, right? [Audience responds affirmatively] Donald Trump: They’ve got a lot of liquid gold. We have more. We have more than Saudi Arabia. They’ve got a lot. We’ve got more. We’ve got more than anybody. We just don’t use it because of the environment. These people are crazy. And many other companies, likewise, are looking to invest, but I don’t have enough time to do that. Donald Trump: And we have a lot of news conferences. Everybody wants to have a news conference. You know, they’re calling up by the hundreds. “We want to have a news conference. We’re going to invest $12.” I said, “No, I don’t do that.” I said, “It’s got to be $1 billion or more for a news conference. $1 billion or more.” Just two days ago, because of our tariff plans, Stellantis announced, that’s a very good automobile company, the revival of its Belvidere, Illinois plant, saving 1,500 American auto jobs that were previously headed to Canada, along with major investments to expand American auto production in Detroit, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and Kokomo, Indiana. Donald Trump: Good place. All of these investments are happening only because of our historic victory. And if we didn’t win, it would be just the opposite. They’re pulling out. They were pulling out. They were really pulling out. So, they would be withdrawing money. Our country was on the verge of some of the very bad things, and bad things were happening. Donald Trump: And now, there’s light not only over America. I’ve heard it from even our enemies. They call up, and they say, “Sir, we hate you. We do hate you, but there’s light over the world right now.” They hate me. Some of them hate me. If they liked me, you’ve got a problem, right? They like Sleepy Joe. What’s not to like? [Audience boos] Donald Trump: You know, they’d call up. It’s funny. I was told today by one of the big leaders of the world. Would call for a telephone call with the president of the United States a year ago. And they’d say, “We’d like to speak with –” “Who is this?” It’s the head of Germany, the head of, name it, the head of France, the name of any country. Donald Trump: It didn’t matter. He would never pick up the call. They’d say, “He’ll call you back in two months.” Two months. “Yeah, it’s his schedule. He’s extremely busy sleeping.” Macron of France. “He’ll call you back in two months.” So, two months comes along, and there’s no call. They’d say, “He didn’t call.” The stories are – I mean, these stories are not very exaggerated. Donald Trump: I want to tell you. They’re a little bit – a little bit for laughter. But, you know, it’s only for laughter. The fake news will say, “Oh, he exaggerated. It was only one month.” You know. But they’ll say, “He’ll call you back.” And then he’d never call. And then they could never get him on the phone. And the problem I have is that when I speak to them, and I speak to them immediately, they’ll say, “Could we speak to the president? Donald Trump: Would that be possible? We could do it any time over the next month.” They’re so used to this, right? I say, “No, I’ll pick it up right now. Is he on the phone?” “Yeah.” “Hello. How are you doing?” That’s what – you know, get it over with, right? Get it over with. The only problem, they were so starved for love from the United States, I cannot get them off the phone. Donald Trump: I can’t get people to – I can’t. I say, “I have to go now, King,” or “I have to go now, President.” But you can’t get them off the phone. They’re starved for love. You know, for years, they haven’t spoken. They didn’t even know we had a president, if you want to know. But under our leadership, America is back open for business. Donald Trump: And it’s really a big deal. It’s really a big deal. And they have, though. They said, you know, there’s like a light all over the world now. It’s not just here. We feel the light over our country. Everyone does. But there’s a light all over the world. We’ve accomplished more in one week than other administrations have accomplished in four years. Donald Trump: And we’re just getting started. We got rid of the woke. We got rid of the woke crap. What a lot of stuff. What a lot of crap that was. And, you know, these people were petrified of it. I’ll tell you, these companies that run these big companies, they were petrified of it. It was like – you know, I don’t think they believed it. I’m sure they didn’t believe it. Some I know didn’t believe it, but they were so afraid. Donald Trump: Near the top of the agenda for our historic Republican majorities in Congress is to pass a massive tax cut for American workers and families. Last year, we campaigned across the country in a pledge that I’m sure most of you didn’t hear too much about, a pledge to take the Trump tax cuts and make them permanent. Donald Trump: And that’s exactly what we’re doing. In the coming weeks, I’ll be working with Congress to get a bill on my desk that cuts taxes for workers, families, small businesses, and very importantly, keeps my promise for a thing called – and I know you didn’t hear anything about this, and I’m sure it had no influence on the state, the fact that we won this crazy massive majority, a state that hadn’t been won by a Republican in decades, but I’m sure you haven’t heard, but we’re going to get it for you. Donald Trump: No tax on tips. No tax on tips. So, if you’re a restaurant worker, a server, a valet, a bellhop, a bartender, or one of my caddies – I go through caddies like candy. If I play badly, I always blame my caddy. Or any other worker who relies on tipped income, your tips will be 100 percent yours. Won’t that be nice? Donald Trump: Joe, Governor, do you think that had an impact on the election? You do? Like what, a half a point? It’s pretty big. You had an impact, let me tell you. Nationwide, over 4 million workers depend on tipped income, including an estimated 700,000 single moms. And here in Nevada, we will have a quarter – think of it. A quarter of the typical restaurant worker’s pay comes from tips. Donald Trump: I didn’t know that much. That’s a lot. You haven’t been reporting them for the last 10 years. So, here’s our deal. We’re going to have no tax on tips from now on, but we’re going to go after you viciously for all the money you didn’t report for the last 10, 15. We’re going to go after you for all the money you didn’t report for. Donald Trump: I’m only kidding. I’m only kidding. I have to say to the fake news because they’re going to say, “Trump is after all – Trump is after all restaurant workers.” Many of these workers are some of the very citizens who were hit hard and very hard by the ravages of the Biden economy, which was inflation. When I think of Biden, I think of incompetence and inflation. Donald Trump: And I’m being nice by saying – I’m being nice when I say that. Yet even in the midst of the suffering he created, Joe Biden launched a cruel campaign to extract more money from tip workers. And that’s what happened. I’m telling you, a young waitress – I won’t say beautiful because you’re not allowed to say that as a politician. Donald Trump: It used to be you could say a young, beautiful waitress. This was a young, beautiful waitress, but I won’t say that because I feel like I want to continue my political career. If you call some – the governor won’t say it. If you call a woman beautiful today, it’s the end of your political career, so I won’t do it. But a young waitress – I think you could her call young. Donald Trump: You’re probably not even supposed to say young. You’re probably supposed to say a waitress. But a young waitress came up, and I said, “How are you doing?” And in my restaurant, in the hotel, Trump, I said, “How are you doing?” And she said, “Not great because they’re after me so viciously for tips. They just want my tip income, and they don’t believe me and all of this.” And she said, “It’s terrible. Donald Trump: You know, sir, you should have no tax on tips.” I said, “What?” I said, “What did you just say?” “No tax on tips.” That was about the amount of my consultation. It’s true. No tax. I said, “What did you just say? Say those words again.” “Sir, no tax on tips.” I said, “Thank you very much. You just won the election.” No, but no, we did research into it. I think it’s going to be great. Donald Trump: But under the Trump administration, the forgotten men and women of our country are going to be forgotten no longer. You know that. They weren’t forgotten four years ago. On Day 1, I immediately halted the hiring of any new IRS agents. You know, they hired – they hired – or tried to hire 88,000 new workers to go after you. Donald Trump: And we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them, or maybe we’ll move them to the border. I think we’re going to move them to the border. Well, they’re allowed to carry guns. You know, they’re so strong on guns, but these people are allowed to carry guns, so we’ll probably move them to the border. Donald Trump: Yeah. She said, “No tax on them.” How about just no tax? You can do that. You know, if the tariffs worked out like I think, a thing like that could happen, if you want to know the truth. You know, years ago, 1870 to 1913, we didn’t have an income tax. We had – what we had is tariffs, where foreign countries came in, and they stole our jobs. Donald Trump: They stole our companies. They stole our product. They ripped us off. And, you know, they used to do numbers. And then we went to tariff, a tariff system. And the tariff system made so much money. It was when we were the richest, from 1870 to 1913. And then we came in with the – brilliantly came in with an income tax. Donald Trump: No, we don’t want others to pay. Let’s have our people pay. And then you had the Depression in 1928, 1929. I call it 1929. That was a bad time. But, you know, you didn’t have tariffs. And you had tariffs that ended in 1913. But it’s – it was the richest our country ever was. That was President McKinley. Donald Trump: In fact, we’re renaming the mountain Mount McKinley in Alaska. You know what else we’re renaming? We’re renaming the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America, right? And Mexico, actually, they were thrilled when they heard. They said, “That’s nice.” A few months from now, when I sign our tax cut into law, we’re going to deliver for the tip-earning men and women who make it all work. Donald Trump: I mean, it’s going to be something very special, I think, for you. It’s going to be a big difference. And with us today is Jessica Anguiano, an employee here at Circa. This is a nice place, by the way. And I just met your owner. He’s a nice man. He’s rich, too, very rich. But Circa’s very nice. And a hardworking single mother of two with incredible children, Jessica’s struggling to pay for medical bills to remove a tumor behind her right eye. Donald Trump: She had some real difficulty. And she’s currently saving up for a second surgery, which will hopefully be very successful, while also paying for her children’s daycare. Jessica says that no tax on tips would transform her life. It would make such a big difference. So, Jessica, we’re going to get that for you. Donald Trump: Where are you, Jessica? Are you around here someplace, huh? Hi, Jessica. Oh, so beautiful. Very nice. Is it working out medically good? Everything good? It’s going to be good. And it’s going to – you look fantastic. It’s good. You look great. Also with us is Lexi York, a 28-year-old cocktail server here at Circa, who’s got big dreams of being an entrepreneur. Donald Trump: Lexi says that no tax on tips will help bring those dreams much closer to reach. And she’s going to be one of the biggest proponents for it. We’re going to have a lot of support when we go before Congress very soon to get that passed. Lexi, where are you? Where are you? Hi, Lexi. Wow. Good. We’ll get it done. Donald Trump: And we’re also pleased to be joined by Rosanna Maietta, president and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which strongly supports this pro-worker reform. And Rosanna, would you like to come up and say a few words on behalf of so many people? Come on up. Come on up. Nice to see you. Thank you, darling. Rosanna Maietta: It’s so nice to meet you. Thank you. Hello, Mr. President. On behalf of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, I’m so honored to be here today. We represent 30,000 members around the country in an industry that represents more than 2 million hotel workers. And I’m here to tell you that the American dream is alive and well in the hotel industry today. Rosanna Maietta: It is still one of the few places where you can have and grow your career, starting a job as a housekeeper or a dishwasher or bellhop to running a hotel, to owning a hotel or a few, and to even becoming a CEO of a global brand or president of the United States. Mr. President, in 2017, the tax bill that you championed cut taxes for so many working families and American workers. Rosanna Maietta: It helped small businesses, small hotel owners in our country who make up the majority of the industry, reinvest in the economy, spurring jobs, and growing and strengthening the economy. And the no tax on tips builds on that momentum. And so, we are so excited to support you in that effort. That’s why we’re here today. Rosanna Maietta: We stand with you to urge Congress to pass this proposal so that more than the 800,000 hotel workers who benefit from these, from tips, many who are here in the room today, representing all types of jobs, from restaurant workers to housekeepers to bellhops and so many others, can take home more of the pay that they earn every day. Rosanna Maietta: So, thank you for having us and for promoting this proposal. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you very much, Jessica. Great. After four long years – and these were long years of a government that always put you last. They put America last. They put you last. They put everybody last that was associated with us. You once again have a president who’s putting our workers first, putting our families first, and above all, putting America first. Donald Trump: And we’re going to keep America first. Can you see it? We’re restoring our prosperity. We’re restoring our borders. We’re restoring our strength, our dignity, and our pride. We’ve been hurt badly by this group of people. This group of people, they didn’t have a clue what the hell was happening. It’s so disgraceful that they were allowed to do it. But quite honestly, we’re restoring our country. Donald Trump: Within hours of taking the Oath of Office, I declared a national emergency at our southern border. I sent active-duty troops to the border to help repel the invasion. Tom Homan is leading the charge. You know that. We like Tom Homan, right? Doing a great job. We immediately halted all illegal entry and began sending every border trespasser and violator back to the places from which they came. Donald Trump: I signed an order that will designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. It’s a big deal. That’s a big deal. Biden didn’t want to do that. “No, I don’t want to do that.” Biden didn’t know he was alive. He didn’t want to do it. He didn’t want to do that. I always wanted to do it, you know? I mean, think of it. Is that a terrorist organization or what? Donald Trump: And we began to leverage the full and immense power of federal government and state government and enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to American soil. And we don’t allow people to enter our country and to dump their prisons into the United States of America anymore. Donald Trump: When we see that, our people are instructed to do whatever they have to do. They can do whatever the hell they want to do. Throughout this week, the heroes of ICE have been hunting down and arresting hundreds of illegal alien criminals and its immediate expulsion, including those with charges of convictions for rape, child sexual assault, terrorism, and even murder, members of the savage Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua. Donald Trump: You know that gang? This is not a nice group of people. They formed in prison. And then they dumped their prisons into our country. So, we had them, and we had them all over the place. Ask Colorado. The governor of Colorado, he doesn’t know what to do about it. They’re all over the place. We’ll get them out. Donald Trump: We’ll get them out. In a sense, they’re in the real estate business. They go into a building, and they take it, you know? See, when you buy a building, you have to go out and get a mortgage or use your own cash. They just go into a building and take it, and they actually said, “Well, it’s not that bad. They haven’t taken that many buildings.” Can you imagine that? “They haven’t taken that many buildings. Donald Trump: Oh, they’re not that bad.” But they’re as bad as the bloodthirsty MS-13 gangs that we have gotten thousands and thousands of them out. In fact, over 11,000 murderers were released into our country by other countries all over the world because of Biden’s open border policy. And when I heard about that, I said, “They’re just going to – everybody’s going to empty out their prisons into our country.” I said that. Donald Trump: I’d do that if I were heading up any one of the many countries that you know about, not just South America, all over. They take their prisons and mental institutions, and they empty them out into our country. Can you imagine a person doing this? Can you imagine somebody doing that to our country? For American citizens, January 20th, 2025, was truly Liberation Day. That was really Liberation Day. This week, I also signed an order to end the weaponization of our government against American people and political people like me. We never had a thing like that. Donald Trump: He went after his political opponent. Who would have thought he helped me? I think he helped me get elected, Joe. You want to know the truth? I became much more popular. I’m the only guy that ever became more popular when something like that happened. But these guys were just so inept. We had the guy, Deranged Jack Smith. Donald Trump: Deranged. He was a deranged German man. [Audience boos] Donald Trump: But they thought this way, Biden could sneak by, and he could win an election. Another cheating in another election. That’s what it was. But we won. We won. Do you think that was fun? Do you think that was easy? It wasn’t fun. And investigate all of the abuses of power. I pardoned hundreds of political prisoners who had been viciously persecuted by the Biden regime. Donald Trump: Hundreds of people were persecuted, including Christians, pro-life activists, to Washington, D.C. police officers the police officers yesterday, whose lives were destroyed from chasing down a dangerous illegal alien criminal. And of course, I was very proud to pardon the J6 hostages. Once and for all, I stopped government censorship, and we brought back free speech in America. Donald Trump: We brought it back. We did more of this last week. People can’t even believe it. I also signed an order to declassify and publish all remaining files related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. I signed an order that will end all of the lawless diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense. Donald Trump: All across the government and the private sector, we abolished 60 years of prejudice and hatred with the signing of one order, all approved by the United States Supreme Court. We’re allowed to do it because we are now in a merit-based world. We’re a merit-based country. Did you ever think you were going to hear that again? Donald Trump: It’s based on merit. If you’ve got the talent, if you’ve got the work, the ethic, the whole thing, it’s based now on – it’s not based on any other thing. It’s based on merit. It’s based on your capability. The United States has now become, again, a meritocracy. Isn’t that a beautiful word, a meritocracy? Donald Trump: Based on merit. If you do your job well, you’re going to go places. And I made it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female. Male and female. Every single day of my term, we’re living by the motto, promises made, promises kept. I kept my promises. Donald Trump: It’s why we won. It really is why we won. We won because of the past four years. We won because of that. But this is going to blow it away because when I came in, I had no experience. I didn’t do this before. I never did this. I was never a politician before. I was talking to JD Vance. By the way, hasn’t he done a great job, JD Vance? Donald Trump: Because JD went right to the Senate, and then he went to the vice president, and I said, “JD, you’re really upwardly mobile.” He said, “You’re more so than me.” I said, “Why do you say that?” He said, “You went from being a real estate developer to the president.” That’s a pretty big – that’s a pretty bad – I never thought of it that way, I guess. Donald Trump: I’m the most upwardly mobile politician in history. I didn’t make any stops along the way. It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve, not once but twice or three times or four times. No. Headlines. Headlines from the fake news. No. No, it will be to serve twice. For the next four years, I will not rest. Donald Trump: I will not yield. And together, we will not fail. We will win, win, win. We will bring back the American dream. We’re going to bring it back. You know, in recent years, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to make it great again, greater than ever before. We’ll be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism. Donald Trump: That’s what we’re doing, and that’s what it’s all about. And you see that. I think you see it more in the last week than you’ve seen it in years. And I walked up the stairs of that massive plane that’s waiting for me, that big 747, and I said, “There’s no way I’m going to let myself fall.” Because that was – that was one hell of a – that triple fall was a disaster. Donald Trump: I would call that a political disaster. You can fall once. You can fall twice. But you can’t fall three times. You can’t fall three times. What a disaster. I’ve used that in every ad I think I ever did. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that’s been angry, violent, and very unpredictable. Donald Trump: America will be respected again and admired again, including by the people of religion, faith, and goodwill. We’re bringing back religion in this country. We will be prosperous. We will be free. We will be bigger, bolder, and more ambitious than ever before. And together, we will make America powerful again, make America wealthy again, make America healthy again. Donald Trump: We will make America strong again, make America proud again. We’re going to make America safe again, and we will make America great again. Thank you very much, and thank you very much, Nevada. Thank you, Joe. Thank you very much. We’ll be back. We’ll be back. Thank you. Thank you, my man. Great job. Thank you, everybody.
Date: 2025-01-26
Dan Bongino: All right, welcoming back to the show, a very special guest, a great friend, a great patriot and thankfully coming Monday, our next President, President Donald J Trump. Welcome back to the show. Donald Trump: Hello, Dan. We are friends, aren’t we? When you think about it, good friends. Dan Bongino: Yes, you’re a good man. You’ve always been good to me and my family. I will never forget that. Outside of the politics and you being the change we need, you’ve always been a good man and that means a lot to me. Mr. President, you will be taking over shortly. Thank the Lord. However, President Biden is claiming ridiculously that he’s looking for a smooth transition. Dan Bongino: But out the door, he’s suing Elon Musk, taking Cuba off the terrorism list, shoveling our money out the door, changing the line of succession to basically screw you over, and destroying our capability to drill offshore for oil and gas we need. Mr. President, this is not a smooth transition. He’s trying to hurt you as you get into office. Dan Bongino: There’s no doubt about that. Donald Trump: It’s 100 percent right, and it started right from the beginning, and it’s a disgrace what’s happening. And if you take a look, 635,000 acres – you know what that is? It’s half the ocean. Take a look at it, he took it off. It’s probably $60 trillion worth of value. That’s more than double the debt that we own and he takes it off the value. Donald Trump: Just writes it off. It’s like you write it off, but we’re going to be redoing these things as soon as I get in. And literally, on the day that I get in, we’re going to be having executive orders that’s going to reverse most of it. And whatever we can’t reverse, we’re going to court. We’re going to win them all in court very easily, quickly. Dan Bongino: OK. Good, good. That’s great to hear. Talking to President – Donald Trump: But he’s making the transition absolutely – he’s making everything so difficult. He’s been a – a terrible President. I read your statements every week where you go, “The worst president in the history of our country,” and he really is. He’s the worst president in the history of the country, and he’s always talking about a smooth transition. Donald Trump: And then he goes out and wipes out 635 million. Think of it, 635 million acres. It’s like – Dan Bongino: Yes. Yes. Donald Trump: – I want to do a plot – a plot map. It’s got to be – it’s got to be the whole ocean. He’s just – they’re – they’re very bad people. They’re very evil people, Dan. Very sad. Dan Bongino: Yes, I – they are. Donald Trump: And the weaponization that he did and it probably worked out to my advantage, but the weaponization that he did with Jack Smith, a deranged human being, the weaponization he did should never happen to this country again. Dan Bongino: Yes, I – I agree with you. I think that is one of many reasons you got elected, but the weaponization was – was revolting to many Americans. My second question, Mr. President, big, huge news yesterday about this proposed Israel-Hamas deal. Listen, it’s clear that the Biden team was ready to capitulate to basically all of Hamas’s demands. Dan Bongino: Biden was basically negotiating for Hamas against Israel. Did your team make clear and to the terrorist Hamas that this is the best deal they were going to get? That it was only going to get worse from here when you take office on Monday? And basically, if they didn’t accept the release of some of these hostages and stop demanding to remain in control, that they were going to be wiped out? Dan Bongino: Because there’s no deal without you winning the election. That - that’s a fact. Donald Trump: If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would have never happened. No deal would have happened and the hostages would never have probably seen life again, but they certainly wouldn’t have been released for a long time. No, we – we changed the course of it and we changed it fast. And frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office. Donald Trump: And I assume it is now. You know, we shook hands and we signed certain documents, but it better be done. But no, and – and it was so ungracious of Biden to say, oh, he did it. He didn’t do anything. If I didn’t do this, if we didn’t get involved, the hostages would never be out. They would have never come out. Donald Trump: Very much like the Jimmy Carter situation with Reagan. Dan Bongino: Well – well, Mr. President, your team has actual proof of this from Biden’s own mouth. He’s not that bright. He gives a speech yesterday, Mr. President, Biden, and he says this – these are his exact words. He says, “This is the exact framework I’ve been proposing since May.” OK, so why didn’t they agree to it then until you won the election? Dan Bongino: He basically made himself look like an idiot. He – he acknowledged there is no deal without you winning. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t have done it and – and they were never doing it. They would have never done it. And his principal spokesman yesterday said thank you to President Trump and the Trump administration. Now, he did that because he knew it wouldn’t have happened without us. So, look, I’m not looking for credit. Donald Trump: I want to get these people out. They’ve lived like – for three years, they’ve lived like in hell, and we got to get them out and it will be great when we do. But you know there are dead people, many dead people. That October 7th tragedy would have never happened if I were president then. Would have never happened, no chance. Dan Bongino: Yes. Yes, I’ve said that on the air many times. I – I believe Joe Biden’s weakness led to Ukraine, led to China’s saber rattling – saber rattling and all of this stuff. Mr. President, Americans voted for you the – the third straight time. They’re – they’re three for three. Donald Trump: You’re right about that, Dan. Third – third time. You’re right. Thank you. Dan Bongino: It’s not like Meatloaf, “Two out of three ain’t bad,” but Americans are expecting shock and awe to repair the really unimaginable damage, unimaginable damage from the Biden years. This guy has been a forest fire for America. I think the momentum is there for what you would call one big beautiful reconciliation bill. Dan Bongino: And – and let me just explain in 10s or less why. You’ve got the momentum, now. The country is behind you, even though we have a slim margin in the House. It’s one big cause we can all get behind when we can fix the border, the defense industry, our national defense, the tax policy, we can do it all. The momentum is there. Dan Bongino: Have you changed your mind on that? Are you committed to one bill or maybe two separate bills? Donald Trump: Well, I really think you can do it either way. The end result is going to be the same. It should be the same. But I actually think the one big bill and now it’s – it’s been you know, helped. And I have to say that unfortunately helped. But it’s been sort of pushed along by what’s happening in Los Angeles. Donald Trump: The worst tragedy. I mean, it’s not even – I know 30 people who have lost their homes. These are well-to-do people. These are good people. They work hard. They’re, you know, very respected people. They’ve lost their homes. They’re walking around. They have no idea what happened. And you know, just before I answer your question, I offered them about seven – six years ago. Donald Trump: I offered them millions of gallons of water a day from coming down from up north. You know, Canada and up north, pouring down millions and millions. And you know that water comes down and it’s – it’s sent out into the Pacific. With the changing of a big valve like a valve on your sink, but slightly bigger, like by a million times, with the changing of a valve, they would have had – and they still didn’t change it. They still – so everything was dry. Donald Trump: The sprinklers in the houses were dry. They had no money. Nobody talks about that. The fire hydrants were dry. It’s a disgrace. I’d like to see one bill, and because of Los Angeles, because that you think that’s a Democrat thing, they want that money going – it’s so fast. Because of Los Angeles, I think the concept of one big beautiful bill has been helped greatly. Donald Trump: You understand what I’m saying, Dan, because they wanted to do badly. Dan Bongino: I do. Yes, and I think you have – you and your – your rallies have become a source of serious political capital and power. If we had one thing, remember Newt had the contract with America? Donald Trump: Yes. Dan Bongino: Americans will rally behind this. And Mr. President, do you want to be the one congressman to sink this thing with your – with your Truth Social feed alone, you could end this man or woman’s political career. We have the ability right now to do big things. I – I personally think one big bill is a way to go, but obviously you’ve got a team of people around you. Donald Trump: Well, I think we’ll get a lot of Democrat votes, too. I think we’re going to get – if we had a couple of negative Republican votes, I think we’re going to get Democrat votes, too. But when you add Los Angeles into it, this is a new thing that two weeks ago we didn’t talk about. If you add Los Angeles into it, then you can really do one big beautiful bill, because frankly they want that so badly. Donald Trump: They want the money to go out there so badly, and I don’t think we should do a bill until Los Angeles is included. And when Los Angeles is included, we get everything we want. Dan Bongino: Good point. We’re talking to President Donald J. Trump. Mr. President, there was unexplained drone incursions in the northeast, an area you’re obviously familiar with being a New Yorker, like me, that tri-state region. They appear to be a pretty major security threat from good sources I have to the homeland. Dan Bongino: Not all of them, but the unexplained ones, a lot of them. When you take office next week, Americans are – are scared about this. They’re a little anxious and nobody’s panicked about it, but it appears we don’t have control of our own skies. Can we get an answer to what this is? Who is controlling them? Obviously with the respect for, you know, national secrets, we get that, and what we’re doing to control this? Dan Bongino: It seems like a really big problem. Donald Trump: We’ll be getting answers fast and there’s no reason why they’re not giving an answer. I don’t know. They must be – they’re embarrassed about something or possibly it’s us doing it. And you know, they want to keep it top secret for whatever reason. But they should certainly have let the people know. It’s – it’s right over my house in New Jersey. Donald Trump: You know, the activity is taking place over my – over Bedminster and areas near Bedminster. So, it’s a little weird, but we’ll know soon and you’ll be one of the first to know, Dan, absolutely. They should let people know. You can’t do that and it’s not only there, you know. They have it in Virginia. I was talking to Glenn Youngkin and he said, “We have a serious drone problem there, too, where drones are coming from nowhere.” And it’s very interesting. Donald Trump: It’s a very similar problem. So, something’s going on. We’re going to find out very quickly. It will be one of the first things I look into. Dan Bongino: Mr. President, one last question, your team asked for 15 minutes. I’m going to respect your time, so I’ll wrap it up here. You hinted at a recent presser, a story I’ve been practically obsessed about for a long time, the identity of the infamous January 6th pipe bomber. It seems bizarre to me that the FBI continues to manipulate the American public about this case. Dan Bongino: They have the phone records. Saying they didn’t have the phone records, that they were corrupted when the phone company said they weren’t corrupted. They have all this video that appears to be manipulated. And you seem to hint that they may know the identity of this person. They just don’t want you to know. Dan Bongino: I – I believe that is the case. Can we get an answer between you, Pam Bondi and hopefully Kash Patel on who this person is and have the FBI open the books? Because I believe this is a huge scandal and a massive cover up. Donald Trump: I think we will, and I think we’re going to find out about Ray Epps and I think we’re going to find out about Scaffold Man. You know who Scaffold Man is, right? Dan Bongino: Yes, yes. Of course. Donald Trump: The guy who’s screaming to everybody, “Go into the – go into the building, go into the building.” We’re going to find out who Scaffold Man is and we’re going to find out some other things. And I think you’re going to be very happy with what I do with respect – I call them the J 6 hostages because I consider them hostages. Donald Trump: You know, they did a beautiful song and they asked, would I do the – the words. The words, not the singing. The words. And I did. That song went to number one for so long, it was beating out Taylor Swift. I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift, but that’s OK. And everybody else, beating – beating them all out for a long time. Donald Trump: And it was pretty amazing, actually. The song and the whole thing, those people – they – nobody’s ever been treated so badly as those people. Dan Bongino: Mr. President, thank you so much for spending time. Congratulations on a massive political win, for reorienting the Republican party in a better, more effective direction with actual diversity, not the left’s version of it. And I hope you have a wonderful time on Monday. America is breathing a collective sigh of relief now that you won. Dan Bongino: Thanks for everything you’ve done for the country, sir. We appreciate it. Donald Trump: And I think you’re going to be very, very happy on Monday and your audience, which is very large by the way, congratulations. You have a great success, but your very large audience is going to be very happy with the things I’m going to be announcing on Monday. Dan Bongino: Wow, we’re all looking forward to it. Mr. President, you have us tantalized here. We appreciate it. Thanks for your time, sir. Appreciate it very much. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, Dan. Dan Bongino: You got it.
Date: 2025-01-27
Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. I want to thank you all and congratulate, I mean, just this is a very big congratulations to our reelected House Republican majority, on your largest popular vote. Did you know that, since 1928? That’s a long time, Mike, right? That’s a long time. But I especially want to thank our outstanding leadership team, Speaker Mike Johnson. Donald Trump: We all know so well. He’s doing great. Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, who’s gone through so much and he looks better today than he did 10 years ago. I don’t know what’s going on. Thank you very much, Steve. You look great. Majority whip, Tom Emmer. Tom, thank you. Great job. And House conference chair, Lisa McClain. Donald Trump: Lisa, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Great job. Thanks as well to all of the incredible House members and staff for your tireless work on behalf of our country, along with Congressional Institute CEO, Kelly Strickland. Thank you very much. Thank you. Kelly, thank you very much. So we have Kellyanne Conway. Donald Trump: Nobody knows Kellyanne. Does anybody know, where’s Kellyanne? She’s around. She’s so good. She’s a good person, too. She’s a good person, too. And the mayor of Hialeah, I love this guy because he said, sir, we want to name a major boulevard after you and he did it. Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like. Donald Trump: I like him a lot. Esteban Bovo and Hialeah, mayor of Hialeah. Thank you wherever you may be, Esteban. Where are you? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Donald Trump: Great honor, actually. A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say they just named a road after you. I said that’s OK. It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start. [Audience member calls out “It’s a start”] Donald Trump: With the help of everyone in this room, we’ve just won the most epic consequential political victory in American history according to a lot. One of the major fake newspapers, so in this case, it’s not fake news, let’s say, but they said it’s the most consequential election victory in the last 129 years. Donald Trump: I’m trying to figure out what that means, 120 – who was there 129 years ago? But it was a great one. At the presidential level, we won the popular vote for the first time of any Republican in decades. We swept all seven swing states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada by very, very big margins, record setting. Donald Trump: And for the first time ever, all 50 states, did you know this, shifted toward the Republican party. We’ve never had that before. Nobody has actually. It’s never happened before. That’s pretty good. You must be doing a good job, fellas. We won the largest number of African-American voters in Republican history, including 39 percent of black men, a record by a lot, so that’s really nice. Donald Trump: Thank you. And we won more Hispanic American votes than any Republican ever, has never won any, not even close. Look at that, Hispanic American. We made historic strides with youth, men, women, urban, suburban and rural voters. And in a political earthquake, yeah, sit down and just enjoy it. What the hell? Donald Trump: We’re going to be here for a little while. But in a political earthquake, we won a wave of support from labor unions, including massive numbers of auto workers, which gave us Michigan, as an example. Think of that, we won Michigan easily and we did tremendous with the auto workers and an overwhelming majority of the rank and file membership of the Teamsters. Donald Trump: The Teamsters were great. They showed up in droves and we won them by a lot. Together, we’re forging a new political majority that’s shattering and replacing Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition, which dominated American politics for over 100 years. That’s what we’re doing. And what Mike said before, commonsense. Donald Trump: It is a little bit of commonsense. Maybe it’s a lot of lot of commonsense. Under our leadership, the Republican party has become the proud voice of hardworking American citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. We’ve become the party of the American dream and wealth creation for everyone, not just the rich. Donald Trump: If we do our job, over the next 21 months, not only will House Republicans be reelected and expand our majority. In 2026, we will cement a national governing coalition that will preserve American freedom for generations to come. There has never been anything like what’s happened in politics in the last few years. Donald Trump: Never been anything like it. Everybody, people of religion, everybody seems to be with us. I don’t know how anybody could even vote for the other side. In many cases, they don’t, but they do get credit for it. You’ll have to think about that. I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race, that I assume I can’t use for myself up, but I’m not 100 percent sure because [Laughter] I don’t know. Donald Trump: I think I’m not allowed to run again. I’m not sure. Am I allowed to run again, Mike? I better not get you involved in that argument. No, I – we raised a lot of money, a tremendous amount and our tele-town halls are something that’s very special that nobody else is able to even contemplate using. We’ve gotten a lot of people elected with those tele town halls. Donald Trump: We get on – we have 25, 30,000 people on just in a Congressional area and they win easy. It works for Elvis, the Beatles and it doesn’t work for anyone else, but it works for Trump and we would have tremendous crowds on those calls and I think we have – I bet we got 35, 40 people elected because of the tele-town halls. Donald Trump: But I did say to them and I said this is the greatest, the person that sort of has the rights to it and he happens to be a great Republican. I said this is the greatest invention. This thing is going to make a fortune. He said no, it’s not that good actually because it only works for you. He said actually, sir, it only works for you because somebody else they’re not picking up. So, I’m honored to have that privilege and I use it carefully. Donald Trump: But we’ve done a lot of the tele-town halls for people and I think – I don’t think we’ve ever lost one, right? It’s hard to lose one even if you only get 5 or 6,000 people on a Congressional race. But we’ve done them for states, we’ve done them for governors and we’ve done them for Senators and we did a couple of countrywide. Donald Trump: I did a couple for myself countrywide. They’re absolutely amazing and we got the message out through that. And lots of other means. We even got it out through TikTok. Has anyone ever heard of TikTok? I have a little bias toward TikTok right now. I have to tell – so we won youth by the largest margin. No Republican, you know, we generally don’t win youth. Donald Trump: We win by 36 points. Can you imagine that? And I think TikTok had something to do. So pardon me if I’m a little bit, uh, I became a little bit jaded toward TikTok, but we’ll see what happens. We’re going to have a lot of people bidding on it. And if we can save all that voice and all the jobs and China won’t be involved, you don’t want China involved. Donald Trump: But we’ll see – we’ll see what happens – we’ll see what happens. But over the past seven days, my administration has been moving with urgency and historic speed to reverse every single disaster of the Biden administration. By the way, the guy was a disaster, Ok. [Laughter] You know, we want to be nice and he’s probably not listening right now because it’s a little late. Donald Trump: But you know, I don’t want him to listen, I don’t want to say it. I feel badly. I was, you know, making the inauguration speech and I’m saying all the bad things and he’s sitting like right here. You know, I’m saying they were a horrible administration. They didn’t know what they were doing. They were grossly incompetent. Donald Trump: I got a guy sitting right next to me. It’s not that easy to do even though he didn’t understand what I was saying, he really did. And deliver on the mandate that we’ve been given by the American people in a single week. I’ve taken over 350 executive actions. We’ve signed 300. Who ever heard of that one? And as I said in my inaugural address, the American decline is over – it’s over. Donald Trump: The Golden Age of America has officially begun. And I think that’s a good thing for us to talk about the Golden Age and the American Dream. I think it’s a good thing because people haven’t been talking that way for a long period of time. On day one, I directed every member of my cabinet to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life. Donald Trump: And we’re going to do that. You’re going to see it starting to happen when we get going with the energy. The energy is going to, you know, brought everything up. It’s going to bring everything down. I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze. A foreign aid freeze isn’t that nice? Donald Trump: We get tired of giving massive amounts of money to countries that hate us, don’t we? And I created the new Department of Government Efficiency and I think it’s going to be very meaningful. I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful green new scam. One of the great scams in history. Actually isn’t it 12 years up. They gave us 12 years to live, right? Donald Trump: I think we passed it right. We’re still around. Can you believe it? You know, the person that really came up with it is a person that never even took a course on the environment. Was a poor student, not a good student, didn’t understand a lot and she came up with this idea and everybody all of a sudden started going and then mainstream, you know, important Democrat leaders were starting, you know they got sucked into it and we’ve spent trillions of dollars on just like throwing it out the window. Donald Trump: You could throw it out the window, you would have been better off. I withdrew from the one sided Paris Climate Accord and I canceled. It was so one sided. You know we – we had obligations but Russia didn’t – China didn’t, other countries didn’t. We played everything we were going to lose $1 trillion, over a short period of time on that. Donald Trump: And we had to do everything. They didn’t have to do anything, it was ridiculous and I canceled the insane and very costly electric vehicle mandate. So you can buy a car of your choice if you like gasoline go – go have it. And if you like hybrids, hybrids are doing well, you can have it or you can buy an electric car. Donald Trump: We like electric, we like everything, but you have to have a right to buy everything. I withdrew from the World Health Organization where we paid $500 million a year and China paid just $39 million a year despite a much larger population. How about that? So we’re paying $500 million a year, China is paying $39 million a year. Donald Trump: They have 1.4 billion people. We have – nobody knows what we have. So many people came across the border. Nobody has any idea. I used to say like 325, but we really don’t know. But we’re going to know soon. We’re going to know and I’ll tell you, our – our people are doing a Tom Homan and his staff are doing an incredible job getting the bad ones out. Donald Trump: I declared a declared a national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold that’s right under our feet because we will drill, baby, drill, we’re going to drill, baby, drill. It’s going to bring down prices and your energy costs are going to go way down and that will happen I think relatively quickly. I’m going to give fast environmental approval for anybody building a plant for electric generation and anybody that invests more than $1 billion will get super rapid approval. Donald Trump: Not that they have to wait for nine years, 14 years like I approved LNG plants in Louisiana. They were waiting for so many years. Wasn’t Louisiana – Louisiana’s fault? It was some people. They just wouldn’t get them done. You’ve – you’ve got a snail here, a tiny tree here and I got it done in a matter of a few days. Donald Trump: I actually got it done. It took them 14 years. I got it done in about three days. The people as we call them, I’ll never forget. I called them and I said congratulations, you got your permit, what if – they were so they were so shell shocked, they didn’t know what the hell was happening. They were going to spend and they spent about $16 billion on each plant and they’ve been roaring since then, but we got them done in a matter of a few days. Donald Trump: Over the past week, we’ve begun the largest deregulation campaign in history, far exceeding even the record setting efforts in my first term that was record setting deregulation and that was just as big as tax cuts as far as business and jobs were concerned. I’ll tell you. I actually asked, you know, it’s interesting because I actually asked some of the biggest businessmen in the country. Donald Trump: I said, let me ask you, would you have – you had the choice between the big tax cuts, You know we cut it from 40 percent to 21 percent. We’re going to cut it further, but we cut it down to 20. Everybody said that would be impossible. The people on the stage helped us with that one a lot, but I said if you had your choice of that or the big deregulation cuts, what would you take? Donald Trump: These are the guys that run the big companies, the big oil companies, the big companies of every kind I said would you take the big tax cut or the big cut in regulations. And every – I’ve never had anybody said they’ll take the tax cut. They took the regulation cut. I bet I asked that question a hundred times to 100 of the biggest people. Donald Trump: They always, Tom, they always said, sir, we’ll take the regulation cut, you opened us up, you let us create all these jobs that we’ve all seen happen. So it was even bigger than the big tax cut. I also signed an order to end the weaponization of our government against the American people and investigate all abuses of power. Donald Trump: And I stopped government censorship once and for all and we brought back free speech to America. That’s what happened. We’re going to bring it back because we didn’t have free speech, we didn’t have free speech. I mean, I was investigated more than any human being in history. Alphonse Capone was a baby. Now this was a serious killer, Scarface. Donald Trump: You’ve all heard of heard of Scarface. He had a scar for a reason, he didn’t play games, but he was Scarface of course nobody ever called him Scarface to his – to his face. They said, Al, you look great today. Guy had a scar that was like two inches thick that ran from here to here. And they say, Al, you look fantastic, but Scarface was not investigated as much as your president was investigated and it turned out to be a positive thing for me. Can you believe it? It turned out to be. We got a lot of votes. Donald Trump: I think we got a lot of votes because – because they saw it was weaponization. It was a fight against a political opponent. I ordered the end to all of the lawless diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense policies across the government and all across the private sector and the military. We got it – we’re getting it out and we’ve gotten it out pretty much. Donald Trump: We did that in one week and it wasn’t that easy, but everybody wanted it people that were strongly in favor of it, I thought called me and said, thank God, you got rid of that. That was so bad. It was so bad. We hated it. We abolished 60 years of prejudice and hatred with the signing of one order, all approved by the Supreme Court of the United States. Donald Trump: It was a big thing. And the United States has become a meritocracy again. We are a country that’s based now on merit for success, merit. If you’re good at what you do, you’re going to go places. I made it the – and who would have thought that was going to happen? We didn’t even talk about that one because I figured that one was going to be toughest to get. Donald Trump: And so we are now, if you do a meritorious job, if you do something where you’re just outstanding, you advance. And that’s what it’s about. It’s about competition and it’s about a lot of things and the other becomes a very dangerous plateau. We were on that plateau too long and it’s one of the reasons that you saw very bad things happening with our country. Donald Trump: I made it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. Gee, that was a tough one. That was a tough one. Some of these people say like seven genders. I’m trying to say, go and name them. They got some weird stuff going on. No, you have two genders. I renamed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America and we are restoring the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley in Alaska, in honor of the incredible people of the state of Ohio who loved their governor and loved the man that became president. Donald Trump: He was the big tariff sheriff, they used to call him, and made a lot of money. Our country became very rich and when he was assassinated, Teddy Roosevelt became president and he spent all of that money that was made from tariffs, the money was so enormous, and they built the thing called the Panama Canal. Donald Trump: You might have read about this. Lately, it’s become a hot subject because China essentially has taken it over and we’re not going to let that happen. We’re not going to let that happen. It was the biggest investment to this day ever made by the country. In other words, if you bring it up to modern day numbers, we spent money that – we’ve never spent so much. Donald Trump: We’ve never had so many people die, 38,000 people died building the Panama Canal 110 years ago and they gave it away for $1. It’s also one of the most profitable things ever built. These ships are lined up back to Florida trying to get through. We’re not going to let that happen, wasn’t the deal. We didn’t give it to China. Donald Trump: We gave it to Panama, sort of, I guess, but they haven’t behaved properly. Perhaps most importantly, I declared a national emergency to stop the invasion of our Southern border. We’re going to stop that invasion. We’ve already done it. And today in Tijuana, you probably saw – I got a call from Tom Homan and some of the people. Donald Trump: They said, sir, it’s unbelievable. There is nobody – you have this huge area, it’s a gathering area. It’s always been packed with these people. What they did to our country is so unbelievable. That they could do this to our country is so horrible, but he said there’s nobody there. And then they actually put it on television. Donald Trump: I got to see it. And there was literally not one person, this vast area where people stay there all day long or they just walk right into our country. They just unchecked, no way, no checking for IDs, like voter ID. They don’t want voter ID because they want to cheat. They wanted these people to come in because they want to cheat too, but who could allow this to happen? Donald Trump: But there wasn’t one person standing in this massive, an area that’s like five football fields that was packed for years, under these horrible people that wanted to kill our country. We halted all illegal entry. We have successfully ended catch and release, and we’re deporting – reporting 100 percent of all new trespassers apprehended at the border and nobody’s coming in. And nobody’s coming now because they know they’re not going to be able to come in. So, we really stopped something that was very, very serious, but we have to get the bad ones out. Donald Trump: We have many murderers, many very bad people in our country that they’ve allowed because of a ridiculous, actually stupid open border policy. I’ve also deployed troops to the border. And for the first time in history, we’re locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came. Donald Trump: And very importantly, America is respected again. We’re respected again. Isn’t that nice, after years of laughing at us like we’re stupid people. And as you saw yesterday, we’ve made it clear to every country that they will be taking back our people that we’re sending out, the criminals, the illegal aliens coming from their countries were taking them back and they’re going to take them back fast. Donald Trump: And if they don’t, they’ll pay a very high economic price and we’re going to immediately install massive tariffs. It will be placed on them and other sanctions. But the tariffs, I told you, most beautiful word in the dictionary. I also told you that I said that the first time and I got just absolutely decimated by the fake news. Donald Trump: You know? I said, the most beautiful word and the fake news said what about religion, what about God, what about love? So now I say it’s the fourth most favorite word in the dictionary. It’s God, love, it’s all these other things, but I say number four, but God, love, religion, tariff, fourth. Another couple of weeks, it will be like 10. Hopefully it’s going to stay in the top 10, but the fake news went after me, Tom, because I didn’t say the first three and now that I say it, immediately say it, I’m sure they’re going to find some others. Donald Trump: Throughout the week, the heroes of ICE have been hunting down and arresting hundreds of illegal alien criminals per day, including those with charges and convictions for rape, child sexual assault, terrorism and even murder. Many murders in the crowd and many, many of these murderers have committed far more than one murder. Donald Trump: This is not going to work out, and we’re going to get them the hell out of here and members of the savage Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua and MS-13, including 50 violent individuals who were rounded up in Aurora, Colorado, which the Venezuelan Gang took over. The governor, who is a radical left governor, was petrified. Donald Trump: He didn’t know what to do. He said no, it’s not that bad. They’ve only taken over a couple of apartment houses. See, they went into the real estate business. They did it unconventionally. They did it with guns. We have to go out and borrow or use cash to buy. They just did it with guns. They took over. He said, no, it’s not that bad. Donald Trump: They only took over a couple of buildings. We’re tracking down the illegal alien criminals. We’re detaining them and we are throwing them the hell out of our country. We have no apologies, and we’re moving forward very fast. They’re very dangerous people. They’re very dangerous people. They’re violent people. Donald Trump: I used to say these are more violent than our criminals. In fact, the best part about them is they make our criminals look quite nice, actually, by comparison. They are very violent people. We also have many violent criminals in our country, however, that did not necessarily come here illegally, but have been arrested 30 times, 35 times, 41, 42 times in a couple of cases, 25 times, 18 times, many for murder and other heinous charges such as pushing people into subways. Donald Trump: As the trains coming along at 45 miles an hour, boom, you get pushed into the subway. They had it last week. Hitting them in the head with baseball bats while they’re not looking. Punching old ladies in the face, knocking them unconscious and stealing their purse. They even break into apartments and rape elderly women and beat up elderly men, beat them to hell. Donald Trump: And I don’t want these violent repeat offenders in our country any more than I want illegal aliens from other countries who misbehave. And I say, and this is subject to getting it approved, but if they’ve been arrested many, many times, they’re repeat offenders by many numbers, I want them out of our country. Donald Trump: I also will be seeking permission to do so. We’re going to get approval, hopefully, to get them the hell out of our country, along with others, let them be brought to a foreign land and maintained by others for a very small fee as opposed to being maintained in our jails for massive amounts of money, including the private prison companies that charge us a fortune. Donald Trump: No, let them be brought out of our country and let them live there for a while. Let’s see how they like it. You’ll see crime all over the country dry up. Essentially, that’s what Venezuela and other countries are doing. They’re getting rid of their criminals and putting them into the United States of America. Donald Trump: And their crime is down by almost 80 percent. We’re going to restore law and order in America and we want to bring back the death penalty for these horrible people that kill people. They kill people. It’s always a tough thing to say because I don’t like it. Nobody likes it. But if you don’t do it, we’re just looking for trouble. Donald Trump: I spent a lot of time with President Xi, and I’ll never forget in my first meeting, I said, do you have a drug problem? No, no, no, we have no drug problem. Why is that? A quick trial. What is quick trial? A quick trial is we try the person that sells the drugs immediately and at the end of the day, we execute that person if that person is guilty. Donald Trump: We have no drug problem whatsoever, and that’s the most severe case, but – but wherever you have no drug problem, you have the death penalty. So – and drugs causes a lot of the problem. A lot of the crime in our country is caused by drugs. It’s a terrible situation comes through the southern border, most of it is fentanyl coming in from China. Donald Trump: And, you know, it’s very interesting, China, when I was with President Xi, I had a deal worked out with him that they were going to give their maximum punishment, which is the death penalty to anybody making fentanyl and sending it into the United States. Then we had a very unusual result in an election. We had a rigged election. Donald Trump: We had a very unusual result and that went nowhere. It was all set to be – he would have absolutely done it. He was ready, we shook hands on it and then Biden of course didn’t follow it up. He didn’t follow anything up. But if that would have happened, you would have had a lot less fentanyl deaths, I can tell you. Donald Trump: You would have had very little fentanyl coming into the southern border. Last week, I also signed an order that will designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. That’s a very big designation. And as we are fighting hard to get birthright citizenship or automatic citizenship for the children of illegal aliens, that’s another way. Donald Trump: It’s automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens, that’s the other term that they use, which is actually more accurate, more – more understandable and it’s ridiculous. We’re the only country that has it and certainly the only country that has it to that extent and it wasn’t meant if you look, it was really meant for children of slaves. Donald Trump: This is what had happened, the children of slaves, it was not meant for everyone to come into our country by airplane or charging across the borders from all over the world and think they’re going to become citizens. It’s not meant for that. It wasn’t meant for that. And hopefully at some point, the courts will understand that without having to go through a whole big deal. Donald Trump: This was meant for the children of slaves and look at the – at the timing of it. And you’ll see and I hope judges will understand that and it has to stop because it’s – it’s really hurting our country very badly in the coming weeks, I’m looking forward to working with Congress on a reconciliation bill that financially takes care of our plans to totally and permanently restore the sovereign borders of the United States once and for all. Donald Trump: This should include full funding for a record increase in border security personnel and retention bonuses for ICE and Border Patrol. These people are incredible people. I got to know them so well. I was on the phone with them all the time when I was president when she was the border czar, she never called them. Donald Trump: Remember, we went like four years and they started asking her. Did you ever speak to anybody? No. We asked the Border Patrol, did you ever speak to the – the head of the Border Patrol? Did you ever speak to the vice president who was your border czar? No, I never got to speak to her. This was a terrible thing that was going on. This was a con job. Donald Trump: We also need a massive increase in the number of detention beds and funding for all border security infrastructure and barriers including the completion of the border wall. We did 500 miles of wall and that’s one of the reasons we had the lowest number. You remember the famous chart that I looked to my right bring down the chart and I looked to my right. Donald Trump: Something went right by me and – but that chart, I don’t know if they have it now, frankly, I didn’t tell them to bring it, but they’re very competent people. They might – if you have the chart, put it up, if you don’t, that’s ok too. But that chart showed that we had the – the lowest number of illegals coming into our country in history. Donald Trump: And it was – I loved the chart even if it didn’t show that I would have loved that chart because that chart I wouldn’t be here right now without that particular chart. But it was – it was pretty amazing. It was pretty, really amazing. And we did a great job. We had the lowest – the week I left office, we had the lowest number of illegal immigrants coming into our country that we ever had. Donald Trump: Simultaneously, we must make a record investment in Interior enforcement including deportation flights and aircraft as well as funding for our new task force to eradicate the presence of foreign gangs. We have some of the worst foreign gangs, it’s not even believable and criminal networks that have brought devastating crime to American soil. Donald Trump: We’re getting them all out. We’re getting them all out. I want on that. You know, it’s like some of some people explain it very well. They say, gee whiz, you know they look at the people, as you know, in Colombia, they agreed with us almost immediately after I got involved, and Marco Rubio and I worked together. Donald Trump: He did a great job and we really did. And Mike Waltz, we have a great group of people, but we – uh, we were being scolded because we had them in shackles in an airplane. And he said this is no way to treat people. Now, you got to understand these are murderers drug lords gang members, just the toughest people you’ve ever met or seen. Donald Trump: How would you like to be to be the pilot of a plane? You got two pilots up there and you got 300 people sitting in a plane. Every one of them either a murderer or a drug lord, a kingpin of some kind the head of the mob or a gang member and you’re flying that plane. It’s not going to end – well, you ever see the movie Con Air? [Laughter] That’s what. Donald Trump: Yeah, except here’s the difference, the people in Con Air were actors, they weren’t nearly as tough as these guys. I would say that that plane would be gone before it ever left. Those pilots would be gone before it ever left. So, they don’t want us to shackle them. I don’t want to be in that plane. I want to thank every Republican House member for voting to pass the Laken Riley Act first enforcement. Donald Trump: Only bill that’s been passed in three decades. I met the parents of Laken and they were incredible people. They were just so devastated. I can’t even explain to you. You can’t say somebody’s life is over, but essentially their life is so different and it can never be the same. She was beautiful. She was great – great person, but to have a bill of such importance named after is a great, great tribute. Donald Trump: But what these parents and, you know, you have so many of them where they’ve lost a loved one to crime, but to this new form of crime, criminal, illegal aliens, it’s – it’s massive, the numbers are massive and you add that to the crime we already had. This shows the potential for additional enforcement bills that will help us crack down on criminal aliens and totally restore the rule of law in our country. Donald Trump: I’m also eager to get to work with Congress on the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We’ve got to get that done and we don’t want to get hung up on the budget process. We just want, uh, whether it’s one, bill, two bills. I don’t care let these guys, they’re going to work it out. Donald Trump: They’re going to work it out one way or way or the other, but the bottom line, the end result is going to be the same. We want to have all of those benefits and we want to keep people’s taxes low and actually make them lower. And that’s not just rich people, that’s everybody. It’s frankly proportionately the lower scale much more so than a higher scale. Donald Trump: Not only must we permanently extend the Trump tax cuts, you know if we don’t, you’re going to have about a 60 people tax increase, but I also intend to keep my promises starting with no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security and no tax on overtime. We’re working very hard to get them done and we are – I went to Nevada just this last couple of days. Donald Trump: I started off in North Carolina because I didn’t want to forget the people of North Carolina were treated so badly by FEMA . And they came to me, they said, sir, you’re going to California tomorrow, I said well, what about North Carolina? Well, we’ll do that another time. I said, no, we won’t. I’m stopping in North Carolina first and we stopped there. Donald Trump: We met great people. Franklin Graham has done a fantastic job. He’s done a great job, but others also and I met people that were devastated the Democrat Party with FEMA, their FEMA did absolutely nothing and we have that worked out. Your Congressmen are helping very much there. Your three Congress people are – are working very hard on that whole thing along with Michael Whatley. Donald Trump: And Lara wants to be involved too. Lara Trump, she’s doing a great job. She’s done a great – Michael and Lara have been unbelievable as the head of the RNC. They’ve been unbelievable, unbelievable. You know why I picked Michael? I said who ran North Carolina? Tell me because in the 2016 election we did – so we did so well. Donald Trump: And then in 2020, we did great in North Carolina, but others we watched whaa ping, whaa ping. What the hell is going on? But with North Carolina, when he had 600 lawyers, 601 lawyers working for him and they didn’t play games in North Carolina, I said that’s the guy. I want to run it and Michael Whatley has done an unbelievable job. Donald Trump: And he worked with Lara so well she – she comes from that state from North Carolina, they’ve done such an incredible job. So thank you very much. I want to just thank you in front of leadership, incredible. And I really don’t want to give another job to be honest. That’s the most important job he said, sir. Donald Trump: I’ll go anywhere. I said I don’t want you to go anywhere. I want you to stay where you are. We’ll give you plenty of money to get the job done, right? But we don’t want to – we don’t want to lose you. I mean, he’s really – he could do anything actually. But he’s a very talented person. There’s nothing more important because we have to win in two years. Donald Trump: We have to win in four years. There’s nobody better to head it up. So thank you very much, Michael, and really stand up on what is just an incredible job. Really amazing. I wanted to save that for leadership, because I say it all the time. People don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, but leadership knows what I’m talking about, and it’s really incredible. Donald Trump: The two of you as a team are unbelievable. Our administration will also be working to implement the Make It in America plan that I outlined very successfully in my campaign. You know, I think my campaign, I really focused on the border more than anything else. A lot of people said the biggest thing was inflation and the economy and then maybe the border was third. Donald Trump: I always felt the border was first because I felt that people could really understand that you can’t have people pouring in from the prisons all over the world and from mental institutions all over the world and dumped into our country. So, I talked about that much more so than I did inflation. I mean, inflation was terrible. Donald Trump: I think it was the worst in the history of our country, but you can only talk about it so long. The price of apples doubled. The price of bacon has quadrupled. Everything is a disaster. And you say it and then what do you do? With this, I could give examples of what they’re doing to destroy our country and I felt it was the strongest thing. Donald Trump: You know, it’s funny. In 2016, I won on the border. In 2020, we did so well, I couldn’t talk about the border. My people would say, sir, don’t bring up the border, nobody wants to hear it. I said no, I did a great job. It was a horrible border in 2016, but that border was beautiful compared to what we have now. Donald Trump: So, I didn’t talk about it and we did great. I mean, look, I got millions of more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016. Nobody ever got it. Got the most votes of any Republican in history in 2020. But this time I said, let’s make it too big to rig. We’re going to make it too big to rig and that’s what happened and they couldn’t – they tried. Donald Trump: These cheating guys, these cheating people, but they tried. But they gave up. I brought taxes down from 40 percent to 21 percent, which everybody said was impossible. And I did it with these people up here and a lot of the people there, a great Congressman. I want to name every one of them, but I’d be naming them all now, and I’m looking at them. Donald Trump: Look at all these people, they’re great. They’re so great, Russell, and you and every single – Virginia. Look at Virginia, she’s a killer. Nobody would know she’s a killer. But I got all these Congressmen, I want to name every one of them. But I got like 100 and something things that people would say, let’s get the hell out of here, this is getting very boring, right? Donald Trump: But I will tell you as a group and individually, they’re incredible people. Every one of them I like. Although, every once in a while if somebody votes against me, I don’t like them for a little while, but we like every one of them. And this guy has the ability to get along with everybody, which he has to when you have a majority of really five. Donald Trump: They say one, but it will be, but right now it’s one. I want to make them sound a little – but he has an ability to get along with people and he’s very smart, very tough, but everyone likes him because he’s a high-quality person, very religious person and he’s a high-quality person. You know, we have other guys here and I know that everybody likes them, but they’re about – like, one of them in particular, I love this guy so much. Donald Trump: I won’t name him because I don’t want to embarrass him, but I don’t know if he’d be happy or not happy, but he’s very, very strong, very, very popular. But he has 36 people that won’t vote for him. It’s 36. That’s not a lot. That’s a small percentage. Tom is incredible, but Tom is a couple of people that probably have been beaten badly and beaten up. You beat up some people badly and it’s a little tougher, but he’s done an unbelievable job. Donald Trump: I’ve become friendly with him. I didn’t really know him. And over the last year or so, I’ve become friendly. He’s an incredible leader. You really are. But you have a couple of people that, maybe more than one, let me put it that way. [Audience member calls out “Sir, they all love me.”] Donald Trump: They all love him. Your wife loves you, that I can tell you. He’s got a great – where are you? Where are you? Stand up, please. Just stand up. Come on. What a great wife and family. It’s true. Thank you. She is a great – look at her. She’s very popular, isn’t she? She’s great. More than you. You’re very popular. And now I’m bringing them down. Donald Trump: I’m bringing the taxes down from 21 to 15 percent, but only if they make their product in America. So if they make their product in America, we’re bringing it down. So if you think about it, we took it down from 40 to 15 percent. But again, you keep 21, but you go down to 15 if you make your product here. Donald Trump: We are going to have so many businesses moving back into our country. And remember, again, the word tariff, we’re going to protect our people and our businesses and we’re going to protect our country with tariffs. And you got a little indication of that yesterday with what happened with a very strong country. Donald Trump: Colombia is traditionally a very, very strong-willed country. If they don’t make their product in America, then very simply, they should have to pay a tariff, which will bring in trillions of dollars into our treasury from countries that never paid us $0.10. We’re not going to let that happen. We’re not going to let them destroy our country. Donald Trump: In the words of President McKinley, who was the tariff king, the protective system, invokes the highest law of nature that a self-preservation and that is self-preservation. There is every reason founded in justice why the American producer should in every way be favored against a foreign producer whose products compete with his. Donald Trump: This is our natural market. We have made it. We have made it at enormous cost capital and exertion and think of this – and we did that through exertion and brain and muscle and guts and stamina. We preserved it against foreign wars and domestic conflicts at great sacrifice, men and women. The foreign producer has contributed nothing to the growth or development of this country. Donald Trump: So, if you want to share with the citizens of the United States, our home market, then you must pay for the privilege of doing it. In other words, you have to pay for the privilege of coming into our country, taking our jobs, taking our product, destroying our countries. We mentioned North Carolina, the furniture business, what they’ve done to these great artisans. Donald Trump: I used to go down to North Carolina all the time to buy furniture for hotels that I was building and they had the most incredible artisans. That whole thing was wiped out by China mostly, but others, and just wiped out, but it’s going to come back. It’s going to come roaring back. It’s all going to come roaring back. Donald Trump: We’re going to put tariffs on outside countries and outside people that really mean us harm. Well, they mean us harm, but they basically want to make their country good. Look at what others do. China is a tremendous tariff maker and India and Brazil and so many countries. And so we’re not going to let to let that happen any longer because we’re going to put America first. Donald Trump: Always put America first, that’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to establish a very fair system where money is going to come into our coffers and America is going to be very rich again and it’s going to happen very quickly. It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before. Donald Trump: Do you know the United States in 1870 to 1913, all tariffs, and that was the richest period in the history of the United States, relatively speaking. In other words, relatively, and they set up the Great Tariff Commission of 1887. And this commission had one function, what to do with all the money that we took in. It was so enormous that they had no idea. Donald Trump: It was a blue-ribbon committee. It was set up 1887. And what to do with all of the money that we had. And again, Teddy Roosevelt was a beneficiary because when McKinley was killed, he took over this vast sum of money and he did all of those national parks and all of the other things. And I’m not knocking him, but he was given a vast amount of money and that was all made through tariffs. Donald Trump: We had no income tax. The income tax came in, in 1913. As I said in my speech last week, instead of taxing our citizens to enrich foreign nations, we should be tariffing and taxing foreign nations to enrich our citizens. Does that make sense? Right? Under the American first economic model, as tariffs on other countries, go up, taxes on American workers and businesses will come down and massive numbers of jobs and factories will come home. Donald Trump: The job creation will be enormous, in particular, if you look at the automobile sector. I mean we’re just being wiped out. You just take a look at what’s happened to that over the years. And the auto workers voted for me. I have an obligation to do what’s right and I’m going to do that. Do you know in Mexico they were going to build the largest auto plant anywhere in the world and it was during the campaign, my campaign, my most recent campaign? Donald Trump: And a very great gentleman, all he does is build, he builds auto plants, he was building this factory and I said how’s it going? I said, I want to go around and take a look at one of your factories that you’re building, one of the big ones, one of the good ones. I said, OK, are you ready? When are you going to do? This Is eight months ago, nine months ago. Donald Trump: He said, you’ll have to go to Mexico. I said, what about the United States? He said, we’re putting up a couple, but they’re small. He’s the biggest guy of doing this. He said, in Mexico, they’re building massive automobile factories. I said, you mean they’re doing it, and who’s the owner of the factories? Donald Trump: He said, mostly China. One in particular is massive and it’s built fairly close to the border. So they were going to build cars and send them into the United States for no tax or very little tax and destroy Detroit, just destroy the rest of it, what’s left of it because they’ve already taken – Mexico has taken 32 percent of our business over years – over 30 years and the other one is Canada. Donald Trump: Canada has taken massive amounts of, you know, they said they send us millions of cars. We don’t need them for that. We don’t need – we want to have the cars made in Detroit or South Carolina or many other locations, whether it’s union or not union. But we – I said to him, I said, so when is this plant going to open, he said, well, we’re going to start it in a couple of months and it will be open in about a year and a half. Donald Trump: It’s the largest plant in the world. I said I’m not happy with that and I said uh in my next speech that I am going to charge them. If it takes 100 percent or 200 percent, no car is coming in from Mexico into the United States without a massive tariff. And I said it three or four times and what happened is about two months later, I see that same gentleman, he was in the audience and I said I want to see him backstage after I’m finished with the – with the speech. Donald Trump: And I met him backstage and I said, John, let me ask you what happened with that plant, where is it now? He said, sir, China’s canceled it. Why? Because they think you’re going to be elected and they thought you were going to charge big tariffs on the cars coming in and it doesn’t work if you’re going to charge. Donald Trump: So, they canceled the plant and Detroit now will breathe and we’re going to do just the opposite. We’re going to have these companies come in and they can build that plant if they want, but they have to build it across the line. They have to build it in the United States. Amazing, amazing. We did so many things and we weren’t even elected yet. Donald Trump: That would have been a disaster. If that – if that plant were built, it would have been a disaster that would have wiped out. That was bigger than most of the factories put together – the auto plants put together. In particular, in a very near future we’re going to be placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals to return production of these essential goods to the United States of America. Donald Trump: They left us and they went to Taiwan where – which is about 98 percent of the chip business by the way. And we want them to come back and we don’t want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program that Biden has give everybody billions of dollars. They already have billions of dollars. They’ve got nothing but money, Joe. They didn’t need money. Donald Trump: They needed an incentive and the incentive is going to be – they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even 100 percent tax. They’re going to build their factory with their own money. We don’t have to give them money. They’re going to come in because it’s good for them to come in. They’re giving them money. Donald Trump: They don’t even know what they’re going to do with it. I had people tell me we have no idea. We didn’t need money. They don’t know if they’re even – they’re probably going to use the money to build in other places, other countries. It’s a ridiculous plan, very expensive and ridiculous. The only way you’ll get out of this is to build your plant. Donald Trump: If you want to stop paying the taxes or the tariffs, you have to build your plant right here in America. That’s what’s going to happen at record levels. We’re going to have more plants built in the next short period of time than anybody ever envisioned before because the incentive is going to be there because they have no tariff whatsoever. Donald Trump: In fact, they have help from us if they build their plant in America and we’re going to look at pharmaceuticals drugs, we’re going to look at chips, semiconductors and we’re going to look at steel and some other industries and you’re going to see things happening. If I didn’t put on the massive steel tariffs, you wouldn’t have one steel plant right now in the United States if I didn’t put on the tariffs on washing machines, dryers and the like, you wouldn’t – in Ohio, you would have lost all of those companies that made washing machines and dryers. Donald Trump: Jim Jordan is the one that got me started with – is Jim here by any chance? Is Jim here? Where is Jim? Where’s Jim? Oh, look at him. Wow, that’s not a great seat for a man of such power. [Laughter] Do you know that Jim has a couple of – he’s a great wrestler? He was All-American wrestler three times, 128 and one that’s not a bad record and that’s the way he fights too. Donald Trump: But he has a better record, undefeated as a wrestler in high school and I say how can you do that? Because a freshman can’t beat a senior, but he figured out how to beat seniors, so, uh, stand up again, Jim. Let’s give you a hand for – as a wrestler as a wrestler big hand as a politician, very good. But – but Jim is it true that we saved – we went up there. Donald Trump: Remember, we had 25,000 people standing in the streets in this little beautiful town with Whirlpool, right, and they were going to close up their factories because they were – South Korea was dumping washing machines and other things like that and they were dumping. And we put a 50 percent tariff on that 75, even 100 percent. Donald Trump: And now they’re thriving, right? Without Trump, they wouldn’t – they would have been closed up. But Jim was the one that got me involved. Are you guys all happy with Jim? Do you like him? Because I like him. I like Jim, right? We like Jim. What’s not to like? He gets on television he’s like – he’s like a wrestler, he’s got this boom, boom, boom, boom, very impressive, Jim. Anyway, it’s good to see you. Donald Trump: I like that guy a lot. I like a lot of the people in the audience a lot. I like the people in this room. We have the same basic philosophy. We have the same thoughts, what’s not to like? But I’ll also be placing tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper and things that we need for our military things. We have to bring production back to our country. Donald Trump: You know there was a time when we made one ship a day and now we can’t build a ship. We don’t know what the hell we’re doing. It’s all gone to other locations and other lands. And to further return production to the United States, we’re going to environmentally free up our rare earth minerals. We have some unbelievable sites. Donald Trump: We have some of the best rare earth anywhere in the world, but we’re not allowed to use it because the environmentalists got there first. They said you cannot touch that land. I look at the land, it looks like every other piece of land, what is it? Well, this is very protected. They have no idea what they’re doing to our – to our country. Donald Trump: They use the environment to stop progress and we’re not going to let that happen. We have Lee Zeldin, I don’t know if Lee is here today, but Lee Zeldin is going to be fantastic. He’s going to head up the whole environmental and I said, Lee, if we have a – we put in for a power plant and if we don’t get the approval like that, you can start within 12 days. Donald Trump: One day would be even better, but 12 days, 14 days see what you can do. And Lee’s great lee knows what’s good and he knows what’s bad. And he’ll be very fair, but we have to get it moving because some of these jobs, like the ones in Louisiana, they were 14, 15 years, they couldn’t get their approvals. We can’t let that happen when people come here with massive amounts of money, they want to start, they want to go and we know what’s good and we know what’s bad too. Donald Trump: And Lee Zeldin is going to do a great job environmentally as we fix our tax system. We can also cut colossal amounts of government waste, fraud and abuse, of which there’s a lot. But tonight I restate my pledge from the campaign. I will not sign any bill that cuts even a single penny from Medicare or Social Security for our great seniors. Donald Trump: We don’t have to do that. We don’t have to do that. We’ll not touch those benefits in any way, shape or form. I want to use that because during the campaign they had these fake ads that Trump is going to cut Social Security. No, they’re the ones that are going to cut it because the country is going to go bankrupt under them. Donald Trump: And that’s why it’s going to cut because they’re not going to have a choice, not that they’re saying we’re going to cut it, but the country was – our country was heading for absolute bankruptcy using reconciliation. I also look forward to working with you to make our energy policies permanent and making our historic deregulation efforts, a fixture of US law, so that no future president like they did with ANRWA. I got ANRWA approved. Donald Trump: Nobody could do it including Ronald Reagan in Alaska. It’s the largest site, potentially the largest site in the world, larger than Saudi Arabia. And I got it done Ronald Reagan couldn’t get it. Nobody could get it done. They tried, but they couldn’t get it done. I got it done and the first thing they did was end ANRWA in Alaska. Donald Trump: The biggest, most powerful site maybe anywhere in the world that we got it done and we’re going to get it done again very quickly. Now I think we – I think I do it with an executive order because they didn’t go through Congress. I got it approved through Congress, so I think we got it done fast, but it’s going to be – that can supply all of Asia with its location. Donald Trump: All of Asia can be supplied by ANRWA. So there’s so many things, but we don’t want to have any future President ever sabotage our economy with out of control regulations. As the last two Democrat presidents have done, they went crazy. Last week I signed an order revoking Joe Biden’s destructive artificial intelligence regulations so that AI companies can once again focus on being the best not just being the most woke. Donald Trump: And today and over the last couple of days, I’ve been reading about China and some of the companies in China, one in particular coming up with a faster method of AI and much less expensive method. And that’s good because you don’t have to spend as much money. I view that as a positive as an asset. So, I really think if it’s – if it’s fact and if it’s true and nobody really knows if it is, but I view that as a positive because you’ll be doing that too. Donald Trump: So, you won’t be spending as much and you’ll get the same result. Hopefully, the release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing to win because we have the greatest scientists in the world. Even Chinese leadership told me that. Donald Trump: They said you have the most brilliant scientists in the world and Seattle and various places, but Silicon Valley, they said there’s nobody like those people. This is very unusual. When you hear a DeepSeek, when you hear somebody – somebody come up with something, we always have the ideas. We’re always first. Donald Trump: So, I would say that’s a positive that could be very much a positive development instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less and you’ll come up with hopefully the same solution. Under the Trump administration we’re going to unleash our tech companies and we’re going to dominate the future like never before. Donald Trump: And finally, we need to work together on a defense bill that once again fully rebuilds our military for our great warriors. We have to have a strong, strong defense. And in a little while, I’ll be signing four new executive orders. First is that I’m directing our new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who’s going to be great, by the way. Donald Trump: Thank you for the support. Thank you very much for the support. You really did support him greatly. I think he’s going to be fantastic. I know him very well. I think he’s going to be fantastic. He’s what we need to immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome, missile defense shield, which will be able to protect Americans. Donald Trump: You know, we protect other countries, but we don’t protect ourselves and when Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many years ago, luckily, we didn’t. We didn’t have the technology then. It was a concept, but we did it and now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel. Out of 319 rockets, they knocked down just about every one of them. Donald Trump: So, I think the United States is entitled to that and everything will be made right here in the USA, 100 percent. And next, to ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world. We will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military. It’s going to be gone. In addition, we will stop our service members from being indoctrinated with radical left ideologies such as critical race theory. Donald Trump: We’re going to stop it. It’s already been stopped. It’s already been halted, totally halted. And finally, we will offer full reinstatement to any service member who was expelled from the armed forces due to the COVID vaccine mandate and we will restore them to their former rank with full pay. And I think we’re going to have a lot of people that join. Donald Trump: And one thing I’ll say, if you looked at our recruitment over the last week or so, two weeks, it’s through the roof. We were having a lot of – a lot of people weren’t signing. We were having a hard time recruiting people because they were looking at these people that they were supposed to be their leaders and they weren’t happy. Donald Trump: They didn’t like people that fall going upstairs. If you’re going to fall, at least go downstairs from the plane. That triple fall, I use that thing in more ads. I didn’t have an ad where I didn’t put that in. Just a little quick one, two, three. Reminded me of Joe Frazier when he went down, right? George Foreman, Joe Frazier, three falls in a matter of seconds. Donald Trump: I said, can you speed it up a little bit? People are getting tired of it. But no, we have now the best recruitment we’ve seen in a long time. There’s a tremendous number of people wanting to sign up. January 20th, 2025 was a turning point in American history. Starting last week, we’re ending years of incompetence, radicalism and betrayal and we’re ushering in the most exhilarating era of era of reform and renewal in the 250-year history of our country. Donald Trump: And just in conclusion, I just want to say that this has been a very exciting and will be a very exciting new chapter. There’s nothing we cannot achieve as long as the Republican party remains united. I hope you can remain united. And it’s one thing I give the Democrats a lot of credit for because they have lousy policy. Donald Trump: I think, frankly, half of them are totally crazy, but they do stick together, they stick together on stuff that nobody can – I mean, how can you want prisons emptied out into our country? They stick together. They stick together and everything, impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax;number two, they stick together. Donald Trump: Although, I must tell you, you gave me great support during that, those two problems, those two fake witch hunts, which have now turned out to be totally fake and disgusting. But you gave me tremendous support. But the Republican party has to stick together. We just can’t have people going, one, two, three votes and we don’t have that luxury. Donald Trump: It would be different if we had a 20-point, 30-point, 30-person majority, but we don’t. We have to help leadership. And you know, you can be assured that you have certain philosophies, that if you’re going to have most of the people, almost all of them voting for something you really, you’re going to be ok. It’s not going to be bad. Donald Trump: You have to stick together. It’s the one thing that I would say we don’t get very high marks. Everything is so hard. We always have two or three or five or something, people that just don’t want to do it and you just got to do it. You just got to do it, make life easy, just got to do it. So right now, we have a very special period because we have the House, we have the Senate and we have the White House. Donald Trump: And we’re a team and we’re a really good team and I appreciate so many times and even with Mike, I call three or four people and they said, Ok, sir, I’ll do it. I’m going to vote. I’m going to vote positively and they’re very happy they did now. But when I called, we’ve gotten such a great response. We just had that happened with Pete Hegseth and we have it happening with others, but we really appreciate it with the House. Donald Trump: The House has been – it’s a very difficult situation when you have that small a majority, but in a certain way, it brings you together. It actually can unify more than anybody would ever know. And a victory is sweeter, as they say, because of it. And I think we’re going to have a lot of victories, but we have to stick together. Donald Trump: We have to work together. We have to fight together, and we’re going to win together. We’re going to win like never before. We have a chance to win like never before. As long as we stay united, the 119th Congress will be remembered as the most successful and accomplished Republican majority in American history. Donald Trump: I believe that. I think we have a chance of doing it. Right? And in January 2027, we will have a larger Republican House, a larger Republican Senate and our country will be richer, safer, stronger, prouder, greater freer than ever before. I really think that we’re going to have some big victories coming up and I’m going to be helping every single one of you. Donald Trump: I’m raising a lot of money and I want to use it for the House and I want to use it for the Senate. I’ve raised a lot of money. And I told my people, we raised $1.7 billion. They raised $2.6 billion. They have the unions with checkoffs, which is always tough, $10 a month times millions and millions of people. Donald Trump: And then we won and we won by a lot and they wanted to go out and they still haven’t raised it. They’re trying to raise $28 million. They cannot raise $0.10. It’s good to win. I will tell you. It’s really good to win, but they can’t raise money. But I told my people the morning after – now, normally, because we have so many donors here and so many people that I love and respect, a lot of great friends of mine, but I told my people, Meredith and Susie, by the way, how good is Susie, the Ice maiden? Donald Trump: Where is the Ice maiden? She is so great, she is so great. Stand up, Susie, the Ice maiden, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, wow, look at that, most powerful woman in the world, they say, the most powerful woman in the world. She’s made of ice. She’s great. No, you know, when I came to Florida, Florida was a Democrat State, had a Democrat governor. Donald Trump: They had one Democrat senator. It was largely a Democrat State. And through various reasons, I ended up with Susie running the campaign and she was unbelievable. We won it in a landslide and then the second time, we won it in an even bigger landslide. And when it came time to choosing somebody to run the campaign, the whole campaign, I said, what about Susie from Florida? Donald Trump: She never lost. I won every primary. I won every, I didn’t lose anything. And again, it was a Democrat State and it was a landslide both times. And all of the Republican stuff was almost like it didn’t even exist. It was amazing. I said, what about Susie? Well, sir, you know, a woman has never been in this position before. Donald Trump: I said, really? Oh, by the way, we have Kellyanne Conway. She didn’t do too badly either, right? She did a great job, 2016. And when it came time to chief of staff, do you know that there has never been a woman chief of staff, but there is now. There is now, right? I didn’t know that. I’m so surprised. I’m very surprised. Donald Trump: But it came time to running the campaign and I said, well, I’ve never had a loss with Susie. She comes from great stock. Pat Summerall is her father. Pat Summerall was a football player, great football player and but a really great announcer, really the voice of the NFL for 27 years or something. It was great, and a leader. Donald Trump: He worked with John Madden and he was able to get John Madden to do things that nobody else could do. They’d call him. They’d say Pat, John is really difficult. You know, John was a difficult guy, but he got big ratings and he was good. And Pat would go up, come on, John, let’s get this done. Come on, I know you don’t like the heads of the company, that’s it. They’re paying you a lot of money. Donald Trump: Come on, John, let’s get it done and he’d go and do it. And this went on for like 27 years, right? But he was a leader, her father, and this is somebody that has the gene. I’ll tell you, she’s great and she’s done a fantastic job. So she was so good with the campaign. I said, let’s let her do the campaign and it was flawless. Donald Trump: And again, I said before, we had to win a lot of votes because it’s crooked as hell. And I hope – I hope you can go to voter ID and same day voting and paper ballots and all of those things because ultimately we’ll never lose a race if you do that. I’m telling you you’ll never lose a race and I hope you can get that. Donald Trump: And that’s said to the governors mostly, but, you know, you people have a lot of power over it, but Susie ran the race and we did phenomenally. And then we just made her the chief of staff and she’s doing great. They say it was the greatest week opening week in presidential history. And I think, you know, it could be a hell of a lot better. Donald Trump: Even CNN is saying this guy is amazing. [Laughter] I couldn’t believe it. I said did CNN really say that? Because nobody watches so nobody was able to confirm it, [Laughter] but it was pretty amazing. Oh, the camera just went off, so it’s always tough. Usually you get them by surprise. But I just want to thank everybody. Donald Trump: We’re going to make this tremendously successful. We’re going to have – I believe we’re going to have one of the greatest four years in the history of our country. We’re going to turn it around quickly and then we’re going to go on and we’re going to progress like nobody ever thought possible. And I want to thank these great four people because they really are leaders and they’re phenomenal people. Donald Trump: And I want to thank all of my friends in the audience, many of whom are congressmen and congresswomen and people that have just tremendous talent. Every single one of you, I know, every one of you and you have tremendous talent. And if we stick and if we fight together, there’s nobody can stop us. We’re going to have because they have bad policy, their policy is so bad, nobody could win with this policy. Donald Trump: Nobody and we have the best policy. And again, as they say and we say and I’ve been saying for a long time with the party of common sense and we’re the party that’s going to have the best four years ever. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-01-28
Karoline Leavitt: Good afternoon, everybody. Question: Good afternoon. Karoline Leavitt: How are we? Good to see all of you. It’s an honor to be here with all of you. A lot of familiar faces in the room, a lot of new faces. And President Trump is back and the golden age of America has most definitely begun. The Senate has already confirmed five of President Trump’s exceptional cabinet nominees, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Karoline Leavitt: It is imperative that the Senate continues to confirm the remainder of the president’s well-qualified nominees as quickly as possible. As you have seen during the past week, President Trump is hard at work fulfilling the promises that he made to the American people on the campaign trail. Since taking the oath of office, President Trump has taken more than 300 executive actions, secured nearly $1 trillion in US investments, deported illegal alien rapists gang members and suspected terrorists from our homeland and restored commonsense to the federal government. Karoline Leavitt: I want to take a moment to go through some of these extraordinary actions. On day one, President Trump declared a national emergency at our southern border to end the four yearlong invasion of illegal aliens under the previous administration. Additionally, President Trump signed an executive order to end catch and release and finished construction of his effective border wall. Karoline Leavitt: By using every lever of his federal power, President Trump has sent a loud and clear message to the entire world. America will no longer tolerate illegal immigration and this president expects that every nation on this planet will cooperate with the repatriation of their citizens. As proven by this weekend, when President Trump swiftly directed his team to issue harsh and effective sanctions and tariffs on the Colombian government, upon hearing, they were denied a U.S. military aircraft full of their own citizens who were deported by this administration. Karoline Leavitt: Within hours, the Colombian government agreed to all of President Trump’s demands, proving America is once again respected on the world stage. So to foreign nationals who are thinking about trying to illegally enter the United States, think again. Under this president, you will be detained and you will be deported. Karoline Leavitt: Every day, Americans are safer because of the violent criminals that President Trump’s administration is removing from our communities. On January 23rd, ICE New York arrested a Turkish national for entry without inspection, who is a known or suspected terrorist. On January 23rd, ICE San Francisco arrested a citizen of Mexico unlawfully present in the United States who has been convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child aged 14 years or younger. Karoline Leavitt: ICE Saint Paul has arrested a citizen of Honduras who was convicted of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. ICE buffalo arrested a citizen of Ecuador who has been convicted of rape. ICE Boston arrested a citizen of the Dominican Republic who has a criminal conviction for second degree murder. Karoline Leavitt: This criminal was convicted of murder for beating his pregnant wife to death in front of her five-year-old son. And ICE Saint Paul also arrested a citizen of Mexico who was convicted of possessing pornographic material of a minor on a work computer. These are the heinous individuals that this administration is removing from American communities every single day and to the brave, state and local law enforcement officers, CBP and ICE agents who are helping in the facilitation of this deportation operation. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump has your back and he is grateful for your hard work. On the economic front, President Trump took immediate action to lower costs for families who are suffering from four long years of the Biden administration’s destructive and inflationary policies. President Trump ordered the heads of all executive departments and agencies to help deliver emergency price relief to the American people, untangle our economy from Biden’s regulatory constraints and end the reckless war on American energy. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump also signed sweeping executive orders to end the weaponization of government and restore commonsense to the federal bureaucracy. He directed all federal agencies to terminate illegal diversity, equity and inclusion programs to help return America to a merit-based society. President Trump also signed an executive order declaring it is now the policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes, male and female. Karoline Leavitt: Sanity has been restored. Before I take your questions, I would like to point out to all of you once again, have access to the most transparent and accessible president in American history. There has never been a president who communicates with the American people and the American press corps as openly and authentically as the 45th and now 47th president of the United States. Karoline Leavitt: This past week, President Trump has held multiple news conferences, gaggled on Air Force One multiple times and sat down for a two-part interview on Fox News, which aired last week. As Politico summed it up best, Trump is everywhere again and that’s because President Trump has a great story to tell about the legendary American revival that is well underway. Karoline Leavitt: And in keeping with this revolutionary media approach that President Trump deployed during the campaign, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room, because according to recent polling from Gallup, Americans’ trust in mass media has fallen to a record low. Karoline Leavitt: Millions of Americans, especially young people have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume cn their news from podcasts, blogs, social media and other independent outlets. It’s essential to our team that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape in 2025. To do this, I’m excited to announce the following changes will be made to this historic James S. Brady Briefing Room where Mr. Brady’s legacy will endure. Karoline Leavitt: This White House believes strongly in the First Amendment, so it’s why our team will work diligently to restore the press passes of the 440 journalists whose passes were wrongly revoked by the previous administration. We’re also opening up this briefing room to new media voices who produce news-related content and whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room. Karoline Leavitt: We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House. And you can apply now on our new website, whitehouse.gov/newmedia. Starting today, this seat in the front of the room, which is usually occupied by the press secretary’s staff, will be called the New Media Seat. Karoline Leavitt: My team will review the applications and give credentials to new media applicants who meet our criteria and pass United States’ Secret Service requirements to enter the White House complex. So, in light of these announcements, our first questions for today’s briefing will go to these new media members whose outlets, despite being some of the most viewed news websites in the country, have not been given seats in this room. Karoline Leavitt: And before I turn to questions, I do have news directly from the president of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office from President Trump directly, an update on the New Jersey drones. After research and study the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Karoline Leavitt: Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy – a statement from the president of the United States to start this briefing with some news. And with that, I will turn it over to questions. Karoline Leavitt: And we will begin with our new media members: Mike Allen from Axios; Matt Boyle from Breitbart – Mike, why don’t you go ahead? Question: Thank you very much. Karoline, does the president see anything fishy about DeepSeek – either its origins or its cost? And could China’s ability to make these models quicker/cheaper affect our thinking about expanding generation data centers chip manufacturing? Karoline Leavitt: Sure, the President was asked about DeepSeek last night on Air Force One when he gaggled for I think the third or fourth time throughout the weekend with members of the traveling press corps. The president said that he believes that this is a wake-up call to the American AI industry. The last administration sat on their hands and allowed China to rapidly develop this AI program. Karoline Leavitt: And so, President Trump believes in restoring American AI dominance, and that’s why he took very strong executive action this past week to sign executive orders to roll back some of the onerous regulations on the AI industry. And President Trump has also proudly appointed the first AI and crypto czar at this White House, David Sacks, whom I spoke with yesterday. Karoline Leavitt: Very knowledgeable on this subject, and his team is here working every single day to ensure American AI dominance. As for the national security implications, I spoke with NSC this morning, they are looking into what those may be and when I have an update, I will share it with you, Mike. Question: Karoline, you say restore US dominance, is there a fear that the US either is falling or has fallen behind? And how would the president make sure the US stays ahead? Karoline Leavitt: No, the president is confident that we will restore American dominance in AI. Question: Karoline, first of all, thank you to you and President Trump for actually giving voices to new media outlets that represent millions and millions of Americans. The thing I would add, I’ve got a two-part question for you. The first is just can you expand upon what steps the White House is going to take to bring more voices, not less, which is what our founder, Andrew Breitbart believed in, into this room where they rightfully belong? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, absolutely. And as I said in my opening statement, Matt, it is a priority of this White House to honor the First Amendment. And it is a fact that Americans are consuming their news media from various different platforms, especially young people. And as the youngest press secretary in history, thanks to President Trump, I take great pride in opening up this room to new media voices to share the president’s message with as many Americans as possible. Karoline Leavitt: In doing so, number one, we will ensure that outlets like yours, Axios and Breitbart, which are widely respected and viewed outlets, have an actual seat in this room every day. We also, again, encourage anybody in this country, whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster – if you are producing legitimate news content, no matter the medium you will be allowed to apply for press credentials to this White House. Karoline Leavitt: And as I said earlier, our new media website is whitehouse.gov/newmedia. And so, we encourage people to apply. Again, as long as you are creating news-related content of the day and you’re a legitimate independent journalist, you’re welcome to cover this White House. Question: And secondly, Karoline, you said you laid out several of the actions that President Trump has taken, obviously a stark contrast to the previous administration, and breakneck speed from President Trump. Can we expect that pace to continue as the first 100 days moves along here and beyond that? Karoline Leavitt: Absolutely, there’s no doubt President Trump has always been the hardest working man in politics. I think that’s been proven. Over the past week, this president has, again, signed more than 300 executive orders. He’s taken historic action. I gaggled aboard Air Force One to mark the first 100 days of this administration, 4 p.m. last Friday – our first 100 hours rather. Karoline Leavitt: And this president did more in the first 100 hours than the previous president did in the first 100 days. So, President Trump, I think you can all expect for him to continue to work at this breakneck speed. So, I hope you’re all ready to work very hard. I know that we are. Zeke Miller? Question: Thanks, Karoline. A question that we’ve asked your predecessors of both parties in this job, when you’re up here in this briefing room, speaking to the American public, do you view yourself and your role as speaking on – advocating on behalf of the president or providing the unvarnished truth that is, not to lie, not to obfuscate to the American people. Karoline Leavitt: I commit to telling the truth from this podium every single day I commit to speaking on behalf of the president of the United States. That is my job. And I will say it’s very easy to speak truth from this podium when you have a president who is implementing policies that are wildly popular with the American people. Karoline Leavitt: And that’s exactly what this administration is doing. It’s correcting the lies and the wrongs of the past four years – many of the lies that have been told to your faces in this very briefing room. I will not do that. But since you brought up TruthSeek [?], I would like to point out while I vow to provide the truth from this podium, we ask that all of you in this room hold yourselves to that same standard. Karoline Leavitt: We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family. And we will not accept that. We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House. So, yes, I will hold myself to the truth and I expect everyone in this room to do the same. Question: And Karoline, I just had a substantive question. Yesterday, the White House Office of Management and Budget directed across the board freeze with some exceptions for individual assistance, we understand, to federal grants. It’s caused a lot of confusion around the country on Head Start providers, among providers of services to homeless veterans. Question: Medicaid providers, states saying they’re having trouble accessing the portal. Can you help us clear up some of the confusion, give some certainty to folks? And also, is that uncertainty – how does that uncertainty service the president’s voters? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I think there’s only uncertainty in this room amongst the media. There’s no uncertainty in this building. So, let me provide the certainty and the clarity that all of you need. This is not a blanket pause on federal assistance and grant programs from the Trump administration. Individual assistance, that includes – I’m not naming everything that’s included, but just to give you a few examples – Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits, assistance that is going directly to individuals will not be impacted by this pause. Karoline Leavitt: And I want to make that very clear to any Americans who are watching at home who may be a little bit confused about some of the media reporting. This administration, if you are receiving individual assistance from the federal government, you will still continue to receive that. However, it is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Karoline Leavitt: That is something that President Trump campaigned on. That’s why he has launched DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, who is working alongside OMB. And that’s why OMB sent out this memo last night, because the president signed an executive order directing OMB to do just this. And the reason for this is to ensure that every penny that is going out the door is not conflicting with the executive orders and actions that this president has taken. Karoline Leavitt: So, what does this pause mean? It means no more funding for illegal DEI programs. It means no more funding for the green new scam that has cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies, no more funding for Green New Deal social engineering policies. Karoline Leavitt: Again, people who are receiving individual assistance, you will continue to receive that and President Trump is looking out for you by issuing this pause because he is being a good steward of your taxpayer dollars. Question: Thanks, Caroline. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: How long is this pause going to last? And how is the Trump administration recommending that organizations that rely on federal funding make payroll, pay their rent in the meantime? Karoline Leavitt: It is a temporary pause in the Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the federal funding that has been going out the door. Again, not for individual assistance, but for all of these other programs that I mentioned. I also spoke with the incoming director of OMB this morning and he told me to tell all of you that the line to his office is open for other federal government agencies across the board. Karoline Leavitt: And if they feel that programs are necessary and in line with the president’s agenda, then the Office of Management and Budget will review those policies. I think this is a very responsible measure. Again, the past four years, we’ve seen the Biden administration spend money like drunken sailors. It’s a big reason we’ve had an inflation crisis in this country and it’s incumbent upon this administration to make sure, again, that every penny is being accounted for honestly. Question: Why impose this pause with so little notice? Why not give organizations more time to plan for the fact that they are about to lose, in some cases, really crucial federal funding, at least for a period of time? Karoline Leavitt: There was notice. It was the executive order that the President signed. There’s also a freeze on hiring, as you know, a regulatory freeze. And there’s also a freeze on foreign aid. And this is, again, incredibly important to ensure that this administration is taking into consideration how hard the American people are working and their tax dollars actually matter to this administration. Karoline Leavitt: You know, just during this pause, DOGE and OMB have actually found that there was $37 million that was about to go out the door to the World Health Organization, which is an organization as you all know that President Trump with the swipe of his pen and that executive order no longer wants the United States to be a part of. So that wouldn’t be in line with the president’s agenda. Karoline Leavitt: DOGE and OMB also found that there was about to be $50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza. That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. So that’s what this pause is focused on, being good stewards of tax dollars. Jennifer. Question: And so this doesn’t affect Meals on Wheels or Head Start or disaster aid? Karoline Leavitt: Again, it does not affect individual assistance that’s going to Americans. [Inaudible]. Question: To follow up on Nancy, do you think there will be a list of who is affected and how much money is affected? How will these contractors and organizations know if they are actually having their funding frozen? And then secondly, if you’re willing, can you just clarify, is the end goal of this to essentially challenge Congress or to prove that the president can withhold federal funding? Question: In other words, is this an attempt to pick a fight to prove that he can do this? Karoline Leavitt: No, absolutely not. As it says right here in the memo, which I have and I’d encourage all of you to you to read it, it says the American people elected President Trump to be the president of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal dollar. This memo requires federal agencies to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the president’s policies and requirements. Karoline Leavitt: The American people gave President Trump an overwhelming mandate on November 5th and he’s just trying to ensure that the tax money going out the door in this very bankrupt city actually aligns with the will and the priorities of the American people. Brian Glenn. Question: Yes, welcome. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you. Question: You look great. You’re doing a great job. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you. Question: We talked about transparency and some of us in this room know how just transparent President Trump has been the last five or six years. I think you’ll do the same. My question is, do you think this latest incident with the president of Columbia is indicative of the global powerful respect they have for President Trump moving forward, not only to engage in and economic diplomacy with these countries, but also world peace? Karoline Leavitt: Absolutely. I’ll echo the answer that the president gave on Air Force One last night when he was asked a very similar question by one of your colleagues in the media. This signifies peace through strength is back and this president will not tolerate illegal immigration into America’s interior. And he expects every nation on this planet, again, to cooperate with the repatriation of their citizens who illegally entered into our country and broke America’s laws. Karoline Leavitt: Won’t be tolerated, and as you saw, the Colombian government quickly folded and agreed to all of President Trump’s demands. Flights are underway once again. Deanna. Question: Two questions on deportations, if I may. President Trump had said on the campaign trail that he would deport pro-Hamas students who are here on visas. And on his first day in office, he signed an executive order that said, quote, the US must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the US do not bear hostile attitudes towards the citizens, culture, government institutions or founding principles. Question: So should we take this executive order as Trump saying he would be open to deporting those students who are here on visas, but hold pro-Hamas sympathies? Karoline Leavitt: The president is open to deporting individuals who have broken our nation’s immigration laws. So if they are here illegally, then certainly he is open to deporting them, and that’s what this administration is hard at work at doing. We receive data from DHS and from ICE every single day. From what we hear on the ground, ICE agents are feeling incredibly empowered right now because they actually have a leader in this building who is supporting them in doing their jobs that they were hired to do, which is to detain, arrest and deport illegal criminals who have invaded our nation’s borders over the past four years. Karoline Leavitt: That’s what the president is committed to seeing. Peter. Question: One more, just following up on that, Karoline. Karoline, can I ask you very quickly, just following up on the question on immigration? First, President Trump during the course of the campaign in 2024 said the following about illegal immigration. He said, they’re going back home where they belong and we start with the criminals. Question: There are many, many criminals. NBC news has learned that ICE arrested 1,179 undocumented immigrants on Sunday, but nearly half of them, 566 of the migrants appear to have no prior criminal record besides entering the country illegally. Is the President still focused exclusively, which is a civil crime, it’s not criminal. Karoline Leavitt: It’s a federal crime. Question: It’s a federal, so I’m asking though, he said he was going to focus on those violent offenders first. So is violent offenders no longer the predicate for these people to be deported? Karoline Leavitt: The president has said countless times on the campaign trail, I’ve been with him at the rallies, I know you’ve been there covering them too, Peter, that he is focused on launching the largest mass deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals. And if you are an individual, a foreign national who illegally enters the United States of America, you are by definition a criminal and so therefore you are subject to deportation. Question: I apologize for interrupting. So to be clear, violent criminals do not receive precedence in terms of the deportations taking place? Karoline Leavitt: The president has also said, two things can be true at the same time, we want to deport illegal criminals, illegal immigrants from this country. But the president has said that of course, the illegal criminal drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers, the individuals who have committed heinous acts on the interior of our country and who have terrorized law-abiding American citizens, absolutely, those should be the priority of ICE, but that doesn’t mean that the other illegal criminals who enter our nation’s borders are off the table. Question: Understood. Then let me ask you a separate question about the confusion that still exists across the country right now. As it relates to the freeze or the pause as it’s described. President Trump of course ran one of the key policy items was that he was going to lower prices, lower the cost of everything from groceries as he often said. Question: But in many of the cases, it would seem that some of these moves could raise prices for real Americans on everything from low income heating, that program, childcare programs. Will nothing that the President is doing here in terms of the freeze in these programs, raise prices on ordinary Americans? Karoline Leavitt: What particular actions are you referring to that would– Question: I’m referring to LIHEAP right now. That’s the low income heating program for example. We can talk about–there’s no clarity, so I could refer to a lot of them. We don’t know what they are specifically. Can you tell us that the LIHEAP is not one of those affected? Karoline Leavitt: So you’re asking a hypothetical based on programs that you can’t even identify. Question: Well, I just identified them. Karoline Leavitt: What I can tell you is that– Question: Well, just to be clear, since you guys haven’t identified, let’s do it together, just for Americans at home. Medicaid, is that affected? Karoline Leavitt: I gave you a list of examples, Social Security, Medicare, Welfare benefits, food stamps, that will not be impacted by this federal pause. I can get you the full list after this briefing from the Office of Management and Budget. But I do want to address the cost-cutting because that’s certainly very important and cutting the cost of living in this country. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump has taken historic action over the past week to do that. He actually signed a memorandum to deliver emergency price relief for American families, which took a number of actions. I can walk you through those. He also repealed many onerous Biden administration regulations. We know over the past four years, American households have been essentially taxed $55,000 in regulations from the previous administration. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump, with the swipe of his pen, rescinded those which will ultimately put more money back in the pockets of the American people. So deregulation is a big deal. And then when it comes to energy, I mean, the president signed an executive order to declare a national energy emergency here at home, which is going to make America energy dominant. Karoline Leavitt: We know that energy is one of the number one drivers of inflation and so that’s why the president wants to increase our energy supply to bring down costs for Americans. The Trump energy boom is incoming and Americans can expect that. Question: Please share that. Thank you. Karoline, I think some of the confusion I think may be here with this pause on federal funding, uyou’ve made it clear you’re not stopping funds that go directly to individuals, but there certainly are lots of organizations that receive funding and then may pass along a benefit, Meals on Wheels for one. Question: They provide meals for over 2.2 million seniors. What is the president’s message to Americans out there, many of whom supported him and voted for him, who are concerned that this is going to impact them directly even if, as you said, the funding isn’t coming directly to their – Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: I have now been asked and answered this question four times. To individuals at home who receive direct assistance from the Federal Government, you will not be impacted by this federal freeze. In fact, OMB just sent out a memo to Capitol Hill with Q&A to clarify some of the questions and the answers that all of you are asking me right now. Karoline Leavitt: Again, direct assistance will not be impacted. I have been asked and answered about this OMB memo. There’s many other topics of the day. Jacqui Heinrich. Question: Direct assistance, Karoline, is going to another organization and then trickling down. Karoline Leavitt: Direct assistance that is in the hands of the American people will not be impacted. Again, as I said to Peter, we will continue to provide that list as it comes to fruition, but OMB right now is focused on analyzing the federal government’s spending, which is exactly what the American people elected President Trump to do. Question: One question, Karoline, on immigration. Of the 3,500 arrests ICE has made so far since President Trump came back into office, can you just tell us the numbers? How many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally? Karoline Leavitt: All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes. I know the last administration didn’t see it that way. So. it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that’s exactly what they are. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – going with the worst first. They all have a criminal record? And welcome to the briefing room. Karoline Leavitt: If they broke our nation’s laws, yes, they are a criminal. Yes. Question: Thank you. On stripping security details for figures like John Bolton, Pompeo, Brian Hook – Senator Tom Cotton said that he’s seen the intelligence and the threat from Iran is real for anyone who played a role in Soleimani’s strike. He voiced concern it wouldn’t just impact those individuals, but potentially their family, innocent bystanders, friends, anyone who’s near them when they’re out in public. Question: Is the president open to reconsidering his decision? Karoline Leavitt: The president was asked and answered this yesterday and he was firm in his decision, despite some of the comments that you had referenced. And he’s made it very clear that he does not believe American taxpayers should fund security details for individuals who have served in the government for the rest of their lives. Karoline Leavitt: And there’s nothing stopping these individuals that you mentioned from obtaining private security. That’s where the president stands on it. I have no updates on that. Question: Is there any concern that this decision might jeopardize the administration’s ability to hire the best advisors for these kinds of positions in the future? Karoline Leavitt: No. In fact, I’ve talked to the presidential personnel office who has told me directly that there is such an influx of resumes for this administration that it’s incredibly overwhelming. There is no lack of talent for the Trump administration. Question: Would he take any responsibility if anything happened to these people? Would he feel at all that his decision was a factor in that? Karoline Leavitt: The president was asked and answered this yesterday. I’d refer you to his comments. Reagan, since you’re in the back row, I hear you. The back row hasn’t gotten much attention in the last four years. So, I’m happy to answer your question. Question: Does the president intend to permanently cut off funding to NGOs that are bringing illegal foreign nationals to the country such as Catholic Charities? Karoline Leavitt: I am actually quite certain that the president signed an executive order that did just that and I can point you to that. Question: One more, Karoline. President Trump issued an executive order on increased vetting for refugees in visa applications. Part of that order was considering an outright ban for countries that have deficient screening processes. Has the president considered yet which countries might fall into this category? Are countries like Afghanistan or Syria under consideration for a full ban? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. So, the president signed an executive order to streamline the vetting for visa applicants and for illegal immigrants in this country who are coming, of course, from other nations. It also directed the secretary of state to review the process and make sure that other countries around the world are being completely transparent with our nation and the individuals that they are sending here. Karoline Leavitt: And so, the secretary of state has been directed to report back to the president. I haven’t seen that report yet. We’ve only been here for a few days. Question: A couple of questions for you, one on the freeze in federal funding. Who advised the president on the legality of telling government agencies that they don’t have to spend money that was already appropriated by congress. Karoline Leavitt: Well, as the OMB memo states, this is certainly within the confines of the law. So, the White House counsel’s office believes that this is within the president’s power to do it and therefore he’s doing it. Question: OK, so they disagree with lawmakers who say that they don’t have the power to freeze this funding? Karoline Leavitt: Again, I would point you to the language in the memo that clearly states this is within the law. Question: And on what happened on Friday night, the administration fired several inspectors general without giving Congress the 30-day legally required notification that they were being fired. I think only two were left at DHS and the DOJ. And then yesterday we saw several prosecutors, I believe 12, fired from the Justice Department who worked on the investigations into the president. Question: As you know, they are career prosecutors, therefore they are afforded civil service protections. How is the administration deciding which laws to follow and which ones to ignore? Karoline Leavitt: So, it is the belief of this White House and the White House counsel’s office that the president was within his executive authority to do that. He is the executive of the executive branch and therefore he has the power to fire anyone within the executive branch that he wishes to. There is also a case that went before the Supreme Court in 2020, Seila Law LLC v. the Customs – Bureau Protection. Karoline Leavitt: I would advise you to look at that case and that’s the legality that this White House was resting on. Question: So, you’re confident that if they bring lawsuits against you, those prosecutors were fired, that they will succeed. Karoline Leavitt: We will win in court, yes. Question: And did he personally direct this given they worked on the classified documents investigation and the election interference investigation? Karoline Leavitt: This was a memo that went out by the Presidential Personnel Office and the president is the leader of this White House. So, yes. Question: So, it did from him. Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Question: Karoline? Thank you. Congrats on your first day behind the podium. President Trump ended funding for UNRWA and also designated the Houthis, a foreign terrorist organization. Both were decisions that the previous administration had reversed. So, here’s my question. Will there be an investigation into who gave the previous administration this terrible advice? Karoline Leavitt: Well, that’s a very good point. I haven’t heard discussions about such an investigation, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea considering that the Houthis certainly are terrorists. They have launched attacks on US naval ships across this world. And so, I think it was a very wise move by this administration to redesignate them as a terrorist group because they are, and I think it was a foolish decision by the previous administration to do so. As for an investigation, I’m not sure about that, but it’s not a bad idea. Karoline Leavitt: Josh? Question: Thank you for the question. I appreciate it. Can you give us an update on the president’s plans for his tariff agenda? He spoke a lot about this yesterday and there’s a couple of dates coming up that he’s spoken to. Number one, February 1st, he’s alluded to both the potential for tariffs for Canada and Mexico, but also China to take effect on those days. Question: Whereas what’s he thinking about that? Should those countries expect that on – Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Again, he was asked and answered this question this past weekend when he took a lot of questions from the press. And he said that the February 1st date for Canada and Mexico still holds. Question: What about the China 10 percent tariff that he also had mused about last Tuesday going into effect on the same day? Karoline Leavitt: Yes, the president has said that he is very much still considering that for February 1st. Question: Separately, yesterday he talked also about sectoral tariffs on for instance pharmaceuticals as well as semiconductor computer chips. He talked about steel, aluminum and copper. What’s the timeline on those? Is that a similar sort of coming days thing? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, so when the president talked about that in his speech yesterday, that actually wasn’t a new announcement. That was within a presidential memorandum that he signed in one of the first days here in the White House on his America First trade agenda. So, there’s more details on those tariffs in there. As far as a date, I don’t have a specific date to read out to you, but the president is committed to implementing tariffs effectively just like he did in his first term. Question: Finally, he also was asked on the plane when he gaggled about the potential for a universal tariff. He was asked maybe about 2.5 percent. There was a report about that. He said he wanted much bigger than that. Should we understand that these tariffs would add up? In other words, you might have country specific tariffs like Canada, Mexico, China, you might have sectoral tariffs like on pharmaceuticals as well as a potential universal tariff on top of that. Question: Do these stack on one or the other or would one sort of take precedence over another? Karoline Leavitt: All I can point you to is what the president has said on this front, the February 1st date for Canada and Mexico, also the China tariff that he has discussed. He rejected the 2.5 percent tariff. He said that was a little bit too low. He wants it to be higher. I’ll leave it to him to make any decisions on that front. Question: What the Mexicans and Canadians have done so far, do you have any comment on whether that has met the bar, what he wants to see on fentanyl? Thank you. Karoline Leavitt: I won’t get ahead of the president again on advocating to foreign nations on what they should or shouldn’t do to get away from these tariffs. The president has made it very clear, again, that he expects every nation around this world to cooperate with the repatriation of their citizens. And the president has also put out specific statements in terms of Canada and Mexico when it comes to what he expects in terms of border security. Karoline Leavitt: We have seen a historic level of cooperation from Mexico. But again, as far as I’m still tracking, and that was last night talking to the president directly, February 1st is still on the books. Phil? Question: Thank you, Karoline. Quick programing note, and then a question on taxes. Well, in terms of programing, should we expect to see you here every day? How frequently will these press briefings be? That’s a good question. Karoline Leavitt: It is a good question, April. So, look, the president, as you know, is incredibly accessible. First day here he wanted all of you in the Oval Office. You got a 60-minute press conference with the leader of the free world while he was simultaneously signing executive orders. I may add that’s pretty impressive. Karoline Leavitt: I don’t think the previous office holder would be able to pull such a thing off. So, look, the president is the best spokesperson that this White House has. And I can assure you that you will be hearing from both him and me as much as possible. Question: And then a question about tax cuts. The president has promised to extend the tax cuts from the previous term. I’m curious, does the President support corresponding spending cuts, as some republicans have called for in Congress? And will the new Treasury secretary be leading those negotiations with the Hill, as Mnuchin did during the first administration? Karoline Leavitt: The President is committed to both tax cuts and spending cuts and he has a great team negotiating on his behalf. But there’s no better negotiator than Donald Trump and I’m sure he’ll be involved in this reconciliation process as it moves forward. Sure. Question: Karoline, the announcement that you made last night on the Iron Dome, it said the president had directed that the United States will build this Iron Dome. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. Question: When you read into the executive order, it seemed short of that. It asked for a series of studies and reports back to them. Can you tell us whether the president has directed this and if he is as concerned on this issue, why the suspensions that we saw listed by OMB included so many different nuclear programs, nonproliferation programs, programs to [Inaudible] down nuclear weapons and so forth? Karoline Leavitt: First of all, when it comes to the Iron Dome, the executive order directed the implementation of an Iron Dome. It also, as you said, kind of directed research and studies to see how the United States can go about doing this, particularly the Department of Defense. When it comes to the other question that you asked about those specific programs, again, I would say this is not a ban. Karoline Leavitt: This is a temporary pause and a freeze to ensure that all of the money going out from Washington D.C. is aligned with the president’s agenda. And as the Office of Management and Budget has updates on what will be kickstarted, once again, I will provide those to you. Question: Just clarify for a second, what you were saying before on Medicaid. It wasn’t clear to me whether you were saying that no Medicaid would be cut off. Obviously, a lot of this goes to states before it goes to individuals and so forth. So are you guaranteeing here that no individual now on Medicaid would see a cut off because of the pause? Karoline Leavitt: I’ll check back on that and get back to you. John. Question: Thanks a lot. Karoline, as you know in the first week that the president was in office, signed an executive order as it relates to birthright citizenship, trying to eliminate that. 22 state attorney generals have said that this is unconstitutional. A federal judge has just agreed with their argument. What’s the administration’s argument for doing away with birthright citizenship? Karoline Leavitt: The folks that you mentioned have a right to have that legal opinion, but it is in disagreement with the legal opinion of this administration. This administration believes that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional. And that is why President Trump signed that executive order. Illegal immigrants who come to this country and have a child are not subject to the laws of laws of this jurisdiction. Karoline Leavitt: That’s the opinion of this administration. We have already appealed the lawsuit that was filed against this administration and we are prepared to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to, because President Trump believes that this is a necessary step to secure our nation’s borders and protect our homeland. Karoline Leavitt: Monica. Question: On foreign policy, Karoline. On foreign policy, if I may, the president’s commitment to the NATO defense alliance, is it as strong as the prior administration? Is it the same as when he served as president in his first term in office? Karoline Leavitt: As long as NATO pays their fair share, and President Trump has called on NATO allies to increase their defense spending to five percent. You actually saw the head of NATO at Davos last week on Bloomberg Television, saying that President Trump is right. And if Europe wants to keep itself safe, they should increase their defense spending. Karoline Leavitt: I would just add that there was no greater ally to our European allies than President Trump in his first term. The world for all nations, in Europe and of course here at home, was much safer because of President Trump’s peace through strength diplomatic approach. Monica. Question: Thank you. Thank you, Karoline, and it’s great to finally be called on as well in the briefing room. I appreciate that. Karoline Leavitt: You’re welcome. Question: Of course, we know President Trump just got back from North Carolina and California meeting with victims of natural disasters. There is the two-year anniversary of the East Palestine, Ohio toxic train derailment. Does the President have any plans to go visit the victims of that toxic spill or just visit in general? Karoline Leavitt: No plans that I can read out for you here. If that changes, I will certainly keep you posted. What I can tell you is that President Trump still talks about his visit to East Palestine, Ohio. That was one of the turning points, I would say, in the previous election campaign, where Americans were reminded that President Trump is a man of the people and he as a candidate visited that town that was just derailed by the train derailment, no pun intended and he offered support and hope, just like I saw the saw the president do this past week. Karoline Leavitt: It was a purposeful decision by this president on his first domestic trip to go to North Carolina and to California, to visit with Americans who were impacted by Hurricane Helene and also by the deadly fires, a red state and a blue state, both of which feel forgotten by the previous administration and the federal government. Karoline Leavitt: That is now ended under President Trump. He will continue to put Americans first whether they’re in East Palestine, in Pacific Palisades or in North Carolina. Sure. Question: Thank you, Karoline. On California, could you please clarify what the military did with the water last night as referenced in the president’s Truthsocial post? Karoline Leavitt: The water has been turned back on in California and this comes just days after President Trump visited Pacific Palisades, and as you all saw, applied tremendous pressure on state and local officials in Pacific Palisades, including Los Angeles Mayor, Karen Bass, to turn on the water and to direct that water to places in the south and in the middle of the state that have been incredibly dry, which has led to the expansion, the rapid expansion of these fires. Question: So could you clarify what the military’s role was, where the water came from and how it got there? Karoline Leavitt: Again, the Army Corps of Engineers has been on the ground in California to respond to the devastation from these wildfires. And I would point out that just days after President Trump visited the devastation from these fires, the water was turned on. That is because of the pressure campaign he put on state and local officials there who clearly lack all commonsense. Karoline Leavitt: And I will never forget being at that roundtable with the president last week and hearing the frustration in the voices of Pacific Palisades residents who feel as though their government has just gone insane. Before President Trump showed up on the scene, Karen Bass was telling private property owners that they would have to wait 18 months to access their private property. Karoline Leavitt: So this administration, the president and his team that’s on the ground in California, Ric Grenell, who he has designated to designated to oversee this great crisis. It will continue to put pressure on Karen Bass and state and local officials to allow residents to access their properties. This is a huge part of it. These residents want to take part in their own clearing out of their properties. Karoline Leavitt: They should be able to do that. It’s the United States of America. What happened to our freedom? Clearly, it’s gone in California, but not anymore under President Trump. April. Question: Karoline, welcome to the briefing room. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you. Question: Several questions. One on the pause. Will minority serving institutions, preferably colleges and universities, have those monies held back temporarily at this moment? Karoline Leavitt: Again, I have not seen the entire list, because this memo was just sent out. So I will provide you all with updates as we receive them. OK? Question: Also, secondly, when it comes to immigration, there is this southern border focus. What happens to those who’ve overstayed their visas? That is part of the broken immigration system. In 2023, there was a report by the Biden administration, the Homeland Security Department. It said overstays the visas were three times more than usual. Question: Will there be a focus on the overstays for visas as well? Karoline Leavitt: If an individual is overstaying their visa, they are therefore an illegal immigrant residing in this country and they are subject to deportation. Yes. Question: And also lastly, as we’re dealing with anti-DEI, anti-woke efforts, we understand this administration is thinking about celebrating Black History Month. Have you got any word on that, anything that you can offer to us? Karoline Leavitt: As far as I know, this White House certainly still intends to celebrate and we will continue to celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans regardless of race, religion or creed have made to our great country and America is back. Christian Datuk. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Just real quick, you mentioned the inflation executive order the president signed, but egg prices have skyrocketed since President Trump took office. So what specifically is he doing to lower those costs for Americans? Karoline Leavitt: Really glad you brought this up because there is a lot of lot of reporting out there that is putting the onus on this White House for the increased cost of eggs. I would like to point out to each and every one of you that in 2024, when Joe Biden was in the Oval Office or upstairs in the residence sleeping, I’m not so sure, egg prices increased 65 percent in this country. Karoline Leavitt: We also have seen the cost of everything, not just eggs, bacon, groceries, gasoline have increased because of the inflationary policies of the last administration. As far as the egg shortage, what’s also contributing to that is that the Biden administration and the Department of Agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country. Karoline Leavitt: Therefore, a lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage. So I will leave you with this point. This is an example of why it’s so incredibly important that the Senate moves swiftly to confirm all of President Trump’s nominees, including his nominee for the United States Department of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, who is already speaking with Kevin Hassett who is leading the economic team here at the White House on how we can address the egg shortage in this country. Karoline Leavitt: As for costs, I laid out costs. I laid out the plethora of ways that President Trump has addressed saving costs for the American people over the past week. He looks forward to continuing doing that in the days ahead. Thank you guys so much. We’ll see you soon. Question: One more border question, Karoline. Are Medicaid portals down in all 50 states?
Date: 2025-01-28
Stephen Miller: But before we get started, I’m only going to do five minutes because we had a whole press Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Stephen, can you just give us a sense of how long is this temporary pause on federal funding? How long is this pause going to last? Stephen Miller: Well, by the terms of the executive order, it’s 90 days. But it’s important to understand that it’s a – it’s a review process to say that there’s – for discretionary spending, it’s not directed by Congress or required by law. So, this would be for example something like a contract to a non-governmental organization to teach, say, critical race theory that there has to be a politically appointed individual in the departments or agencies who simply reviews and approves the expenditure, so that we have control, Democratic control, over the operations of government. Stephen Miller: This doesn’t affect any federal programs that Americans rely on, full stop. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: It doesn’t – It’s not going to have any impact on any Americans and what they rely on? Stephen Miller: Any program, like a benefit program that Americans rely on – Question: Like Meals on Wheels? Stephen Miller: Correct. It has no, the – the OMB guidance document, which I think you’re referring to, because the executive order was issued a week ago. It just gives clarity on how to implement the original executive order, which doesn’t cover any entitlement or public benefit spending at all. And that’s clear by the way, if you read, as I’m sure you have, the OMB guidance document. Note: [Crosstalk] Stephen Miller: Hold on. Hold on, I’m getting a question – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – ask you about El Salvador? So, we know that the president spoke to President Bukele, next week, Secretary Rubio will be in El Salvador. Should we be expecting El Salvador to take the Tren de Aragua Venezuelans as an agreement between the two countries? Stephen Miller: All I can say on this, because I don’t want to get ahead of Senator Rubio, is that the President Bukele has graciously offered tremendous degrees of cooperation with the United States on all things migration. And we’re hoping that will provide a framework for migration cooperation all throughout the region. Stephen Miller: And I think it’s very clear that President Bukele is going to be a very great and strong partner for this administration and for the United States. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: And how – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – to El Salvador, because I mean right now we don’t have relationships with Venezuela. Stephen Miller: We’re – it is our – it is our full expectation that Maduro will accept all flights of TDA gang members back to Venezuela. Yes? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Is the Trump immigration method applicable to Europe? Europe has a huge immigration problem. Is that method of deportation, repatriation, applicable to the continent of Europe? Stephen Miller: If I understand your question correctly, you’re asking should Europe consider mirroring our own policies? Question: Absolutely. Stephen Miller: Yes, absolutely. Yes. Question: How? Stephen Miller: Well, I mean it’s simple. I mean, you have to establish a policy that says that anyone who crosses the border is going to be immediately repatriated, that anyone in the country legally is subject to removal, of course, prioritizing public safety and national security as well as, as we’ve done, is a general matter, suspending refugee resettlement, which of course poses enormous burdens on local communities and populations. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Just on the tariffs – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – administration needs with countries from South America, as Brazil for example, in this – in this – in this deportation flights? Stephen Miller: Oh, deeply engaged. So, look, it’s the president’s expectation that countries all across the world participate fully in the enforcement of immigration laws and in particular in the repatriation of their own citizens. This is a basic international obligation. The United States abides by, all developed nations abide by, and we expect all of the partner nations all throughout the region to abide by as well. Stephen Miller: And we’ve had incredibly productive conversations with, frankly, nations all across Latin America, led by Secretary of State Rubio, who, if I may say, has done an absolutely fabulous job. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: You know – will take TDA members. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – that are supposed to take effect on, or to be announced on February 1. Can you just walk us through how you expect that to happen? The president has talked about 25 percent on Mexico. Stephen Miller: I don’t want to get ahead of the president. I will let him speak for himself on any tariff announcements. The bottom line is that the United States is going to have a trade policy that brings our manufacturing jobs back and that doesn’t allow any other countries to exploit us. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can you tell us about Canada please? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can you just – can you give us a – Stephen Miller: I just want to be clear, because I don’t want – I don’t want to step on up on Karoline’s briefing. So I’m going to – I’ll do three more questions of this being the first of the three. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Do you expect those tariffs – Stephen Miller: Hold on – let me – Yes? Question: Do you expect the tariffs to take effect immediately? Stephen Miller: So, this – Question: I want to defer to Andrea just because – Stephen Miller: Well, no, I don’t have anything else to add to that. So, I just wanted to go here – Question: All right, my question is on first, can you give us a sense, an exact figure, of how many people have been brought up in the ICE raid so far? And how many are you expecting to do? Stephen Miller: Well, ICE has published the daily numbers. I just did an interview with Jake Tapper and he talked about the new targets that have been set, which is really a floor. I mean, you know, to put this in perspective, um, I think in Biden’s worst month in office, uh, there was almost 350,000 apprehensions at the southwest border. Stephen Miller: So, it gives you a sense of the scale of work that we have to do here. So, we’re going to continue to set ever more ambitious targets. But again, we’re going to really focus in on public safety threats, understanding that you can’t have a situation as a nation where, say in Biden’s last month in office, if he releases 100,000 illegals into the country, they just all get to stay here for life, forever, because they came in, in December of 2020 and now it’s a lifetime pass? Stephen Miller: I mean, of course, you can’t have a nation run that way. Note: [Crosstalk] Stephen Miller: We’re going to focus on public safety, national security. All right, a few more questions. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the Egyptian media – the Egyptian media, today quoted a senior official that there was no call between President Trump and President Sisi. The president yesterday said on Air Force One that he has spoken to Sisi and asked him to take some of the population of Gaza. Stephen Miller: Yeah, President – President Trump is correct, but any more questions on this, I want to refer to Mike Waltz. All right, last question. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Would you be willing to preview the EOs that we should expect for the rest of the week? Stephen Miller: I would love to, but I will let the comms and press team do that. I want to thank you all for your time and I look forward to seeing you very soon. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can you tell us if WIC will be – Thank you. Can you just tell us if WIC will be impacted? WIC, yes or no? Will it be – Note: [Crosstalk] Stephen Miller: No, no public benefit programs. Question: OK, thank you.
Date: 2025-01-30
Donald Trump: Thank you very much for seeing me twice today. It’s going to be quite an important signing, so we thought we’d let you watch. If we could, I’d ask Will to explain the first, but really more importantly, explain the second and we’ll start signing. Go ahead, please. Unidentified: Yes, sir, just two items for your signature today. The first is the formal commission appointing Chris Rocheleau to be the deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. Donald Trump: Right. Unidentified: And since the administrator position is currently vacant, he will act as the administrator since he has now been appointed deputy. Donald Trump: And he’s a very capable guy. Unidentified: Extremely experienced in aviation and highly regarded in the industry and in government. Donald Trump: OK. Unidentified: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you. Unidentified: Second, for your signature, we have a presidential memorandum titled Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety. In light of the damage done to aviation safety by the Biden administration’s DEI and woke policies, what this presidential memorandum orders is for your secretary of Transportation and FAA administrator, in this case, acting FAA administrator, to basically ensure that we are actively undoing all of that damage, that we are assessing how much damage was done and that we’re ensuring that people hired within the FAA, in keeping with your memorandum of January 21st, are only the most outstanding, capable people for the jobs that they are being hired into. Donald Trump: In other words, competence? Unidentified: Yes, sir, elevating competence over everything else, instead of the DEI policies that were pursued by the Biden administration. Donald Trump: I think everyone understands that, and Obama. Unidentified: Yes. Donald Trump: Both of them. OK. But Biden, much worse, not even a contest. What they’ve done is just crazy, in so many other ways. OK. Question: Mr. President, to be clear, are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy? Donald Trump: It may have, I don’t know. Incompetence might have played a role. We’ll let you know that, but we want the most competent people. We don’t care what race they are. We want the most competent people, especially in those positions. And you’re talking about extremely complex things. And if they don’t have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they’re not going to be very good at what they do and bad things will happen. Question: Mr. President, there’s long been concerns about the amount of congestion out of DC airport. Do you think that there’s too many flights coming out of that airport? Donald Trump: No. I think we need very smart people running the flights and doing it. The ones that aren’t good, they’ll either do one of two things. They’ll have too many coming in and they can’t handle it, or they’ll have the people waiting up in the air, which everyone’s been caught in that situation and circling the airports for an hour, and that’s no good either. Question: Mr. President, are you aware – Donald Trump: Say? Question: The military helicopter training flights that are flying around National Airport all the time, what’s your view? Should they be – Donald Trump: Well, my view is fine, if they’re in the right locations and if they’re not at the same levels. I mean, if a plane coming in is at 300ft or 400ft and a helicopter is training at 300ft or 400ft, why wouldn’t they be up 500ft higher? So I certainly would–and that, to a certain extent, is the air traffic controller. Donald Trump: Wait. Please wait just a second. Question: Do you feel like what happened last night was preventable [inaudible]? Donald Trump: I do. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Obviously, that was something that should not have happened and we’re not going to let it happen again. Yes, please? Question: Mr. President, on a slightly different subject. On your Canada and Mexico tariffs, will oil be included or excluded from those tariffs? Donald Trump: So we’ll be announcing the tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a number of reasons. Number one is the people that have poured into our country so horribly and so much. Number two are the drugs, fentanyl and everything else that have come into the country. And number three are the massive subsidies that we’re giving to Canada and to Mexico in the form of deficits. Donald Trump: And I’ll be putting the tariff of 25 percent on Canada and separately 25 percent on Mexico, and we will really have to do that because we have very big deficits with those countries. Those tariffs may or may not rise with time. Question: And will oil be part of that, though, because we get oil from Canada? Donald Trump: Oil is going to have nothing to do with it as far as I’m concerned. Oil has nothing to do with it. Question: Mr. President [Inaudible] signed yesterday regarding Guantanamo Bay, you [inaudible] 30,000 new beds there. Is there a possibility that will increase almost 30,000 [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: It could increase. Yes. Question: What would be the maximum? Donald Trump: It depends, but countries that won’t take back their criminals that they sent into us, they sent them to us, they put them into the caravans and they came in. As sure as you’re standing there, they were sent by those countries, and then they’re going to be met very harshly with sanctions etc. Question: And what are you hoping to help Guantanamo Bay, this new facility up and running? Donald Trump: It’ll be up pretty quickly. Question: How much do you think it’s going to cost? Donald Trump: Not very much. A lot of the structure is already there, as you know. Question: Mr. President, you said that incompetence may have played a role. Are you aware of any performance issues or disciplinary actions that were taken against anyone who was working the tower last night or flying the plane? Donald Trump: No, no. And I hope that’s not the case in this case, but certainly over the years, it’s been the case. And it’s the case with respect to close calls and it’s the case with respect to circling for hours on end. Planes circle a lot and they circle because the people bringing them down, these people that have to be very, very smart. Donald Trump: And it’s not based on anything other than the brain. We need the smartest people. We need both psychologically smart and just brilliant period, and we are going to have them in our control towers. We are going to have the most competent people in the country in our control towers, not people that are there for any other reason. Question: Mr. President, you said that you envisioned sending the 80 something thousand IRS agents hired under Biden to the border. What role do you see them playing? Donald Trump: Well, we’ll see. I mean, I may do that or I may use different people, but we’re going to send more. We’re going to give the Border Patrol some help. Although now if you look, they’ve taken in the lowest number since my administration. The numbers are very low. And that level, we don’t need so much help. People know not to come because if they come, they’re not going to make it in and they’re going to be shipped out. Question: [Inaudible] president and the King of Jordan have both said that they won’t take in displaced people from Gaza like you suggested. Is there anything you can do to make them do that? I mean, tariffs are against those countries, for example? Donald Trump: They will do it. They will do it. Question: What makes you say that? Donald Trump: They’re going to do it. OK? We do a lot for them and they’re going to do it. Question: Mr. President, you’ve offered over two million federal workers. The option to resign immediately. There are 50,000 FAA employees. Does this tragedy give you reason to reconsider that option of resignations because of concerns [Inaudible] safety? Donald Trump: No. If people aren’t coming to work, if they’re not going to come into the office and report as per the date that you know what it is, everybody knows what the date is, it’s been very well-documented, then they’re going to be terminated. Question: You’re not concerned though that if many people take that offer, there could be shortages that could lead to issues – Donald Trump: Then they’ll be replaced with very competent people. We have a lot of competent people in this country. Question: Have you spoken to any of the families of the victims of the plane crash? Donald Trump: I don’t want to comment on that. Question: Do you have a plan to go visit the site? [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: I have a plan to visit, not the site because you tell me, what’s the site, the water? You want me to go swimming? Question: Or to meet first responders down there. Donald Trump: I don’t have a plan to do that, but I will be meeting with some people that were very badly hurt with their family member, obviously. But I’ll be meeting with some of the families, yeah. Question: On birthright citizenship, sir, do you believe that there are five votes in the Supreme Court that would uphold your position? Donald Trump: On what? Question: Five votes on the Supreme Court – Donald Trump: What position? Question: Birthright citizenship. Donald Trump: I think so, yeah. Look, birthright citizenship was, if you look back when this was passed and made, that was meant for the children of slaves. This was not meant for the whole world to come in and pile into the United States of America, everybody coming in and totally unqualified people with perhaps unqualified children. Donald Trump: This wasn’t meant for that. This was meant, when it was originally done, for the children of slaves and that was a very good and noble thing to do and I’m in favor of that 100 percent. But it wasn’t meant for the entire world to occupy the United States. Question: So you don’t see it requiring a constitutional amendment that would be – Donald Trump: I just think that we’ll end up winning that court, in the Supreme Court. I think we’re going to win that case and I look forward to winning it. This has been going on. At that level, we’re the only country in the world that does this. There’s no other country, at this level, there’s no other country in the world that does it. It’s crazy. Question: Mr. President, if 64 people lost their lives last night, if you aren’t confident that DEI had any role, why bring it up? Donald Trump: Well, all I’m talking about is competence. And we want in the – in that particular position, we have to have the most competent people in our country because we’re talking about lives. Now, it may or may not have had to do, but I don’t like the fact that the helicopter was at the exact same level as the airplane. Donald Trump: The helicopter should have been 1,000ft or 500ft above it, or something below it. The plane was at 300ft to 400ft, or the plane should have been stopped because – the helicopter could have stopped. The plane can’t be stopped, but the plane was on a schedule that was – was a long track. They call it a track and it’s the same track that every other planes use for many years. Donald Trump: It was going down and landing, and the helicopter got in its way. And if the helicopter was higher or lower or stopped, or turning left or turning right at a quicker time, I mean, it turned, but it turned when it was too late. A tragic, a tragic story. So I don’t know. Do you blame it on the air traffic controller too, in addition to the pilots? Donald Trump: Maybe the pilots fault? They should have seen it. I would have thought they should have seen it because it was a plane that was loaded up with lights and everybody – you can see it from Kennedy Center. You can see it very easily. So all I want is the most competent people in our country to be air traffic controllers. Donald Trump: It’s a very important position. And other positions too, by the way. We’re not only talking about that, we’re talking – but air traffic controllers maybe in particular. They have to be brilliant with computers, brilliant with graphics. They have to be psychologically really, really smart. And you know there are a lot of people that wouldn’t be able to do that. Question: Were there any signs of foul play? Tariffs on Canada and Mexico, 25 percent, that’s coming on Saturday? Donald Trump: That’s coming on the first, Saturday. Question: OK. But no oil tariffs? Donald Trump: No, I don’t – well, I didn’t say that. You said that. No. Question: I don’t want to misinterpret. Donald Trump: No. We may or may not. We’re going to make that determination probably tonight on oil. Yeah, because they send us oil. We’ll see. It depends on what the price is. If the oil is properly priced, if they treat us properly, which they don’t. Look, Mexico and Canada have never been good to us on trade. They’ve treated us very unfairly on trade. Donald Trump: And we will be able to make that up very quickly because we don’t need the products that they have. We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. We have more than almost anybody in those two categories. In oil, we have more than anybody and we don’t need anybody’s trees. Donald Trump: We have to free up some of the tree areas that we have. We have great lumber in this country. We have to free them up environmentally, which I can do very quickly, but we don’t need what they have. And for us to be subsidizing Canada to the tune of $175 billion a year and subsidizing Mexico to the tune of $250 billion, $300 billion a year and Mexico is a method of China sending in its product. Donald Trump: And with China, I’m also thinking about something because they’re sending fentanyl into our country. And because of that, they’re causing us hundreds of thousands of deaths. So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that and we’re in the process of doing that. We’ll make that determination of what it’s going to be, but China has to stop sending fentanyl into our country and killing our people. Question: Mr. President, the Israeli media has reported that conversations between Netanyahu’s government and the White House have signaled that the US may be about to pull its troops out of Syria. Have you made a decision to pull US troops – Donald Trump: I don’t know who said that. I mean, I don’t know who said that, but we’ll make a determination on that. We’re not involved in Syria. Syria is its own mess. They’ve got enough messes over there. They don’t need us involved in every one. Question: Mr. President, is there a shortage of staff at the control tower at DCA last night, that you are you aware of? Donald Trump: Well, that’s part of the competence right there. They shouldn’t have that happen. Right there is what I’m talking about. Competence would be you’re not going to have a shortage. But if you had the right people, you wouldn’t need as many people either. Question: Do you know if there was a shortage last night or not? Donald Trump: I don’t know. No, I don’t know. You’re telling me something. Question: Mr. President, you said earlier today that you had not spoken to Putin about this. When was the last time you spoke with him and has President Xi responded to you or asked to help put pressure to end Ukraine? Donald Trump: Yeah, I won’t comment on either of them, but we’re doing very well with regard to both. Question: There are some reports that Xi might ask of you in order to give that help, pressure to disavow potential Taiwan independence. Is that something that you – Donald Trump: No, we never discussed it. Question: You had said earlier that we would get more details about the victims on the plane. Can you give more on that now? Donald Trump: Yeah, I have a lot of details, but it’s something that will be released to you also at the appropriate time. No, I have the full details. Question: There were a lot of young people? Donald Trump: Young people, great people, great athletes, great skaters, a very sad situation, from numerous countries. OK. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Date: 2025-01-31
Karoline Leavitt: Good afternoon, everybody. OK. Thank you. How are you? Nice live shot. Good to see all of you. Happy Friday. It’s great to be back with you. I want to provide an update on President Trump’s actions in the wake of the catastrophic air collision that tragically claimed the lives of 67 people at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. Karoline Leavitt: Everyone in this White House continues to mourn the victims and keep their friends and families in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time. First, within moments of the collision, the president and his newly appointed team were in immediate communication. The president was briefed on Wednesday evening following the crash, again on Thursday morning and he has continued to receive updates as recovery efforts continue on the ground. Karoline Leavitt: The president, as you know, took time to address the nation yesterday afternoon. To deliver accountability, President Trump swiftly signed a memorandum directing an immediate assessment of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel in policy aviation safety standards. Karoline Leavitt: The memorandum directs the Secretary of Transportation and the FAA administrator to immediately review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior four years and to take all necessary corrective actions to achieve uncompromised aviation safety. Karoline Leavitt: The review will include a comprehensive assessment and reversal of any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation safety standards and protocols during the previous administration. Aviation safety was addressed by President Trump before this tragic collision even took place. On his second day in office, the president signed a memorandum to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to nondiscriminatory, merit-based hiring. Karoline Leavitt: And in 2018 during President Trump’s first term, the Department of Transportation announced it would put an end at that time to use the biological questionnaire that was introduced by the Obama administration, which punished skilled applicants. President Trump has long led on the issue of aviation safety and he will continue to do so. He will continue to deliver on the promises he made to the American people at record speed. Karoline Leavitt: The Senate has already confirmed eight of President Trump’s exceptional cabinet nominees, including most recently, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, as you of course know, EPA Secretary Lee Zeldin and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is who is scheduled to be sworn in later today. We expect the Senate to continue quickly confirming the remainder of President Trump’s well-qualified nominees in the days ahead. Karoline Leavitt: Earlier this week in the East Room, the president proudly signed the Laken Riley Act into law, surrounded by his loving parents and sister. This commonsense bipartisan law mandates the federal detention of illegal aliens who are accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer and any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury, like the animal who murdered Laken Riley in cold blood. Karoline Leavitt: This was the first piece of legislation President Trump proudly signed as the 47th president of the United States and it will guarantee that Laken did not die in vain. As Laken’s mother, Allison, tearfully said during the signing event, President Trump said he would secure our borders and that he would never forget about Laken and he hasn’t. He’s a man of his word and we trust that he will fight for the American people. Karoline Leavitt: Those are the words of Laken’s mother and we will never forget them. So to help lock up even more criminal illegal aliens, President Trump signed a memorandum this week to detain them at Guantanamo Bay. This action will expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide critical extra detention space for high priority criminal illegals. Karoline Leavitt: Our brave ICE agents continue to arrest more and more of these types of individuals every day in communities across our country. And I have more updates for you. On January 27th, 2025, ICE Chicago arrested a citizen of Guatemala who has been convicted of solicitation to meet a child, disturbing, and sentenced to 24 months’ probation. Karoline Leavitt: On January 28th, 2025, ICE Atlanta arrested a citizen of South Korea who has been convicted of nine counts of possession or control of material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct. On January 28th, ICE New York arrested a Mexican national, previously charged by the State of New York for attempted murder and possession of a weapon and assault. Karoline Leavitt: And on January 28th, ICE Philly arrested a citizen of Mexico who has been convicted of possession of child pornography. Our message is simple, if you are a criminal, illegal alien, you will be arrested and deported. On another important matter, the nation’s report card was released this week and the news is not good. Karoline Leavitt: It showed that US students had record low reading comprehension scores last year. It’s National School Choice Week and in part of the president’s commitment to education, he just left a round table in the Roosevelt Room focused on this issue with leaders from across the country. The national report card showed that 70 percent of eighth graders were below proficient in reading and 40 percent of fourth graders did not even meet the basic reading levels. Karoline Leavitt: This is completely unacceptable to the president and he continues to take aggressive actions to address this education problem in our country. He signed an executive order this week prohibiting federal funding of the indoctrination of our children, including radical gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom. Karoline Leavitt: The president believes American education should focus on cultivating patriotic citizens who are ready for the workforce, and this action will help get schools back on track and defend fundamental parental rights in education. The president also signed a School Choice Executive order, expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families. Karoline Leavitt: And in lighter news, but in exciting news, after announcing our briefing room changes on Wednesday, this White House has received more than 10,000 submissions from individuals across the country who are eager to join all of you. We might have to make this room a little bit bigger to do that, who want to participate in our new media seat at a future briefing. Karoline Leavitt: So in this seat today, we have the Ruthless podcast. They humbly started by entertaining small audiences on Capitol Hill. But after four years, this program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America. They previously reached number one on the charts and earned over 25 million downloads as they deliver political news with a humorous touch. Karoline Leavitt: The hosts are Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, Comfortably Smug and the man joining us today, John Ashbrook. So with that, I will take your questions. John, please kick us off. Question: Thank you very much. Karoline, in your first briefing, the media went after this administration for deporting illegal immigrants they claimed were not criminals. The question is, do you think they’re out of touch with Americans demanding action on our border crisis? Karoline Leavitt: The media out of touch? I think the media certainly is out of touch and I think that’s proven by a number of things, John. Number one, there was a New York Times poll that was released prior to President Trump’s inauguration by The New York Times, which of course is a legacy media outlet, that showed that 83 percent of Americans support deporting the individuals that you mentioned, illegal immigrant criminals, especially those who have committed heinous crimes in the interior of our country. Karoline Leavitt: And I received a very, actually, interesting statistic on this front from ICE this week. 97 percent of the deportations that this administration has made thus far are of individuals who had a removal order from the previous administration, but were never removed from the interior of our country. So this shows that the previous administration was actually defying our laws. Karoline Leavitt: And all this administration is doing is simply following the laws, the immigration laws of this great country. Thanks for the question, John. Anything else? Question: No. That’s it. Karoline Leavitt: OK. Great. Peter. Question: Thanks, Karoline. If President Trump is telling us that air traffic control towers are staffed with unqualified controllers, these DEI hires who never should have been brought on, then it’s not safe to fly commercially, is it? Karoline Leavitt: The president was asked and answered this yesterday and he believes that it is still indeed safe and Americans should feel safe traveling our skies. With that said, two things can be true at the same time and we certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the Federal Aviation Administration. Karoline Leavitt: And the president wants to increase those standards. He wants pilots in this country who have the great responsibility of flying American citizens by the tens of millions every single day, to be chosen for that position based on their merit and their skills. And so the administration will continue to prioritize this. Question: Was the air traffic controller in the DCA tower on Wednesday night hired or not fired at some point because of his or her race? Karoline Leavitt: That investigation is ongoing and so when we have updates on the exact individuals who were involved in the collision, including the air traffic controller, also the pilots of the helicopter and others, we will confirm those. I don’t want to confirm names from this podium today. We’re not in a position to do that. Karoline Leavitt: But I will say, the president has still rightfully pointed out that there has been problems with the aviation industry over the past several years and this started under Barack Obama in 2014. Question: And when the president says on Truth Social, the Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it? Is he suggesting a helicopter malfunction or a crew error or a crew doing this intentionally? Karoline Leavitt: No, the president is simply stating what he said in that Truth Social post, which is that the helicopter was flying higher than it should have been, which is one of the reasons that led to this collision and the other reasons for that are still being investigated. And I will let that let that investigation play out. Karoline Leavitt: Kelly? Question: Some of our colleagues have obtained a memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency that talks about not holding any activities or programing related to Black History Month to be in line with the president’s views on diversity, equity and inclusion. Does the president plan to have a proclamation about Black History Month in his first term? Question: Each of the four years of his term he did so, and called on those in government to have programing activities and celebrations. Is he going to do that this year? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. The president looks forward to signing a proclamation celebrating Black History Month. I actually spoke with our great staff secretary. It’s in the works of being approved and it’s going to be ready for the president’s signature to signify the beginning of that tomorrow. Question: If an agency is calling off those kinds of activities in an attempt to be in alignment with the president’s views on DEI and other things, should they adjust that now and have those programs and make those celebrations, however they see fit in the office? Karoline Leavitt: The president is leading here at the White House, and I’ll leave it to the proclamation that he will sign very soon. Mary, great to see you. Question: Thanks for having us. So, I wanted to follow up on the gender executive orders you mentioned. First of all, we know that President Trump has taken a bunch of steps to protect children from irreversible transgender procedures. Is he interested in backing congressional legislation on this point? And does the Trump administration have interest in investigating doctors who perform these irreversible procedures on kids such as a double mastectomy on a minor girl? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has already taken a very strong stance on this issue this week with the signing of his executive order, a few executive orders in this space. First, he made it the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes, male and female. And we have directed all federal agencies to comply with that policy. Karoline Leavitt: As for congressional legislation to support the president’s agenda in this space and certainly ending the mutilation of young children, the chemical castration of young children, which is a barbaric practice that the vast majority of Americans do not support for young minor children. Certainly, the president would support congress’s efforts, as he has already made that very clear this week. Karoline Leavitt: Jennifer. Question: On Ric Grenell’s trip to Venezuela to meet with Nicolas Maduro. Is there anything you can share on timing on that; what his agenda is; what the mission of that trip is? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. So, I can confirm that Ric Grenell is in Venezuela today. I can confirm that Ric Grenell is going to Venezuela – or is in Venezuela with very two immediate directives from the president of the United States. Number one, Ric Grenell has been instructed to identify a place and ensure that repatriation flights of Tren de Aragua members, Venezuelan nationals who have broken our nation’s laws will land in Venezuela. Karoline Leavitt: As I said at this podium a few days ago, we expect every nation on this planet to cooperate with the repatriation of our citizens. And so, Ric Grenell is in Venezuela to ensure that can continue. And number two, Ric Grenell is in Venezuela to ensure that all US detainees in Venezuela are returned home. That’s his mission and I will provide a readout after this trip. Question: On Bob Menendez, can you tell us if anyone has approached the White House or the president about a pardon or commutation? Karoline Leavitt: I have not been part of those discussions. If they have, I am not sure if they have, but I won’t speculate on potential pardons that may or may not happen. To my awareness the answer is no. Justin. Question: Hey, friends at Reuters are reporting that the president has made a decision on the Canada and Mexico tariffs, but that they won’t actually be implemented until March 1st. I was wondering if you could confirm that and talk through some of the president’s thinking there. Karoline Leavitt: I saw that report and it is false. I was just with the president in the Oval Office, and I can confirm that tomorrow, the February 1st deadline that President Trump put into place at a statement several weeks ago continues. The president will be implementing tomorrow, 25 percent tariffs on Mexico, 25 percent tariffs on Canada and a 10 percent tariff on China for the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country, which has killed tens of millions of Americans. Karoline Leavitt: These are promises made and promises kept by the president. Question: The president yesterday said that last night he was planning to discuss whether an exemption would be made on oil imports. Do you have any information on what decision he made there, or will there be exemptions at all offered under this? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have an update or readout for you on the exemptions, but those tariffs will be for public consumption in about 24 hours tomorrow. So, you can read them. Stephen Nelson. Question: Thank you very much, Karoline. I have three questions if that’s all right. I’d like to ask you about press freedom and then about two economic matters. On press freedom, on Tuesday, you announced plans to roll back the more restrictive press badge policy of Biden White House, but there’s a different anti press freedom policy I wanted to ask about. Question: The Biden White House adopted a mysterious prescreening process for journalists allowed into large event spaces that in the pre-pandemic based first Trump term were open to all journalists on campus. This effectively limited the diversity of reporters present and blocked the asking of questions that large segments of the American public wanted answered. Question: As press secretary, can you commit to abolishing this mysterious prescreening process? Karoline Leavitt: There were a lot of mysterious processes that my team and I have had to unravel over the past two weeks that were implemented by the previous White House, and in particular the previous press shop here. And so, I can commit to greater access and transparency, which I believe we already have, by ensuring that the 440 journalists whose credentials were revoked will be reinstalled. Karoline Leavitt: They will get their credentials if they wish to. We’ve also, of course, opened up a new seat to new media. And as far as open press events here at the White House, if we tell you it’s open press, it’s open press. Question: So, just to confirm, this prescreening thing is something you’re aware of and you’ll work to undo to the maximum extent possible. Karoline Leavitt: When we say something is open press, it will mean it’s open press. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – economic matters and I can just ask them both at once for you. In New York City, Governor Hochul’s congestion pricing went into effect this month. Vehicles that drive through parts of Manhattan have to pay a $9 toll. President Trump has made clear his opposition. He said that it’s quote, “the most regressive tax known to womankind.” Will the administration be trying to block this? Question: And the second question is millions and maybe tens of millions of Americans who voted for President Trump were excited about his plans to do away with taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits. But there’s uncertainty about the timing of this. So, can you clarify for them when this is going to happen? Question: Does President Trump want this to be in the first – all three of those in the first batch of legislation early this year? Karoline Leavitt: Well, to answer your question in one swoop, I will say that President Trump is committed to lowering taxes for Americans, cutting taxes for Americans. As for congestion pricing in New York, I do know that the president spoke with Governor Hochul about that. I don’t have any actions, so to speak, to read out for you on that issue today. Karoline Leavitt: Number two, when it comes to no taxes on tips and Social Security, the president has made it very clear to our allies on Capitol Hill that is a critical piece of this reconciliation package. And he expects that his tax cuts from 2017, which put a lot more money back into the American people’s pockets, those must be implemented. Karoline Leavitt: And no tax on tips, the president is intent on delivering on that promise and he will get it done. Question: And overtime also is part of reconciliation? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Can you guarantee that those tariffs won’t increase prices for Americans including at the gas pump and the grocery store? Karoline Leavitt: I think Americans who are concerned about increased prices should look at what President Trump did in his first term. He effectively implemented tariffs, and the average inflation rate during the first Trump administration was 1.9 percent. In fact, when President Trump left office, it was 1.4 percent. So, President Trump is going to do everything he possibly can to cut the inflation crisis that the previous administration imposed on the American people, and he will continue to effectively utilize tariffs. Question: If those tariffs do increase prices for Americans, will the administration reverse them? Karoline Leavitt: That’s a hypothetical question and the president is intent on ensuring that he effectively implements tariffs while cutting inflation and costs for the American people. And the media has this way of just looking at everything in a microscope rather than looking at the whole of government economic approach that this president is taking. Karoline Leavitt: He will effectively implement tariffs. He’s also, as I just answered Stephen’s question, committed to tax cuts. He’s also clearly committed, as evidenced by his executive orders, to unleashing the might of our energy industry, which we know will eventually drive down inflation. And all the other economic measures that this president has made will have a Trump incoming economic boom just like we saw in our first term. Question: And has the White House found any –. Karoline Leavitt: Sure, Fox Business, yes, go ahead. You’re welcome. Question: Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister said today that if the US imposes tariffs, he will respond and he will not relent until the tariffs are removed. Are we seeing the start of a trade war with Canada? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t think so. I think the president is going to implement those tariffs tomorrow, and he will respond to Mr. Trudeau’s comments in due time, I am sure. Question: What type of things have to happen? What does the administration need to see in order to avoid those tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the tariffs are incoming tomorrow on Canada, and the reason for that is because both Canada and Mexico have allowed an unprecedented invasion of illegal fentanyl, that is killing American citizens, and also illegal immigrants into our country. In fact, I have more language for you right here. Canada, Mexico and China, which, as I mentioned, President Trump will implement a 10 percent tariff on China, have all enabled illegal drugs to pour into America. Karoline Leavitt: The amount of fentanyl that has been seized at the southern border in the last two years alone has the potential to kill tens of millions of Americans. And so, the president is intent on doing this. And I think Justin Trudeau would be wise to talk to President Trump directly before pushing outlandish comments like that to the media. Karoline Leavitt: Yes, Lindsey. Question: If I may, one more – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – back to the plane crash for one? Could we go back to the plane crash for just one second? Karoline Leavitt: You’re interrupting your colleague, but sure. Question: I’m sorry, I thought you called on me. Karoline Leavitt: I called on Lindsey. Question: The president this morning said the Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high. I’m wondering if he’s basing that on what he learned from investigators. And if you could offer a little bit more of a window into how he is keeping abreast of this investigation? Is the NTSB briefing him separately; is he meeting in the situation room? Question: Could you just sort of offer a window into that? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, the president based that statement on truth, because it is truth and it’s fact and it was relayed to him by the authorities who are overseeing the investigation into this horrific plane collision. And the president, as I said in my opening remarks, continues to be briefed on the collision by everybody across his cabinet, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Defense, the NTSB who the commissioner there was in the Oval Office with him yesterday. Karoline Leavitt: Lindsay. Lindsay, go ahead. Lindsay, go ahead. Thank you. Question: [Inaudible] the CIA actually revealed that they do also believe that COVID-19 was from a lab leak in Wuhan, China. How is the president planning on responding to this additional Intel from the CIA? And will it impact how he responds to them with tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. Kudos to John Ratcliffe for revealing that truth and that fact to the American people, many years too late. The Biden administration had a chance to let the American people know the truth about that and for some reason they chose not to. I also would just like to point out that several years ago when I was working in this press shop and president Trump would take to this podium to brief the American people on COVID-19, he suggested that COVID very well may have came from a lab in Wuhan, China and many members in this very room mocked him for that, said he was spewing conspiracy theories. Karoline Leavitt: He was not. We now know that to be the confirmable truth. It took many years for it to come out, but the president was right in this instance again. Sure. Question: Karoline, thank you. I wanted to ask about Secretary Rubio’s trip to Panama first. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: What did the conversations look like with President Trump on that? The President of Panama says it is, quote, “impossible to negotiate over the canal.” So what are you expecting from this visit? Karoline Leavitt: So, I have not been present for Secretary Rubio’s conversations with President Trump about the Panama Canal. I have been present for President Trump’s own thoughts on the Panama Canal and you’ve all seen them as well in his public statements that he has shown. He believes it’s unacceptable that the canal is essentially run by the Chinese Communist Party. Karoline Leavitt: If you look at both ends of the canal, massive Chinese Communist Party linked companies run the canal. That’s unfair to the American people, many of whom lost their lives many years ago building this canal. The American taxpayers are paying millions of dollars for the canal and the President believes it’s in our national interest as a nation for Secretary Rubio to go there and begin these discussions, and that’s exactly why he’s doing that. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Karoline? Thank you very much, Karoline. Is the United States in the process of pulling out of Syria militarily, because the president wanted to do that in his first term as well and he had a lot of pushback from the Pentagon and Congress? And based on what he said yesterday, is he considering doing that in a short time? Karoline Leavitt: The president was asked and answered this question yesterday and he as the commander in chief of the United States Military, reserves the right to review troop deployments overseas at any point in time. Question: And is that a topic right now? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Question: Thank you. Two questions. So we now know that the staffing was not normal at the air traffic tower and so with the government raising the hiring of new federal workers and offering buyouts, are you not afraid that more incidents of different kind could happen with less staffing in different agencies? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president is intent on ensuring that we are increasing staffing at these agencies and that’s why he signed a very strong executive order on his second day in office, immediately terminating DEI hiring practices at the FAA. He also, following the tragic crash, as you all know in the Oval Office yesterday, signed a memorandum directing an immediate assessment of the FAA to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and aviation safety standards. Karoline Leavitt: And I would also just say, there’s a cultural piece to this as well. If you are an American who has spent many years studying aviation and you graduate from school and you’re an air traffic controller based on skill and merit and then you apply for a job and you’re forced to fill out a biographical questionnaire asking you the color of your skin and asking you where you’re from and details that aren’t relevant at all to the job description, I think that deteriorates the morale of people in this industry. Karoline Leavitt: And if you talk to people in this industry, they’ll tell you that. In fact, many of them filed a lawsuit against the FAA a couple of years ago under Joe Biden’s administration because they were denied positions because of this DEI hiring practice that was putting identity politics over merit and skills. That’s unacceptable. Karoline Leavitt: And I think just to put a fine point on this, because this is the third or fourth question I’ve answered on this subject. When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones, which every one of us in this room has, do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination, or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color? Karoline Leavitt: I think we all know the answer to that question. And as President Trump said yesterday, it’s commonsense. Rob Crilly. Question: Yeah. I’d just like to follow up on that last question, actually. Has there been any sort of assurance from the FAA that they will immediately improve staffing levels, given the reports of not normal staffing levels on Wednesday? Karoline Leavitt: Oh, absolutely, you had Secretary Duffy here yesterday at the White House at this podium saying that he is on it and we can all trust that. He definitely will be. John Decker. Question: Thanks a lot, Karoline. You called on me, right? Karoline Leavitt: Yes, I did. Question: Thank you very much. Karoline Leavitt: As long as your name is still John Decker. Question: It is, absolutely. Thank you. The president’s meeting today with the founder and CEO of Nvidia. What is that meeting concerning and who sought that meeting? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have details on this. It’s a private meeting. It will take place at 2:30 pm. I’ll try to get there in time and I can let you know after. How’s that? Question: On Guantanamo Bay, can you give more details about setting up that detention facility at GITMO? How will that come about? What’s the timing in terms of standing it up? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: And of course this has happened before during the Clinton administration. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, that’s right. Question: Detainees of Cuban and Haitian descent were both detained at Guantanamo. Are you looking at that model in setting up this detention facility? Karoline Leavitt: Secretary Hegseth, I believe, was on television this morning answering this question and he said that the Department of Defense is already on it. He has directed his agency to ensure that GITMO is increasing their capacity for beds and that’s exactly what President Trump’s executive order did. It directed Secretary Hegseth and also Secretary Noem to expand the Migrant Operations Center at the naval station to provide for this extra detention space. Karoline Leavitt: And as Secretary Hegseth confirmed this morning, that operation is underway. Sure. Question: Karoline, on the tariffs, can you clarify whether those will actually be going into effect tomorrow or whether there might be some lead time? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Question: They will be going into effect? Karoline Leavitt: Correct. Question: And are those meant to be in place long-term or is there a scenario in which Canada, Mexico and China can offer concessions and then they would be removed? Karoline Leavitt: At this point, the president has made it very clear those tariffs are going to be implemented and in effect. If the president at any time decides to roll back those tariffs, I’ll leave it to him to make that decision. But starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place. Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Question: Can you confirm a report by our friends at the Daily Mail that the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is going to be visiting the White House in February? And also if I may, do you have any more details on Netanyahu’s visit here next week? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. I have not seen that report about the prime minister. I can go check back with our friends at the National Security Council and get back to you on that. I can confirm that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be here on Tuesday, February 4th, for a working meeting and visit with the president and I’m sure you will all be here, very excited to cover that visit. Karoline Leavitt: Sure, Daniel. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: You’re welcome. Question: Back on the Guantanamo Bay subject specifically, obviously, why does the president feel like that’s the best location or good location to make sure that Americans are safe from violent illegal migrant crime? Karoline Leavitt: Well, it’s a really good question and the memorandum that he signed, the order that he signed builds on his previous executive actions, obviously to secure our southern border and deport illegal criminals from the interior of our country. We know that we have an issue with detention space here in the interior, which is a big reason why Congress needs to pass this reconciliation package as quickly as possible, to ensure that DHS and ICE have the funding they need to detain these individuals, that the administration is very swiftly rounding up and deporting, arresting and deporting these illegal immigrant criminals. Karoline Leavitt: And so the president feels it’s an appropriate place. Taxpayers are already funding it. The space is there, why not use it? And the secretary of defense, as I said, is working on that as we speak. Sure. Yes. Question: Karoline, thank you so much for having me here and answering a question. So I want to talk more about the success that ICE having finding these violent criminal aliens, some of them being sexual predators. But my friend, Ben Bergman, reports that the Chicago mayor and the Illinois governor are preventing ICE agents from going into jails and prisons to enforce detainers against illegal aliens. Question: In Maryland, the attorney general has also put out a memo hindering local police cooperation with ICE. Does the administration have any comment on leftist state and local officials defying ICE and Trump’s deportation efforts? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. I think it’s very interesting that democrat officials in these cities who have been completely overrun and overwhelmed by illegal immigrant criminals would refuse support and help to cure this problem that has especially taken over their cities. I guess they don’t want to admit they’ve been wrong with their sanctuary city policies. Karoline Leavitt: I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask them about their intentions, but they would be very wise to comply with this administration because this administration is hell-bent on enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. And this administration will continue to arrest and detain and deport illegal migrant criminals. Karoline Leavitt: And what we won’t do is defy our nation’s immigration laws like the previous administration, who had these orders of removal on illegal immigrants across the country and were refusing to execute on them. We will continue to remove illegal criminals from our nation’s interior. Question: Are these sanctuary city leaders, are they violating the law? Karoline Leavitt: I would certainly think so. I’d have to check back on which specific law they’re violating, but certainly if they’re not enforcing our nation’s immigration law, sounds like they are breaking the law. And I would also add that their constituents don’t approve of that. You’ve seen residents in Chicago show up at their city council meetings, infuriated with their leadership in that city because they are working very hard to provide for their families. Karoline Leavitt: They want public safety and law and order, and their officials have abandoned those very basic American principles in these cities. And the American people want law and order. It’s, again, an overwhelmingly popular policy to deport illegal criminals from our nation’s interior, and this administration will continue to affect that goal. Karoline Leavitt: Sure, sure. Question: Question on Colombia. We just interviewed Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and he insisted that he’s not going to take any Colombian deportee from the US if they arrive in South America handcuffed. How this administration responds to that? Karoline Leavitt: When did the Colombian president make those remarks? Question: Today, in an interview with us at Univision. Karoline Leavitt: Well, I will share those with the president of the United States, and I will get back to you on his response. Sure. Question: What happens if Nicolas Maduro – Karoline, there are more than 150,000 disabled Americans who are working today. The president talked a lot yesterday about hiring the best and the brightest to work in the federal government. Safety aside, does he believe that disabled people do have a place to work in the federal government? Question: And does he also support the current protections for disabled people working in the private sector as well? Karoline Leavitt: The president has made it very clear that this is a commonsense solution to solving some of the problems that we have seen at the Federal Aviation Administration, and also when it comes to many of the federal agencies across our government. People should not be hired based on their disabilities based on their skin color, their gender, their race. Karoline Leavitt: None of that matters. What matters to this president and this administration is how well you can do your job and the American people agree with that sentiment. So, it’s about competence, skill and merit. And so, the president is focused on ensuring that the most competent individuals, the best and the brightest in this country, are in positions in this federal government, especially when it comes to public safety. Karoline Leavitt: Can’t overemphasize the importance of those jobs. Sure. Question: So just pulling up on her question before, President Trump is holding China accountable on fentanyl by ramping up tariffs. So, how is President Trump planning to hold China accountable on COVID origins? Karoline Leavitt: I haven’t spoken to the president about the COVID origins specifically in regards to any actions he may or may not take when it comes to China. But as I have previewed quite a few times today, he will be implementing a 10 percent tariff on China tomorrow. Sure. Hi. Question: Has the president made up his mind about a timeline for tariffs on the EU? Karoline Leavitt: No, he has not. Question: Will it be a one size fits all, or will it be differentiated among governments? Karoline Leavitt: I won’t get ahead of the president on tariffs when it comes to the European Union. What I can tell you again is that the president will be implementing 25 percent on Canada, 25 percent on Mexico, 10 percent on China tomorrow for the reasons that I have repeatedly laid out in this briefing. Newsmax, go ahead, yes. Question: Thank you so much. Karoline Leavitt: No, but the gentleman behind you. Yes, James, thank you. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Two quick questions on foreign policy and then one very long and tedious and ponderous Rosen question thereafter. First on Iran, we’ve heard very little about the president’s forthcoming Iran policy besides his determination to prevent that nation from achieving a nuclear weapons capability. Question: Is it the president’s objective, short of the use of US military force, to use the broad array of his powers to try to hasten the end of the Iranian regime? Karoline Leavitt: I think the president has actually made his position on Iran very clear, and he made that clear when there were the negotiations about the ceasefire, which we know obviously is now in place. And the deadline on that ceasefire has continued. He said that Hamas and Iranian backed terrorists would have hell to pay if that cease fire didn’t move forward. Karoline Leavitt: And then quickly thereafter, it did. I also do have news on the hostage front, which I’m very surprised nobody asked about this because it is a big news story. And the White House applauds the release of eight additional hostages from Hamas captivity. Thanks to the ceasefire deal secured by President Trump, three Israeli and five Thai nationals are being reunited with their families and their loved ones after being held in unspeakable conditions for over 15 months. Karoline Leavitt: And the president remains committed to the release of all remaining hostages and they should have never been taken by the brutal terrorist group Hamas in the first place. And I think President Trump’s working meeting with the Israeli prime minister next week emphasizes his continued support for Israel and ensuring that brutal terrorists in that region have hell to pay. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Thank you so much. Can I just finish the other two questions? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: I know you want the long ponderous Rosen, but first on the Grenell trip. As you know, under the previous administration, the US recognized the opposition candidate in last year’s elections, Edmundo Gonzalez, now exiled as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Does the president’s dispatching of Ambassador Grenell to negotiate directly with President Maduro today mean that the US now officially recognizes President Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela? Karoline Leavitt: Absolutely not. As I made it very clear, former ambassador and now special envoy, Ric Grenell is going to Venezuela with two very clear directives, make sure that Tren de Aragua members, of which there are 400 currently in custody, are repatriated back to Venezuela and that all United States detainees return home. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you very much, guys. Question: Just on the president’s use of language in this room yesterday, and without seeking to cast myself as some kind of moral exemplar because it’s rather late in the day to try. Nonetheless, this was an event yesterday that began with a moment of silence for the victims of the air crash and the president’s own invocation of, quote, a loving God. And then he uncorked that expletive to insult a former cabinet officer. Question: It was the same expletive that I saw him use in the East Room in 2020 when he famously held up the Trump Acquitted headline. My question is, if you could shed any light for us on how the president perceives his use of public profanity, which is a practice that certainly sets him apart from all of his predecessors. Question: Does he regard it as an effective communications device, part of his appeal, or is it something that he lapses into inadvertently perhaps in times of frustration and later regrets? Karoline Leavitt: I think one of the things that the American people love most about this president is that he often says what they are thinking but sometimes lack the courage to say themselves. And I think yesterday at this podium, you heard President Trump express great frustration, perhaps even anger, with the previous administration’s policies, many of which have led to the crises that our country is currently facing and that this president is focused on fixing. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you, guys, very much. Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week. Question: Do you travel next week, Karoline?
Date: 2025-01-31
Question: Mr. Miller, we have this all set for you, if you have some time. Everyone’s perfectly semi-circled for you. Stephen Miller: I appreciate that but I’m going to say this like I did last time, which is that Karoline already did a briefing. Question: Of course, of course. Stephen Miller: She’s the White House press secretary, not I. Question: One question. Stephen Miller: I’m going to answer like – Question: Of course. Stephen Miller: – three or four questions and then I’m going to go. Question: Stephen. Stephen, do you have any numbers yet on the number of people who have accepted the buyout? Do you have any even vague number of how many people are accepting it? Any numbers at all? Stephen Miller: I don’t have an exact number for you and I wouldn’t want to give you an inaccurate estimate. It’s a good question and you should get a number soon, I hope. But I will tell you that I – the initial briefings that I’ve received suggest that a large number of federal workers have accepted the buyout offer. Stephen Miller: And I think the point here to really underscore is that federal workers who are not happy in their jobs who don’t want to show up at work, who do not want to be in the office who are not passionate about what they’re doing are obviously not the Kind of federal worker you want responsible for having enormous authority over the lives of the American people. Stephen Miller: And so, this is happening in conjunction with a wholesale reform of the hiring process in the federal government to find people who are really dedicated to service at the absolute highest level. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Stephen, follow on that question – Can you talk about – Can you confirm that the administration has ordered some federal workers across some agencies to drop pronouns in your emails as part of the executive order [Inaudible] Stephen Miller: Yes, I believe that the directive you’re referring to is consistent with the president’s Day 1 executive order on recognizing that there are only male and female sexes in the country and that, well in the world, for all of humanity. But his authority is just on this country. And that your sex is your biological sex, that is one and the same. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can you confirm that the president is meeting with the President of Nvidia today? Stephen Miller: I don’t have any update on that. Sorry. Question: Stephen, can you explain the circumstances surrounding the departure of a top ranking Treasury Department official today, longtime career civil servant? Stephen Miller: No, nothing to add on that subject. Yes? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – on how you’re viewing the rollout of tomorrow’s tariffs and how conversations with Mexico and Canada in particular are progressing at this point, given some of the comments we’ve heard from their leaders today in preparation for their own plans. Stephen Miller: Well, I mean, as far as the rollout, I mean, could you clarify what you mean by rollout? Question: Are you considering Section 232 tariffs as part of this? Stephen Miller: Oh, I don’t want to get into the details. It’s not for me to brief on what the details of how this can be done are. But there have obviously been long standing trade imbalances with these trading partners that have been long running and systemic and that affect our national security by eroding our defense industrial base and eroding our manufacturing base. Stephen Miller: And also, there are even graver concerns with national security and public safety, particular – in particular, although not limited to, fentanyl, which, of course, is a weapon of mass destruction in this country and is killing more Americans than have died in our wars overseas throughout our nation’s history. Stephen Miller: And we know that there is a sophisticated network of criminal cartels operating on our border that traffic fentanyl into the United States. We also know that the precursors to make that fentanyl is coming from overseas. And so, you have a wide array of entities and organizations that have infiltrated our country and are killing our citizens in mass and we know as well that cartels have functional control like a government over large swaths of Mexican territory, which gravely imperils our own national security and public safety. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – FBI Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – investigating President Trump? Stephen Miller: Well, with respect to the FBI, and I would just say to the law enforcement and intelligence community in general, it’s clear that there has been vast weaponization of the law enforcement apparatus against President Trump, against President Trump’s family, his staff, conservatives in general, Republicans in general, and the American people, this was litigated for four years, right? Stephen Miller: From 2021 through the election. The question of the weaponization of the justice system, of course it started back in 2017. But in other words, the whole period of the Biden presidency, this was probably the most disgusting litigated issue, and the American people rendered an overwhelming verdict on the question of whether or not we need to clean ranks in our law enforcement and intelligence communities and ensure that the partisan weaponization of our justice system ends. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Are there any talks underway right now to try and avoid those tariffs? Any negotiations underway with Canada and Mexico? Stephen Miller: Nothing to add on that subject. Let me take two more questions. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can I ask you on the economic impact of the tariffs? There are reports that career officials are being locked out of payment systems at various government agencies. Can you explain what’s going on? Stephen Miller: Well, I would say just as a general matter that if somebody is trying to send money to, for example, a foreign country that is not authorized, that would be obviously a grave violation, not only of the agency rules, not only of an executive order, but potentially even the law. And if an individual has been relieved of duty, hypothetically, or has been placed on leave and is still trying to send taxpayer dollars overseas, that obviously would be an extremely serious infraction. Stephen Miller: But a standard protocol, of course, if someone has been placed on leave to lose access to your devices. We’re talking about people who have the ability with the press of a button to send billions of dollars to foreign countries. All right, one more question. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can we get the economic impact – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Oh, thank you. Yesterday, the president said that the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is very serious. Can you elaborate a little more what – Stephen Miller: I can’t add anything to his statement at this time, but we should follow up with you on that. The last question. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Would you say that part of the administration’s goal is, of course, to crack down on illegal immigration but to curb legal immigration as well? Stephen Miller: The President has been clear with respect to legal immigration that his view is he wants pro-American immigration, immigration that supports the economy, that assimilates to our national values in which there’s no welfare use, there’s no drain on taxpayers, and it promotes social cohesion, patriotism and assimilation in the country. Stephen Miller: In other words, we as a nation like any nation, have the right to select newcomers based on who will provide the most value to the country and the citizens who are already living here. That’s the president’s policy. And, of course, with the illegal immigration, the answer is none, zero, no illegal immigrants allowed into the country at all. Stephen Miller: Thank you, everybody. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Last question on –
Date: 2025-01-31
Note: [Video begins in progress] Unidentified: – perhaps hundreds of trillions of dollars of assets that we need to manage smartly, sustainably for the benefit and the use of the American people. Question: Mr. President, is there anything China, Canada, and Mexico can do tonight to forestall your implementation of tariffs tomorrow? Donald Trump: No, nothing. Not right now. No. Question: Not a negotiating tool? Donald Trump: No, it’s not. No, it’s pure economic. We have big deficits with, as you know, with all three of them. And in one case, they’re sending massive amounts of fentanyl, killing hundreds of thousands of people a year with the fentanyl. And in the other two cases, they’re making it possible for this poison to get in, number one. Donald Trump: And number two, we have big deficits and it’s something we’re doing. And we’ll possibly very substantially increase it, or not, we’ll see how it is, but it’s a lot of money coming to the United States. As you know, we have about a $200 billion deficit with Canada, getting close to $200 billion. They’ve treated us very unfairly. Donald Trump: And I say, why should we be subsidizing Canada? It’s wonderful. I have so many friends in Canada. It’s a great place, but – Question: Is there a concession you’re looking for, sir? Donald Trump: No, we’re not looking for a concession, and we’ll just see what happens. We’ll see what happens. And with Mexico, it’s the same thing. We have a $250 billion deficit and we have a lot of people coming into the border, and now we’ve largely stopped that, but we’ve stopped that ourselves. I think they’ve done a fantastic job. Donald Trump: You’ve seen the numbers have dropped to almost zero, but we’ve suffered under the past administration. For years and years, we’ve suffered with millions of criminals coming into our country. Criminals, people from jails from all over the world. They come through Mexico and they come through Canada too. A lot of them come through Canada and a lot of fentanyl comes through Canada. Donald Trump: And China makes the fentanyl, you know? China makes the fentanyl, gives it to Mexico, puts it through Canada, puts it through different places, mostly Mexico, but also a lot through Canada. And so all three haven’t treated us very well. Question: Sir, can I ask you about your meeting with NVIDIA? What did you talk about and do you think you need to ban more of the chips that they’re selling to China? Donald Trump: Well, he’s a great gentleman, and I hadn’t met him. He’s the biggest in the world in terms of chips, and I can’t say what’s going to happen, whether… We had a meeting, it was a good meeting. But eventually, we’re going to put tariffs on chips. We’re going to put tariffs on oil and gas. That’ll happen fairly soon, I think around the 18th of February. Donald Trump: And we’re going to put a lot of tariffs on steel. We already have tariffs on steel and we’ve saved our steel industry, but that was relatively small compared to what it’ll be. But we’re going to be putting tariffs on steel and aluminum and ultimately copper. Copper will take a little bit longer. And that’ll happen pretty quickly. Donald Trump: It’ll mean it’ll be a great boost for our steel industry. It’ll make our steel industry very strong. If I didn’t put the tariffs on, years ago, on steel, which actually Biden left because there was so much money that they couldn’t do anything about it, we would’ve lost… We wouldn’t have one steel mill in this country if I didn’t do that. Donald Trump: We saved the steel industry. So it was an honor to do it. And I think the people that love me most in the whole world are the people that make steel, but we’re going to be putting, sometime this month, next month, we’re going to be putting tariffs on steel and aluminum. And we’ll give you an announcement as to what the exact date is, but it’ll be a tremendous amount of money for our country, a tremendous amount. Donald Trump: These are big numbers. And in addition to that… And you see the power of the tariff. I mean, the tariff is… And nobody can compete with us because we have by far the biggest piggy bank. And so that’ll take place very quickly. But also, we’ll be doing pharmaceuticals and to bring our industry back. We want to bring pharmaceuticals back to the country. Donald Trump: And the way you bring it back to the country is by putting up a wall and the wall is a tariff wall. We were the richest country in the world. We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913. That’s when we had… We were a tariff country. And then they went to an income tax concept. And you know, how did that work out? Donald Trump: It’s fine. I mean, it’s okay, but would’ve been very much better. So we’ll be doing pharmaceuticals importantly, and drugs, medicines, et cetera, all forms of medicine and pharmaceuticals. And we’ll be doing very importantly, steel. And we’ll also be doing chips and things associated with chips. Question: And sir, what do you plan on talking with the Japanese prime minister about next Friday when you all meet? Donald Trump: Well, he’s coming in, yeah, next week. I don’t know. He asked for a meeting and I have great respect for Japan. I like Japan. Prime Minister Abe was a very close friend of mine. What happened to him was so sad, one of the saddest days. But they’re coming in to speak to me and I look forward to it. Question: Mr. President, on the crash, do you have any concerns that your commentary about things you have described as common sense or your observations could in any way interfere with a thorough investigation of the crash? Donald Trump: No, I think they’ll do an investigation. It’ll probably come out the way I said it. I like to put it up front. I’m so tired of listening to things happen to our country and then people say, “We’ll do an investigation,” and three years later they come out with a report that nobody looks at, especially, not in all cases can you do that, but in this case, you had a helicopter that was, the Black Hawk, was too high. Donald Trump: It was above the 200 limit by double. It shouldn’t have been there. And there were some other mistakes made too and I pointed them out also and I was right on all of it, but they’ll still do an investigation just to check it out. But I think that’s what your question – Question: As commander – in – chief, are you at all concerned about opining about the Army and the conduct of that aircraft when you are commander – in – chief and these are the people who report to you? Donald Trump: No. Question: And there’s an investigation ongoing? Donald Trump: This was all caused by bad rules, regulations, and other things by Biden, the Biden administration. Question: What tells you that, sir? Donald Trump: And when you look at the way they ran things, in fact, if you look, we hired… One of the first things I told them to do, I said, “Get talented people in those beautiful towers overlooking runways. You better get them in there fast because we don’t have people there that are qualified.” And you knew that because planes were landing very, very late. Donald Trump: They were circling all over the place. We had people that didn’t know what the hell they were doing. And if you look – Question: And so there are planes in the air everywhere – Donald Trump: Excuse me. Question: … and there are other air traffic… Pardon me, sir. Donald Trump: Excuse me, excuse me. We have to have the best people, the smartest people, the sharpest people as control tower experts. And that’s what they have to be. They have to be experts and they have to be very smart. And we didn’t have our best. And if you read the quote that I read yesterday at the news conference, it talked about people that were psychologically injured were okay, and people that had lots of problems were okay. Donald Trump: I’d read it again if you’d like me to, but I don’t think I have to waste your time. Question: Does that mean you’re concerned though, sir, with planes in the air all around the country, people relying on that as safety? Are you suggesting there’s an ongoing risk? Donald Trump: No, I think there’s very little risk, but I think that we have to make sure that this never happens again. Very, very little risk. And we’re taking actions that this can’t happen again. The helicopter, as you know, was out of its zone. It shouldn’t have been out of its zone. It was at the same height as the airplane. Donald Trump: Now, the airplane was coming down on its track. It was perfect. It was in perfect shape coming down and something was in its way. You can’t let that happen and it won’t be happening again. And this was all because of weak rules in the Biden administration and we’re just not going to let that kind of thing happen again. Donald Trump: And again, I could wait and I could give a report in two years like they always do, and sometimes it’s obvious. In this case, to me, it was very obvious and I think I’ve been proven to be very correct. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, what do you expect from your meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu next week? Donald Trump: I expect a lot of good things. From all meetings, I expect good things. Marco Rubio, as you know, is going to make a tour of various countries in South America. He’s going to be meeting in Panama where Panama’s treated us very badly. They gave him, rather them rather foolishly a thing called the Panama Canal. Donald Trump: The most expensive project we ever built if you look at today’s numbers, most expensive ever built. We lost 38,000 men in that case. All men. Just about all men. 30,000 to the mosquito, to malaria and various other problems that you get from jungles. It was a tremendously costly event. We built the Panama Canal 110 years ago. Donald Trump: Think of it, the most expensive development we ever did, and really one of the wonders of the world, one of the great wonders of the world. We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And Panama has been ripping down all the China language signs. They’ve been working like mad to try, but about 70% of the signs were up and they were written in Chinese and that’s not the deal. Donald Trump: So we’re going to take it back. They’ve already offered to do many things, but we think it’s appropriate that we take it back. They’ve totally violated the agreement. We have an agreement. They violated the agreement. And Marco Rubio is going over there to talk to the gentleman that’s in charge. Question: Mr. President, do you still think it’s a good idea for Jordan and Egypt to be taking in Palestinians when they reject the ID and the Palestinians who are living now in Egypt? Donald Trump: Oh, I think Jordan will take people, yeah, people from Gaza, and I think Egypt will take them also. I mean, I heard somebody said they’re not going to, but I think they will. I feel confident they will. Question: Mr. President, will tomorrow’s tariffs include the oil? Donald Trump: What? Question: Will tomorrow’s tariffs be inclusive of Canadian crude? Donald Trump: I’m probably going to reduce the tariff a little bit on that. We think we’re going to bring it down to 10% on the oil. So it’s 25% on the Canada side. Question: Mr. President, are these tariffs stacking on top of already existing tariffs or this will be – Donald Trump: Yes, on top of whatever may be existing. Yeah. Question: Mr. President – Mr. President, ask you a question about Venezuela. Rick Grenell was seen on state TV shaking hands with President Maduro. Is there any concern that that might lend legitimacy to the Maduro administration? Donald Trump: No. We want to do something with Venezuela. I’ve been a very big opponent to Venezuela and Maduro. They’ve treated us not so good, but they’ve treated, more importantly, the Venezuelan people very badly. We have tremendous Venezuelan population. I got 92% of the vote, the Venezuelan vote. Now we want to see what we can do to get people back in their homeland safe and free and all. Donald Trump: He’s meeting with a lot of different people, but we are for the people of Venezuela, we’re for the Venezuelan Americans. If you look at it, we have them all in Florida, right around the Doral area. That’s where, that’s really, they call it Little Venezuela, right? And they voted for me close to 100%, so we’ll see what we can do to straighten out the situation in Venezuela. Donald Trump: Venezuela has been very unfortunate. I was very surprised when I saw that Biden agreed to buy a lot of oil from Venezuela because Venezuela was just about finished, the dictator, and when that happened, it brought him back to life. Biden went out and they buy millions of barrels of oil. I say, “What’s that all about?” So we’re not going to let that stupid stuff happen. Donald Trump: So we’ll see what happens. We’re not happy with Venezuela. We don’t like the way they’ve treated the Venezuelans at all. Question: Mr. President, there have been some warnings or messages that government websites will be shut down this evening to scrub them of DEI content. Can you confirm if that’s accurate? Donald Trump: The what’s been shut down? Question: Government websites, excuse me, will be shut down this evening to scrub them of DEI content. Can you confirm whether that’s accurate and if there are any concerns about – Donald Trump: I don’t know, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me. DEI would’ve ruined our country and now it’s dead. I think DEI is dead, so if they want to scrub the websites, that’s okay with me. But I can’t tell you. I guess probably certain people handle it certain ways, but I’ll tell you who’s very happy about it. The military, the real leaders, the real generals in the military, they’re very happy about it. Doug is very happy about it. He’s got a big, big group of people that are going to be working for him, are really starting right now. Donald Trump: He just got signed up and they’re very happy about it. He had a lot of DEI, everybody did, but he has not been a fan. It was really hurting our country badly. It was costing a lot of money too. Did you see the kind of money we’re talking about? Hundreds of millions of dollars for nonsense. Now we have our country back now. Donald Trump: Our country is back. It’s a nice thing to say. I’ve never seen such love. I’ve never had anything like it. I’ve never seen anything like it. People are coming up, “Sir, thank you for bringing our country back.” We were losing our country and I think we’re stronger now than we’ve been in many, many decades. Question: Is there any update on your call with Vladimir Putin? Donald Trump: Well, we’ll be speaking. We’ll be speaking and I think we’ll perhaps do something that’ll be significant. We want to end that war. That war would’ve never started if I was president and we want to end that war. That war is a horrible war. Millions of young people are being killed, mostly on the lines now, mostly at soldiers, but the cities have been largely destroyed, many of them. Donald Trump: They’re like demolition sites, but the soldiers are just shooting at each other. You know, it’s a very flat land. I said this the last time. Very, very flat land. The only place that a bullet stops is when it hits a person and they’re hitting a lot of people. They’re hitting a lot of soldiers on both sides. Donald Trump: I think Russia would probably say close to 800,000 and Ukraine, six or 700,000, and it’s just a senseless situation and it’s got to stop. So whatever I can do to stop it, and we are having discussions, yes. Question: Mr. President – Ongoing? Already scheduled and ongoing? Donald Trump: Already talking, yes. Question: So you’ve already spoken to Vladimir Putin? Donald Trump: I don’t want to say that, but we are having very serious discussions about – Question: Is there a reason you don’t want to? Donald Trump: We are… Well, I just don’t want to say that. We’re having very serious discussions about that war, trying to get it ended. Question: With Russia? Donald Trump: With Russia, yeah. Question: At the Department of Justice and the FBI, there are a number of high – level people who are being asked to resign or are being told they are going to be fired. Did you specifically request any actions at the Bureau or DOJ with respect to those employees? Donald Trump: No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody’s ever seen before. They came after a lot of people, like me, but they came after a lot of people. No, I wasn’t involved in it. I’ll have to see what is exactly going on after this is finished. But if they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing because they were very bad. Donald Trump: They were very corrupt people, very corrupt and they hurt our country very badly with the weaponization. They used the justice department to go after their political opponent, which in itself is illegal, and obviously it didn’t work. Question: Are you going to impose tariff on the European Union? Donald Trump: What does that mean? Question: Are you going to impose tariff too on the European Union like you did, you are going to for Mexico and Canada? Donald Trump: Well, you’re asking me a question because I’m sure you didn’t hear. Am I going to impose tariffs on the European Union? Do you want the truthful answer or should I give you a political answer? Question: The truth. Donald Trump: Absolutely. Absolutely. The European Union has treated us so terribly. Question: You promised Americans to try to reduce costs and so many of the products that would be tariffed when they come into the country, the outgoing country is not paying the tariff, the buyers in the United States pay that, and then that’s passed on to consumers in most instances. Donald Trump: Right. Sometimes. Question: How would you expect to have prices come down if you have such a broad plan for tariffs? And what do you say to the voters who want to see you reduce everyday costs? Donald Trump: Well, let me just tell you that I got elected for a lot of reasons. Number one was the border. Number two was inflation because I had almost no inflation, and yet I charged hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs to countries. And think of it, I had almost no inflation and took in $600 billion of money from other countries and tariffs don’t cause inflation. Donald Trump: They cause success, they cause big success. So we’re going to have great success. There could be some temporary short – term disruption and people will understand that. I had that when I negotiated some of the good deals for the farmers, and unfortunately those deals have been lead astray by Biden and his people because they didn’t enforce the deals. Donald Trump: We have a deal with China, which is phenomenal for the farmers, but there was nobody to enforce it in the Biden administration. They let them get away with murder. So it’s another thing we’re going to be bringing. They committed – Question: Do you accept the principle of the cost being passed on? Donald Trump: Wait a minute. They committed to buying $50 billion worth of farm product and they did it when I was president, and as soon as I left, they stopped doing it because there was nobody in Biden to enforce it. But the tariffs are going to make us very rich and very strong and we’re going to treat other countries very fairly. Donald Trump: But if you think about it, other countries charge us tariffs. We don’t charge them tariffs, and it’s about time that that changes. Question: Sir, are you concerned about the market reaction around tariffs? Donald Trump: No. No. Tariffs, the word tariff is a very misunderstood word. You’ve heard me say, I say it kiddingly, but it’s one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary. It really is. And we’ve been taken advantage of because others have charged us VATs. As an example, the European Union charges us 20% – plus – plus – plus, a VAT tax, it’s called a VAT tax, very similar, and it costs us an absolute fortune. Donald Trump: We are treated so badly, they don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products essentially. They don’t take almost anything. And we have a tremendous deficit with the European Union, so we’ll be doing something very substantial with the European Union. We’re going to bring the level up to where it should be, and if you think of the European Union, then you go to NATO, it’s largely the same group of countries. Donald Trump: Until I came along, I mean, we were paying almost 100% of NATO only to get bad trade deals, and now it’s been evened out, but very unfair, having to do… It was evened out pretty good. Actually, I did a good job. They paid $440 billion if you look at the secretary general’s report, and he was here recently and he said that. Donald Trump: He said, “One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen is what President Trump was able to do with these countries of Europe,” of which he was in charge of them, but he couldn’t get them to pay. I went over, I said, “You got to pay, and if you don’t pay, we’re not going to protect you.” It was very simple. Donald Trump: But very unfair is with Ukraine because we’re in for $300 billion plus and they’re in probably for $100 billion. There’s a $200 billion difference and they need it more than we do. We have an ocean in between. They don’t. And so they’re going to have to step it up a little bit Question: With efforts to reduce the federal workforce, whether it’s offering what we call the buyout package or other efforts, do you have any concerns that there will be employees broadly across the federal government who might take that up? And they’re a part of the many different ways that agencies protect the public, from food inspections to water safety to the air traffic controls – Donald Trump: Sure, sure. I know, but everybody’s replaceable and we’ll get very good people to replace them if it turns out to be more than we thought. It could be a lot. It could be a little, we don’t know, but we’d love to have them leave. We’re trying to, remember this, we want them to go into the private sector. It’s our dream to have everybody almost working in the private sector, not in the public sector. Donald Trump: We have many people. Very few people came to work. It started more or less with COVID, but actually even before COVID, but it started with the COVID. They didn’t come back. And then Biden let them get away with murder, and we had a federal workforce, like 4% coming into the office and that just doesn’t work. Donald Trump: People could say it does, but it doesn’t work. You have to be unified in a group in the office. It was crazy. You don’t know what they’re doing. And then at some point, we may ask them to certify that they didn’t have two jobs, meaning were they really getting a check from us, the government, and then were they also working a second job and a third job and on government time? Donald Trump: And many of them will say that they did, you know? Which is not legal, but it’s a problem. It’s a problem. No, we want to get that out. We want to clean it out. You know, people have been trying to reduce federal government now for 40 years, 45 years, and they haven’t been able to do it, and this is a way of doing it, I think, very nicely. Donald Trump: It’s sort of a buyout too. I think we’re treating people very good, but people don’t come to the office and they won’t have a job starting on that very special date. So we’ll see how that works out. I mean, nobody knows how that’s going to turn out. Everybody might show up to the office and maybe a large number won’t show up, but if they don’t show up, we’ve accomplished a very serious goal. Donald Trump: We’re trying to reduce government. Question: Does Mr. Musk or any of those associated with your DOGE effort, do they have any direct access through the government systems to how money is dispersed? Donald Trump: No, nothing. No, they are… This has nothing to do also with the federal cutting, with this federal cutting. This is very separate. This is if you don’t show up, you don’t get paid. But DOGE, I think great progress has been made. We’re talking about cutting over a trillion dollars of waste. We’re talking about waste. Donald Trump: We’re not talking about we are going to love and cherish Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We’re not going to do anything with that, other than if we can find some abuse or waste, we’ll do something, but the people won’t be affected. It’ll only be more effective and better. And our country, as our country gets richer, the people on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, those people are going to be more secure. Donald Trump: If Biden had gotten elected, Social Security was going to fail because the country was failing. It was going to fail. The country was going to fail, and therefore their social security, Medicare, Medicaid and all of the other things that you may get would not be able to be paid. Our country’s getting very strong and you see it. I think more progress has been made in the last two or three weeks than has been made in the last four years. Donald Trump: I think not only has more progress been made, in the last four years, it’s, I’ll call it, de – progress. We went way backward as a country in so many different ways, from woke to all of the other things that took place that were so bad. You look at Afghanistan, how embarrassing that was. I think Afghanistan really started the problem with Russia and Ukraine. Donald Trump: When Putin looked over and he saw how incompetently that was handled, I was getting out, but I was going to keep Bagram. Right now, China has Bagram. I was going to keep one of the biggest air bases in the world. They left it. But other than Bagram, I was going to get out and I wasn’t keeping Bagram for Afghanistan, I was keeping it for China because it’s one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons and we were keeping it. So we have a lot of great things happening in our country and we appreciate that you’re here, and I’m really thrilled about Doug and I’m really thrilled about his friend, Chris Wright, who’s a legend in the oil business. Donald Trump: Right? They keep telling me, Catherine, he’s like a legend, and he’s a legend too in a lot of businesses, and we have an amazing group of people working with us. There’s a man behind me who became a tremendous success. He was not a wealthy man. He didn’t start off a wealthy man, and he ended up a wealthy man, and that’s a great talent and he’s willing to sacrifice so much and to put it to work for our country. Donald Trump: Watch the job he does on the interior, but in particular, on really making our country very, very wealthy by utilizing it properly, and at the same time, environmentally, he does it very… He’s very much an environmentalist. He’s going to do it very carefully and very painstakingly good, but you just watch what happens. Donald Trump: And working with the Department of Energy where his compatriot, his friend, and also consider the most talented man in the oil business is the head of the Department of Energy and they work together. It’s almost like a partnership. It really is a partnership and watch what that does for our country. It’ll be a fantastic thing to see. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. Aide: All right, guys. Thank you. Thank you, friends. Thank you, friends. We’re headed out. Question: On Tulsi Gabbard – Aide: We’re headed out. Thank you. Thanks, guys. We’re headed out. Here we go. Thank you, friends. Thank you, friends. Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s go! Let’s move it out. Heading out, friends. Thank you. We’re going.
Date: 2025-02-01
Today, I have implemented a 25% Tariff on Imports from Mexico and Canada (10% on Canadian Energy), and a 10% additional Tariff on China. This was done through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl. We need to protect Americans, and it is my duty as President to ensure the safety of all. I made a promise on my Campaign to stop the flood of illegal aliens and drugs from pouring across our Borders, and Americans overwhelmingly voted in favor of it.
Date: 2025-02-02
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. So we had a very busy weekend. We got the six hostages out of Venezuela, as you probably know. And, uh, they’re very safe right now, they’re home with their families. And we appreciate the hard work of a lot of people, including Rick Grennell. Uh, we appreciate the cooperation from Venezuela. Donald Trump: And, uh, we have some very happy people right now, nobody thought that was going to happen. So they are home, they’re safe, and they’re with their families. That was a big one. Uh, Secretary of State Rubio is in Panama, Panama right now, and, uh, we’re talking about the Panama Canal. What they’ve done is terrible, they’ve violated the agreement. Donald Trump: They’re not allowed to violate the agreement. China’s running the Panama Canal. That was not given to China, that was given to Panama, foolishly. But they violated the agreement, and we’re gonna take it back or something very powerful is going to happen. And as far as other things are concerned, as you know, we had a very busy weekend, we’re dealing with Israel, we’re dealing with Ukraine and Russia. Donald Trump: We have meetings and talks scheduled with various parties, including Ukraine and Russia. And I think those discussions are actually going pretty well. The discussions on the Middle East with Israel and various and sundry other countries are progressing. Uh, Bibi Netanyahu is coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled. Question: Mr. President, do you feel that Elon Musk is delivering on his promises to you? Do you feel he’s doing a good job right now with DOGE? Donald Trump: I do, I think Elon is doing a good job. He’s a big cost-cutter. Uh, sometimes we won’t agree with it and we’ll, uh, not go where he wants to go. But I think he’s doing a great job. He’s a smart guy, very smart, and he’s very much into cutting our, the budget of our federal government. Question: Mr. – Mr. President – Question: Mr. President. Mr. President. When you talk about retaliatory tariffs from Canada – Donald Trump: Say it. Question: – talks of retaliatory tariffs from Canada and with the rider and, and the order, are you planning, uh decrease the tariffs against Canada? Donald Trump: Well, it could happen. If they do anything, we will. Canada’s been very abusive of the United States for many years. Uh, they don’t allow our banks, did you know that? Canada does not allow banks to go in. If you think about it, that’s pretty amazing. If we have a US bank, they don’t allow them to go in. Canada’s been very tough on oil, on energy, they don’t allow our farm products in, essentially. Donald Trump: Uh, they don’t allow a lot of things in, and we allow everything to come in, it’s been a one-way street. We subsidized Canada by the tune of about $200 billion a year, and for what? What do we get out of it? We don’t get anything out of it. I love the people of Canada. I disagree with the leadership of Canada, and, uh, something’s gonna happen there. Donald Trump: But if they wanna play the game, I don’t mind, we can play the game all they want. Mexico, we’ve had very good talks with them. And, uh, this is retaliatory. This is retaliatory to a certain extent. Millions of people flowed into our country through Mexico and Canada, and we’re not gonna allow that. And by the way, we have among the lowest numbers we’ve ever had of people crossing our border, the lowest numbers since my administration. Question: Mr. President. Mr. President you said, so on Truth Social you said that you were gonna cut aid from South Africa. Were you planned to cut aid across other African nations, and why South Africa? Donald Trump: No. It’s only South Africa. Terrible things are happening in South Africa. The, uh, leadership is, uh, doing some terrible things, uh, horrible things. So that’s under investigation right now, we’ll make a determination. And until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing, they’re taking away land, they’re confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that. Question: Mr. President. And on the Fed, I – on the Fed, Fed chair Jerome Powell, he held rate. What’s your reaction to him not, uh, changing the rate? Donald Trump: Uh, what did you say? Question: Fed chair Jerome Powell, the fed meeting was [Inaudible], he held the rate, he didn’t cut down or anything. Donald Trump: No, I’m not surprised. I think holding the rates at this point was the right thing to do. Question: Mr. President. Mr. President. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, will you – which country will be next on tariffs? Would you consider taxing the UK for example? Donald Trump: Well, we’re gonna see what happens. Th- it’ll happen, but we’re gonna – Question: When? Donald Trump: – might, we’ll see how things work out. It might happen with them, but it will definitely happen with the European Union, I can tell you that, because they’ve really taken advantage of us. And, you know, we have over a $300 billion deficit. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products. They take almost nothing, and we take everything from them. Donald Trump: Millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm product. So the UK is way out of line and we’ll s- we’ll see the, uh, UK, but European Union is really out of line. UK is out of line, but I’m sure that one, I think that one can be worked out. But the, uh, European Union is, it’s, uh, an atrocity, what they’ve done. Question: Well, have you talked [Inaudible] the Prime Mister Starmer wants to close the relationship with to the EU, so anything on that [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Well, Prime Minister Starmer has been very nice, we’ve had a couple of meetings, we’ve had numerous phone calls. We’re getting along very well. We’ll see whether or not we can balance out our budget. With the European Union, it’s, you know, $350 billion deficit. So obviously something’s gonna take place there. Question: So [Inaudible] for the European Union, what’s the timeline, and are you planning – Donald Trump: Where? Where? Question: – along line, 25% – Donald Trump: With who? With who? Question: EU. Um, the EU, you how much? Donald Trump: Uh, I wouldn’t say there’s a timeline, but it’s gonna be pretty soon. Question: [Inaudible, about tariffs] Donald Trump: No, no. I’m not concerned. We may have short-term, some little pain and people understand that, but long-term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world. We have deficits with almost every country. Not every country, but almost. And we’re gonna change it, it’s been unfair. Donald Trump: That’s why we owed $36 trillion. We have deficits with everybody, we help everybody, we’ve been helping everybody for years. And to be honest, I don’t think they appreciate it. So we’re gonna change that. We’re gonna change it fast. We’re gonna make America great again. We have to focus on our country. We have tremendous potential if properly used, and we have to focus on our country. Donald Trump: Uh, tremendous deficits with China, tremendous deficits with the European Union, tremendous deficits with Mexico and Canada. And why? Uh, what’s the purpose of that? Why would we have deficits? And yet you look at, uh, if you look at pharmaceuticals and drugs, if you look at various products, it’s much cheaper in other countries. Donald Trump: We’re not gonna allow that much longer, we’re not gonna take it. Question: Mr. President. Were you planning – USAID, what’s going on there? What’s the – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, it was, it’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out. USAID run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out. And then we’ll make a decision. Question: Mr. – Mr. President, have spoken with anyone from Canada or from Mexico [Inaudible] oppose it. Donald Trump: I’ve spoken with people from Canada, I’ve spoken with people from Mexico, and I’ve spoken to a lot of other people too. Question: Can you say who? So, Prime Minister Trudeau or someone else? Donald Trump: I’m speaking with Prime Minister Trudeau tomorrow morning, and I’m also speaking with, uh, Mexico tomorrow morning. And, uh, I don’t expect anything very dramatic that we put tariffs on. Uh, they owe us a lot of money, and I’m sure they’re gonna pay. Question: Um, Panama, uh, uh, would you do you send troops, to retake the Canal Panama? Would you send – Donald Trump: About what? Question: Panama, the Canal of Panama, would send you US troops. Donald Trump: I don’t think troops will be necessary in Panama. Uh, what Panama has done is terrible for national security, for this part of the world. And, you know, 70% of the signage on the Panama Canal was written in Chinese. That’s not right. So, it wasn’t meant for China. It should have never been made, the deal was a ridiculous deal. Donald Trump: We lost 38,000 people building the Panama Canal, one of the great wonders of the world. 38, think of it, 38, it was the most expensive project ever built by this country, if you take it forward. The most expensive project ever built. We lost 38,000. And what happens? China owns it all of a sudden? Not gonna happen, we’re not gonna let that happen. Donald Trump: We have national security concerns, and they wouldn’t let it happen, either. Question: Mr. President, what does Canada and Mexico need to do for you to lift the tariff? Donald Trump: What? Question: What are you specifically things you want? Donald Trump: They’d have to balance out their trade, number one. They’ve gotta stop people from pouring into our country. And we’ve stopped it, they haven’t stopped it. We’ve stopped it. They have to stop people from pouring in. And we have to stop fentanyl, and that includes China. Fentanyl has killed this year at least 200,000 people. Donald Trump: It’s pouring in from China through Mexico and Canada, and they’ve gotta stop it. And if they don’t stop it, the tariffs are gonna get worse, a lot worse. Question: Mr. President –
Date: 2025-02-02
We pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada. Why? There is no reason. We don’t need anything they have. We have unlimited Energy, should make our own Cars, and have more Lumber than we can ever use. Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada — AND NO TARIFFS!
Date: 2025-02-02
The “Tariff Lobby,” headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA. THOSE DAYS ARE OVER! The USA has major deficits with Canada, Mexico, and China (and almost all countries!), owes 36 Trillion Dollars, and we’re not going to be the “Stupid Country” any longer. MAKE YOUR PRODUCT IN THE USA AND THERE ARE NO TARIFFS! Why should the United States lose TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN SUBSIDIZING OTHER COUNTRIES, and why should these other countries pay a small fraction of the cost of what USA citizens pay for Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, as an example? THIS WILL BE THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA! WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!). BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID. WE ARE A COUNTRY THAT IS NOW BEING RUN WITH COMMON SENSE — AND THE RESULTS WILL BE SPECTACULAR!!!
Date: 2025-02-03
Karoline Leavitt: Hey, guys. Question: Hey, Karoline. – Karoline. How are you? Karoline Leavitt: – the president seemed to leave open that in a couple of weeks, that the tariffs on Mexico could go into effect. He said maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Yeah. Question: What are the metrics he is looking to see over this month from Mexico with those troops going forward? Karoline Leavitt: I think the president has made it astoundingly clear that the reason for these tariffs, and I just talked a lot about this on Fox News, is the illegal surge of deadly drugs and of human beings that we have seen trafficked over the southern border and the northern border, hence the tariffs on Canada. Um, and so, the president is making it very clear to both Canada and Mexico that the United States is no longer going to be a dumping ground for illegal deadly drugs and illegal human beings. Karoline Leavitt: And you saw President Sheinbaum already conceding and putting 10,000 troops, permanent troops, I would add, not temporary, Mexican soldiers on the southern border to deter some of that illegal migration. So, the president will continue to have these negotiations. I won’t get ahead of him. He’s also going to make sure that Secretary Bessant, um, soon to be secretary and Secretary Lutnick and Secretary Rubio, are deeply involved in these negotiations as well. Question: Karoline – Karoline Leavitt: Steve? Question: Karoline, I want to speak to the President of China and what will be their agenda? Karoline Leavitt: Sure, well, he said in the Oval Office, it will happen in the next couple of days. I don’t have a schedule yet, but I can check with NSC and let you guys know. And we’ll obviously provide a readout of that call either via White House statement like we do or via Truth Social like we do sometimes as well. Kaitlan? Question: Can you confirm that Elon Musk is a special government employee? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Question: What kind of security clearance does he have? Karoline Leavitt: I can confirm he’s a special government employee. I can also confirm that he has abided by all applicable federal laws. As for his security clearance, I’m not sure, but I can check back with you. Question: Does he – did he pass a background check, do you know? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t know about the security clearance, but I can check. Question: And, do you know about anyone who’s on his team that was at USAID this weekend or at Treasury Department, whether they also have security clearances? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t, no. But, again, I can check on that for you. Sure. Question: I want to ask about the hostage deal. We saw people coming out of Gaza alive because Trump managed to get this deal done. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, that’s right. Question: And it was very emotional for people in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming here tomorrow. Um, he might not want to go through with the second phase of the deal. What do you think President Trump would like to happen? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I’m not so sure that’s true. You know, the cease fire was extended because of the work of President Trump and his Presidential envoy. Steve Witkoff, who has proven to be an incredibly effective negotiator and the president, and this entire administration, are committed to having all of the hostages come home. Karoline Leavitt: And as you’ve seen, his team is working very, very hard to do that. Question: – one American hostage coming back home and another one will be – Karoline Leavitt: That’s right. Question: – back home soon? Karoline Leavitt: Yes, we hope so. Question: Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Karoline, the president’s a keen watcher of the financial markets, how much did Wall Street’s fall this morning have an impact on his decision in regards to the Mexico tariff decision? Karoline Leavitt: It had no decision. What impacted the delay on the tariffs was the President of Mexico committing to putting 10,000 permanent soldiers on the US Mexican border. The president cares about American lives. And as I just said on television, you know, there’s a lot of talk about the markets, there’s a lot of talk about, you know, the cost of goods. Karoline Leavitt: This administration is wholeheartedly committed to bringing down the cost of living in this country. You see that through deregulation, through the energy actions this president has taken, also through his commitment to cutting taxes, but when it comes to the cost of an American life, I think for those of us who have children, you would – there’s not enough money in the world to bring back the lives that have been lost because of the illegal drug and border crisis, and the president is committed to ensuring that Canada and Mexico and China are – understand that the United States is not going to be a dumping ground for illegal fentanyl that is killing young people in this country. Karoline Leavitt: It’s the leading cause of death amongst those aged 18 to 34. And that’s the president’s number one priority is protecting American lives. Question: Karoline – Karoline American – Can you talk more about the first call that President Trump had with Prime Minister Trudeau this morning? What were some areas for potential negotiations and any bottlenecks? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, I hate to be coy, but just because I believe they’re on the phone right now, I’ll have to go in and check. I don’t want to get ahead of the discussions or the conversations. But in the effort of transparency, we will either provide a readout or you’ll hear from the president directly. Question: Karoline, what do you say to Americans who understand the president’s negotiating strategy and understand the goals that he’s trying to achieve with tariffs, but are worried they’re going to get caught in the middle of this and feel the pain, potentially in the short-term or even long-term? Karoline Leavitt: Well, they won’t get caught in the middle if they just comply with what the United States is asking for, which are very simple measures, to work with us when it comes to border security, to cooperate with the repatriation of their nation’s citizens. You saw President Trump effectively utilize tariffs when he was negotiating with Colombia last weekend as well. Karoline Leavitt: Ultimately, they conceded and agreed to the deportation flights that have – many of them have landed in the last week. Question: Karoline – Karoline Leavitt: Karen? Question: Do you know if Mr. Musk took the same oath that you and other senior advisers to the president took about adhering to the Constitution, following the law? Do you know if he took that oath? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t know the answer to that question, but like I told Kaitlan, I can get back to you guys on that. Question: And do you know what expertise he has in the areas of global health or humanitarian aid to be able to assess what’s happening at USAID? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all, Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader. He is an entrepreneur. He serves as a great ally and a friend to the president. And I think Elon Musk also has a little bit of common sense. And I think the American people really appreciate that when it comes to the federal government because it seems like all common sense has been lost in this city and that’s what you see when you look at USAID. Karoline Leavitt: I know Secretary Rubio made some comments about how he will be acting as the director of that agency. Karoline Leavitt: And here’s the reason why Elon Musk and others have been taking a look. Because if you look at the waste and abuse that has run through USAID over the past several years, these are some of the insane priorities that that organization has been spending money on; $ 1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces. Karoline Leavitt: $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru. I don’t know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars going towards this crap and I know the American people don’t either, and that’s exactly what Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to do, to get the fraud, waste and abuse out of our federal government. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you, guys.
Date: 2025-02-03
Peter Navarro: What’s up. Question: How are you? Could you take a few questions from us? Would you? Peter Navarro: Let me make a few remarks. Question: OK, thank you. Peter Navarro: We have a very fast moving situation with the tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico. Obviously, we’ve had a very good result today with Mexico, with the president negotiating directly with the Mexican president. The back story there is that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller here in the White House, the folks at DHS have all done a very good job trying to work with the Mexican government. Peter Navarro: The Mexican government understands this, that this is a drug war, not a trade war. This is a drug war, not a trade war. We have an unprecedented amount of Americans dying every year from fentanyl alone and it’s roughly the same number, about 75,000 annually, that are going to be sitting in the Superdome for the Super Bowl. Peter Navarro: And it’s more by a large margin than the number of soldiers we lost in the Vietnam War, and this happens year after year after year. The way this process works is it starts with China. China makes what’s called the precursor chemicals that are then blended by Mexican drug cartels in Mexico into not just deadly fentanyl, but the fentanyl is used also to spike, things like heroin and speed and other deadly drugs. Peter Navarro: And that pushes the death toll to well over 100,000 a year. And then what has happened with Canada is the Mexican cartels have expanded up to Canada. They’re making fentanyl there and sending it down to the US from there. The – the Chinese are using Canada to send in small parcels below the radar and fentanyl, one glass of it, can kill millions of Americans, just one single glass. Peter Navarro: It’s that deadly. Canada, what is it now, it’s 1:27 here East Coast time. President Trump will be speaking for the second time with the Canadian Prime minister, Justin Trudeau. The difference between Mexico and Canada thus far is that Canada thinks we’re fighting a trade war with them. That’s not the case here. Peter Navarro: This is a drug war. And I think it’s important that if Canada, Canadian citizens themselves can understand that what we are trying to do here is stop the killing of Americans by these deadly drugs, to stop Canada from allowing terrorists on the watch list, up to 100 have already come in, from entering our country that will be a – the way to find a resolution of this problem. Peter Navarro: So, let’s see what happens. The boss always likes to say that. I’ll take a few questions only with respect to this situation, sir? Question: Can you say – so, are you happy that now that there’s a deferral for a month with the Mexican, uh – with the Mexican tariffs, and do you – do you think that these tariffs were used more as a threat or were you – are you – is the administration actually planning for them to take effect? Peter Navarro: If President Trump and the Mexican president can agree on substantial steps towards solving this problem, which will then lead to a 30-day grace period on this, everybody should be happy. Mexico is happy, the United States is happy. We’ve got a long way to go. There’s a lot of things to be done, but this is the way President Trump negotiates. Peter Navarro: And you can rest assured that if we do not get cooperation from countries, then of course the tariffs will be implemented. We have no other choice. President Trump wants to save American lives. Yes, ma’am? Question: Say that the tariffs go – have to go into effect, when do you think, and what kind of results, do you expect to have in terms of fentanyl entering the United States? Peter Navarro: Well, the obvious metric here is to see no Americans dying from fentanyl, that – and no fentanyl being seized at the border, and no intelligence that tells us that the Mexican cartels are making all of that. So, there’s just a lot of – there’s a lot of metrics. Yes, ma’am? Question: Sir, do you expect a similar deal with Canada to happen later today? And are you also talking to China potentially about deferrals for them as well? Peter Navarro: President Trump is speaking with Prime Minister Trudeau. Obviously, we have had a good result so far with, uh, Mexico. But – but this is going to be, uh – it’s going to take some time to get to where we need to be. This is a crisis. I – I’m one of three people that was with the president at the senior level back in the first term. Peter Navarro: I served all four years; Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino are the other two. I watched this crisis, Kellyanne Conway was kind of the tip of that spear, and we got nothing, nothing, but misdirection from all of the people involved in that chain; China, Mexico, Canada, on that issue and people kept dying and then Biden comes along and he doesn’t even care. Peter Navarro: We care. President Trump cares. President Trump ran on this. This is a key part of why Americans voted for Trump; the border invasion, a key component of that is fentanyl. Yes, sir? Question: Have you heard any more on China, what’s going to be the conversation there? Peter Navarro: I – I – that’s to be determined at this point. Yeah. Today the – today, the phone call is with President Trudeau. Yes, ma’am? Let me take one more and then I got to get to things. Yes, ma’am? Question: What action specifically are you looking to see from Canada in order to consider a grace period? And then I know you don’t want to get too far into China, but have officials in the administration been in contact with their counterparts on this issue today? Peter Navarro: So, that’s a diplomatic issue. And those discussions will be between Canadian diplomats, the presidents, President Trump, Mr. Trudeau, and as I said earlier, Mark – Senator – Secretary of State, Marco Rubio has been doing a wonderful job engaging. Um, this is the way diplomacy works and President Trump does it better than anybody. Peter Navarro: All right, one more. Sir? Question: Considering that President Trump declared that Mexican cartels are terrorist organization, do you consider the Mexican government as a terrorist supporting – Peter Navarro: Let’s not – this this kind of – this is not the kind of question or rhetoric we need. OK. Hang on, sir. This is a serious matter. Americans are dying and we’re going to have sober reflection on what needs to be done to solve it and we’re not going to have that kind of rhetoric. OK? I appreciate you. I appreciate – I got – I got stuff to do. I think I’ve given you more than enough here. Peter Navarro: And I’m more than – Question: Thank you, sir. Thank you, appreciate it. Peter Navarro: Yes, sir? OK. Thank you. Question: Thank you, sir. Peter Navarro: Yes.
Date: 2025-02-03
Donald Trump: Hello, how are you? Thank you very much. We have some very exciting news today. We have – numerous fronts are being covered. Before we do that, Will will give me certain proclamations, we’ll sign them, and you’ll hear a little bit about them. Will, please. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. First, we have for your signature five official designations of special envoys. The first is Mr. Steve Witkoff, who is actually in the room, to be your Middle East envoy. Donald Trump: Where is Steve? Steve Witkoff, everybody – done a great job in the Middle East, really great. But we’ll see how it all turns out. It’s complex, but I think he’s going to do very well. Will Scharf: Next, we have Mauricio Claver-Carone to be your special envoy to Latin America, sir. Donald Trump: Okay, good man. OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, we have retired general, Keith Kellogg, to be your special envoy on Russian-Ukraine issues. Donald Trump: We’ve made a lot of progress on Russia, Ukraine, we’ll see what happens, but a lot of progress has been made. We’re going to stop that ridiculous war. OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, we have the designation of Richard Grenell – Ric Grenell to be your envoy for special missions. Donald Trump: I sent him to California to California to turn on the water. We turned it on. It was not easy because we had to go through a lot of environmentalists that are causing a lot of problems, and we have billions of gallons of water, it was on three days ago, you probably saw it should have gotten a lot of press, but it didn’t get much. Donald Trump: All we’re doing is giving Los Angeles and the entire state of California virtually unlimited water, which they could have done five years ago, which I told them they should do, but the environmentalists stopped them, and we opened it and we did it regardless of the state. And now the state seems to be very happy. Donald Trump: I spoke with Gavin Newsom and he’s very happy. I almost called him by the other name, didn’t I, my little nickname for him? But I think they’re all happy. They have a lot of water in California. Too bad we didn’t have it about two months ago, right? Unidentified: Mr. President – Donald Trump: –That was – by the way, that was a big – that was a big move. We have – I don’t know if you saw the pictures that were released of the water pouring down from the Pacific Northwest and Canada and lots of other places. And it’s a pretty amazing sight. Unidentified: Mr. President, Rick Grenell had a big Friday trip as well. Donald Trump: He had a very big Friday trip. You’re right, we’ll talk about that. He’s doing – he’s a good man, Rick. Will Scharf: Lastly, sir, we have a designation of Mark Burnett as your special envoy to the United Kingdom. Donald Trump: You know, Mark Burnett is – he should be good. He’s certainly done a great job, a friend of mine and very talented guy. We have very talented people working for us. I’ll hold that one up because Mark gets so much television, we’ll hold it up, right? He’ll be thrilled to see it. He’s going to do a good job. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, your administration has smashed records for appointing large numbers of highly qualified capable people at all levels of the federal government. These are 28 subcabinet level officials being appointed to a number of different departments and agencies. Some of them are quite important positions like departmental general councils, but these are people who have been pre-vetted and have received your approval previously. Donald Trump: Very good. OK? Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, this is an executive order. This charges your Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, and your Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, to begin a process that will hopefully result in the creation of an American sovereign wealth fund. Donald Trump: It’s a very exciting event. We’re going to have a sovereign wealth fund, which we’ve never had. We have a lot of things that create wealth, and you’ve seen that over the last two weeks. I think we’ve created more wealth. Other people have created de-wealth, the people, my predecessors, we’re creating a lot of wealth. Donald Trump: Scott, maybe you’d like to say something about it, and I’d ask also Howard to say something about it. Scott Bessent: Yes, sir. This is very exciting. We’re going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months. We’re going to monetize the asset side of the US balance sheet for the American people. We’re going to put the assets to work, and I think it’s going to be very exciting. We’re going to study best practices as done around the world. Scott Bessent: It’ll be a combination of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country as we work to bring them out for the American people. Howard Lutnick: The extraordinary size and scale of the US government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens. If we are going to buy 2 billion COVID vaccines, maybe we should have some warrants and some equity in these companies and have that grow for the help of the American people. Howard Lutnick: So, bring all these things together, I think we’ll create – Scott and I will create an amazing sovereign wealth fund for you, sir. Donald Trump: So, other countries have sovereign wealth funds and they’re much smaller countries and they’re not the United States. We have tremendous potential in this country, tremendous. You’re seeing that – what’s happened just in a short period of time. And as an example, TikTok, we’re going to be doing something perhaps with TikTok and perhaps not. Donald Trump: If we make the right deal, we’ll do it, otherwise we won’t. But I have the right to do that. And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make. Or if we do a partnership with a very wealthy people, a lot of options. But we could put that, as an example, in the fund and we have a lot of other things that we could put in the fund. Donald Trump: And I think in a short period of time we’d have one of the biggest funds. And you know, some of them are pretty large, I must tell you, some of the – like the Saudi Arabia Fund is on the large side, but eventually we’ll catch it. But we’re going to create a lot of wealth for the fund. And I think it’s about time that this country had a sovereign wealth fund. Donald Trump: And these two gentlemen, and some others, are going to work with them very closely and they’ll be heading it up and they’re going to do a great job. Two highly respected people that have done unbelievably well in the world, in the real world. So, that’s a big deal, huh? Scott Bessent: Yes, sir, I think it’s going to create value and be of great strategic importance. Question: Mr. President, why is it important for Elon Musk to have access to the payment systems at Treasury? Donald Trump: Well, he’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good if we agree with him. And it’s only if we agree with him. He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs. And we put him in charge of seeing what he can do with certain groups and certain numbers. The numbers, some of the numbers are horrible, what He’s found. Donald Trump: 100 – think of it, $100 million on condoms to Hamas, condoms to Hamas, and many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous. And they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else I think you could say, probably fraud and abuse can be added to it, the more standard waste, fraud and abuse. Donald Trump: But they’re finding tremendous amounts of really bad things, bad spending. You’ve been reading about – you’ve been writing about some of it, frankly. And some of the things that they’ve been doing is just terrible. Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate. Donald Trump: Where not appropriate we won’t. But he reports in and he – it’s something that he feels very strongly about. And I’m impressed because he’s running, obviously, a big company – has nothing to do, if there’s a conflict, that we won’t let him get near it. But he does have a good natural instinct. He’s got a team of very talented people and we’re trying to shrink government, and he can probably shrink it as well as anybody else, if not better. Donald Trump: Where we think there’s a conflict or there’s a problem, we won’t let them go near it, but he has some very good ideas, and we have a lot of very – other talented people also. We’re bringing in the most talented people in the world. By the way, we just – unrelated, but we have two of the most talented people in the world, the legendary Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison. Donald Trump: So, they’re two legends in business, publishing and probably every other. Rupert is, Larry, pretty much in a class by himself, right? I mean, although he may have a couple of bucks more, I don’t know. But Rupert is in a class by himself. He’s an amazing guy. And Larry is – Larry is Larry. Larry is one of the most serious players anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: So, it’s an honor to have you. This has nothing to do with you people, but they’re here and I thought it would be appropriate. I’m sure you didn’t recognize them. They’re all going crazy. They’re saying what are they doing here? Unidentified: Thank you, sir. Question: Is there any chance that Canada or China could also get out of the tariffs after you struck a deal with Mexico? Donald Trump: Well, nobody’s out with Mexico. We had a great talk with Mexico. And we had – President Sheinbaum is a woman. I like her very much. We’ve had good relationships, but we have to stop fentanyl from coming in, whether I like somebody or not. And we have to stop the illegal aliens from coming in. I think we’ve lost 200,000 people on average a year for many years, much higher than the 100,000, could be even closer to 300,000. And they’ve agreed to put in 10,000 soldiers permanently – like forever – 10,000 soldiers at their side of the border and stop fentanyl and illegal aliens from coming into our country, they have a big incentive to do. Other than that, we’ve agreed to talk and consider various other things. Donald Trump: We haven’t agreed on tariffs yet and maybe we will, maybe we won’t. But we have a very good relationship. I also spoke with Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, and we had a good talk in the morning, but I did ask him a couple of questions. Like, you know, banks aren’t allowed to do business in Canada. Canada is very tough, Canada is very – you know, we’re not treated well by Canada and we have to be treated well. Donald Trump: Banks are not, as an example, allowed – did you know that, that banks – American banks are not allowed to do business in Canada. Can you believe that? And that’s one of many things that we talked about it. And I think we’ll win most of the subjects, but for some reason, a lot of things have been very unfair with Canada. Donald Trump: I noticed that in the first term. You deal with people and after a while you begin to realize – like you learned that Larry Ellison is very tough to do business with, OK? He’s a very tough guy [Laughter]. I mean, I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that. But Canada is very tough. They’re very, very tough to do business with. Donald Trump: And we can’t let them take advantage of the US. They don’t take our agricultural product for the most part. They don’t take our cars. They make cars, but they basically don’t take our cars. And you know, we don’t need – and look, I think we’re going to have another good conversation today. We’re actually speaking at 3:00 again. Donald Trump: But we don’t need them to make our cars. We don’t need them to give us lumber. We don’t need them for agricultural products because we have all the agriculture we need. They don’t take our agricultural products for the most part, our milk and dairy, etc. A little bit they do, but not much. We take theirs. Donald Trump: And as far as cars are concerned, they took in a big percentage, almost 19 percent of the market. And you know, I wouldn’t mind making our cars in the United States, so we have a problem there. I’d like to make our cars in the US. We don’t need Canada to make our cars. With that being said, we’re going to have another call at 3:00. We had a call this morning. Donald Trump: It was a pretty good call, I’d say. So, the call with Mexico went very well in the sense that they’re very strong now on the border, they’re going to put soldiers there. Actually, their best military soldiers and they’re going to be at the border, 10,000. That’s a lot of soldiers and they want to protect it also. Donald Trump: You know, they want – they don’t want people running through Mexico, coming through Mexico to come into our country. So, they’re going to do that and then we’re going to talk about other things over the next – and we’re going to have, over the next 30 days, we’re going to have Scott, Howard and Marco – Marco Rubio, Secretary of State – lead the delegation and we’re going to have a big negotiation with Mexico. Donald Trump: I’ll be involved too, and President Sheinbaum will be involved to see whether or not we can work something out on the tariffs. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – on fentanyl in China? Donald Trump: China, we’ll be speaking to China probably over the next 24 hours. Question: On fentanyl and China, President Trump. Donald Trump: We don’t want fentanyl coming into our country. Now we had another big thing, speaking of China, China is involved with the Panama Canal. They won’t be for long, and that’s the way it has to be. Marco just got back, as you know, he’s in the process of coming back. I guess he’s almost back by now. And he had a very long conversation with the leader of Panama, the respected man and some others, the entire leadership group. Donald Trump: And we’re trying to work a deal on the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal was given, foolishly years ago, to – it shouldn’t have happened – years ago to Panama by Jimmy Carter and the group. We lost 38,000 people building the Panama Canal like the – one of the great wonders of the world. It’s the biggest job we’ve ever built. Donald Trump: The biggest project we’ve ever built in this country, dollar wise and every other way, 38,000 people died, Americans, all men just about, laborers and construction people that went to Panama. The mosquito got them. Between mosquitoes and snakes, we lost 38,000 people. It was the most expensive project ever built by the United States. Donald Trump: The biggest, most expensive project we ever built, 110 years ago. If you bring it up to now, it would have been the equivalent of $2 trillion, the most expensive we ever built. And we gave it away for $1, OK? We gave it away essentially for nothing. And we either want it back or we’re going to get something very strong, or we’re going to take it back. Donald Trump: And China will be dealt with. And we didn’t give that to China, we gave it to Panama. We shouldn’t have given it to Panama, but Panama, as you know, has violated the agreement – totally violated the agreement. So, that’s in the process right now, but they did have a very good meeting with the head of Panama. Question: In addition to tariffs on China, would you say your current thinking about whether China should be forced to pay reparations with fentanyl deaths and the million COVID deaths? Donald Trump: No, I haven’t talked about that, but they do have tariffs. Honestly, nobody – the amount of money that was lost and, most importantly, the lives lost because of COVID, is not something that anybody could ever even imagine. It’s probably $60 trillion and all the countries in the world don’t have $60 trillion. Donald Trump: The amount of death and the amount of destruction and the amount of money lost is probably $60 trillion. I had it figured by people about three months ago. I just said, figure it out. Nobody knows what the real number is, but it’s almost an infinite number, the damage done, but I have not discussed that. Donald Trump: What I have discussed is we’ll have some good meetings with China. We have meetings planned and we’ll see what happens. But that was just an opening salvo. If we can’t make a deal with China, then the tariffs will be very, very substantial. OK, I’m going to sign this one. Will Scharf: Sir, this is – you’ve obviously made Making America Healthy Again a key priority of this administration. A key component of that is obviously heart health. This is a ceremonial proclamation declaring the month of February to be National Heart Month. Donald Trump: OK. I hear we’re doing very well with nominations. We’ll see. But it looks like we’re doing very well with nominations. Question: Mr. President, have you been involved with calling senators who had some concerns about Tulsi Gabbard or [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Yes, yeah, I’ve gotten great response. And they want to do what’s right, and we’ve had a good response. I think we’ll do well. We have great people like – people like this. We have great, great people coming in. I think I’d like to say the best ever recruited for government. I think we have the finest people ever recruited for government. Question: Will it take an act of congress – Donald Trump: –And you know what, you’re starting to see that because we’ve done more in two weeks than Biden has done in five years, six years. They could be here between him and Obama, you add it up, OK, we’ve done more in two weeks than they’ve done in 12 years. Question: Will it take an act of congress to do away with USAID or you believe you have – Donald Trump: –I don’t know, I don’t think so. No, we’ve – not when it comes to fraud. If there’s fraud, these people are lunatics. And if it comes to fraud, you wouldn’t have an act of congress and I’m not sure that you would anyway. But we just want to do the right thing. It’s something that should have been done a long time ago. Donald Trump: It went crazy during the Biden administration – they went totally crazy, what they were doing, and the money they were giving to people that shouldn’t be getting it and to agencies and others that shouldn’t be getting it, it was a shame. So, they have tremendous fraud, but we’ll be doing a report. We’ll be giving you that report at the appropriate time. Yeah. Question: During the first time though, USAID was something that you liked in some respects. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – program? Donald Trump: I love the concept of it. Yeah, sure. I love the concept, but they turned out to be radical left lunatics and the concept of it is good. But it’s all about the people. Question: Mr. President, you said you also want to impose tariffs on the EU. What kind of tariffs are you talking about? Donald Trump: Well, we have massive deficits with the European Union, massive like $350 billion if you can believe it. They don’t take our farm product. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take almost anything, but we take their cars. We have millions of cars coming in, BMW and Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, and just so many different cars and we don’t do anything about that. Donald Trump: And we don’t charge them tariffs. They make it impossible to sell cars in the European Union. They make it very difficult, agricultural product, they actually don’t take it. And they have a lot of excuses. Some of them are the pesticides and the different chemicals used, and Bobby Kennedy actually is looking at that very, very seriously because maybe it’s not necessary to use all of that. Donald Trump: We want to be the healthiest country and we’re not. We spend more money on food than anybody else in terms of its creation, but we’re not the healthiest country. So, maybe there is something to the fact that we shouldn’t be using so much chemical and maybe that will stop. But Bobby Kennedy is the one because he’s – he is not a believer in all of the things we have done, and neither are the Europeans. Donald Trump: So, we’ll see what happens. But they use it as an excuse not to buy our product and they – you tried – I asked a couple of the leaders, I don’t want to use names, but how many Chevrolets or Fords do you see in the middle of Munich? And the answer is, none, because they don’t take any cars, they don’t take anything. Donald Trump: So, the European has abused the United States for years, and they can’t do that. And they want to make a deal. Let me tell you, in all cases, they all want to make deals. There’s nobody that doesn’t want to make deals. They’ve been abusers and they want to make deals. So, we’ll see about that. But we’ll have, I think, some very fair – all we want is a fair deal. Donald Trump: And you know, there’s a word, reciprocal. I’d go right now, reciprocal tariffs on everybody, because many of the countries that you feel so horrible about the way they’re being treated by Trump, you’re saying, oh, President Trump is so terrible to them. Well, they charge us tariffs. European Union has a VAT tax, which is through the roof, OK. It’s a similar thing, similar to a tariff. Donald Trump: It’s a VAT. And they have it and it’s numbers like you wouldn’t believe. And Canada, I told you about the banks and I told you they charge us – and people don’t say that, they don’t like to say it, just like they don’t like to say that I opened up the water for California. It’s a great thing, it’s too bad they didn’t do it themselves. Donald Trump: I had to do it, and it was not easy. We did it a very rough way and I didn’t like to do it a rough way. We shouldn’t have to do it a rough way. But a lot of these countries that we’re talking about, they’re our so-called allies, but they don’t treat us well. And just like I got $420 billion and now it’s actually over $600 billion. Donald Trump: The secretary general of NATO came in two weeks ago and he said it was a miracle when Trump came in. When President Trump came into NATO, I got – he said it was $636 billion by saying to them, no, you have to pay and if you don’t pay, we’re not going to be there for you. You know, somebody has to say it and they paid, and it was a large amount of money. Donald Trump: And one of the problems we have with the Russia-Ukraine situation is that we want to see some equalization because we’re in for close to $300 billion and they’re in for $200 billion less. Why are they in for less? Because Biden never asked them for money. He never said you’ve got to pay, he never did. All he did was hand out money. Donald Trump: So, we’re talking with them right now and we’re actually working some deals right now, so we have some guarantees and some other things to keep that whole situation to go – really going. I mean going. We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earth. We want what we put up to go in terms of a guarantee. Donald Trump: We want a guarantee. We want – we’re handing them money hand over fist. We’re giving them equipment. European is not keeping up with us. They should equalize. Look, we have an ocean in between, they don’t – it’s more important for them than it is for us. But they’re way below us in terms of money, and they should be paying at least equal. Donald Trump: They should really be paying much more than us, but let’s say equal to us. And they’re billions and billions of dollars below. So, we’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the deal with Mexico this morning, was that partially related to the market reaction and a criticism from Mr. Murdoch’s own newspaper. He called it the dumbest trade war on the editorial page on Saturday. Donald Trump: I’m going to have to talk to him [Laughter]. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I’ve been right over the Wall Street Journal many times; I will tell you. I don’t agree with him on some things. No, not only is it not dumb, you’re going to see – you’re going to see. Every single one of those countries is dying to make a deal. You know why? Because they’re ripping us off really badly. Donald Trump: And the United States is tired of being ripped off. We’re just being ripped off. And that’s why we have $36 trillion in debt. We have it for a reason because we make bad deals with everybody, and we don’t allow that anymore. So, the Wall Street Journal is wrong because, very simply, every single country that you’re writing about right now is dying to make a deal because the deals they have right now are so good and so good for them and so profitable for them. Donald Trump: You didn’t know that Canada didn’t allow our banks. You didn’t know all of these different things. And I think in the end, you’re going to see that either very, very substantial tariffs are going to be paid by them or they’re going to make some kind of a deal. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the Mexican President Sheinbaum? Donald Trump: Did what? Question: Did you blink this morning? Donald Trump: There was no blinking, no, she’s a wonderful woman, but she did agree to 10,000 soldiers on the border. I would say that’s a lot. Would you say that’s pretty good? 10,000 soldiers on the border and the 10,000 soldiers are going to keep illegal aliens out and they’re going to keep them out – seriously out. Donald Trump: And otherwise, they’re going to have a big penalty. Mexico is going to be penalized. They’re not going to come through Mexico anymore and they’re not going to let the fentanyl come in from China. And China hopefully is going to stop sending us fentanyl. And if they’re not, the tariffs are going to go substantially higher. Question: Sir, just to clarify what you said about Ukraine earlier, the rare earths, is that something you want them to give the rare earths to the United States? Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah, I want to have security of rare earths. We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth, and I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it. Question: Sir, you mentioned earlier that you wanted to – –On Canada, when you talk to Justin Trudeau again, is there anything he can give you at 3 p.m. when you talk again to also procure a pause? Donald Trump: I don’t know. Question: Like you said, no matter what. Donald Trump: I don’t Know. We have big deficits with Canada, like we do with all countries. I mean I look at some of the deals made, I say who the hell made these deals, they’re so bad. But with Canada, I have a talk with him and you maybe know or maybe not. We’re going to meet again or talk again at 3:00, right after my next meeting. Donald Trump: And we’ll see what happens. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – some actions that he could agree to to change your mind on the tariffs? Donald Trump: Well, we can always – look, what I’d like to see, Canada become our 51st state. We give them protection, military protection. We don’t need them to build our cars. I’d rather see Detroit or South Carolina or any one of our Tennessee – any one of our states build the cars. They could do it very easily. We don’t need them for the cars. Donald Trump: We don’t need them for lumber. We don’t need them for anything. We don’t need them for energy, we have more energy than they do. We don’t need them for energy. So, I say why are we doing this? Why do we – why are we willing to lose between $100 billion and $200 billion a year? We don’t need them. As a state it’s different, as a state it’s much different, and there are no tariffs. Donald Trump: So, I’d love to see that, but some people say that would be a long shot. If people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100 percent certain that they’d become a state. But a lot of people don’t like to play the game because they don’t have a threshold of pain – and there would be some pain, but not a lot. Donald Trump: The pain would be really theirs. So, we’re going to meet again by phone at 3:00 and we’ll let you know [Crosstalk]. Question: On Israel, President Trump, you’re [Inaudible] with Benjamin Netanyahu. Donald Trump: Coming in tomorrow. Question: Yes, you mentioned in the past you’re concerned about Israel being too small geographically. Would you support annexation of parts of the West Bank by Israel? Donald Trump: Well, I’m not going to talk about that. It certainly is a small – it’s a small country in terms of land. I take – see this pen, this wonderful pen? My desk is the Middle East and this pen, the top of the pen, that’s Israel, that’s not good, right? You know, that’s a pretty big difference. I use that as an analogy. Donald Trump: It’s pretty accurate actually. It’s a pretty small piece of land and it’s amazing that they’ve been able to do what they’ve been able to do when you think about it. There’s a lot of good smart brain power, but it is a very small piece of land, no question about it. Question: Mr. President, you said earlier that Elon Musk is doing everything with your say so. So, is there anything that he has done thus far going to all the agencies, shutting off access, getting access to federal payments, that all has your – you’re okay with all of that? Donald Trump: For the most part, yeah, if we – I mean, if there was something that didn’t have my OK, I’d let you know about it really fast. Question: You said there are some areas where you wouldn’t let him work because he has conflicts of interest. Donald Trump: If there was a conflict. No, no, I haven’t seen that and he would know not to do it. So, we haven’t had that yet. But if there was a conflict, we would let him work in that area. Question: Earlier you said, with regard to Panama, that they were going to make a deal, or the US is going to take it. How long do they have to make that sort of deal? And are you still leaving it on the table – Donald Trump: –We’re going to meet with Panama on Friday at about 3:30 in the afternoon by phone, and maybe there will be some representatives here or there. But we’re going to be talking to Panama on Friday essentially. And they’ve agreed to certain things but I’m not happy with it. Question: [Inaudible] Mr. President, if I may. Do you still have doubts that the ceasefire will hold? Donald Trump: On what? Question: On the Middle East, do you think the ceasefire will hold? Donald Trump: I have no assurances that it will hold. I mean I’ve seen people brutalized. I’ve never – nobody has ever seen anything like it. No, I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold. Steve, you might want to say something about that, Steve Witkoff. Steve Witkoff: It’s holding so far. So, and we’re certainly hopeful. And that’s the president’s direction, get the hostages out, save lives and come to hopefully a peaceful settlement of it all. So, so far, it’s holding. Question: Mr. President, on a different topic, questionnaires have been going out to FBI agents across the country who were involved potentially in the investigation. Do you believe anyone involved at any level should be fired, sir? Donald Trump: Well, I think the FBI was a very corrupt institution, and I’m a victim of it in a true sense. I was able to beat it, but other people have been treated horribly. I think the FBI has a great reputation – had a great reputation. I think its reputation was really damaged badly, as is DOJ. Look at what they’ve done in terms of weaponization. Donald Trump: Look at what they’ve done to a political opponent, probably got me elected by what they did. I think I was doing well anyway, but they might have gotten me elected. But you know what? We have to have pristine, beautiful, perfect law enforcement, and what we want to do – and Kash is the one to do it. He’s the one guy that is going to do it. We have to bring the reputation of the FBI. Donald Trump: We have to bring the fact of the FBI back to what it could be, not even to what it was, even better than it ever was. Donald Trump: Because who would have thought that the FBI could have been corrupted like they were corrupted? Who would have thought that would have happened? Who would have thought they would have been used to go after political opponents essentially, but me being the number one? And so many other things beyond that. Donald Trump: And they’ve been hurt very badly, and we’ll see what happens. But Kash is the one to do it, and I hear he’s doing very well. Kash will straighten it out. We have great confidence that we can make the FBI great again. OK, one or two more and we’ll be done. Question: Tulsi Gabbard, her [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: Yeah, I think Tulsi is going to be doing OK. I’m not sure, I can’t guarantee anything, but she’s liked by so many people, especially people in the military and law enforcement. Question: She has a little bit of trouble with some senators over her thoughts on Edward Snowden. I know with Snowden – you’ve mentioned in the past you’re thinking about pardoning him. Are you still and what do you think of that – Donald Trump: –No, I don’t talk to him about it right now. I just – people feel very differently. Some people think he should be pardoned, and some people think it would be a terrible thing to do, but I don’t get involved in that. Question: Mr. President, what are you discussing with Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Ellison right now? Donald Trump: Just respect. I have great respect for Rupert Murdoch. I disagree with him a lot of times with the Wall Street Journal, but that’s all right. We’ve disagreed before, but – and I’m sure they didn’t have any idea what they were talking about because already you see what’s happening. Look at Columbia, look at what happened with that. Donald Trump: Everybody said that with Columbia it was going to be a disaster. In one hour, everything was settled. You know why? Tariffs. Tariffs – without tariffs, they wouldn’t have been the same way. They would not have treated me the way they treated me, which was extremely nicely. And I don’t want to use countries, I don’t want to use names, but tariffs are very powerful, both economically and in getting everything else you want. Donald Trump: Tariffs for us, nobody can compete with us because we’re the pot of gold. But if we don’t keep winning and keep doing well, we won’t be the pot of gold. And then tariffs won’t be so good for us. But when you’re the pot of gold, the tariffs are very good, they’re very powerful and they’re going to make our country very rich again. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. Unidentified: Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Let’s go. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I don’t know. I don’t know. How is the market doing? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: So, I did. I don’t know, I don’t think about it. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-02-03
Canada has agreed to ensure we have a secure Northern Border, and to finally end the deadly scourge of drugs like Fentanyl that have been pouring into our Country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, while destroying their families and communities all across our Country.Canada will implement their $1.3 Billion Border plan, and as per Prime Minister Trudeau, will be, “reinforcing the Border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are, and will be, working on protecting the Border. In addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a Fentanyl Czar, we will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24/7 eyes on the Border, launch a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering. I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl, and we will be backing it with $200 million.”As President, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of ALL Americans, and I am doing just that. I am very pleased with this initial outcome, and the Tariffs announced on Saturday will be paused for a 30 day period to see whether or not a final Economic deal with Canada can be structured. FAIRNESS FOR ALL!
Date: 2025-02-03
Canada doesn’t even allow U.S. Banks to open or do business there. What’s that all about? Many such things, but it’s also a DRUG WAR, and hundreds of thousands of people have died in the U.S. from drugs pouring through the Borders of Mexico and Canada. Just spoke to Justin Trudeau. Will be speaking to him again at 3:00 P.M.
Date: 2025-02-04
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. We had a busy day. We’re dealing with lots of different people and lots of different things. We had some terrific people in today in trying to solve some of the problems that are going on in the country and outside of the country. We’re doing very well with respect to other countries really behaving on taking the criminals that they sent into our country. Donald Trump: And we’re getting them out. These are some – some of the worst people on earth. And they’re getting out. And they’re being accepted back in their countries, as you’ve heard, without exception. So a lot of people thought that was not going to happen, but it’s happening very full force. And we’re getting some very, very dangerous people out of our country, which is very important. Donald Trump: Will, perhaps we’ll go through the first one, please? Unidentified: Yes, sir. So earlier today, before the press came in, you signed a commission appointing Chris Wright to be your next Secretary of Energy. Donald Trump: Right. Unidentified: We have another commission prepared for your signature, sir. This is Doug Collins to be Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins of Georgia. Donald Trump: Two very good men. OK. Unidentified: Thank you, sir. Uh, excuse me. Next up, in light of numerous actions taken by a number of bodies of the United Nations, which exhibited deep anti-American bias, we have an executive order prepared for your attention that would withdraw the United States from the UN Human Rights Council, would withdraw the United States from the UNRWA, which is a refugee organization and would also review American involvement in – in UNESCO, which has also exhibited anti-American bias. Unidentified: More generally, the executive order calls for a review of American involvement and funding in the UN in light of the wild disparities and levels of funding among different countries that as you’ve expressed previously is deeply unfair to the United States. Donald Trump: So I’ve always felt that the UN has tremendous potential. And it’s not living up to that potential right now. It really isn’t. It hasn’t for a long time. It has – there are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run to be honest. And they’re not doing the job. A lot of these conflicts that we’re working on should be settled or at least we should have some help in settling them. Donald Trump: We never seem to get help. That should be the primary purpose of the UN, the United Nations. And again, it’s got great potential. And based on the potential, we’ll continue to go along with it. But they’ve got to get their act together. Unidentified: What would they need to do, sir, to get their act together? Donald Trump: Well, they’ve got to be fair to countries that deserve fairness. They have some countries, as you know, that are outliers, that are very bad. And they’re being almost preferred as countries to those that do their job and are doing a good job. And they have to really – they’re going to end up losing a lot of countries. Donald Trump: They’re going to end up losing their credibility like other organizations and then they’re going to be nothing. The potential of the United Nations, and not everybody agrees with me on this, the potential of the United Nations is fantastic, if properly run. So we’ll see what happens. Question: How much money are you willing to take away from them? Donald Trump: Well, we’re taking away a little bit, but we’re not looking to take away money as – this is so important that we’re really, as you know, the United Nations is largely funded by us, but. And it shouldn’t be. It should be funded by everybody. But we’re disproportionate as we always seem to be. But it’s something that if it ever lived up to the potential, in ten minutes it would make up the difference. Donald Trump: That’s the kind of power it could have. Right now, it doesn’t have that power. Unidentified: Next, sir, this is a National Security Presidential Memorandum that seeks to impose maximum pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Many of these provisions are similar to actions that your administration took during your first administration. The basic idea here is to have every department and agency or many departments and agencies in your government attempt to sanction and control Iranian activities, particularly relating to the Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian export of terrorism through support of various proxy groups abroad. Unidentified: And the intent here is to give you all of the possible tools to, I’d say, engage with the Iranian government to ensure that going forward, they are less of a malign actor on the world stage. Donald Trump: So this is one that I’m torn about. Everybody wants me to sign it. I’ll do that. It’s very tough on Iran. It’s what we had before. We would have never had the problem – you would have never had October 7th. We would have never had the problem had the election gone a different way which it should have. But this one I think more than made up for it. I think we’re doing things and it shows that more than made up for it. Much more historic. Donald Trump: The Iran situation, hopefully, I’m going to sign it, but hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it very much. We will see whether or not we can arrange or work out a deal with Iran. And everybody can live together. And maybe that’s possible and maybe it’s not possible. So I’m signing this and I’m unhappy to do it. But I really have not so much choice because we have to be strong and firm. Donald Trump: And I hope that it’s not going to have to be used in any great measure at all. It’d be great if we could have a Middle East and maybe a world at total peace. Right now, you don’t have that. When I left, you had peace all over the world and now you have – the world is blowing up. As you know, Bibi is coming in to see me later. Donald Trump: Others are coming in to see me. We’ll see what we can do. But I’m signing this. And hopefully, it will be a document which won’t be very important, will hardly have to be used. Question: So what kind of deal would you be prepared to make – Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to see. I mean, we’re going to see. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. With me, it’s very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Question: Do you support – Donald Trump: We don’t want to be tough on Iran. We don’t want to be tough on anybody. But they just can’t have a nuclear weapon. Question: And how – Do you support – [Inaudible] are you going to engage in conversations with your counterpart in Iran? Donald Trump: I would. Question: Do you want to block the sale of Iranian oil to other nations? Donald Trump: Well, we have the right to do that. And that’s what I did before. And they had no money. They wouldn’t have had the money for Hamas or Hezbollah or anybody else. I just – uh, it could have been solved, this thing. It’s just – if things went the way they should have, this would have been over long ago, but it’s not over. Donald Trump: And – Question: How well do you think Iran is to developing nuclear weapons? Donald Trump: I think they’re close. I think they’re close. They’re too close. But again, you can go back four years. I would have said they would have had it during this intervening period. But they’re pretty close, Peter. Question: And why say that you’re unhappy to sign it, if it’s Iran and their proxies who have threatened to retaliate against you and your team by killing you guys or taking out Soleimani? Donald Trump: Yeah. Well, they haven’t done that. And that would be a terrible thing for them to do. Not because of me, if they did that they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I’ve left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated. There won’t be anything left. And they shouldn’t be able to do it. And Biden should have said that, but he never did. Donald Trump: And I don’t know why. Lack of intelligence, perhaps. Question: If – Donald Trump: But he never said it. If that happens to a leader or close to a leader, frankly, if you had other people involved also, you would call for total obliteration of a state that did it. That would include Iran. So, I’m signing this. And it’s a very powerful document. But hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it. Question: Mr. President, if the – if the prime minister today were to ask you for your help in striking at Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent the kind of progress towards a nuclear weapon, would you give him the green light? Would – either to do it himself or for the US to participate with him? Donald Trump: Yeah. I don’t know that that’s what he’s going to be asking for. I have no idea that it is. You’re telling me. We’re going to have a pretty long meeting. We’re going to be discussing a lot of things, not only that, but a lot of things. And I’ll let you know if the time comes to let you know, but right now that’s not something that I can discuss. Question: Mr. President, when you just said when you said, if they do it, they get obliterated. Just to be clear, you’re talking about if Iran made another – made an attempt on your life? Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Question: OK. Donald Trump: That would be called total obliteration. Uh, and I can’t imagine they do that. It should have been stated by Biden, but he didn’t say it because he had no clue, as you know, as everybody knows. Question: Mr. President, what is your vision actually for a relationship with you on? Donald Trump: Do you have anything else? Unidentified: No, that’s all we have. Donald Trump: My vision for what? Question: Your relationship with Iran. And would you – Donald Trump: I’d love to have a good relationship with everybody. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. That was my only – that was the only thing that was very important. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. Beyond that, you know, it would be very tough if they insist on doing that. They have some of their leadership, I can tell you right now and maybe you know it, maybe you don’t, but there are many people at the top ranks of Iran that do not want to have a nuclear weapon just for that very reason. Question: Mr. President, what’s your reaction to China’s retaliatory tariffs? Donald Trump: It’s fine, it’s fine. We’re going to do very well against China and against everybody else. Right now, they’ve taken advantage of the Biden administration like I’ve never seen. I’ve never seen – the deficit with China is about $1 trillion. Think of it, $1 trillion. They’re using our money to build their military and Biden let that happen. Donald Trump: You know, we’re taking a lot of fires here. We came back. This is like a different place. The good news is we’re doing very well. We’re doing well with countries that nobody expected we’d do well with. We are respected again as a nation, maybe at a level that people haven’t seen for many, many decades. But when I left, we didn’t have any wars, I defeated ISIS, 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate, and now the world seems to be ready to blow up. But we’ll see if we can stop it. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Have you reached out to the Iranians about any kind of deal that would start those – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I would reach out. I mean I have nothing – see, I’m one that doesn’t care whether I reach out or they reach out. A lot of people say, let them reach out, sir. To me, it doesn’t matter. It’s just talk. But I want to see everybody do well. I want to see great countries and I want to see peace in the Middle East and elsewhere. Donald Trump: We’re also working very hard with respect to Russia-Ukraine, that’s a bloodbath. It’s a total bloodbath. What’s going on there is incredible. What’s going on with the soldiers, young soldiers being killed by the thousands, I mean literally by the thousands. And we want to see if we can get that stopped. And I think we’ve had some very good talks. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – Do you know when you would speak to President Xi, sir? Any update on when you would speak to President Xi? Donald Trump: No, we’ll speak to him at the appropriate time. I’m in no rush, I’m in no rush, at the appropriate – Question: Do you think that conversation can lend itself to the type of freeze that it meant for the tariffs for Canada and – Donald Trump: Well, we’ll see what happens. I mean, well, there’s a short-term freeze with Mexico and, as you know, and with Canada. But they’ve agreed to be very, very strong on the border, stronger than they ever were by far by a factor of about 30. And in addition to that, as you can see, we’ve been strong because we’ve had numbers like you’ve never seen before. Donald Trump: I mean the border is now closed, really closed. And with that being said, we’re letting good people come through and we want good people to come into our country. But the border is closed. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – In your talks with president – with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, do you intend to press him about how many deaths have been amongst Palestinians? Are you concerned about that? Donald Trump: I talk about that too. Both sides mean a lot. I talk about that; I talk about the other side. I talk about everything. Question: What’s your main message to him today during your meeting? Donald Trump: Well, I’m here to listen. He’s here to see me and I’m here to listen. So – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – there’s not much – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: At the right time, I’ll give him my message. Question: Mr. President, will you continue to press for this idea that Jordan and Egypt take Palestinians from Gaza? Donald Trump: Yeah, I would like to see Jordan and I’d like to see Egypt take some. Look, the Gaza thing has not worked. It’s never worked, and I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land and we get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable and – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – make it a home. Question: They say they don’t want to leave though. How can you say they don’t want to leave? Donald Trump: I don’t know how they could want to stay. It’s a demolition site. It’s a pure demolition site. If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with – plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had just decades and decades of death. Question: Where would those pieces of land be? – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, they could be in Jordan, and they could be in Egypt, and they could be in other places. You could have more than two – more than one, but you could have more than two. And you’d have people living in a place that could be very beautiful and safe and nice. Gaza has been a disaster for decades. Question: Would the US pay for that or contribute? Would the United States – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I don’t think the UN would pay, but I think there’s plenty of people that would in the area. They have a lot of money. They certainly have a lot of money, some of the countries over there, they’d like to see it. I know that Saudi Arabia wants to see peace. I can see that. And many of the countries there – as far as I’m concerned – they all want peace. Donald Trump: I think – maybe I’m wrong on this, but I think Iran would like to see peace too. They’ve had enough. Don’t you think they’ve had enough? Question: But the leaders of Egypt and Jordan have said bluntly, they have no interest in doing this. Donald Trump: Well, they may have said that, but a lot of people said things to me. They said they wouldn’t take anybody back in Venezuela and right now they’re flying them right back into Venezuela and a lot of people – and they’re doing the right thing in Venezuela. The Panama Canal is an active discussion right now and they said things about that and virtually everything that’s been said has been incorrectly stated based on the result. Question: What amount of – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – forcibly displaced – wouldn’t that amount to forcibly displacing those people from Gaza [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. I think if they had the opportunity, they’d love. If they had an alternative to go – they have no alternative right now. I mean, they’re there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It is a big pile of rubble right now. I mean, have you seen the pictures of it? Have you been there? Donald Trump: It’s terrible to live – who can live like that? And very dangerous, there’s shooting all over the place, there’s bombing all over the place on both sides. No, I would think if they had an option of moving to an – either in a large group or various smaller groups and take care of the close to two million people, I would think that they would be thrilled to do it. They have no – when you say about the Gaza Strip, they don’t have an option – it’s very dangerous. Question: To be clear, you said they’d be thrilled to leave Gaza. Donald Trump: Oh, I think they’d love to leave Gaza if they had an option. Right now, they don’t have an option. What are they going to do? They have to go back to Gaza. But what is Gaza? There’s practically not a building standing and they’re very dangerous. You know, those buildings are shifting and they’re falling down all over the place and there’s gunfire all over. Donald Trump: It’s going to be that way for a while. Question: Mr. President, wouldn’t it have made more sense to evacuate people while the war was ongoing rather than now and there’s a ceasefire? Donald Trump: Which is what you’re talking about? Question: It was more dangerous when there were strikes overhead than now. Donald Trump: Well, the strikes could start tomorrow. There’s not a lot to – there’s not a lot left to strike. It’s a demolition site. The whole place is demolished. It’s unsafe, it’s unsanitary. It’s not a place where people want to live. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: Nobody’s got – they have no alternative but to go back. If we gave them an alternative of living in a beautiful open place with some nice quarters there, nice housing of sorts, and we have the money in the Middle East to build that. Question: Do you support Israelis actually moving back and creating – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Not necessarily, no, I just support cleaning it up and doing something with it. But it’s failed for many decades. And somebody will be sitting here in 10 years or 20 years from now and they’ll be going through the same stuff, the wars, and – you know, they’ve had civilizations on Gaza, many civilizations on Gaza and they’re buried in the sand. Donald Trump: It doesn’t seem to work. Question: Mr. President – yeah, thank you, sir. On Elon Musk, how often are you talking to him? And have there been ideas that he has brought to you that you said, oh, no, wait a minute. This is going a little too far. Donald Trump: Well, many ideas. But look, he’s done a great job. Look at all the fraud that he’s found in this USAID. It’s a disaster what the people – radical left lunatics, they have things that nobody would have even believed the whole thing with $100 million spent on, you know what, with money going to all sorts of groups that shouldn’t deserve to get any money. Donald Trump: With the money – I’d like to see what the kickbacks are. How much money has been kicked back? Who would spend that kind of money to some of the things that you read about, and I read about, and I see every night on the news and every morning when I read the papers? Who would spend money for that. I would say this, the people that got all that money, are they kicking it back to the people that gave it from government? Donald Trump: No. That’s, to me, very, very corrupt. The real question is how much of a kickback has there been? And one of the things I want to investigate rapidly, because I’ve never seen anything to this extent, the train that’s being built between Los Angeles and San Francisco is the worst managed project I think I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some of the worst. Donald Trump: Billions and billions – hundreds of billions of dollars over budget. In fact, I read where you could take every single person that was going to go on the train and get the finest limousine service in the world and take them back and forth with limousines, and you’d have hundreds of billions of dollars left over. Donald Trump: It is the worst thing and we’re going to start an investigation in that because it’s not possible. I’ve built for a living, and I build on time, on budget. It’s impossible that something could cost that much. And now it’s not even going to San Francisco and it’s not going to Los Angeles, they made it much shorter. Donald Trump: So, now it’s at little places way away from San Francisco and way away from Los Angeles. No, we’re going to start a big investigation on that because I’ve never seen anything like it, nobody’s ever seen anything like it. The worst overruns that there have ever been in the history of our country. And it wasn’t even necessary. Donald Trump: I would have said you don’t buy it. You take an airplane, it cost you $2. It costs you nothing. But you take an airplane, but this got started. And if you have to, you drive. You can drive. Question: Are there other agencies – Donald Trump: They have hundreds of billions of dollars of cost overruns. And it’s not even the same project. It’s much shorter. It’s way outside of San Francisco and way outside of Los Angeles. So, we’re going to be looking into that. Question: Mr. President? Who’s going to investigate that? Is that DOGE that’s going to investigate the trains? Donald Trump: No, I’m doing that myself. No. No. Question: So, these DOGE engineers that Elon Musk has helping him are as young as 19 years old. Donald Trump: That’s good. They’re very smart though, Peter. They’re like you. They’re very smart people. [Laughter] Question: Thank you. Uh, has he – have you met any of these guys? Donald Trump: No, I haven’t seen them. They work actually out of the White House. They’re smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers where we need smart people. We should use some of them in the control towers where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient. That was – one of the qualifications is you could be intellectually deficient. Donald Trump: Uh, no, we need smart people. Some are young and some are not young. Some are not young at all. But they found great things. Look at the list of things, maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll read off a list of 15 or 20 things that they found inside of the USAID. It’s – it’s – has to be corrupt. Nobody could have proved that. Donald Trump: They could only have approved that if they were getting kickbacks. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: And you’re talking about – you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. Question: And – Mr. President? It sounds like you’re going to wind down USAID. Donald Trump: Yeah, it sounds like it. I mean, I think so. Yeah. I would think. [Laughter] Question: So – so when that – when that happens, which part of the government will be responsible – Donald Trump: Well, I could see Marco Rubio being in charge, the State Department. Because they’re giving money to – I mean, some of the money is well spent, I guess, but much of it is really fraudulent. Question: And on the Education Department, why nominate Linda McMahon to be the Education Department secretary, if you’re going to get rid of the Education Department? Donald Trump: Because I told Linda. Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. I want her to put herself out of a job. Education Department, so we’re ranked number 40 out of 40 schools, right? We’re ranked number one in cost per pupil. So we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world. Donald Trump: And we’re ranked at the bottom of the list. We’re ranked very badly. And what I want to do is let the states run schools. I believe strongly in school choice. But in addition to that, I want the states to run schools. And I want Linda to put herself out of a job. Question: Sir, do you think that’s – do you think that’s something – [Inaudible] something that [Inaudible] to do with an executive order or are you – going to ask Congress to do it? Donald Trump: I’d like to be able to do it. Yeah, I would like to be able to. Look, if I could give the schools back to Iowa and Idaho and Indiana and all these places that run properly. There’s many of them I think. So if you look at the list, uh, Denmark, Sweden, Norway. Believe it or not, China is doing very well on that list. Donald Trump: A list of well-educated – you know, where they run their school system well. You have a lot of countries, not surprising names. I think that if you moved our schools into some of these states that are really well run states, they would be as good as Denmark and Norway and Sweden and some of the other states. Donald Trump: And then you’d have the – the laggards. And you know who they are, I don’t have to go to it. But you’d have the laggards, the same laggards that are laggards with everything else, including crime. But even then you break it into systems. As an example. If you went to New York, you go to Westchester County, you go to Dutchess County, you go to Suffolk and Long Island and Nassau and Long Island, you have maybe six or seven locations. Donald Trump: Then, you have New York City, which would include the five boroughs. And I think even that would run much better than it does right now. Same thing with Los Angeles or California, you’d have Riverside. You’d have – you’d break it up into six or seven – but most of them would be states and you’d have one. Donald Trump: Like in Iowa, you give it to the state of Iowa. You give it to the state of Indiana. You give it – these are really well run states. They don’t have debt. They don’t have problems. They don’t have any crimes, you know, relatively speaking to speak of. Uh, and you would have education that would be the equivalent of Norway and Denmark and various other places that are at the top of the list. Donald Trump: So, we’re at the bottom of the list and we’re the most expensive. We’re at the top of the list when it comes to cost per pupil. We spend more money per pupil than any other nation in the world and yet we’re rated number 40. The last ratings came out, you saw them. So they – they talk about 40 countries. Donald Trump: We’re rated number 40. And I say that if we did this, we would – we would go 20 or 30 notches up. We could do great. And we would have some of the best districts in the world. Question: But are you going to do that with an executive order, sir? Or do you need to work with Congress – Donald Trump: Well, there are some people that say I could. I think I’d work with Congress. I think we’d get – look, we’d have to work with the Teachers Union. Because the Teachers Union is the only one that’s opposed to it. Nobody else would want to hold them back. Look, we have to tell the teachers union, we’re rated last in the world in education of the top 40. We’re late – rated last. Donald Trump: We were 38, and now we’re 40. We went to 39. We went to 40. We were at 37, but we’re at 40 now. The thing just came out. That’s under Biden. Remember that. Question: Secretary Rubio announced the deal this week that would allow potentially American citizens for criminals to be put in a different country. Is that something you’re looking to do? Donald Trump: Oh, no. I didn’t know that he announced that yet, but if he did, it’s fine. Yeah. We have hard hardened criminals, horrible people. You see them pushing people into subways as the train is coming. Last week, a guy walking around and just sees somebody waiting for the train. The trains coming 40 miles an hour, and he gets pushed into the subway. Donald Trump: And that happens all the time. These are sick people. Uh, if we could get them out of our country. We have other countries that would take them, they could – it’s no different than a prison system except there would be a lot less expensive and it would be a great deterrent. Send them to other countries. Donald Trump: We – we – if we could go a step further, in other words, we’re talking about getting the criminals out of our country that come in through other countries illegally, right, the illegal migrants, as I call them. Well, we have people that are just as bad as them in our country. If we could get them out, I’d be very happy to get them out. Question: [Inaudible] said that he would want you to pay a fee for that. Would you pay that? Donald Trump: Well, that’s a lot – it’s a very small fee compared to what we pay to private prisons. Question: But under what authority? Donald Trump: And a very, very small fee. I don’t know. We’ll have to find that out legally. Question: What about – Donald Trump: I’m just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat. Question: OK. Donald Trump: I don’t know if we do or not. We’re looking at that right now. Question: Is that actually – Donald Trump: But we could make deals where we’d get these animals out of our country. And you know, if you take the shooters, the people that hit old ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking as they walk down the street, the people that you – and you see it, the people that take out a gun and shoot you for no reason at all, if we could get these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people. Donald Trump: Because you know what? These are criminals. You call them hardened criminals. They’ve been in jail 40 times. There’s one, 42 times. And every time the person gets out, it’s a he – every time he gets out, he commits another crime within 24 hours. And it’s a heinous crime. It’s a rough crime. We don’t want these people in our country either. Donald Trump: We don’t want them in our country either. Question: Sir – [Inaudible] Donald Trump: If we had the option – if we had the option to get them out and let them be based in some other country at a fraction of the cost and frankly they frankly they could keep them because these people are never going to be any good. That person that has been arrested 42 times or 22 times or 17 times and is all in for manslaughter and everything else and only gets out because of a very weak judicial system that only goes after people like Trump, they don’t go after the criminals. Donald Trump: They don’t go after people like this. And they laugh at our law. If that took place, you would have a lot less crime automatically. Question: Sir – Sir, Guantanamo Bay – Is there enough space to allow this? Guantanamo Bay is – Donald Trump: Yeah? Question: There’s a lot of space there to accommodate people – Donald Trump: There’s a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people, yeah, so we’re going to use it. Question: Can you talk a little bit – Donald Trump: We have it. It’s already up. It’s – we have it for nothing. But we can do less expensive and even more secure. We’ve had other countries come to us saying we would love to do that. We would love to take your criminals. And we’ll maintain that. We’ll, you know, we’ll be there jail. And I’m only talking for the most severe cases. Donald Trump: Like, I watched that guy on tape pushing the man into the subway last week. That man that did that is a real bad guy. Many, many arrests. And do you think you’re going to convince him someday to be good and a wonderful, wonderful citizen for our country? It’s never going to happen. I want to get those people out. Donald Trump: I’d love to get them out along with the illegal migrants. The migrants are rough, but we have some bad ones too. I’d like to get them out. It would be all subject to the laws of our land. And we’re looking at that to see if we can do it. Question: Mr. President – What other countries have offered to take American citizens – Donald Trump: Say it – Question: What other countries have offered to take these Americans – Donald Trump: Numerous. Many. And Marco brought it up today. I’m glad he did. Uh, because a lot of people are thinking it. When I watch some of the crimes being committed in New York City and Chicago, look at Chicago, the – the volume of crime there they have. And the viciousness of the crime, it’s – these people are horrible people. Donald Trump: And if somebody thinks they’re going to be wonderful citizens someday, they’re wrong, it’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen. They’re bad. These are hard, tough criminals. In many cases, they’re crazy; they’re absolutely crazy. But they’re very dangerous; if I could get them out of the country and be in some other country where they’re glad to have them because they make a small fee compared to what we’d pay to a private prison or to put them in one of our prisons that cost even more money, I think it would be great. Donald Trump: I’d love to get them the hell out of our country. Thank you very much, everybody. Aide: Thank you, guys. Question: President Trump, are you going to the Super Bowl? Donald Trump: I don’t want to say, but there’s a certain quarterback that seems to be a pretty good winner. Question: And just last one because you mentioned it many times. What do you think about Joe Biden signing on with a talent agency? Donald Trump: You’ve got to be kidding. He signed on with a talent agency. Question: Yes, he’s got some entertainment agents now. Donald Trump: I think he’s got bigger problems than that. I really do. I think he’s got much bigger problems than that, but I wish him well. We inherited a mess. This place is a mess, but it’s quickly being solved, the problem. We’re going to make America great again. Thank you very much, everybody.
Date: 2025-02-05
Greg Abbott: You guys all set up? OK. So, uh, this was a very productive day on just a common sense issue. It’s an issue where in Texas, listen, we’ve already signed two laws banning men in women’s sports. What happened today, however, was setting a standard for the United States of America, ripping apart the executive order that was put in place by Joe Biden that was completely lawless, in fact overturned by a court, but also establishing – establishing just a very common sense standard, and that is no men in women’s sports. Greg Abbott: This is a nonpartisan, bipartisan, issue that the overwhelming majority of Americans support and I and governors and other officials from across the country as well as women across the country are so proud of President Trump for stepping up and signing this executive order today. I?ll take a few questions. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can you talk more about your conversation with President Trump and Tom Homan earlier this morning? What were the topics discussed and what role will Texas play? Greg Abbott: So, listen, Tom Homan and I stay in touch quite often and we talk about strategies that we may use or ways that we can work together. And I’ll just leave it at that. With regard to the president, we again talked about what was maybe the most pivotal issue in his campaign, the one that Americans wanted to make sure he got elected on and that was securing the border. Greg Abbott: First we talked about how successful it was, how much illegal immigration has dropped in the state of Texas to just a mere trickle. Then we talked about other things that we’re doing. So, Texas has completed more than 50 miles of border wall. We’re going to be adding another about 20 miles of border wall here in the coming days. Greg Abbott: It’s under construction right now and we’ve acquired more than 100 miles of easement. I’ll let the president know that all of that is available for the United States of America. Texas built two military bases that can house 2,000 soldiers in one base, 400 soldiers in another base. I made sure the president know that was available to him. Greg Abbott: I let the president know that we have identified 4,000 jail cells in the state of Texas that can be used as detention facilities. So, we’re just continuing to find ways we can assist the Trump administration and finally securing our border. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Can you talk about the $11 billion reimbursement for Operation Lone Star? Greg Abbott: Sure. Question: And offer to help you get that money? Greg Abbott: Yeah. So – so, listen, I brought up the topic as I have, uh, both with Speaker Johnson, with members of Congress. I’ll be back again next week to talk more about that with members of Congress, uh, but yeah, listen – and he understands that in part, this is in a way a real estate transaction because Texas can transfer to the United States of America, uh, value of well over $5 billion or $6 billion of real assets on the ground that Texas put in place that will continue to secure the United States for decades to come. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Did any of the flights to Guantanamo leave from Texas? Greg Abbott: I have no information about that. Question: Can you expound on the $5 billion to $6 billion? Is that land or – Greg Abbott: Yeah, so, uh, on the border wall itself more than 50 miles and adding the 20 miles we’re working on right now – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible]? Greg Abbott: No, this is, uh, during the past four years. Uh, so what Texas is seeking, uh, is reimbursement to the state of Texas of about $11 billion of cost incurred over the past four years because of the unprecedented illegal crossings that took place that has never before happened. And what Texas did, uh, we’ve – we’ve already finished 56 miles of border wall, uh, we have under construction another 18 miles of border wall. Greg Abbott: Uh, we’ve acquired, and in the process of finishing, the acquisition of more than 100 miles of land, uh, for more than 100 miles more of border wall. Those are real tangible real estate assets for the federal government. It’s the same wall that Trump built. So, it’s the same specifics, same schematics, all that. Greg Abbott: And so, it’s turning over an asset that the Trump administration, or the United States of America, would have invested in. But it’s more than that. Uh, for the next four years, for the United States of America to have a physical location, a base of operation, one is in Eagle Pass, another is in Del Rio where the United States of America can use about 2,500 beds for, it could be military, it could be for border patrol, it could be for ICE agents, whatever the case may be. That is there for them to be able to use. Greg Abbott: Also, the state of Texas is offering 4,000 prison cells at no cost to the United States that they will be able to use, uh, for at least the next four years or longer than that if it’s needed. And so, there are ways in which there’s a – there’s valuable real estate, uh, that can be transferred ownership from the state of Texas to ownership to the United States of America, and that the – the value of that is close to $6 billion. Question: Did he go for that that deal? Is he going to – Greg Abbott: He understood exactly what he’s – Listen, he has to talk to his advisers. He has to talk to Congress just like I do. Question: And governor, can you confirm if Mexican troops have arrived at the border and what you’ve seen? Is there any progress on that? Greg Abbott: Yeah, I personally have not seen them. I know that the announcement has been made about the Mexican troops going to the border. I can tell you what I’ve seen in the past, and that is whenever Mexico does send troops to the border, it has an immediate impact, and immediate reduction in the number of people crossing the border illegally. Greg Abbott: And I just have to assume that this will replicate this. And this could even be larger because in the past I’ve seen 1,000 or 2000, not 10,000. If they do that, it’ll have an enormous impact and we will see an almost immediate elimination of any illegal border crossings. Question: – Congress concerning your reimbursement request so far? And – any appropriators, what was their response like so far? Greg Abbott: Sure. So, the – I have sat down with the speaker and the speaker’s office and had the opportunity to visit with all the key leaders of the Texas Republican delegation, which is the largest Republican delegation in Congress, and many of those who are involved either in appropriations or budget and things like that and they are enthusiastically working with their fellow members. Greg Abbott: I have reports back from them about this. This is something that the Republicans in particular across the country, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be partisan. People are excited about helping out because they know the fact I’m about to tell you, Texas law enforcement have seized more than 600 million deadly doses of fentanyl. Greg Abbott: Texas law enforcement alone has seized more than enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman and child in the United States, Canada and Mexico combined. Here’s the point. None of us know, and we’ll never know, how many lives were saved because of Texas law enforcement getting that fentanyl off the streets before it got into other states killing people across the country. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Last question. The Mexican cartel authorized the use of weaponized drones – Greg Abbott: Yeah. Can you repeat? I missed the first part of your question. Question: There’s been reports of the Mexican cartels authorizing the use of weaponized drones against Border Patrol agents as well as these recent shootings on the border. Did – does law enforcement or the National Guard have plans to combat this? Greg Abbott: Yeah. So, before President Trump was elected for this second term, during the Biden Administration, both Texas law enforcement and Texas National Guard have been fired upon across the border, had had encountered drones across the border. And now with this clampdown, that exacerbates the situation with the cartels and there’s every expectation that they’re going to elevate their level of activity. Greg Abbott: And especially with the advancement and capabilities of drones, both the United States and Texas. And every border state needs to be prepared to defend themselves and maybe engage in responding as the case may be. Thank you all very much. Question: Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-05
Karoline Leavitt: Good afternoon, everybody. Good to see you all. President Trump is in charge and America is back. This week further demonstrated that the Trump effect is real. Over the weekend, Americans celebrated the return of American-Israeli citizen Keith Siegel and two Israelis who were held captive by Hamas terrorists since October 7th, 2023. President Trump and his administration worked diligently to secure their release and are committed to freeing all remaining hostages. Karoline Leavitt: Yesterday, as you all know, President Trump held his first foreign meeting at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And as the president said, the bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations and are absolutely unbreakable. Karoline Leavitt: The president is committed to eliminating Hamas and securing a lasting peace for the entire region. The historic proposal for the United States to take over Gaza announced by President Trump last night underscores this commitment. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump is an outside of the box thinker and a visionary leader who solves problems that many others, especially in this city, claim are unsolvable. We’ve already seen the results from President Trump’s bold peace through strength diplomacy on the world stage. In response to President Trump’s tariffs, this week both Mexico and Canada took immediate steps to alleviate the illegal alien migration and flow of deadly drugs, particularly fentanyl, into our country. Karoline Leavitt: Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, agreed to permanently supply 10,000 Mexican soldiers on the US border, who will be specifically designated to stopping fentanyl and criminal aliens from pouring into our country. And Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, agreed to appoint a fentanyl czar, list cartels as terrorists, and increase resources to assist the 10,000 frontline personnel at our northern border with Canada. Karoline Leavitt: In recognition of these steps, President Trump paused the implementation of tariffs for one month while negotiations continue and final deals can be structured. Throughout the transition and during his inaugural address, President Trump made it known that the United States cannot and will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue with its effective and growing control over the Panama Canal. Karoline Leavitt: Following Secretary Rubio’s successful first trip and visit there over the weekend, Panama’s president said he will allow its participation in the Chinese Communist Party’s – will no longer allow the participation in the Belt and Road Initiative. That participation will expire. This is significant because Panama was the first Latin American nation to join the Belt and Road and now becomes the first to back away from it because of President Trump. Karoline Leavitt: And to assist with the ongoing mass deportation effort, El Salvador’s president has agreed to the most unprecedented migratory agreement anywhere in the world. Because President Trump is back in charge, El Salvador has offered for illegal aliens of any nationality facing deportation in the US to be booked in his country’s prison system. Karoline Leavitt: And finally, President Trump’s envoy for special missions, Ric Grenell, traveled to Venezuela and not only secured the release of six American hostages, but Venezuela also agreed to accept the return of illegal alien Tren de Aragua gang members. All of these incredible victories prove how well President Trump’s peace through strength approach is working and the days of weak American leadership are over. Karoline Leavitt: In another success story this week, efforts to seal the border, halt the invasion and carry out the largest mass deportation campaign continue at lightning speed. Customs and Border Protection has approximately 79 miles of new border wall projects already underway in various stages of construction and planning. Karoline Leavitt: The first flights arrived to Guantanamo Bay yesterday afternoon out of El Paso. And who were some of the passengers aboard you may ask. There were 10 members of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua on this flight. And overall, our heroic ICE agents continue to prioritize the removal of violent criminal illegal aliens in communities across the country. Karoline Leavitt: On February 3rd, ICE Dallas arrested a citizen of Nicaragua who has been convicted of sexual assault, strong arm, and lewd acts with a minor and sentenced to 15 years in prison. ICE Los Angeles arrested a Mexican citizen who has been convicted of lewd acts with minor – with a minor and sentenced to 364 days. Karoline Leavitt: And ICE Atlanta arrested a citizen of Mexico who has been convicted of homicide by vehicle and hit and run and sentenced to six months confinement, and ICE New York arrested a Venezuelan national and known TDA gang member who has a prior criminal conviction for assault in the third degree causing physical injury. Karoline Leavitt: Americans are safer every single time one of these criminals is arrested and deported from our country. On another important and ongoing topic, the Senate is working fast to confirm President Trump’s exceptional cabinet nominees in the face of relentless media smear campaigns. As of right now, 12 members of the president’s cabinet have been confirmed, most recently Pam Bondi, who, as you all know, I was just in the Oval Office for that swearing in ceremony surrounded by Pam’s lovely family. Karoline Leavitt: And we look forward to watching her serve as the attorney general of the United States. According to CNN, President Trump is getting more cabinet picks confirmed so far than the average president in the modern era, another success story. And we believe it’s critical that Republicans in the Senate majority stay tough and keep their foot on the gas to confirm all of the remaining nominees as quickly as possible so we can continue President Trump’s important work here at the White House and across our entire federal government. Karoline Leavitt: And lastly, throughout his historic campaign, President Trump pledged to restore common sense to our country, and he is continuing to deliver on that with an executive order that he will sign later today. The president will be signing an executive order keeping men out of women’s sports to defend the safety of athletes, protect competitive integrity, and uphold the promise of Title IX. This common sense action from President Trump ends the disgusting betrayal of women and girls by the previous administration, who for years catered to radical activists who wanted biological males to be treated as women in workplace showers, competitive sports, prisons, and even rape shelters. Karoline Leavitt: Gender ideology insanity is over. Submissions from individuals across the country interested in participating in our new media seat at a future briefing continue to flood in. We are at more than 12,000 and counting. If you’re watching right now and are interested, you can continue to apply on our new media website, whitehouse.gov/newmedia. Karoline Leavitt: And in the seat today, we have a longtime national television broadcaster. I’m sure many of you recognized her when she came in, Sage Steele, who is now the host of an incredibly successful podcast, The Sage Steele Show on YouTube and all podcast platforms. And previously, Sage was a fixture at ESPN from 2007 to 2023, primarily hosting Sportscenter, which we all know well, before leaving the company to exercise her First Amendment rights more freely. Karoline Leavitt: We are honored to welcome her to the briefing room today. She will be joining the president at the big EO signing later this afternoon. I know many of you will be there as well. So, Sage, why don’t you kick us off on this very exciting day for women and girls across the country? Thank you for joining us. Question: It is exciting. And Karoline, thank you for welcoming people like me with a little bit of a different perspective, different background in this seat. It really does mean a lot. Thank you. Obviously, the House already passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which is a really big step for women and girls. Question: So far, the Senate, as we know, has not brought it up to vote. We all know executive orders can be overturned, so I’m wondering how important it is to the president to get Congress to bring this – to pass legislation so there are no instances like the past administration that – that really tried to destroy Title IX. Karoline Leavitt: Um-hmm. It’s incredibly important that Congress immediately acts on this priority. I think the president is really setting the tone, making this a very immediate priority for this administration, just as he promised to do on the campaign trail. And I’d like to get into the executive order a little bit because it is the news of the day here at the White House and talk about what this executive action will actually do. So, the executive order that the president will be signing later this afternoon, as I said, upholds the promise of Title IX. It also will require the DOJ to abide by the nationwide previous administration’s illegal Title IX rewrite that would have dissolved single sex spaces and opportunities. Karoline Leavitt: It also requires immediate action including enforcement actions against schools and athletic associations comprised of schools that deny women single sex sports and single sex locker rooms. The executive order also calls for the convening of private sporting bodies in the White House. We want them to come to this campus so the president can hear in person the stories of female athletes who have suffered lifelong injuries, who have been silenced and forced to shower with men and compete with men on athletic fields across the country. Karoline Leavitt: Many of those women will be at the White House today. I encourage all of you in the media to actually talk to them to hear their stories. And I would also just add one more thing. This is a wildly popular position with the American people. In fact, there was a new poll recently that showed the overwhelming majority of Democrats also support keeping biological men out of women’s sports. Karoline Leavitt: And so, I know the president is very excited about the bill signing that will take place at 3:00 this afternoon. You will hear from him more on that later, and we look forward to seeing you there, Sage. So, thank you very, very much. Garrett, great to see you here today. Question: Thank you. On Gaza, the president has spent basically his entire public career criticizing foreign entanglements, nation building, sending American troops to fight abroad, particularly in the Middle East. This plan seems like it could ultimately involve all of those things. Can you explain this reversal and how building and owning Gaza squares with America First foreign policy? Karoline Leavitt: I would reject the premise of your question that this forces the United States to be entangled in conflicts abroad. The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. His administration is going to work with our partners in the region to reconstruct this region. Karoline Leavitt: Let me just take a step back here because this is an out of the box idea, that’s who President Trump is, that’s why the American people elected him. And his goal is lasting peace in the Middle East for all people in the region. And as I said in my opening remarks, we’ve had the same people pushing the same solutions to this problem for decades. Karoline Leavitt: And it’s been made very clear to the president that the United States needs to be involved in this rebuilding effort to ensure stability in the region for all people. But that does not mean boots on the ground in Gaza. It does not mean American taxpayers will be funding this effort. It means Donald Trump, who is the best dealmaker on the planet, is going to strike a deal with our partners in the region. Question: He did not rule out American troops in Gaza last night. Are you doing that now? Karoline Leavitt: I am saying that the president has not committed to that just yet. He has not made that commitment, and you know that. Question: And on the foreign partners, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Saudis have already panned this plan. What foreign partners, if any, have expressed any interest in being part of this? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has said he’s been socialing this idea for quite some time. He’s been thinking about this. He said in his remarks last night, this was not a decision or an announcement that he takes lightly. And the president has already spoken to President El-Sisi. In fact, that was his first foreign leader call. Karoline Leavitt: He’s meeting with the king of Jordan, King Abdullah, next week. He spoke with the king of Bahrain. He spoke with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. And he has made it very clear – he’s been very vocal that he expects our partners in the region, particularly Egypt and Jordan, to accept Palestinian refugees temporarily so that we can rebuild their home. Karoline Leavitt: I’d like to show you some images of Gaza that were taken. Fox News aired this. I mean, that is, as they put it, an apocalyptic scene in Gaza. This is an uninhabitable place for human beings. Do you really think that families can live their dream in a region that looks like this with no running water, no electricity? Karoline Leavitt: And the special envoy to the President, Steve Witkoff, recently traveled to Gaza, as you all know, and he came back with images that he showed the president of the dire situation here. And the president made this decision with a humanitarian heart for all people in the region. Peter. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Are any officials here preparing to fight Democratic lawmakers in the streets? Karoline Leavitt: Absolutely not. And thanks for the question. Question: Some elected Democrats are so steamed about DOGE. Congresswoman LaMonica McIver says we are at war. Ilhan Omar says we might actually see somebody get killed. And Chris Van Hollen says we have to fight this in the congress, we have to fight this in the streets. So, what now? Karoline Leavitt: And may I just point out, if you heard that type of violent enticing rhetoric from our side of the aisle, from Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, I think there would be a lot more outrage in this room today. It’s unacceptable, the comments that have been made by these Democrat leaders. And frankly, they don’t even know what they’re talking about, because President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to make this government more efficient. Karoline Leavitt: He campaigned across this country with Elon Musk, vowing that Elon was going to head up the Department of Government Efficiency. And the two of them with a great team around them were going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure it’s accountable to American taxpayers. That’s all that is happening here. Karoline Leavitt: And for Democrat officials to incite violence and encourage Americans to take to the streets is incredibly alarming and they should be held accountable for that rhetoric. Question: It sounds like something that they are most concerned about is DOGE engineers with access to treasury systems. Can you clarify, do the DOGE engineers have read only access in these systems? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Question: So, they are not allowed to write new code? Karoline Leavitt: No. Question: They are not. OK. And then one more thing – NBC is reporting that some of the illegal immigrants that we’ve seen rounded up and arrested are not being deported, they’re being released with ankle or wrist monitoring devices, or they have to check in on the phone. So, is the administration arresting more people than you have room for? Karoline Leavitt: I have seen the reports and I’m glad you brought it up because we want to address it. There have been a total of 461 illegal aliens – this is as of this morning when I got this information from DHS – that have been released from custody of the more than 8,000 that have been arrested since President Trump was inaugurated. Karoline Leavitt: It’s less than 6 percent. And there are reasons for their release. Some of the factors include: a lack of significant likelihood of removal in the foreseeable future; lack of detention availability, which is something this president and this administration has been incredibly vocal about. We are doing everything we can to deport and detain illegal immigrants, but we need congress’s Help to increase funding for Border Patrol and for ICE to increase detention capability in our facilities. Karoline Leavitt: And then other serious medical conditions have also been the reasons for some of the release of these individuals. But none of them have final deportation orders, many of them are probably contesting their immigration status. I’d refer you to DHS for more details, but I did get that information because I knew it would be a question. Karoline Leavitt: So, thank you. Sure, yes. Question: The president, and you here again today, have made clear given the devastation, you think Palestinians have no choice but to leave Gaza and go elsewhere. But Palestinians say this is their home, they don’t want to go. The president last night said he’s willing to use the military, if necessary. Is the US prepared to remove Palestinians from Gaza by force? Karoline Leavitt: The president is prepared to rebuild Gaza for Palestinians and all people in the region, peace loving people who want real economic development and opportunity in the region. This is a region that has been controlled by Iranian backed terrorists, Hamas, who have brutalized not just Israelis, but Palestinians too. Karoline Leavitt: It is because of Hamas that you see those images on that screen, that Gaza has become a demolition site because Hamas launched that brutal attack on Israel on October the 7th. And so, again, I would stress President Trump wants to ensure that this can be a place where all people can live in peace. He is a peacemaker in chief. Karoline Leavitt: He made that very clear in his first term. And as for how that will be accomplished, the president and his team are talking with our allies in the region to consider next steps. Question: But should the American people be prepared to see US military on the ground fighting a ground war against Hamas? Karoline Leavitt: Again, the president has not committed to US troops in the region. Question: But it is an option. Karoline Leavitt: I have said that the president has not committed to that yet. Sure. Question: If I can just follow up on that though, why not rule out the idea of committing US troops? This has been a long-standing argument that the president has made, really over the last decade or so, talking about endless wars and not something the US wants. Why not rule out troops? Karoline Leavitt: Because I think the president is very good, when he’s making deals and negotiating, not to rule out anything because he wants to preserve that leverage in negotiations. And so, I think that’s what he’s doing here. Mary. Question: Let me follow up on that though. He also said that everyone loves this plan. He said that in the Oval Office this morning. In fact, the deputy prime minister of Jordan called it a declaration of war on the Arab people. So, how does he square the fact that even some Republicans on the Hill are objecting to this or questioning this? Question: How does he square the fact saying everyone loves this plan? Karoline Leavitt: Well, King Abdullah of Jordan will be here next week, so I can provide you more context on the conversations he will have directly with the president of the United States after that meeting. And I would just point out that there’s been a lot of leaders and officials all around the world who have doubted, I suppose, the deal-making ability of President Trump. Karoline Leavitt: You said you heard the Panama leader saying that he would not agree to some of the concessions that he has now made because of Secretary Rubio’s visit. Karoline Leavitt: You had the Colombian president saying he wouldn’t accept flights of Colombian illegal nationals who have entered into our country illegally, and those flights are underway. So, actions speak louder than words. Dasha? Question: Karoline, you said the president has been working on this idea for a while behind the scenes now. Is there a written plan based on the president’s proposal for Gaza? And if so, when was it drafted, and who had a hand in that? Karoline Leavitt: The plan was written in the president’s remarks last night as he revealed it to the world and to the American people, and his team are continuing to be engaged on this effort. I saw the national security advisor this morning. He has a very busy day of calls. And they will, again, continue to engage with our partners. Karoline Leavitt: That includes Steve Witkoff as well. Mary? Question: Two questions for you on the news of the day. So, how is today’s executive order going to impact the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles? For example, would a man who thinks that he’s a transgender woman be allowed to compete as a female on US soil? Karoline Leavitt: It’s a very good question. And the president has actually mentioned this, that he does expect the Olympic Committee and the NCAA to no longer allow men to compete in women’s sports. And I think the president, with the signing of his pen, starts a very public pressure campaign on these organizations to do the right thing for women and for girls across the country. Karoline Leavitt: Again, this is an incredibly popular position. There have been many notable female athletes who have had the courage to speak out against some very powerful institutions in this country. They deserve to have a voice and a say. The president is bringing their voice to the highest level at the White House this afternoon, and he expects these organizations to comply with this federal executive order that he’ll be signing today. Question: Thank you, and one more on media coverage of this executive order and the topic in general. What’s the White House’s view of framing that calls men transgender females or similar rhetoric coming from organizations like the ACLU and GLAAD? Karoline Leavitt: Well, it’s been very clear. The policy of this administration is that there are only two sexes, male and female, pretty simple. Brian Glenn? Question: Yes. USAID has gotten a lot of attention in the last couple of days, with some of these bizarre things that we’ve been – taxpayers have been funding. Now it looks like there are a couple media outlets that have been dragged into this conversation as far as USAID funding as well. Does the president have any comment on that? Karoline Leavitt: So, upon coming out here to the briefing room, I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room. And I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayer’s dime will no longer be happening. Karoline Leavitt: The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now. Again, this is a whole of government effort to ensure that we are going line by line when it comes to the federal government’s books. And this president and his team are – are making decisions across the board on do these receipts serve the interests of the American people? Karoline Leavitt: Is this a good use of the American taxpayers money? If it is not, that funding will no longer be sent abroad and American taxpayers will see significant savings because of that effort. Thank you. Question: Karoline? Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: I’d like to give some love to the back row. I’ve heard that unfortunately they haven’t been called on in years past. So, Reagan, why don’t you go ahead? Question: Thanks, Karoline. The WHCA announced that comedian Amber Ruffin, who has called the president a toddler with his pants pulled down, will be the entertainment for this year’s Correspondents Dinner. Does the White House have a reaction to this choice? And will the president be attending the dinner this year? Karoline Leavitt: Certainly an interesting choice. I have the president’s invitation on my desk. I have the invitation for myself on my desk as well. Haven’t talked to the president about it. When he makes his decision, I will let you all know. But definitely an interesting choice of the comedian. I’ll talk to the boss about it and see what we decide. Karoline Leavitt: Sure, go ahead. Yes. Yes. Question: On the executive order set to be signed today, you said that this will be enforced. Can you spell out for schools and the public how exactly the administration plans to enforce this, even at the local level? And on top of that, there are human rights groups who say that this could expose kids to discrimination. Question: What is your response to that? Karoline Leavitt: I think kids have already been exposed to discrimination, especially young women and girls, who have been forced to shower in locker rooms with biological men, who have been forced to compete on playing fields with biological men, which is incredibly unfair and unsafe and, again, an incredibly unpopular policy with the American people. Karoline Leavitt: As for the actions that this executive order takes, I already laid those out at the beginning of the briefing. I’m happy to give you a copy of this fact sheet so you can let your audiences across the country know. Question: What’s your message to schools who don’t comply with this? Karoline Leavitt: They should, because it’s going to be federal law in about an hour and a half. To your colleague to your – to your right, to my left. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Question: Taylor with Spectrum News. You talked a bit about DOGE. Elon Musk is currently a “special government employee” who also owns companies that have billions of dollars in federal contracts. You said earlier this week that he has abided by all applicable federal laws, but what steps is the Trump administration taking to address that conflict of interest? Karoline Leavitt: The president was already asked and answered this question this week. And he said, if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, that Elon will excuse himself from those contracts. And he has, again, abided by all applicable laws. In the back left, go ahead. Question: Trade adviser Peter Navarro, when asked about the External Revenue Service today, said, “We’re going to collect a lot of tariff revenues, and we’re going to get tax cuts out of it.” Is it the official position of the White House that tariffs will lower taxes for Americans? Karoline Leavitt: The president has always been clear that he believes tariffs are a tax on foreign nations, and he’s committed to cutting taxes for the American people here at home. He also believes tariffs are a great revenue raiser for this country, and that’s exactly why he has committed to the creation of the External Revenue Service, which I think is a phenomenal idea. Karoline Leavitt: We’ll just go down the whole row. Go ahead. Question: Tom Bateman with the BBC. Can you confirm that, under the president’s plans for Gaza, any and all Palestinians who want to stay in Gaza on their land will be allowed to do so? Karoline Leavitt: I can confirm that the president is committed to rebuilding Gaza and to temporarily relocating those who are there because, as I’ve showed you repeatedly, it is a demolition site. There is no running water. There is no electricity. The president wants these individuals to live in peace. He is committed to doing that with this very bold new plan, and we will continue to keep you apprized of updates as we receive them. Karoline Leavitt: Ed Lawrence – Question: And just on that answer – Yeah. Thanks. If you can answer that – Karoline Leavitt: Yes, go ahead, Ed. Question: I appreciate it. Thank you. So, now that the – President Trump’s policies are starting to take shape, how long will it take to cycle through and get some of the actual prices that Americans are paying to come down? Karoline Leavitt: The prices at the store and at the grocery – pump? Question: All of the above. Karoline Leavitt: Across the board? Sure. Well, the president is doing everything he can, obviously, to reduce the cost of living crisis in this country as quickly as possible. That – that’s why he’s signed a litany of executive orders across the board. In the first couple of weeks here he declared a national energy emergency. Karoline Leavitt: He committed to cutting ten regulations for every new one on the book. As you know, working for a Fox Business related outlet, deregulation and energy independence are huge drivers of reducing inflation in this country. And I think Americans can be assured by the results President Trump had in his first term, when, again, inflation was 1.4 percent when he left office. Question: But is it months, or is it a year? And will Americans have the patience to wait for it? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I don’t have a – I don’t have a timeline. But the president is doing everything that he possibly can to reduce costs of living for Americans at home. Bill Wegman? Question: Thank you. Is it worth risking the life of a single US Marine to turn the Gaza Strip into the Riviera of the Middle East? Karoline Leavitt: Bill, I’m not sure why you’re asking me that question, because I’ve already said the president has not committed to sending Marines or any boots on the ground in Gaza. Question: Yes, I get that. But is – Karoline Leavitt: We’ll bring it to the front row. Question: That a possibility? Karoline Leavitt: Ed O’Keefe? Good to see you again here in the front row, Karoline. Two things. On today’s announcement, Title IX, if he scales back the Education Department or moves to shut it down entirely, what entity will enforce Title IX? As of now, this will be enforced through Education through Title IX. As – if the abolishment of the Department of Education continues, which, as the president said yesterday, it’s something his team is looking at and considering, it’s something he talked a lot about on the campaign trail, then of course we will look at additional maneuvers to ensure that these very important policies can be – can be implemented. Question: Ok. So, the Education abolishment thing’s still on the table? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, the president talked about it yesterday in the Oval Office, and he has good reason to talk about it. I mean, look, our education system is failing students in this country. The nation’s report card, I brought it up in my remarks last week, it – it shows that fourth graders are not reading at the level they should. Karoline Leavitt: I believe it was 40 percent of them are proficient in reading. As the mother of a child, I want an education system that helps my child read and write, teaches him math, nothing else in the classroom. And the president is wholeheartedly committed to we can make academia great again in this country. Question: One other – one other question on – Karoline Leavitt: Deanna, go ahead. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Does the president – is he looking at offering anything to these Arab countries that take in Palestinians? Is he willing to give them anything in return? And secondly, when the president announced his taking over Gaza policy yesterday, was Netanyahu aware of this, and what was his reaction when Trump presented that idea to him? Karoline Leavitt: I was not – I won’t get ahead of the president’s discussions or negotiations. On your first question about what would be offered, I think the president’s made it clear that he expects these nations in the region to step up and to accept Palestinian refugees who will be temporarily relocated for the rebuilding of Gaza. Karoline Leavitt: As for whether Prime Minister Netanyahu was aware before the president’s remarks, he was indeed. I wasn’t present for that reaction. But again, this is something the president has been socializing and thinking about for quite some time. Nick, good to see you. Jordan, sorry. Question: Thank you, Karoline. So, Secretary Hegseth announced yesterday that army recruiting levels have reached 12-year highs in December; 15-year highs in January. What is making young people want to serve the military under the Trump administration? And how does that contrast to Biden’s failure consistently to meet recruiting average? Question: Does President Trump’s anti-DEI agenda play a role in this? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all, the recruitment level for all branches of our military is at crisis levels, and it serves as a national security risk that our military branches are not fully staffed to where they need to be. And I do believe it’s a culture problem within these institutions that the president is very much committed to fixing, as emphasized by the executive orders he has signed to root DEI out of the military. Karoline Leavitt: And I think when young men and women who are honorably signing up to serve in our nation’s military, see somebody like Pete Hegseth, the new Secretary of Defense, who is a proven warfighter who risked his life in battle for this country, who understands what it means to deploy and to defend the Constitution in your nation abroad and to put your life on the line. Karoline Leavitt: When they see a leader like that and a leader like President Trump who is committed to peace through strength, that’s very inspiring. And we look forward to seeing those recruitment numbers and retention numbers skyrocketing over the next four years. And I know Pete Hegseth is committed to increasing recruitment at all branches of the military. Karoline Leavitt: I would defer you to the Department of Defense on exactly what he plans to implement. Jeff. Question: Thanks very much. Two questions. One, the president yesterday used the word permanent for permanently resettled Palestinians. I hear you say temporarily today. Is that a shift or a specific change that you want to highlight? And my second question is, yesterday he spoke about the US owning Gaza. Who owns Gaza now? Question: And how would the US acquire ownership? Karoline Leavitt: Well, Gaza is currently run by Iranian backed terrorists in the Middle East, Hamas, who we all agree – I think everybody in the region agrees that can no longer stand. Just look at the events of October 7th and the events since. And the president, again, is committed to rebuilding the region for all people who want to return to it once it is no longer a demolition site and it’s a place where people can actually live and thrive in harmony, as he said last night, his words not mine. Karoline Leavitt: Daniel. Question: Permanent versus temporarily resettled. Can you just – Karoline Leavitt: The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza for the rebuilding of this effort. Again, it’s a demolition site right now, it’s not a livable place for any human being. And I think it’s actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions. Karoline Leavitt: Daniel? Question: Karoline, thank you so much. Daily guidance is that the president will be meeting with a pair of governors today, Governor Abbott of Texas and Governor Newsom of California. It comes after the president took executive action to turn the water back on in California. Billions of gallons are flowing now. What can you tell us about the two meetings and the importance of President Trump’s actions to help people in California? Karoline Leavitt: Sure, those meetings will be taking place shortly. So, I will get out of here to get to those meetings. I can – we can always provide you a readout, as we always do. We try to be very transparent about what the president is doing in the Oval Office. Perhaps he’ll even call you in to join him. We never know around here, as you all know. Karoline Leavitt: But Governor Abbott is obviously a great friend and ally to the president. He has been on the front lines of the border crisis in this country. And as for Governor Gavin Newsom, well, the president is willing to work with anybody from blue states or red states to do what’s best for the American people. And he really enjoyed, the president really enjoyed his trip up to Pacific Palisades last week. Karoline Leavitt: He felt very inspired by the frustration of the residents there, and he has been wholeheartedly committed to ensuring that the water is flowing in California to prevent these wildfires and also that people have access to their properties. And he has continued to apply tremendous pressure to Gavin Newsom, and also the Los Angeles mayor, to allow private residents and property owners to access their property. Karoline Leavitt: He believes that’s their right to do so, and they should be able to do it. And one more thing before I wrap up, because I do want to get to these meetings, and I will see you all at the EO signing later this afternoon. I would just say that you brought to mind California and North Carolina who continue to be on our hearts, and the president and this administration are committed to ensuring that these individuals get the funding that they need. Karoline Leavitt: And I would just say a strong message to democrats who are out there pretending to be outraged about the long list of crap that this administration is cutting, federal waste and funding, like $2 million for sex changes in Guatemala, $6 million, to fund tourism in Egypt, $20 million, on a new Sesame Street show in Iraq, $4.5 million, to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan. Karoline Leavitt: I could go on and on and I’m happy to provide this list to every single one of you. Democrats are outraged that the American people want to be – they want their taxpayers going to good uses, not stuff like this. But then they’re very quiet about the fact that there are still North Carolinians and people in California who have lost everything. Karoline Leavitt: And in the last four years, the federal government did nothing to help them. This president will continue to put Americans first. And I think the successes of this week so far speak to that and it’s only Wednesday. So, I’ll see you guys later this week, and we’ll see you this afternoon. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-02-06
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. That’s a big group of people; that’s a nice group. Well, we want to bring religion back stronger, bigger, better than ever before, very important, and this is a good start. This is really good. We have to have religion, and it suffered greatly over the last few years, but it’s coming back. Donald Trump: It’s coming back strong. And I want to thank you Pastor Paula, who I have known for a long time. She’s a fantastic person. And thanks to the thousands of believers here today from all across the country and from all around the world. This is a beautiful tradition. They told me I could do it via Skype, and I said what are we doing? Donald Trump: And they said the prayer breakfast. I said I’ve been there every year. I’m not doing it via Skype. Right? Via Skype – I’m going to be there, it’s not that far. You know, it’s like about two minutes down the road. In fact, it was easier to do this than put up a Skype deal – destroy the White House putting up all that stuff. Donald Trump: But no, I want to be here with you, and I have been here with you. Thank you. And I do that despite the fact that they say I can’t run again. That’s the expression. Sir? Then somebody said, I don’t think you can oh [Laughter]. No, I want to be with you regardless and it’s an honor and it’s something I’ve enjoyed. Donald Trump: I’ve actually met some very nice Democrats here [Laughter]. That’s true, I have. But this is a beautiful tradition that started with President Eisenhower in 1953, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. After four long years really, they were very long, dark years in my opinion, it’s great to be back at the prayer breakfast. Donald Trump: And I hope you all agree, it’s nice to once again have a president that shows up to the prayer breakfast. And that agrees to be interviewed for the Super Bowl. I’m doing that too [Laughter]. They haven’t done it in so long they didn’t even – they forgot about it. They said, oh, but they hadn’t done it in years. Donald Trump: But I said, yeah, this morning, they wanted to know and I said, yeah, why not. What the hell? You know, the way I look at it, they ask you a question and you give them an answer. It’s not that hard, but they didn’t show up for years. So, they were almost shocked when I said, yeah, I’ll do it. Why not? But I want to thank our great newly confirmed Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, who is fantastic by the way, for being here this morning. Donald Trump: I don’t know if – is he around? Where is he? Where is he? Unidentified: He’s right there, sir. Right there. Donald Trump: With the lights, I can’t – there you are. You are a handsome devil. He’s a good-looking guy. He’s got an even better-looking wife; I can tell you that. But I want to thank you and Kathryn for – you’ve been fantastic. I knew immediately, you know, he was running in a group of people, and I spotted him immediately. Donald Trump: I said that guy’s a winner. He didn’t get the gravitas because to get gravitas, you have to be controversial and, in many cases, a horrible human being you get a lot of gravitas that way. And he’s a very good human being and very smart. But I said he is really outstanding and he’s going to do a job with Chris Wright, two of them. Donald Trump: It’s like a partnership with Interior and Energy. He’s going to have more liquid gold coming out of the ground than anybody has ever seen before. We’re going to drive the price down and everything else is going to follow. So, he’s one of the really important people. He’s a very, very, very great gentleman. Donald Trump: Was a fantastic governor, by the way, and really did do – and sort of learned the oil business as a governor because he made his money. He made a lot of money, which I like. I like people that make money because that means they can help us and they always like me to put in, really, people that have failed, they want – please, sir, he’s made too much money and he’s become too successful. Donald Trump: They want me to hire people that have totally failed to run the Department of Energy, somebody that lost all his life. I don’t want to do – I just don’t want to do it. I know it sounds nice, but I want to get somebody that was so successful because we got to bring the country back and him and Chris are going to be unbelievable, I really believe it. But I want to – so I want to thank you very much, Doug, for what you’ve gone through. Donald Trump: He’s gone through a lot too, but he was easily approved because he’s an honest person. He gave a statement, they read it, they said thank you. But as well as our co-chairs, representatives Ben Cline and Jonathan Jackson. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, fellas. Congressman Eric Burlison and visiting dignitaries from more than 120 countries, from the very beginning of our republic America has always been a nation founded by people of faith and strengthened by the power of prayer and united by four simple but very beautiful words – In God, We Trust. Donald Trump: And you all know there was a movement to get that out. I said, no, I don’t bring it up, don’t bring it up. I don’t want to hear it. There was a movement, we don’t want that because we shouldn’t be mentioning God. You know, there was a very strong movement, just like they don’t want to say Merry Christmas but now they say it. Remember in 2016, that was a big part of my campaign. Donald Trump: You’re going to say Merry Christmas. Well, now they do it again. But we – I don’t know if you’ve been watching, but we got rid of woke over the last two weeks. Woke is gonzo. Despite the other side stealing hundreds of millions of dollars to promote woke, did you see what happened yesterday where they found hundreds of millions of dollars of money was fraudulently given to newspapers and I guess Politico? Donald Trump: I don’t know, they hear good I hope you’re enjoying your breakfast. [Laughter] No, they gave money to – to all this out of – out of USAID, right, USAID. It came out. Hundreds of just tremendous amounts of money, had nothing to do with anything. This is a terrible thing that was experienced. But we’re catching them left and right. Donald Trump: We’re catching them. We’re catching them to a point where they don’t know what the heck is going on. They can’t believe they’re getting caught. And I have great respect for the people that are doing it. Elon Musk is helping us on it and he’s pretty good. He’s pretty good. He’s pretty good at it, but the numbers are astounding. Donald Trump: They’re astounding. Even Doug was shaken up by what he heard. Do you believe that, Doug, what you’ve been reading? It’s just – it’s just very dishonest stuff. But it was faith that led the pilgrims to cross an ocean and settle this majestic continent. And we’re going to keep it majestic. It was belief in our creator that moved the patriot farmers to stand strong for the liberties at Concord Bridge 250 years ago this April. Donald Trump: And we’re going to have a big – a big party next year and we have the Olympics coming in and we have the World Cup coming in and we have the 250th year celebration, all three. And you know, when I was president, I got the Olympics and I got the World Cup. 250 years, I had nothing to do with. [Laughter] It just happened to be, but it all came due. Donald Trump: The presidency after what was – what should have been mine, really should have been. And they had a little election that, let’s just say didn’t work out too correctly. A lot of things have been found out about that. But – so I got forced to run again. And I ran again and now I have the Olympics, I have the World Cup, and I have 250, so I said this is interesting, you know? Donald Trump: When I got them, I said you know the only bad thing about the Olympics is I won’t be president. The only bad thing about getting the World Cup, I worked hard to get the World Cup because everybody wants it, everybody wants the Olympics, but the only bad thing was I said, you know, I won’t be president and I might not – you know, when you’re not, president, you might not even be invited. Donald Trump: I said isn’t it sad? Then all of a sudden, I run and I win and then somebody says, sir, you’re going to have to start thinking about the Olympics. I said, you know, you’re right. I never thought about that during the campaign. I’m going to be here for the Olympics and the World Cup. How about that? God works in very strange ways. [Laughter] But we had a great election. Donald Trump: We won by a massive majority. Won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by millions and millions of people. We have a mandate and some say the most consequential election in 129 years, and that’s good because I’m a believer like you’re a believer and we want to have a believer in this position. Donald Trump: And it was confidence in America’s God given destiny that pushed the pioneers to journey west and led Americans to end slavery, crush fascism, defeat communism, and conquer every single challenge that we faced. And they were a very great challenges. Now it’s the same time, we have to remember, unyielding faith in America’s mission that inspires us to make our country great again. Donald Trump: And soon, it will be greater than ever. We’re doing really well. We’re doing really well. It’s – I think in two weeks they’re saying, I’m reading it so I’m not even saying it, but I feel it, that we’ve done more than just about any president ever. First two weeks have been probably, they say, the most successful two weeks in the history of any presidency. Donald Trump: Now all we have to do is keep it going for another couple of hundred weeks. Well, it’s been very successful. And if this guy gets a lot of oil out of the ground to bring down everybody’s prices, it’ll even be better. So Doug, you shouldn’t even be here right now. You should be – get out of here, doug. Start looking for oil. [Laughter] After years of decline, Americans are reasserting our true identity as a people ordained by God to be the freest and most exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the earth. Donald Trump: But we weren’t that for four years. I don’t believe we were. And we’re getting there very soon, very quickly. I’ll be able to say and we’ll be able to say it again. As I said in my inaugural address two weeks ago, a light is now shining over the world, the entire world. And I’m hearing it from other leaders. Donald Trump: I’m hearing it from leaders that have traditionally not been on our side, that there’s so much more – there’s such a good feeling in the air. So different than it was just a short time ago because here in America, we are once again a nation that believes in ourselves, we believe in our destiny and trust in the providence of Almighty God. Donald Trump: And I can tell you, the opposite side, the opposing side, and they oppose religion, they oppose God, they’ve lost their confidence. They’ve lost their confidence. It’s a different group of people than I remember. Over the past two weeks, our strength has been restored, our spirit has been revived, and a new national momentum has been sweeping across our land. Donald Trump: The Golden Age of America has officially begun. And I will tell you, I just read it this morning a statistic just came out that in the last 15 years, we just broke the record Army recruitment and they think it’s going to be 25 years. But right now, it’s 15, more than 15, Army recruitment has gone up. You’ve probably been reading. Donald Trump: It’s been way down in the dumps and recruitment is the highest it’s been in more than 15 years and that’s going to get higher. And it could be 25 years, but that’s going to get higher and higher. And that’s a tremendous thing. That’s a tremendous thing. And a poll came out that the spirit of the country is up 49 percent. Donald Trump: Where did you hear that? That’s a record. That’s never gone up and that’s gone up over – just since the election, since November 5th. What a great day. Was that a great day? Was that good? Because we’re going to make our country great again. After years of stagnation, our economy is roaring back to life. Donald Trump: Optimism is soaring, hope is returning, and we have brought back the words common sense to our government. We are – we had a big day yesterday. You saw that having to do with men and women’s sports. No longer. It’s over. But we’re going to be securing our borders, defending our freedoms, and restoring the principle of meritocracy, merit. Donald Trump: We’re a merit based country again. And we have a Supreme Court ruling to that effect. Nobody thought that was going to happen. That was a great ruling. It didn’t get the kind of notoriety that other things get, but in its own way, it was just about as important as anything. It gave us the right to go back to a merit based – we’re a merit based country now. It’s based on competence, intelligence, and based on ability and all of the things that really can make a country great. Around the world, America is being respected again and you are already witnessing a very – some very incredible results. Just days before taking office, my team negotiated a breakthrough ceasefire fire agreement to stop the bloodshed and killing in the Middle East and return the hostages held captive by Hamas back home to their loved ones. And as the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers. And in that end, I hope my greatest legacy when it’s all finished, will be known as a peacemaker and a unifier. I hope that’s going to be true. You know, when I left we had no wars, we had no problems, we had no inflation, we had no – all we had was we were going to go just up. And I came back, we have Russia-Ukraine, we have the Middle East has exploded. All of these things would have never happened. And we have inflation that was the worst in the history of our country. But we’re joined today by several brave families whose loved ones were taken hostage during the October 7th horrible attack 16 months ago. And I know I speak for everyone here today when I say that we are keeping you in our hearts and our prayers. And please stand. If you are one of the people who have been so gravely affected, please stand. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, they’re coming in. More are coming in today. They’re coming in. It’s a very traumatic situation, very tough as the people know that are here with us, but they’re coming in. And I made a statement and I meant it, totally, that if they’re not home by the time I get into office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East. And I think they respected that statement. So we’ll see, but we have more hostages to come and we hope they live up to their word. And I have to say, who knows if that’s going to happen, but one way or another it’s going to work – It’s going to all work out. As president, I will not rest until every remaining hostage has been returned to their families. So, thank you all for being here, appreciate it. Also with us is an incredible survivor of October 7th. What a horrible day that was. That would have never happened. Iran was broke, they had no money to pay to Hamas or Hezbollah. They were stone cold broke. And when I left, they started selling their oil again, they took the sanctions off, they did everything wrong. I mean I’d like to say the opposite of that. I would – I would much prefer saying the opposite, but they did everything wrong. That includes with Russia and Ukraine, that should have never happened. Also, all those millions of kids. You know, the soldiers are just being decimated. The two countries, probably 800,000 Russians, 600,000 to 700,000, Ukrainians, young people just laying on a battlefield dead. It’s a horrible situation going on over there. We’re working very hard, and I think making progress to stop it. Also with us is an incredible survivor of October 7th who was held captive by Hamas for more than eight months. Noa Argamani was the music festival – she was at the music festival and attacked on that terrible day. Where are you? Where are you? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. That’s great that you’re here. I watched you on television. I don’t know what you’re doing, but you look like a much younger person. I don’t know what the secret is. Please give it to all of us. For 245 harrowing days, Noa showed unwavering strength and courage and faith as she endured the unendurable really what she went through. But by the grace of God, she was rescued by the Israeli Defense Forces and now she’s come back to pray with us this morning. And it’s such an honor to have you and you’re really an inspiration, Noa, to all of us. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. The innocent civilians attacked on October 7th were targeted for one reason – because they were Jews, they were murdered and kidnaped because of their faith. And these events remind us of how blessed we are to live in a nation that has thrived for two and a half centuries as a haven of religious freedom. Although I will tell you, the last four years have been very difficult. It would have been a very difficult thing for me to have made that statement if this speech was taking place two years ago. My administration is absolutely committed to defending this proud heritage and I will always protect religious liberty. And that is why today I’m honored – and really honoring a lot of people. But I’m announcing that I will be creating a brand-new Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty. It’s going to be a very big deal, which will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right. Unfortunately, in recent years we’ve seen this sacred liberty threatened like never before in American history, there’s nothing happened like the last four years what’s happened with so many things have gone bad. But religion, what they’ve done and the persecution that they’ve executed have been just horrible. For example, most of us would not have believed it possible that a grandmother with a severe medical condition, quite elderly woman would be put in jail for praying here in America. She was put in jail because she was praying. But we’re joined today by a woman who was 75 years old. Paulette Harlow was sentenced to two years in prison for peacefully praying outside of a clinic charged under an obscure law that hadn’t been used in years. Selectively weaponized against Christians by the previous administration. I never understood how – we won with evangelicals. We won with Christians by a lot. But even that little bit that they got, I said who are the people that voted for them? Who would vote for them? They were terrible. They were terrible to you, and they were terrible to people of religion, all religions. At Her sentencing the judge mocked Paulette’s Christian faith. Exactly two weeks ago, it was my honor to grant Paulette and other persecuted Christians, about 23 of them, a full and unconditional pardon. We got him out of there. We got him out, there so clean now, you know, those pardons, you’re so clean. There’s nobody so clean as Paulette in this whole room [Laughter]. She was just – oh, she got a little lucky, didn’t she? Yeah, she got lucky that I won that election, but she was going to be in there for a long time, right, Paulette? But what happened to you must never ever happen again in America. So, I want to thank you very much for being here. Paulette. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Enjoy your life. To confront such weaponization and religious persecution, today I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney general, who is a great person. She’s going to be a great attorney general, Pam Bondi, the head of a task force brand new to eradicate anti-Christian bias. About time, right? Anti-Christian bias. You never heard of that one before, right? But there’s – it’s about time, isn’t it though? Really? So many times you hear, but you don’t hear the anti-Christian bias. The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ which was absolutely terrible. The IRS, the FBI, terrible, and other agencies. In addition, the task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide. You’ve never had that before, but this is a very powerful document I’m signing. You’ve got it, you’ve got it now, first time you’ve had it. If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country. We probably don’t even have a country. This week, I’m also creating the White House Faith Office led by Pastor Paula White, who is so amazing. That man’s happy. Look, stand up, let me see. Why are you so happy? You love Paula, right? Unidentified: I come from Lebanon. Donald Trump: Oh, Lebanon tough, yes. So, you know what we’re talking about better than anybody. Yeah, you’re going to have a great new ambassador to Lebanon. Yes, thank you very much. Thank you. That’s tough. Yeah, you’re going to have a great new ambassador. We just put him in. While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools and our military and our government and our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares. Donald Trump: And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. Throughout history, those who have sought control and domination over others have always tried to cut the people off from the connection to their creator. At the same time, every nation with big dreams and great ambition has recognized that there is no recourse more precious than the faith in the hearts of our people. Donald Trump: It’s the thing that makes our nation great, it makes other nations great. When you don’t have it, you don’t see great nations. Without God, we are isolated and alone. But with God, the Scripture tells us all things are possible. Well, look at me, I’m standing before you today, I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here. Donald Trump: A lot of people said I shouldn’t have been here. A beautiful day in Pennsylvania. It’s a shot that should not have been missed – missed. It got me a little bit. It got me a little bit. But pretty amazing. My son who is a great shooter, Don – both of them, Eric. They said it’s like sinking a one foot putt from where that shooter was with that particular weapon. Donald Trump: And I just happened to turn at the right instant, a fraction of a second. If I was late or early, it would have been over, and you would have somebody else speaking today. But got very lucky. It was a chart on immigration came down and I looked to my right, quickly, I looked to my right, I said drop that chart. Donald Trump: Boom. And I said, “Man, what was that?” So if I didn’t make that turn – so it’s – and you know, my son Don said, “Dad, I’ll tell you, you got saved by God.” This is, you know, I shouldn’t say this, but that was a big statement for him to make. He was – he was moved. Eric, likewise, because it’s, you know, you could say it’s a miracle or you could say something, but it was really – it was God that saved me. Thank you. Donald Trump: But even in the dark – thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. That’s very nice. Even in the darkest moments, hope is never lost. And two weeks ago, I went to a small town in North Carolina. What a great place North Carolina is. We love North Carolina. We won that thing three times. We won the primaries, we won the elections, we won it. And my daughter in law, Laura, is so incredible. Donald Trump: She comes from North Carolina. She did such a great job. They love her in the state, but we’ve had great luck there and I reciprocate. And it had been virtually destroyed. The whole state, this hurricane Helene, it was a heavy water hurricane, the water like nobody’s ever seen. The lakes were built in areas that were always dry and the people that lost everything they owned, the – numerous people, many people dead. Donald Trump: FEMA under Biden was a disaster. They didn’t – they were almost not even – they essentially weren’t even there. They’d been abandoned by their government and seen their friends and neighbors swept away and die. I saw many of them. One of those I met was a pastor named Ramona Nix, really good woman. Her congregation is small, but they had just purchased a brand new church, beautiful church. Donald Trump: She said people asked her what are you going to do with this big building? It was such a good, beautiful situation to be in and then came the hurricane and she looked at them, she said only God knows. Just one week after dedicating that church, the storm hit their little town and the pastor’s church became a lifeboat for a community that was just displaced. Donald Trump: The church stood – it withstood the storm, one of the few buildings that did. Before the end of the week, the sanctuary was so packed with supplies that it was hard to walk. Everybody from all over the country was sending her supplies. Food, everything, toys, everything. And in the midst of so much hardship, the pastor’s message was not one of sorrow, but of joy. Donald Trump: God is good. And she said it very strong and she said, sir, God is good. He is very good. It’s been just 17 days since I took the oath of office. Wow, 17 days. It’s – time still flies. It’s 17 days. It’s gone – I’ve been so busy that – [Laughter] That it’s hard to believe. But we’ve done a lot in 17 days, haven’t we? And in those 17 days, we’ve accomplished really what some people haven’t accomplished in 8 years. Donald Trump: From the flood ravaged valleys of North Carolina to the flame scorched bluffs of California, I went there, what a shame that is. I’ve never seen anything like it. As far as the eye could see, just devastation of rich neighborhoods, very rich neighborhoods. Some of the richest people in the country lost their houses. Donald Trump: Rich and middle income, I wouldn’t say poor people. Pretty – this was a rough – this was a rough period of weeks. You know, I opened the floodgates a few days ago, let the water come down because the environmentalists didn’t want water. They still don’t want it. If they had their choice, they don’t want it. I said are you crazy? Donald Trump: And I open you – I’m sure you’ve seen it. The water comes down from the northwest parts of Canada, I guess, and – but the Pacific Northwest and it comes down by millions and millions of barrels a day. And I opened it up. It wasn’t that easy to do. But I opened it up and it’s pouring down and it’s – it’s a beautiful thing. Donald Trump: And it should have happened. I told them to do it in my last term. They didn’t do it, but now we just did it. They didn’t want to do it, but we did it. But from the gang ridden streets of our inner cities to the war torn lands of the Middle East, we’re working urgently to restore hope and prosperity, safety and peace all over. Donald Trump: Every single day of this administration will act with purpose and historic speed because, like that pastor in North Carolina, we know that God is good, our future is bright, and America’s glorious destiny is just within our reach. And so together, we will make America stronger and prouder, safer, freer, greater, and more faithful to our God than ever before. Donald Trump: And I just want to thank you. You’re very, very special people, you’re great people. It’s an honor to be with you and I will see you again next year. Thank you very much. God bless you all and God bless America. God bless you.
Date: 2025-02-09
Note: [The following interview was recorded at Mar-a-Lago on February 8, 2025 and aired in two parts. This transcript is both parts. The first part of the transcript was provided by Fox News for the Super Bowl portion of the interview. It was cross-checked against two video segments and confirmed accurate. Video and transcript courtesy and copyright Fox News.] Bret Baier: We’re pleased to be joined by the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Mr. President, thanks for having us. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Bret Baier: Happy Super Bowl. Donald Trump: Thank you. Bret Baier: You know, you are going to be the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. It’s a big day for America. Always is. What made you want to do it? Donald Trump: Well, first of all, I’m very surprised to hear that. I would have assumed many presidents came. But I think just the spirit of the country, the country has taken on a whole new life. I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the president be at the game. Bret Baier: I mean, it’s an iconic day. Donald Trump: It’s an iconic day. It’s going to be a great game. Two great teams, and let’s see what happens. Bret Baier: You know, it seems the first days of this administration are like a no-huddle offense. You know, plays going down the field one after another. There’s a long list of things you’ve already got done – Donald Trump: Right. Bret Baier: – in three weeks. Big border policy changes, IC crackdowns on criminals, taking biological men out of women as girls sports, big energy policy changes. So, what’s different with you and your administration? The difference between the 45th president and the 47th president? Donald Trump: Well, with the 45th, I had tremendous opposition. But I didn’t know people, and I didn’t have the kind of support that I needed. I put people in office. Some great, some really great ones, but I had some that I wouldn’t have put. I would have, you know, known better if it were a couple of years later, or if I had a little more experience in D.C. I was a New York person, not a D.C. person. Donald Trump: And I had a lot of opposition. I just noticed I looked on the stage for the recent inauguration, and I’m looking it’s like a who’s who of Washington. Well, if you look on the stage for the first one, it was just the opposite. Bret Baier: So, some of your plays have raised some questions and had some pushback. 19 states attorneys general filed a lawsuit and early Saturday a judge agreed with them to restrict Elon Musk and his government efficiency team, DOGE, from accessing Treasury Department payment and data systems. They said there was a risk of “irreparable harm.” What do you make of that? Bret Baier: And does that slow you down and what you want to do? Donald Trump: No, I disagree with it 100%. I think it’s crazy. And we have to solve the efficiency problem. We have to solve the fraud, waste, abuse, all the things that have gone into the government. You take a look at the USAID, the kind of fraud in there. Bret Baier: And you have found significant things? Donald Trump: Well, we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of money that’s going to places where it shouldn’t be going. Where if I read a list, you’d say, this is ridiculous, and you’ve read the same list and there are many that you haven’t even seen, it’s crazy. It’s a big scam. Now there’s some good money and we can do that through, any one of a number. Donald Trump: I think I’d rather give it to Marco Rubio over at the State Department. Let him take care of the few good ones. So, I don’t know if it’s kickbacks or what’s going on, but the people. Look, I ran on this, and the people want me to find it. And I’ve had a great help with Elon Musk, who’s been terrific. Bret Baier: Bottom line, you say you trust him? Donald Trump: Trust Elon? Oh, he’s not gaining anything. In fact, I wonder how he can devote the time to it. He’s so into it. But I told him do that. Then I’m going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He’s going to find the same thing. Then I’m going to go to the military. Donald Trump: Let’s check the military. We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. But I campaigned on this, Bret. Bret Baier: You announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico. You immediately got action from both of them on border security and drug interdiction. Donald Trump: I did. A lot of action – Bret Baier: Is that good enough? Donald Trump: – that nobody expected. Bret Baier: Is that good enough? Donald Trump: No, it’s not good enough. Bret Baier: So more needed in 30 days? Donald Trump: Something has to happen. It’s not sustainable. And I’m changing it. Bret Baier: You know, the prime Minister said this weekend to a group of Canadian businessmen. It was a private meeting. He said that your wish for Canada to be the 51st state is a, quote, “real thing.” Is it a real thing? Donald Trump: Yeah, it is. I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada, and I’m not going to let that happen. It’s too much. Why are we paying $200 billion a year essentially in subsidy to Canada? Now, if they’re our 51st state, I don’t mind doing it. Bret Baier: You said that tariff is a beautiful word. There are some signs in the market, consumer confidence that they’re a little jittery. So, if all goes to plan, when do you think families would be able to feel prices going down, groceries, energy? Or are you kind of saying to them, hang on, inflation may get worse until it gets better? Donald Trump: No, I think we’re going to become a rich – and look, we’re not that rich right now. We owe $36 trillion. That’s because we let all these nations take advantage of us. Same thing, like 200 billion with Canada. We owe 300 – we have a deficit with Mexico of $350 billion. I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to let that happen. Bret Baier: Sports has always been something that Americans rally around to come together. Donald Trump: Yeah. Bret Baier: They really do. You won the popular vote. You won all the swing states. Have you thought about how to try to bring the country together, to reach out or to find common ground? Have you thought about that? Or how that might go? Donald Trump: I’d love to do it. But I would say this. We have to come together, but to come together, there’s only one thing that’s going to do it. And that’s massive success. Success will bring the country together. But it’s hard. And I say it’s hard. I just signed a bill allowing for women not to have to be punished by men in sports. Donald Trump: In other words, men are not going to be allowed to play in sports against women. It’s ridiculous. Bret Baier: You’re a sports guy, you’re a football fan. Size up these two teams. Donald Trump: I’m a big fan of both teams. They’re sort of different. In Philadelphia, you have one of the greatest running backs. Saquon, you know Saquon had an uncle who was a great fighter. Great fighter. And Iran Barkley his name was. So, you have a great running back. You really have a great quarterback. The other team? Donald Trump: The quarterback really knows how to win. He’s a great, great quarterback. Bret Baier: So, game prediction? Donald Trump: I hate to do it. I just say that I’ve watched this great quarterback who has, by the way, a phenomenal wife. Okay. She’s a Trump fan. She’s a MAGA fan. So, I happen to love her okay? But she’s a great person. I watched her being interviewed. I said, well, boy pretty good. But she’s great and he’s great. I guess you have to say that when a quarterback wins as much as he’s won, I have to go with Kansas City. Donald Trump: I have to go with Kansas City. At the same time, Philadelphia has a fantastic – it’s going to be just a great game. Bret Baier: Finally, listen, you are the most recognized person in the world, likely the most imitated person in the world. Every comedian has Donald Trump imitation. Everyone. But now you have UFC fighters winning fights, NFL players doing the Trump dance. Donald Trump: Yeah. Bret Baier: Did you ever think that was going to be a thing? Donald Trump: No, I didn’t. I mean we do these rallies. They’ve always been great, but they got really great. And it’s just, I don’t know what it is. I try and walk off sometimes without dancing, and I can’t. I have to dance because it’s just got something special about it. Bret Baier: Mr. President, thanks for the time. Enjoy the game. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Note: [This is the second part of the interview, which aired on Special Report with Bret Baier on February 10, 2025.] Bret Baier: You know, it seems the first days of this administration are like a no huddle offense. You know, plays going down the field one after another. There’s a long list of things you’ve already got done in three weeks. Big border policy changes, ICE crackdowns on criminals, taking biological men out of women and girls’ sports, big energy policy changes. Bret Baier: So, what’s different with you and your administration? The difference between the 45th president and the 47th president? Donald Trump: Well, with the 45th I had tremendous opposition. I won, I did a great job. I never ran before, and I won the presidency, but I didn’t know people, and I didn’t have the kind of support that I needed. I put people in office, some great – some really great ones, but I had some that I wouldn’t have put, I would have, you know, known better if it were a couple of years later, if I had a little more experience in D.C. I was a New York person, not a D.C. person, and I had a lot of opposition. Donald Trump: I just noticed I looked on the stage for the recent inauguration, and I’m looking, it’s like a who’s who of Washington. Well, if you look on the stage for the first one, it was just the opposite. There weren’t a lot of people that were Washington people. And I had some great people, but I had some people that I wouldn’t have put there. Donald Trump: And I had opposition that I don’t have now, this great unity, even many of the enemies are already, you know, whether they gave up and they just said, look, we’re going with this guy, but I have great support in the business community, in the political community. You take a look at the Senate right now, it’s like – it’s been phenomenal. Donald Trump: You take a look at the House. We have our leadership in both is fantastic. We really have tremendous – we have a tremendous momentum, and it’s great for the country and all over the world, they’re talking about it. There’s like a light shining all over the world. So many people have said that, not just here, all over the world. Bret Baier: So, some of your plays have raised some questions and had some pushbacks. 19 states attorneys general filed a lawsuit, and early Saturday, a judge agreed with them to restrict Elon Musk and his team, government efficiency team and Doge from accessing Treasury Department payment and data systems. They said there was a risk of irreparable harm. Bret Baier: What do you make of that? And does that slow you down on what you want to know? Donald Trump: No, I disagree with it 100 percent, I think it’s crazy. And we have to solve the efficiency problem. We have to solve the fraud, waste, abuse, all the things that have gone into the government. You take a look at the USAID, the kind of fraud in there? Bret Baier: And you’ve found significant things? Donald Trump: Well, we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of money that’s going to places where it shouldn’t be going where, if I read a list, you’d say, this is ridiculous, and you’ve read the same lists, and there are many that you haven’t even seen. It’s crazy. We’re talking about hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars. Donald Trump: It’s just a fraud. It’s a big scam. Now, there’s some good money, and we can do that through any one of a number. I think I’d rather give it to Marco Rubio over at the State Department. Let him take care of the few good ones. But I mean, usually when you have a list like that, you’ll have a couple of, like, bad ones and all good ones too. Donald Trump: We have a couple of good ones, and all bad ones, just hundreds of horrible places that they give you this money. So, I don’t know if it’s kickbacks or what’s going on, but the people look I ran on this, and the people want me to find it, and I’ve had a great help with Elon Musk, who’s been terrific. He comes in with a hundred very smart people. Donald Trump: You know, it started off with 12, then it went to 15, then it went to 25 then it went to 50. And everybody wants to join. And I guess you have to have an I.Q. of about 175 at least, to do it. They’re a smart group of people. They don’t dress as well as you or maybe me, but they are smart. And they go in there and they talk to people, and the people get all tongue tied because they have no idea. Donald Trump: Nobody thought this would be caught. Bret Baier: So, you’ll fight this in court. But how does it work with Elon day to day? Does he come in and say, this is what I’m working on? Does he say, here’s what we’re doing? Donald Trump: First of all, he’s a great guy. He was never really a supporter, or not a supporter. He was a, you know, sort of semi neutral kind of a guy, not a political person, very smart, brilliant person, and which I like, I’m a big believer in I.Q. points. I mean, it’s a good thing. And I’ve gotten to know him a little bit over the last couple of years. Donald Trump: During the campaign, he liked what I said. He went to Pennsylvania. He actually campaigned right after the rocket ship went up, where he caught it coming down, which nobody saw before. He then took off. He went to Pennsylvania. He actually campaigned for me and did a very good job. I won Pennsylvania by a lot. Donald Trump: I won everything by a lot. But Elon, I’d say, go in here, because USAID, I heard very bad things about for years. I mean, you did too. I mean, I’m sure you did too. It’s a scam. It’s a fraud. A lot of it, most of it, but it’s a fraud. Look at the jobs that they produce for people. I’m not even going to mention their name. Donald Trump: It’s too big a show to mention their name. It’s almost unfair. But the whole thing is a giant fraud, and I think judges will have to do the right thing, really, otherwise you’re going to have a whole big problem with the country. Bret Baier: Bottom line you say you trust him. Donald Trump: Trust Elon? Oh, he’s not gaining anything. In fact, I wonder how he can devote the time to it. He’s so into it. But I told him do that, then I’m going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He’s going to find the same thing. Then I’m going to go to the military. Donald Trump: Let’s check the military. We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. And, you know, the people elected me on that, and we have a group of people that you just can’t get, I mean, these are really brilliant – it’s a group – I call it the group of a hundred, we literally started off with 14 or 15 young geniuses. Donald Trump: Now we have a hundred young geniuses. And what’s happened? I’ll probably get a lot from the show. People are calling up from all over the country wanting to do and wanting to help Elon. You know, they respect him, and they respect me, they love what’s happening with our country, but I campaigned on this, Bret. Bret Baier: You announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico. You immediately got action from both of them on border security and drug interdiction. Donald Trump: I did, a lot of action. Bret Baier: Is that good enough – is that good enough? Donald Trump: No, it’s not good enough. Bret Baier: So, more needed in 30 days? Donald Trump: We have a tremendous deficit with Mexico. We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We have a tremendous deficit with Europe, the E.U., with China, I don’t even want to tell you what Biden is allowed to happen with China. They’re eating our lunch, and something has to happen. It’s not sustainable, and I’m changing it. But when I talked about Canada, they gave us tremendous security along. Donald Trump: It started out for security, and then it started getting economic, and it’s really both. Bret Baier: You know, the prime minister said this weekend to a group of Canadian businessmen, he was at a private meeting. He said that your wish for Canada to be the 51st state is a, “real thing.” Is it a real thing? Donald Trump: Yes, it is. I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state, because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen. It’s too much. Why would we do that? I asked Trudeau that question. I said, why would anybody want to lose $200 billion. Why would I as President say, I’m going to give you 200 billion a year? Donald Trump: You’re Canada, you’re a different country, and I love Canada. I have so many friends in Canada. You can’t count them. Wayne Gretzky, I love Wayne Gretzky. I love so many people. I love their tradition. I love their ice hockey. But why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially in subsidy to Canada? Now, if they’re a 51st state, I don’t mind doing it, the Canadian citizens would have a much lower tax rate. Donald Trump: They’d have much better medical and they’d have military protection like nobody can have. You know, you have Russian ships all over the place, you have Chinese ships all over the place. They’re sailing all over Canada. They’re sailing right next to Greenland. We’re not going to let that happen to Greenland. Donald Trump: They’re sailing all over and we’re going to stop that. But if you’re a Canadian and you pay much lower taxes, you have much better military protection. You know, Canada is in default in NATO. I mean, they pay the lowest number of any country for NATO, and it’s not fair. You know why they do that? Because they think America is going to protect them automatically. Donald Trump: We can’t do that anymore. But as a state, it all works great. As a another country, I’m not going to do it now. What’s going to happen if I take away the subsidy Canada really ceases to become a viable nation? Bret Baier: We talked about China, and that tariff is in place. You’ve said tariff is a beautiful word. Donald Trump: That’s just a small portion of it. I just did the China having to do with what’s happening with fentanyl. That was a penalty to China, because they’re sending massive numbers. I mean, numbers like we’ve never seen before. It really increased under Biden. What’s happened under Biden is a disgrace, not only the prisoners, mental patients, everybody from all over the world, not South America, all over the world. Donald Trump: How he allowed this to happen. And when you see the great job that Tom Homan is doing, and Kristi Noem and everybody else that they’re doing with taking thousands of people a day out of here. And these are hardened criminals. These are murderers in many cases. Biden allowed this to happen to our country. Donald Trump: We shouldn’t have to be doing this. Bret Baier: You said the tariff is a beautiful word. There are some signs in the market’s consumer confidence that they’re a little jittery. So, if all goes to plan, when do you think families will be able to feel prices going down, groceries, energy, or are you kind of saying to them, hang on, inflation may get worse until it gets better? Donald Trump: No, I think we’re going to become a rich. Look, we’re not that rich right now. We are $36 trillion that’s because we let all these nations take advantage of us. Same thing like 200 billion with Canada, we have 300 – we have a deficit with Mexico of $350 billion, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to let that happen. Donald Trump: In the meantime, they’re building car plants in Mexico in order to sell cars in the United States. Our auto workers. Look at the kind of support I had with auto workers. Republicans don’t get that support. I got record support with auto workers. I won the teamsters union. I mean, nobody – no Republican wins the teamsters union. Donald Trump: I had support like nobody’s ever had because they know I’m right. So, in Mexico, they’re building car plants all over the place to make car sell them into the United States. I say, no way, you’re not going to do that. We’re going to put big tariffs in those cars. I don’t want those cars. We can make those cars right here. Donald Trump: If you look at Canada, Canada has a very big car industry. They stole it from us. They stole it because our people were asleep at the wheel. So what happens is, Canada is going to have our cars. We’re going to take the car industry. If we don’t make a deal with Canada, we’re going to put a big tariff on cars. Donald Trump: Could be a 50 or 100 percent because we don’t want their cars. We want to make the cars in Detroit. Bret Baier: Sports has always been something that Americans rally around and come together. They really do. You won the popular vote. You won all the swing states, but still, Kamala Harris got 75 million votes in the country. Donald Trump: Well, if you believe the whole thing. Bret Baier: OK, let’s just say – let’s just say that the election wasn’t what it was. Donald Trump: It’s ridiculous. Bret, excuse me. There are seven swing states. I won them all by a lot. Bret Baier: You did. But let me just get to the dismount here. Donald Trump: And I won the popular. Bret Baier: Have you thought about how to try to bring the country together, to reach out, or to find common ground? Have you thought about that, or how that might go? Donald Trump: I’d love to do it. And I can tell you, just prior to COVID coming in, we were doing so well, the greatest we’ve ever done. There’s never been an economy like ours anywhere in the world. We were doing so well. We’re eating China’s lunch. I charge – you know, I tariff China for $700 billion over a period of years. Donald Trump: We were doing so well. And then we had the COVID, we had to worry about that, and we took care of it. We did a great job with it. And then it was back to – back to business. But I would say this, we have to come together. But to come together, there’s only one thing that’s going to do it, and that’s massive success. Donald Trump: In my first term, when we hit that number, and I mean, the day before I heard the word COVID or pandemic, they told me, sir, I think there is a pandemic. That was not a good thing. I said, tell me about pandemics. But the day before we hit that word, I had a meeting with political people and pollsters and everything else. Donald Trump: And they said, sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln got together and ran as president and vice president, they couldn’t beat you. Our economy was so good, you know that. The best ever – the best we’ve ever had. And everybody was coming together. I was getting a call from very liberal people, senators, congressmen, people outside, people that normally weren’t speaking to me, and they were all getting to – they were coming together. Donald Trump: Then we had the pandemic. And, you know, it was back to work. We had to do that. And, you know, I was very proud to have handed over the country, and the stock market was higher than it was previous to the pandemic coming in. It was an amazing achievement. We did a good job, but it was a terrible thing all over the world. Donald Trump: Think of it, millions of people all over the world. Countries were destroyed, far worse than what happened to us. I mean, some countries were just still suffering from the throes of the pandemic, but the word is success. Success will bring the country together, but it’s hard. And I say it’s hard, I just signed a bill allowing for women not to have to be punished by men in sports. Donald Trump: In other words, men are not going to be allowed to play in sports against women. It’s ridiculous. I – you saw, I quoted a couple of things, long distance race where the man won by five hours and 25 minutes – five hours and 25 minutes, not by 12 seconds. Boxing, you see what happens there? Weight lifting, they are setting records, were hundreds of pounds more. Donald Trump: It’s the craziest thing. Now, we’re never going to change, and perhaps they’re never going to change because I saw that after I signed the bill. The Democrats were complaining about it. They want men to play in women’s sports. Open borders. I don’t want to have open borders. I want to have very strong borders. Donald Trump: I want people to come in, but they have to come in legally, and they have to love our country. They have to be capable. They have to be merit. You know, we want a big Supreme Court case. It’s called merit based. We have the right to have merit based – employment – Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: All right, let’s talk about – Donald Trump: So, it’s hard to come together when you have some people want a closed border, and some people want an open border. Some people want men playing in women’s sports. Some people are big and transgender. The Republican Party isn’t. With all of that being said, we were coming together when the country was the most successful it ever was, which was not very long ago during my term. Bret Baier: You say you trust Elon. I mean, you can’t imagine a scenario where you would have to rail them in or set up guard rails for him. Donald Trump: Well, I think I have guard rails. Yes. Elon is somebody that I have a lot of respect for, but you have to have guardrails. He reports to me, and he’s doing a fantastic job. I wanted somebody who’s extremely intelligent. He is that. He is also a good cost cutter. You can’t send an average person into that quagmire. Donald Trump: It’s a very dangerous quagmire. I watched some of these horrible people, like Maxine Waters, real sleaze, and I watched her screaming at the security guard, or whoever he was, actually, he was pretty cool. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: At the Department of Education. Donald Trump: He was pretty cool standing in front of the Department of Education. She is only looking for trouble. She is not looking to help people learn. Look, tell Maxine and all of her friends that we’re last in education out of 40 states. We’re last, we’re number 40. But we’re number one in cost per pupil. That’s all you have to know. Donald Trump: We have to make a change. I want to send education back to the states. You know, if you send education to Iowa and to Indiana and to a lot of these states that are so good. To Idaho, they have no debt, they have no crime, they have no this, they have no that, it’s like perfect. Because the best states are, if you look at the list of the top, the best countries for education, it’s Norway, and Sweden, and Denmark, and Finland. Donald Trump: And, by the way, China is right up there in the top five, which is pretty amazing for those that say it’s too big for that. It’s rated in the top five. We’re number 40. And we can have, if you take those states and many others, I think 35 states, they would be as good as Denmark and Norway. They would be as good as the number one, number two, number three, number four. Donald Trump: They would be in there. But on a countrywide basis, I think we have 35 states would be in that category. Then, you’d have five or six that would be mediocre, and then you’d have the same ones that are bad on crime and bad on everything, probably would be better in education, but they’d almost be forced to get better. Donald Trump: But you could take New York as an example, and you don’t have to do one, you do five or six, you do Suffolk County, you do Nassau County, you do Westchester County, and then you do upstate New York, and you do Manhattan. You know, you have five or six or seven, and they’d be small enough where they could really give some personalized education. Donald Trump: Also, the spotlight would be on that. Wouldn’t be a country. It would be just on Manhattan, or it would be on Nassau County or Westchester County. And if we did that, if we sent them back, our educational system would be double, and it would cost probably half. You know what, Bret, it would cost much – it would cost so little. Bret Baier: So, that’s the next step. Have you seen how many buildings department of education occupies in Manhattan? And I keep saying, what do they do? It should be done locally. Also, we should have school choice. Bret Baier: There are a lot of hot spots around the world. I want to hit a few quickly. With Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, you said this. Note: [Begin video clip] Donald Trump: [Video clip] The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it. Note: [End video clip] Bret Baier: That caught a lot of people by surprise, obviously. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Yes, some positive. Bret Baier: Some positive, but even some of your supporters wondered whether that meant U.S. troops were going to have to be going into a dangerous Middle East conflict. Donald Trump: No, not good. Bret Baier: So, where is that – where is it today? Donald Trump: I’ve been watching 50 years, 60 years. They go in, they occupy, they get slaughtered. Everything is terrible. Everyone leaves, they go back. They – this has been going on for forever, right? Forever. Now, it’s essentially a demolition site. There is practically no building that’s livable in the whole thing and the whole Gaza Strip. Donald Trump: I say, we go in. We knock them all down. We just create something. No more Hamas. There is no Hamas there. There is nobody there. We move them into beautiful areas of the Middle East. I’d like to go to Egypt. They have a lot of land. I’d like to go to Jordan. I’d like to go to others. And we’ll build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people. Donald Trump: We’ll build beautiful communities, safe communities. Could be five, six, could be two, but we’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. Donald Trump: No big money spent. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: Would the Palestinians have the right to return? Donald Trump: No, they wouldn’t, because they are going to have much better housing, much better – in other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them, because if they have to return now, it will be years before you could ever – it’s not habitable. It will be years before it could happen. I’m talking about starting to build and I think I could make a deal with Jordan. Donald Trump: I think I could make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year. Bret Baier: So, when you hear the pushback from the Middle East, what do you think? Donald Trump: I don’t hear that much pushback. A lot of people thought it was a great idea. Really, a lot of people. And I’m not talking about big money for the – I just think it would be stabilized if the United States owns the Gaza Strip. If people are not living in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas isn’t there, because nobody is there, people are not there, nobody is going to be there. Donald Trump: And later on, it can be developed. You’ll give some to Saudi Arabia. You’ll give some – Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: So, you’re not saying U.S. troops. Donald Trump: No, you don’t need – no. Israel will watch it. Bret Baier: OK. Donald Trump: Because it’s right next to Israel. Israel will watch it. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: And what’s the time frame? Do you have a time frame? Donald Trump: I would say, let it start, almost immediately. I would like to get some land from these others. We’ll get Saudi Arabia. We’ll get some of the great people. We have incredible people in the Middle East. We’ll get these people to finance it. It’s not a lot of money. You’re talking about building $1.8 million house. Donald Trump: That’s not a lot of people. You know relative to other problems in the world. When you look at what’s going on in Ukraine, when you look at what’s going on in other places. I mean, in Ukraine, they have lost a million and a half soldiers already between Ukraine and Russia. It’s horrible. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: Let’s talk about that. I know you want a Ukraine-Russia peace deal. But how do you get both sides to the table? Bret Baier: I think it’s going to happen. I think we’ve made tremendous progress in the last week. We are dealing with the Russians. We’re dealing with the Ukrainians. I think there’s going to be something that I hope. And you know what, from – Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: Zelenskyy says that he’s up to doing some equity deal where you get rare earth minerals or something. Donald Trump: Yes. What I’ve asked them – look, the United States is in for more than $300 billion probably 350 and Europe’s in for probably a hundred billion, a $100 billion. We’re in for more than twice, maybe even three times, what they are. This should have never happened. Biden should have never let that happen. Donald Trump: You know, it happened with NATO. And I got in and I equalized. I had an equalized and raised hundreds of billions of dollars. NATO became very rich after me. We were – we were paying almost all of NATO. It was unfair. We take care of the military and then they take advantage of us on trade. You know, they are very tough. Donald Trump: I’ll tell you what. The E.U. on trade is horrible. But NATO was very unfair, and I made it fair. I said, look, if you don’t pay, we’re not going to defend you. And the money came in like nobody has ever seen before. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: So, your secretaries have deal with Ukraine? Donald Trump: The secretary general just left, he said, I’ve never seen anything. When Trump left, all of a sudden, the money started rolling. And these people were all delinquent. By the way, Canada is a very low, you know, we were talking about Canada. Canada is just about the lowest payer in the whole thing, which is very unfair. Donald Trump: You know why they’re low payer? Because they think the United States is going to take care of them. Do you think that’s fair? It’s not fair. Bret Baier: Yes, Ukraine, though, you think you can get a deal. Do you keep sending American weapons until you do? Donald Trump: No, what I’m saying is the following. They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured, because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars. And, you know, they may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday, but we’re going to have all this money in there. Donald Trump: And I say, I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth. And they have essentially agreed to do that. So, at least we don’t feel stupid. Otherwise, we’re stupid. I said to them, we have to, we have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money. Donald Trump: You know, you’re a – Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: But on the Russian side, how do you get Putin? Do you squeeze him to get him to the table? I mean, how do you – Donald Trump: It would have – look, I say it all the time. This would have never happened if I were president. If the election weren’t rigged, this would have never happened. And let’s see whether or not Fox, let you put that in. OK? The election were not rigged, you hear me, rigged. Let’s see. I mean, it would have – this would have never happened. Donald Trump: It wouldn’t happen with Putin, and October 7th would have never happened either. Iran was broke. They were down to their last very small amount of money. Now, they have $350 billion, but they have other problems. And, you know, let’s go back over there, because I’m the weaver. I’m the great weaver. You know that, right? Bret Baier: Trust me. Donald Trump: OK, I’m the great weaver. Bret Baier: I get it. Donald Trump: Somebody said, oh, he rambled. No, no. Only the fake news says that. To weave, you have to be brilliant. To ramble, you don’t have to be brilliant at all. Bret Baier: I just get back in the weave. And I had – we got you back – Donald Trump: No, but I like the weave, because it covers a lot of territory. It covers it much more quickly. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: Have you – Donald Trump: But if you look – if you look at October 7th, Hamas had no money, because Iran wasn’t able to pay. Iran had no money. They were down. You know, I had sanctions on them, tremendous sanctions. China wasn’t buying oil. I told China, if you buy oil from them, you can’t do business with the United States. They took a pass. Donald Trump: They were down to nothing. Now, they are up to a tremendous amount of money. Bret Baier: Do you think there’s a deal there in Iran? Donald Trump: Yes, I think we’re going to make a deal in Iran. I think, I would rather – OK. And you know, there are a lot of people think that we are going to attack Iran. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: Or Israel with your blessing. Donald Trump: Or Israel. But Israel needs us. Everybody needs us. We have the weapons, we have the strength, we are very strong. I rebuilt our military. People forget I rebuilt our military. Now, they shouldn’t have given a lot to Afghanistan, which they did. They gave a lot. There was no reason for that. But we’re very strong. Donald Trump: We have things that nobody else has. So, they need us. But everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen. I’d much rather see a deal with Iran where we can do a deal, supervise, check it, inspect it, and then blow it up, or just make sure that there is no more nuclear that we just – we can’t – Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: A better deal than the Obama nuclear deal. Donald Trump: Well, that was the – that was the dumbest deal. By the way, that would have expired by now. That was a road to a nuclear weapon. It was a short-term deal. You can make a deal with just a few years on it. That deal would be expired by now. Think of it, and they would have a legal right to have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump: You cannot allow Iran, or just about anybody else, by the way, but especially Iran, because they are very militant. I mean, they are very, very militant. You can’t allow them to have a nuclear weapon. But there is two ways of stopping them, with bombs or with a written piece of paper, and I’d much rather do a deal that’s a – deal that’s not going to hurt them. Donald Trump: And I think they want it too. I think that Iran is very concerned. I think that Iran is very frightened, to be honest with you, because their defense is pretty much gone. Maybe they get to – trying to get new defense as we speak, you know they are trying – meaning, air defense, but their defense is largely gone. Donald Trump: They’ve had some very bad moments. The whole thing with the pages was a disaster for them. The pagers, you know what I’m talking about. It was a horrible thing. But it was, you know, knocked out a lot of leadership, like nobody has ever seen before. But I think, Iran is very nervous. I think they are scared. Donald Trump: I think Iran would love to make a deal, and I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them. Bret Baier: So, Iran, you think a deal is possible. China, you’re saying maybe there’s a deal possible? Have you talked to President Xi? Donald Trump: I think that China is so economic, it’s so trade-based. And look, Biden allowed China to go crazy, and we have a deficit with China of over a trillion dollars a year. Can you believe it? But with all of that said, China needs us, because they take out so much money out of the United States. We’re not going to let them take out the kind of money they are taking out now, but we’re going to let them take out money, and they are going to do very well, and we want them – I happen to like him a lot – President Xi. Note: [Crosstalk] Bret Baier: Will you talk to him? Donald Trump: Yes. I love talking to him. Bret Baier: Since the inauguration? Donald Trump: Yes. I have talked to him. And I talk to his people, too. His people come in all the time. We have a very good personal relationship. You know, I don’t want to sound foolish, because – Bret Baier: You had him here at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump: I’ve had him here. I know him very well. I know him probably better than just about anybody in various parts of the world. I know Kim Jong-un from North Korea better than anybody. Most people never even will ever get to talk to him. Bret Baier: I was on that trip. I remember it well. Donald Trump: Yes, you can attest to it. Bret Baier: I want to just hit on a couple other things. You had Republican senators here at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump: I did. Bret Baier: They are in kind of a back and forth with the House about the one big beautiful bill, the two bills. Donald Trump: Yes, but not much, Bret. Bret Baier: Has anybody figured it out? Have you decided? Donald Trump: First of all, the relationship is incredible. We had about 50 of them here last night for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. I think John Thune is doing a fantastic job. And I think that the speaker, Mike Johnson, is doing a fantastic job. I think Mike has even harder job because he has got literally – Bret Baier: A narrow majority. Donald Trump: Actually, it’s probably five if you really think about it. But right now it’s about two or three. That’s pretty tight. But there’s great unity in both the House, and there is great unity in the House and the Senate. Last night I made a speech, and it was actually, I think, on television. I said if the press wants to stay, I couldn’t care less. Donald Trump: I think it was probably on to a large extent. There was a great love and respect and unity in that room last night. And we had, I guess, close to 50 senators there. We had a couple couldn’t make it for other reasons. Bret Baier: So you think the process doesn’t matter? Eventually you are going to get there one way or the other? Donald Trump: I believe we are. We have a very dangerous thing that was given to us, unfortunately, and very foolishly called debt ceiling. And the debt ceiling, I call it 1929 because bad things could happen. It should be just psychological, but it’s really probably more than that. We shouldn’t have had it. It shouldn’t have been ours. Donald Trump: It should have been theirs. But somebody made a bad mistake, a stupid mistake, actually. And we inherited it. But6 I can’t imagine the Democrats don’t want to take care of the debt ceiling because that could be an explosion the likes of which we have never seen. And I just don’t that’s going to happen. I think it’s very important that we do the tax bill, and I can’t see the Democrats giving people the largest tax increase in history. Donald Trump: So we have to extend it and, I think, make it better, make it even more productive. We can do things we did even better than we did during the Trump tax breaks. Bret Baier: And you want to raise defense spending? Donald Trump: We want to raise defense spending. I think we have to have it. One of the reasons I can speak with authority is we really do have amazing military. But they are also getting bigger. One of the things I will be doing with President Xi and with Putin and everybody else is saying, let’s ease up on all this building all of this, you know, the bombs. Donald Trump: We’re talking about massive amounts of money, $900 billion. It’s interesting. Russia was spending about $57 billion prior to the war, and China about $200 billion. We were about $715 billion. So we’ve always spent more. Does it mean we got better? We have better equipment than everybody else. Nobody has even close to us. But it’s crazy to spend the money on things that, hopefully, aren’t going to be used. Bret Baier: I mean, the tough part is that if you don’t want to cut entitlements and you do want to add to defense spending and you want to eliminate taxes on tips and you want to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent. Donald Trump: Yes. Bret Baier: That’s a lot of money. Donald Trump: But we’re going to take in tremendous amounts of money on tariffs. We’re going to have tariffs. We’re going to take in tremendous amounts of money. Bret Baier: And you think DOGE is going to make up some difference? Donald Trump: Well, DOGE is going to make up a lot, but that’s unrelated to tariffs. It’s not fair that other countries have really taken advantage of us. And it’s our leaders’ fault, but I’m a different leader. It’s not fair other countries taken advantage of us for so many years, and now all of a sudden we’re not allowed to have tariffs, but they have had tariffs for years. Donald Trump: You know, they’ve done this to us for years, and we haven’t. And I think reciprocal tariffs, I will be talking about it, I think probably on Monday or Tuesday. I will have a whole big thing. We have a very sophisticated plan. I want to have tariffs separately on that on steel, on autos, on semiconductors and chips, and probably pharmaceuticals. Bret Baier: And you are not worried that any of that is going to go back to the consumer? Donald Trump: It might. But it’s ultimately going to be much less expensive. I will give you an example. The so-called fat drug or fat shot, whatever it’s called, Ozempic or Mounjaro, in London you get it for $88. In New York you get it for $1,200, you can’t even buy it. It’s very unfair. The identical package made in the same factory, shipped to different places but made literally in the same factory. Donald Trump: In London it’s $88 and in New York it’s $1,200 and you can’t get it. And the reason is because everything is added onto the United States because the United States has been too nice. I had transparency done. And Biden canceled it. Transparency would have solved that problem. But I’m going to solve it one way or the another, including, you know, they have a certain thing like rent control in New York. Donald Trump: And I don’t like that, but at some point, nobody is going – it’s not fair that other countries. You go Canada, all of the drugs are much less expensive. I suggested that some of the governors should go buy their drugs in Canada and send them back to here. It’s very simple. So, I think we’re going to do some amazing things, really amazing things. Bret Baier: Last thing. You have a lot of things on your plate that you are going to do. But right now – Donald Trump: One thing did I last night that’s very popular, the straw. They gave us a paper straw. It melts. It’s horrible. You start – they should make it in flavors because by the time you are finished it is so horrible. I ended the paper straw. We are going to go back to plastic. Bret Baier: That might be a 90-10 issue. Donald Trump: It’s about a 99 – Bret Baier: Because no one loves the soggy straw. Donald Trump: This was a big Biden issue, big Biden issue. I’m sure Biden really knew. They’d put things in front of him and he’s sign whatever they did. I think you are right, it’s at least a 90 percent issue. Bret Baier: Right now, do you view Vice President J.D. Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028? Donald Trump: No, but is he very capable. I mean, I don’t think that, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he is doing a fantastic job. It’s too early. We are just starting. I will say – Bret Baier: By the time you get to the midterms, he’s going to be looking for an endorsement. Donald Trump: A lot of people have said that this has been the greatest opening, almost three weeks, in the history of the presidency. Bret Baier: It’s definitely been the fastest and most stuff happening. Donald Trump: We’ve done so much so fast. And we really had to because they have really, what they have done to our country is so sad. It’s so sad. We’re going to be bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. Bret Baier: Mr. President, we appreciate all the time. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, Bret.
Date: 2025-02-09
Donald Trump: How are you? Nice to see you. Unidentified: Nice to see you. Good. Yes. Donald Trump: Are you all set? Unidentified: Yep. Donald Trump: You know, we’re flying over right now. We’re flying over a thing called the Gulf of America, and I’m signing a proclamation that perhaps you could define that. Unidentified: This is a proclamation declaring today, February 9th 2025, as the first ever Gulf of America Day. This follows the President’s Executive Order [Video gap] a name change from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Donald Trump: And we’re flying right over it right now. So we thought this would be appropriate, even bigger than the Super Bowl. This is a big thing. And, uh, almost everybody now has assented to that. Air Force One Crew: Everyone on board, ladies and gentlemen, if you could please direct your attention out the right side of the aircraft. Air Force One is currently in international waters for first time in history flying over the recently renamed Gulf of America. Please enjoy the flight. And we are now about to head westbound to Super Bowl VIX. Donald Trump: Wow. He did that well. That’s a good [Inaudible]. He did – isn’t that – isn’t that nice? You know, we’re all about Make America Great again? Right? That’s what we care about. Okay, there we go. So this is a famous pen now, and we’ll put it with something. Uh, I’ll ask you to do whatever you think we should do with it, Mr. Secretary. Donald Trump: Do you want to talk about – You know Doug, Secretary of the Interior, and also working with Chris Wright on extracting vast amounts of oil and gas, and making our country rich. Uh, would you like to say something Doug? Doug Burgum: Well, with the Gulf of America, this is historic day. Uh, we want to thank President Trump. His executive order is what set this in motion. Uh, we signed a secretarial order from – as Secretary of Interior, uh, directing the U.S. Geologic Survey, who is responsible for the database, which is the, uh, geographic names information system. Doug Burgum: Uh, and so just prior to this signing, uh, if you will, the button was pushed. It became official, uh, with this proclamation to call today Gulf of America Day. Uh, but now it’s going out as we’re sitting here right now, uh, our team is calling all the, the map providers. So Google Maps, Apple Maps, all the map people, uh, that change will take effect, uh, this afternoon to Gulf of America. Doug Burgum: So again, uh, fantastic. Uh, thank you President Trump for setting this all in motion with your executive order. Donald Trump: Thank you. Doug Burgum: It’s an exciting, uh, exciting fun day and great to do this as we’re flying over the Gulf of America. Donald Trump: We thought it would be very appropriate. We thought it would be appropriate, Kathy. Thank you very much for being here. Unidentified: So happy. Donald Trump: It’s been a very important part of his life and, uh, who knows what would’ve happened to him without you. It might not have been good. Here you go. Okay? Question: Have you talked to Mexico about this? Donald Trump: Actually, interestingly, I’ve never spoken to be him about it. It was our call, and I have not spoken to him about – I’ve spoken to him about many other things, but I haven’t really talked to him about this. They have never brought it up. I’m a little surprised at that, but they’ve never brought it up. Question: Sir, can you tell us about your conversation with Vladimir Putin? Donald Trump: I don’t want to do that now. You know, we’re trying to end that war. It’s a war that would’ve never happened if I were president, would’ve never happened. Uh, but, uh, we’re making progress, but I can’t tell you. Question: You suffered a couple of court losses, Mr. President. And J.D. Vance said judges aren’t allowed to control the executive power. What’s your take on that? Donald Trump: Well, we’re gonna see what happens. We have a long way to go and, uh, uh, we’re talking about fraud, waste abuse. And when a president can’t look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don’t have a country anymore. So we’re very disappointed w- with the judges that would make such a ruling. But we have a long way to go. We have to look – We have to find all of the fraud that’s going on. We have tremendous fraud, tremendous waste, and tremendous abuse. Donald Trump: And, uh, and theft by the way. And the day you’re not allowed to look for theft and fraud, etc. then we don’t have much of a country. So no judge should be, uh – no judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It’s a disgrace. Question: Mr. President – the Gulf of American, Canada, Greenland, Gaza, all these are very muscular foreign policy. How does this align with America First? Donald Trump: Uh, because it makes us bigger, stronger, and better, and more protective. We need, uh, Greenland because of, uh, national security, international security, world security, world peace, and we’ll have to do that. Uh, Canada, we’ll see what happens with Canada. But the people of Canada would be paying less than half of the tax. Donald Trump: If you look at the tax, they’re gonna be paying less than half the tax. Uh, you know, they don’t pay very much for military. And the reason they don’t pay much is they assume that we’re gonna protect them. That’s not an assumption they can make, because why are we protecting another country? Now, I love the people of Canada. Donald Trump: We have a great relationship. But if they became our 51st state, it’d be the greatest thing they could ever do. It’d be unbelievable. It would be a cherished state. And think of how beautiful that country would be, without that artificial line running right through it. Somebody drew it many years ago with a ruler, just a line. Donald Trump: You look at how beautiful that is, wow. It, it would be very exciting. But if you look at Canada, it would be cherished as a 51st state. Uh, and they don’t pay their share of military and NATO. They pay very little for military. They’re not protected at all. And the reason is they think we’re gonna protect them. Donald Trump: Uh, the other thing is, we subsidize them to the tune of about $200 billion a year. If we stop doing that, if we stop allowing them to make cars through tariffs and other things, cars, trucks, etc. what they make, uh, they’re not viable as a country. Question: Would you, would you, would you agree that it’s a, a more aggressive foreign policy than your first term term? And why is that? Donald Trump: It’s more aggressive. Uh, it’s better. Uh, why? Because I think, uh, I’ve had a lot of experience. And in my first term, I was fighting everybody because they were very aggressive toward me. Uh, I always said survival and taking care of the country, not necessarily in that order. Uh, but I had to take care of the country. Donald Trump: But I had a bunch of lunatics like Pelosi and all of these people, they fought me, fought me, fought me, and we won. And, uh, you know, I had a lot of other things that were going on there. This time, it’s much more – They’ve lost their confidence. Uh, I think they’ve lost the respect of the American people with, you know, men participating in women’s sports, with open borders, with transgender for everybody, f- all the things that they’re doing is so, so bad. Donald Trump: When you allow people to empty their jails into your country with prisoners, killers, uh, their mental institutions and insane asylums into our country. This is what they’re doing. When you allow gang members from Venezuela, but many other countries coming into our country, we’re getting ’em all out now. Donald Trump: Uh, they’ve lost their credibility, but they’ve also lost their confidence. So, uh, I have more time to do what I want to do. So we’re making our country larger. We’re making our country stronger. And in the case of Canada, if this should happen – I don’t know how they can do it without us because without the US, Canada really doesn’t have a country. Donald Trump: They do almost all of their business with us. And if we say, “We want our cars to be made in Detroit,” I – with a stroke of a pen, I can do that. And other things in addition to that would not allow Canada to be a viable country. Question: Mr. President, you said- Mr. President, you said you’re going to honor first responders today, but you pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted first responders. Why did you do that? Donald Trump: Who? I- I’m sorry? Question: You – You are going to meet with first responders today – Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: – but you pardoned people who assaulted first responders. Donald Trump: No, I pardoned people that were assaulted themselves. They were assaulted by our Government. I fired – I pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our Government. That’s who assaulted, and they were treated unfairly. There’s never been a group of people in this country, outside of maybe one instance that I can think of, but I won’t get into it, that were treated more horribly than the people of J6. So, uh, no, I didn’t assault, they didn’t assault. Donald Trump: They were assaulted. And what I did was a great thing for humanity. They were treated very, very unfairly. There’s never been an incident like it. Question: Mr. President, sir, are- Mr. President, two foreign policy – two foreign policy questions. On Putin, again, you realize if – if you don’t clarify that, everyone’s going to assume you’re talking to President Putin regularly. Are you – Donald Trump: Well, they can assume that. Question: So, is it – Donald Trump: It makes sense. Well, I don’t want to talk about it. And if we are talking, I don’t want to tell you about the conversation. It’s too early, but I do believe we’re making progress. We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia War. And I want to stop it just ’cause I- I hate to see all these young people being killed. The soldiers are being killed by the hundreds of thousands. Question: So, you’re starting to put together a plan for a peaceful new law or – or [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: We’re talking to both sides. Yeah. Question: All right. And then on – on Japan, are you okay with having a foreign country having a controlling interest in a US Steel company? Donald Trump: Well, that – let’s – let’s look at this. Uh, when I came here, they were gonna buy it, and Biden was gonna approve it. All of a sudden, Biden didn’t because he heard I wasn’t going to. I don’t want US Steel being owned by a foreign country. Question: But a controlling interest is okay? Donald Trump: Uh, they can have – Not a con – They’re not – They don’t have a controlling, they have an investment. All they’re gonna have is an investment. Question: But will it be a choice – Donald Trump: I don’t mind – I don’t mind an investment in a company, but especially US Steel. US Steel for 15 years was the greatest company in the world, the greatest number one company in the world, and I’m not gonna let another country buy it. We had a great meeting on that, but they are allowed to invest in it, and that’s different. Question: Mr. President, on tariffs, sir, you’ve talked about reciprocal tariffs – Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: – coming in this week. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? And are you announcing a plan for it this weekend? Donald Trump: Yeah, I’ll be, uh, announcing – Question: [Inaudible] results to give – Donald Trump: I’ll be announcing probably Tuesday or Wednesday at a news conference reciprocal tariffs. And, uh, very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them. That’s all. Question: When is it going i- in effect, sir? Donald Trump: Almost immediately, but I’ll be announcing the details of it. Highly detailed. And it’ll be great for everybody, including the other countries. But if they are charging us 130%, and we’re charging them nothing, it’s not gonna stay that way. Question: Is this about every country? Donald Trump: Every country will be reciprocal. That’s right. Every – Question: Mr. President, can you confirm it’s – Donald Trump: It won’t affect everybody because there’s some where we have similar tariffs, but the ones that are taking advantage of the United States, we’re gonna have a – It’s reciprocity, it’s reciprocal. We’re gonna have a reciprocal tariff, but we’ll have a, uh, news conference Tuesday or Wednesday. Question: And just on the steel question, just so I understand you correctly – Donald Trump: We’ll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday. Question: On this t- tomorrow? Donald Trump: Uh, Monday. Yeah. Tomorrow. Question: What countries will those go on? Donald Trump: Everybody. Steel. Question: I- Including Canada and Mexico, [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Yeah. Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff. Question: What about aluminum, sir? Donald Trump: Aluminum too. Question: 10%? Oh, so it’s – Donald Trump: 10 – No, 25%. Question: 25 for aluminum as well? Donald Trump: 25 for both. Question: For both. On steel, sir, are you ruling out then Nippon Steel having a 51% stake or higher? They won’t have a majority stake? Donald Trump: Nobody can have a majority stake for US Steel. They can for other companies, but not for US Steel. I think you agree with that, Doug, right? US Steel was one of our great companies, and through a lot of stupidity and bad government, and also bad management of the company, it lost that luster, but it’s gonna gain it back and tariffs are gonna help. Donald Trump: Tariffs are gonna make it very successful again. And I think it has good management now too. Yeah. Question: Sorry, sorry. Can I – May – May I ask one, please? Thanks. Um, can you tell me – or can you confirm that you will be meeting with MBS and, uh, CC of Egypt soon? Will that be at the White House or are you – Donald Trump: Well, I’ll be meeting with all of them numerous times, by the way, but I’ll be meeting with all of them. And yeah, I think that it’s a big mistake to allow people, the Palestinians or the people living in Gaza to go back yet another time. And we don’t want Hamas going back. And think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it. And we’ll slowly, very slowly, we’re in no rush, develop it. We’re gonna bring stability to the Middle East, to a totally war-t- torn part of the Middle East, a part of the Middle East that has caused tremendous problem, tremendous problem, the Gaza Strip. Donald Trump: And we’ll own it. It’s totally demolished right now. It’s a demolition site. Uh, it’ll be reclaimed. It’ll be, uh, leveled out, fixed up. There won’t be anybody there. Hamas won’t be there. We’ll be building through, uh, other of the very rich countries in the Middle East. They’ll be building some beautiful sites for the people, for the Palestinians to live in. Uh, they’ll be living in harmony and peace, probably for the first time in hundreds of years. Question: And just to clarify, I know you don’t want to tell us about your conversation with President Putin, but can you clarify whether you had that since you’ve been el – since you’ve been in office, or whether it happened before you became President? Donald Trump: I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it. Question: As President? Donald Trump: And I – And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended. It’s gonna end, but we have to get it ended. And we have to get it ended soon. Should have never happened, would have never happened if I was President. Question: Mr. President, 15 years ago, your Vice President said that the s – suggested that if the Supreme Court rules in a way you don’t like, just let them enforce it. Do you agree with that? Donald Trump: Say the last part? Question: The Vice President s- suggested that if the Supreme Court rules in a way that you don’t like, they can just enforce it by themselves. Do you agree with that? Donald Trump: Uh, I don’t know even what you’re talking about. Neither do you. Who are you with? Question: Huff Post, sir. Donald Trump: Who? Question: Huff Post. Donald Trump: Oh, no wonder. I thought they w – I thought they died. Are they still around? I haven’t read them in years. I thought they died. All right, go ahead. Who else? Question: O- On security clearances, you’ve been yanking a lot of them. Why does it make the country safer to take away the AG’s security clearance, and is that a form of retribution? Donald Trump: If there’s somebody – No, it’s – If – If some – If there are people that we don’t respect, if there are people that we thought that were breaking the law or came very close to it in previous years, uh, we do it. And we’ve done it, uh, with some people. We’ve done it with Biden himself, Biden himself. Donald Trump: Uh, we think our country is not as safe if you gave him clearance. We don’t think he knows what he is doing. Now, what he’s done to this country is a disgrace. And what he’s done in terms of allowing criminals, murderers, drug lords into our country, people from mental institutions into our country, he should be ashamed of himself. Question: Is that legal valid reason- On, um, deportations, there’s been some reporting that you’ve been upset that there haven’t been more deportations. Donald Trump: No. Question: Can you clarify that? Donald Trump: I think they’re doing an incredible job. It’s very tough for deportations. Finding murderers is not easy. Some of them are actually very smart. They shouldn’t be in our country. There wouldn’t have been. We had beautiful, uh, you know, we just set records for closure. We had the, the strongest border we’ve had many years, since my term. Donald Trump: But, uh, even, maybe even for many, many years, decades before that. Uh, no. Uh, they, uh, they’re doing an amazing job, I think. Tom Homan’s doing an amazing job. Kristi Noem is doing an amazing job, but it’s not easy finding murderers who know they’re being looked for. But we’re see – we’re sending out thousands of people. Donald Trump: We’re getting rid of thousands of criminals from our country. Question: Do you expect to meet him in person anytime –? Donald Trump: Where? Question: Putin. Do you an anticipate meeting with him in person? Donald Trump: I would imagine I would be meeting with Putin, yes, at the right time. I think at the right time at the appropriate [Inaudible]. Question: Mr. President, in Gaza. The White House Press Secretary told us last week that your commitment to rebuilding, you’re committed to rebuilding Gaza. Steve Witkoff said that process would take 10 to 15 years. Does your commitment to rebuilding Gaza extend beyond your time in office? Donald Trump: I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. Uh, as far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Uh, other people may do it through our auspices, but we’re, uh, committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back. There’s nothing to move back into. Donald Trump: The place is a demolition site. Uh, it’ll be, uh, the remainder will be demolished. Everything’s demolished. I mean, you can’t live in those buildings right now. They’re very unsafe. But we’ll, uh, we’ll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody. We’ll let other countries develop parts of it. It’ll be beautiful. Donald Trump: People can come from all over the world and live there, but we’re gonna take care of the Palestinians. We’re gonna make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and in peace, and that they’re not murdered. This has been the most dangerous site anywhere in the world to live in. Hamas has been a disaster. Donald Trump: And by the way, I have to tell you that I watched the hostages come back today, and they look like Halo, Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors. And I don’t know how much longer we could take that, when I watched that. Donald Trump: I know we have a deal where we’re supposed to get a dribble in and keep dribbling in, but they are in really bad shape. They have been treated brutally, horribly. Even the ones that came out earlier, they were in a little bit better shape, but mentally, they were treated so badly. Who could, who could take that? Donald Trump: Uh, you know, at some point, we’re gonna lose our patience. When I see that scene that I saw today with people coming out of helicopters and airplanes that are emaciated, that look like they haven’t had a meal in a month, there’s no reason for that. And I don’t know how much longer we can take it. Question: Do you mean you want to recast –? Donald Trump: I don’t know how long we can take it. When I watched people that were healthy people a reasonably short number of years ago, and you look at ’em today, they looked like they’ve aged 25 years. They, they, they literally looked like the old pictures of Holocaust survivors, the same thing. I mean the same thing. Donald Trump: And I don’t know how long we’re gonna take that. Question: Have you got some advancement in your proposals for some of the goal for Arab nations to take some of the Palestinian people? And if not – Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: – what do you think the reason is for their hesitance? There’s some very honest reason that they’ve either told privately or that you think why their hesitance to take the Palestinian people? Donald Trump: Why are they hesitant to take them? Question: Right. Donald Trump: Because they never spoke to me. They spoke to other people. They didn’t speak to me. When they speak to me, they’re gonna take ’em. Question: Is it because they, they think that you would not allow them to return to Gaza? Donald Trump: No. Question: Is that part – Donald Trump: No, they don’t want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area, the only reason they’re talking about returning Ga, to Gaza is they don’t have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don’t want to return to Gaza. If they had a home that was safe where you don’t have Hamas, uh, threatening them, killing them, torturing them, uh, they’d rather not return to Gaza. Donald Trump: But right now, Gaza is the only alternative. As far as the other regions, the only reason they maybe don’t act enthusiastic is they haven’t talked to me. They talk to other people, but not to me. When they talk to me, they’ll be enthusiastic Question: And on, on spending, you found some maybe questionable expenditures or Elon Musk has found them? Donald Trump: Not some questionable. Uh, the whole country looks like it’s a fraud. It’s fraud, waste, abuse. But it’s a tremendous fraud. And what Elon and his group of geniuses have found is unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. And that’s just an USAID. Soon, we’re going into education. It’ll, you’ll find the same thing, but bigger. Donald Trump: Soon, we’re going into the military. And you’re gonna find a lot of bad things happening there. Uh, you’ll find it because our government has not functioned properly for many, many years, and we’re gonna make it function properly. Uh, we’re even looking at treasuries. There could be a problem. You’ve been reading about that with treasuries. Donald Trump: And that could be an interesting problem because it could be that a lot of those things don’t count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we’re finding is very fraudulent. Therefore, maybe we have less debt than we thought of. Think of that. So, a lot of things are happening, but Elon’s doing an excellent job. Donald Trump: We started with 12 guys with high IQs, and now we have a hundred guys with very high IQs. Question: Do you think Congress has failed to do their oversight? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Or do you think your first administrations of your cabinet agencies – ? Donald Trump: I think everybody failed. I think everybody failed. Question: [Inaudible] Why does Elon’s financial disclosure remain secret? Donald Trump: Uh, because nobody’s looking at that. We’re looking at all the corruption that’s taken place. I mean, his financial disclosure is largely the number of shares that he’s got in very public companies. And, and that’s not secret at all. If you read that, you’ll see a lot. I mean, he talks about his whole thing. Donald Trump: I read one where it really gave a very good history of him. But basically, it’s a number of shares times a certain stock price. Question: So, why is that not public? Donald Trump: It is public. All you have to do is read it. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: On USAID, Sir – would you expect – On USAID, Sir, what is kind of like the message to countries that depend on humanitarian aid distributed through USAID? What is your message to those? Donald Trump: Uh, the ones that have been, the few that have been legitimate in terms of getting legitimate money will probably put it through the State Department. It’ll be handled by Marco Rubio, a highly respected man, Secretary of State. There’s no reason for USAID when you look at the politicians that have been in there sucking the blood out of it, when you look at all of the fake deals. Donald Trump: I mean, look, all you have to do is get a list of all of the things you can see by the, the heading, it’s fake. It’s fraudulent. It’s probably kickbacks where they send the money, and then it gets kicked back to the person that sent it. So, the ones that are good, and there are not many of ’em, but the ones that are good, and there are some, uh, will probably have that be handled by Marco Rubio in the State Department. Question: Will they take on some of the USAID workers? Donald Trump: They could. They could, if they like. Question: Mr. President. How – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – called USAID, Mr. President, or will it not? Donald Trump: I dunno that it’s gonna exist. Why would you need it? The State Department can take that. Question: Do you think the amount of spending on foreign aid will decrease also? Or just the number of employees? Donald Trump: It should decrease. Uh, I, I hope it decreases. Question: Yeah. By how much?. Donald Trump: When we have, when we have $36 trillion in debt, and we’re taking care of countries that are very rich, and sending aid to countries, in some cases that are rich and in some cases they’re not rich. But no, it should, uh, very much decrease. Question: Mr. President another question – Donald Trump: But it won’t be, it won’t be the scams that you’ve seen. Question: Another [Inaudible] NIH put out a memo on Friday night, it’s gonna cut four billion from, from the percentage that they play to – pay to universities and public colleges. But all those things, not foreign countries. Four billion. Is that okay to take that off the top? Donald Trump: Sure, sure. It could be okay. I mean, you have to look at the university. Some are legit. Uh, you could also say, “Why are we giving money to Harvard when it’s got a $50 billion endowment?” 50 billion, and yet they don’t use that endowment to help their students. Question: Is this for research, like biomedical research and what – Donald Trump: Yeah, that’s fine. Look, we want to take care of research, we want to do a lot of things. But when you look at, uh, the USAID, and you look at all the things and all the, the scams that was with, I don’t have to go through it now, but I’ll get you a little list, and you’ll see one after another. There were very few legitimate. Donald Trump: It was the opposite. Usually, you find something wrong, like one out of 100, but this is the opposite. Here, almost everything was wrong. You find very few that were good. But there were some that were good that’ll be handled by the State Department, I assume. That’s not final yet. But I think the best would be Marco Rubio at the State Department. One or two more. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – is the Pentagon spending too much to launch services to space? Donald Trump: I think space is gonna be a very important element. You know, I’m the one that came up with, uh, Space Force. I’m very proud of it. Biden tried to get out of it, and he was really rebuked by the military. I think space is gonna be one of the most important things we do. It’s gonna be all about space, especially defense. Donald Trump: So, uh, space is very important. Question: You’re going, you’re going – Would you accept Palestinian refugees into the United States, since you’re looking to other countries to have to [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: I’d have to look. I think it’s a very far distance for them to travel. Uh, but I’d have to look at individual cases. But I do think that coming into the United States – Been taking a lot of people. But coming into the United States, it’s a long way for them to travel. They’re far away from their families and their friends, and everything else. Donald Trump: I think they’d be very happy staying in the general area with a – in a place that was safe, where they could be safe and lead a good life. They don’t want to go back to Gaza. A- as I said, I’ve said it a lot, “They only go back because they have no alternative. They don’t want to go back to Gaza.” So we’ll see. Donald Trump: We hope that we’ll be helped by Egypt. We hope that we’ll be helped by Jordan. We hope that we’ll be helped by other countries. We hope, hope, hope that some of the, uh, like Saudi Arabia and others, can spend some money on it. They have tremendous amounts of money. They’ll spend some money on, uh, making people comfortable and safe. Question: One question about the Super Bowl. Uh, you’re going to the game. One of the big things that you’ve done so far in office is cracking down on DEI. I saw that the NFL commissioner said, I think this week that they’re happy with their diversity programs. What’s your take on that, would you like to see any changes there? Donald Trump: I don’t know what their diversity program is. Uh, to be honest, I know Roger very well. I’d have to look at what he said he’s happy with. He was happy also with the flag, and a lot of other things that didn’t work out too well. Uh, we’ll have to see what he was happy with. But, uh, uh, right now that’s, uh, you know what the law is. The law is the law, and it changed, and it’s been backed up by the U.S. Supreme Court. Donald Trump: But, uh, we’ll, we’ll see. There are a lot of interesting things going on right now. I’ll tell you what, there’s a light over the United States. People are happy, they’re more confident. The, uh, approval ratings for this country have gone through the sky, more than at any time. We’ve had approval ratings that there’s never been anything like it. We’ve never seen 49 points up. 49 points up. And I think, uh, there’s a light actually long beyond this country, all over the world. Donald Trump: I’ve been called by other leaders. They said, “Sir, there’s a light over our country right now. There’s a light over the world.” We got rid of a horrible and a totally inept administration, an administration where the president wouldn’t even go and do a Super Bowl interview for four years. I mean, he didn’t do a Super Bowl interview. Donald Trump: I did. You’ll see it in about, uh, one or two hours. Question: One more question – Question: – what is your analysis of – Question: Do you have an opinion, sir, on whether the referees have been throwing the games to the Chiefs all season? Donald Trump: I don’t believe that. No, I don’t think. Question: What is your analysis at the games? What are you going to [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Well, I think you’re gonna have a great game. It’s two great teams. I don’t, who knows who’s gonna win? You have great players though. You have really superstars playing on both teams. So I, I think it’s gonna be a great game. Question: Why do you want to be chairman of the Kennedy Center Board? Donald Trump: Because I want to make sure it runs properly. We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center. We don’t need – Some of the shows were terrible. They’re are disgrace that they were even put on. So I’ll be there until such time as it gets to be running right. And – Question: Have you seen any shows there? How do you know that [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: I didn’t go, no. I, I get reports. It was so bad, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to go. There was nothing I wanted to see. Thank you very much everybody. Question: Thank you. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: He was great. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: He’s a great guy. He’s, he’s, uh, very sad over his mother’s pass. He’s a great guy. Thank you. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you Mr. President.
Date: 2025-02-10
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. We have a lot of big signings, good signings, one, in particular, which we’ll save for the end. And I’ll ask Will to go over these individually, and we can see how we do. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. First for your review, we have 56 subcabinet-level appointments. This includes probably most notably seven ambassador appointments. Those will be the first ambassadors, I believe – Donald Trump: Right. Will Scharf: That you’ve transmitted to the Senate. Donald Trump: OK. And they’re very good. OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Second, we have acting designations. We’re actually designating Doug Collins to be the acting leader of both the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics. Donald Trump: You know Doug, everybody? He was in charge of the fake impeachment hearings – remember that – that I won very conclusively, fake charges by the radical left Democrats. OK. Will Scharf: Next, sir, the – the Federal Executive Institute is a program that was set up during the Johnson administration to train senior-level government bureaucrats. As you’ve identified repeatedly in the last few years, the senior levels of our federal government are not adequately serving as stewards of taxpayer dollars, so we’re recommending zeroing out that program effectively. Donald Trump: We’re actually getting rid of a few programs that are just a waste, just really a waste. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, we have an executive order relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. As you’ve repeatedly identified, the way that this act has been enforced over the years has been devastating to American business opportunities and business competitiveness abroad. We are essentially ordering the Department of Justice to use its prosecutorial discretion in a way to ameliorate the negative effects of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to allow Americans to do business abroad and to allow our foreign partners to do business with Americans without fearing unjust prosecution. Donald Trump: And for those of you that know this, it turned out to be – it sounds good on paper. But in practicality, it’s a disaster. It means that if an American goes over to a foreign country and starts doing business over there legally, legitimately, or otherwise, it’s – it’s almost a guaranteed investigation, indictment, and nobody wants to do business with the Americans because of it. Nobody wants to do business. Donald Trump: They say, look, we can deal with China. They can do whatever they want. We can deal with Russia, we can deal with anybody, and we have a normal life. You deal with America, the FBI gets over there. They don’t investigate death and murders on the street in New York and Los Angeles. They – they go over and investigate a business guy trying to do business. Donald Trump: So, it made it very, very hard from a practical standpoint to make deals. They want to deal with the Americans, but they don’t want to be under investigation every time they speak to American, every time an American makes a phone call to somebody in a different country. It’s a disaster for this country. And the – I guess it was a Jimmy Carter concept. Donald Trump: And it sounds so good, but it’s so bad. It hurts the country, and many, many deals are unable to be made because of it. Nobody wants to do business because they don’t want to feel like every time they pick up a phone, they’re going to jail. So, we’ll sign this, and it takes courage to sign it because you only get bad publicity when you sign it. It sounds so nice. Donald Trump: The title is so lovely. But it’s an absolutely horror show for America. So, we’re signing it because that’s what we have to do to make it good. OK. Thank you. It’s an important one. It’s going to mean a lot more business for America. OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, this is an executive order relating to the use of paper straws. As you’ve consistently identified, nobody really likes paper straws. Donald Trump: No. 1 trending. Can you believe it? The paper straws was No. 1 trending for three days or something. Will Scharf: The environmental impact of plastic straws versus paper straws is entirely unclear. This has cost both the government and private industry an absolute ton of money and left consumers all over the country wildly dissatisfied with their straws. So, we’re asking aspects of the federal government, federal departments, and agencies to look at their existing procurement processes. Will Scharf: And we’re asking your domestic Policy Council to look holistically at this issue to address it. And it really is something that affects ordinary Americans in their everyday lives. Donald Trump: We’re going back to plastic straws. These things don’t work. I’ve had them many times. And on occasion, they break, they explode. If something’s hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation. So, we’re going back to plastic straws. I think it’s OK. And I don’t think that plastic is going to affect the shark very much as they’re eating – as they’re munching their way through the ocean. Donald Trump: OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, we have a full and unconditional pardon for former Governor Rod Blagojevich of the state of Illinois. Donald Trump: Good. It’s my honor to do it. I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people that I had to deal with. He wasn’t quite as successful, but he had somebody that saw what was going on. I didn’t know him other than I believe he was on “The Apprentice” for a little while. He was a – just a very nice person. Donald Trump: He had a fantastic wife. She fought like hell to get him out. He was given a sentence of like 18 years. And that was a – sort of a terrible injustice. They just were after him. They go after a lot of people. These are bad people, the other side. So, I think he’s a – just a very fine person. And this shouldn’t have happened, and it shouldn’t have happened to him, and let him have a normal life and let him go out and do what he has to do. So, I’m signing this. Donald Trump: This is a full pardon, Rod Blagojevich. Question: Mr. President, are you considering him for ambassador to Serbia? Donald Trump: No, but I would. I mean, he’s now cleaner than anybody in this room. He got a pardon. He’s cleaner than anybody in the room. OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Next, in 2018, you imposed ad valorem duties tariffs on imports of steel at a 25 percent rate. Since that time, a large number of exclusions and exceptions to that tariff rule have – have been implemented. Because of the damage to the United States steel industry that those exemptions and exclusions have imposed, we’re now – this order would reimpose that 25 percent ad valorem tariff rate on imports of steel, and it’s presented for your signature now. Donald Trump: OK. Do you understand what that means? Now, it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal. This is the beginning of making America rich again. Mr. Secretary, do you have anything to say? Just, as you know, Howard is secretary of commerce, doing a fantastic job. And what do you have to say about it? Howard Lutnick: So, when you imposed the tariffs the first time – Donald Trump: Right. Howard Lutnick: You added 120,000 jobs. And since that time, it’s been picked away and nicked away and excluded away, and we’ve lost 107,000 jobs. And remember, these aren’t just general jobs. These are steelworkers in America. And now, you’re going to bring them back. You’re going to bring those 120,000 jobs back to America. Howard Lutnick: You are the president who is standing up for the American steelworker, and I am just tremendously impressed and delighted to stand next to you. Question: Mr. President, steelworkers – Donald Trump: So, let me just make a statement, and essentially, we’re – this is another way of saying we’re doing a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. So, the failed American trade policies have led our once-incredible United States steel and aluminum industries – once incredible, it’s once incredible. They’re not now, but they’re – they’re not bad. Donald Trump: I saved them because of my first term, totally saved them. If I didn’t do what I did – I put massive tariffs, not the highest level, but pretty – pretty massive tariffs. We got – we took in a lot of money, and we took in a lot of jobs. But we were being pummeled by both friend and foe alike. Our nation requires steel and aluminum to be made in America, not in foreign lands. Donald Trump: We need to create in order to protect our country’s future resurgence of US manufacturing and production, the likes of which has not been seen for many decades. It’s time for our great industries to come back to America. I want them back to America. This is the first of many. And you know what I mean by that. Donald Trump: We’re going to be doing others on other subjects, topics. Protecting our steel and aluminum industries is a must. And today, I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminum so that everyone can understand exactly what it means. It’s 25 percent without exceptions or exemptions, and that’s all countries, no matter where it comes from, all countries. Donald Trump: If made in the United States, however, United States of America, there is no tariff, zero. So, if it’s made in the United States, there is no tariff. All you have to do is make it in the United States. We don’t need it from another country. As an example, Canada, if we make it in the United States, we don’t need it to be made in Canada. Donald Trump: We’ll have the jobs. That’s why Canada should be our 51st state. We’ll bring back industries and we’ll bring back our jobs and we’ll make America industry great again. So, essentially, we’re putting on a 25 percent tariff without exception on all aluminum and all steel. And it’s going to mean a lot of businesses are going to be opening in the United States. Donald Trump: Now, we’re going to be meeting over the next four-week period, maybe on a weekly basis, and maybe we’ll do a couple of them at different times and maybe together. But we’ll be talking about other subjects like cars. We’ll be talking about drugs and pharmaceuticals. We’ll be discussing chips. And we’re going to be doing some other things in addition to that, all of which will bring in a lot of jobs into our country. Donald Trump: Cars is going to be a very big one and a very important one. And America is going to be stronger than it ever was before. OK? So, are you finished with everything, I think. Will Scharf: We have aluminum still to sign, sir. Donald Trump: OK. Let’s go. Will Scharf: So, with respect to aluminum, similarly to steel, since 2018, a large number of exceptions and exemptions have been added into the law. This eliminates all of those and also increases the ad valorem tariff rate from 10 to 25 percent. Donald Trump: Mostly, the last part is the most important, right, would you say? Howard Lutnick: Totally. Donald Trump: So, basically, this is aluminum, the same thing, no exceptions, no nothing, and it’s going to bring our aluminum business back and may go higher. I mean, frankly, it may go higher. And we’re going to also be talking about – we’re going to be talking about things over the next three weeks that I think will be amazing for our country, amazing for our jobs, and will bring us to a new level of prosperity. Donald Trump: And I think, frankly, our allies and our enemies all over the world expected this. They really expected it for years. They really expected it sometime during the Biden administration, but they didn’t do anything. As you know, I put – I put tariffs on China. We took in hundreds of billions of dollars with those tariffs. Donald Trump: And Biden wasn’t able to get them out. He tried to, but it was too much money, he couldn’t do it. And we’re going to be doing a very concise and, you know, a very, very – it’s going to be good. And I don’t think – if done properly, and we’re going to try and do that. We don’t want it to hurt other countries. Donald Trump: But they’ve been taking advantage of us for years and years and years. And they’ve charged us tariffs. Most of them have charged us – almost every one, I would say, almost without exception – Howard Lutnick: Definitely. Donald Trump: They’ve charged us and we haven’t charged them. And it’s time to be reciprocal. It’s a very, very – you’ll be hearing that word a lot, reciprocal. If they charge us, we charge them. If they’re at 25, we’re at 25. If they’re at 10, we’re at 10. And if they’re much higher than 25, that’s where we are, too. Donald Trump: So, that’s having to do with everything. That’s not just steel and aluminum, but we’ll be discussing that over the next couple of weeks. But we will be looking at chips, and we will be looking at cars, and we’re going to be looking at pharmaceuticals. And there will be a couple of other things also in addition. Question: Mr. President – Mr. President – Mr. President, U.S. steelworkers have said that they support this move, but what would you say to American consumers who are worried that prices might go up? Donald Trump: That they do support this move? Question: U.S. steelmakers – Donald Trump: I love the steelmakers. That’s good. First – Question: Well, what do you say to American consumers? Donald Trump: Cause they want to save their businesses. U.S. Steel will now be a very valuable company. Anybody that makes steel is going to be great. Anybody that works in big steel is going to be very happy. Question: But what do you say to consumers who are worried about prices, sir? Donald Trump: Oh, I don’t think you’re going to – no, you’re going to ultimately have a price reduction because they’re going to make their steel here. There’s not going to be any tariff. These foreign companies will move to the United States, will make their steel and aluminum in the United States. Question: Mr. President – What are you looking at – Donald Trump: Ultimately, it will be cheaper. But we’ll also have jobs, many, many more jobs. Question: Sir, what are you looking at in terms of tariffs on cars and chips? Donald Trump: Well, we’re looking at numbers, and we’ll be coming up with a number. But we have – we make some of the finest cars in the world and some companies prohibit us from selling those cars in their countries. But they sell us cars, they send cars to us, and we don’t do that. We charge nothing or 2.5 percent, and they’ll be charging 100 percent. Donald Trump: They’ll be charging much more than that if you look at some of them. So, I think those days are over. But we’ll be announcing on other things such as cars. We’ve got some other things we’ll be doing. But the biggest thing is reciprocal. We want tariffs to be fair. If they charge – if they charge us, we charge them. Question: Tomorrow the reciprocal tariffs? Donald Trump: We’ll be doing reciprocal over the next I would say two days, don’t you think, two days? Yeah, maybe. Question: Mr. President – Mr. President, the Australian prime minister has said that you are considering an exemption for Australia on steel. Is that correct and why? Donald Trump: I just spoke to him, a very fine man, and he has a surplus. I mean, we have a surplus with Australia, one of the few. And the reason is they buy a lot of airplanes. They are rather far away and they need lots of airplanes. And we actually have a surplus. It’s one of the only countries which we do, and I told him that that’s something that we will give great consideration to. Question: And would you consider one for the UK as well? Donald Trump: Well, we have a huge deficit with the UK, big difference. Question: You don’t have a deficit with Argentina. Is that country also going to be excluded? Donald Trump: We have a deficit – with a little deficit with Argentina. We – almost with every country, but Australia, because of the airplanes, they buy a lot of airplanes, there’s a little bit of a surplus. Question: Mr. President, if other countries retaliate, what is your – what is your plan? For – for example, farmers, last term, you gave money – Donald Trump: Well, the farmers are going to be helped greatly. Question: To the farmers. Would you do that again? Donald Trump: Yeah. The farmers are going to be helped greatly because they’re not going to be dumping everything into our country. This will be a great bill for farmers. And in terms of retaliation, if they retaliate, it’s – as I said, it’s reciprocal. So, if they raise it a little bit, then we raise it automatically. Donald Trump: So, I don’t think it helps for them to retaliate. But also, remember this, they can’t really retaliate because we’re the piggy bank. We’re the piggy bank. But if we don’t do this, we won’t be the piggy bank for long. We won’t be much of a country. Question: Mr. President, do you see that report, sir, that Hamas is going to stop releasing Israeli hostages and what was your reaction? Donald Trump: I think it’s terrible. Look, I looked at the hostages that came in, and they were emaciated. It looked like something out of the 1930s. It’s an absolute disgrace. And I think they saw the way the world viewed it, and they’re looking for a reason not to send more because they’re all – you take a look at that. Donald Trump: It looks like it was – it looked like it was a concentration camp, which is essentially it was. It looks like they came out of the Holocaust, and what a sad thing. One of them was a young man, a good-looking guy, a little bit – a little bit heavier than perhaps he could have been. And now, he looks like he’s not even recognizable, not even recognizable. Question: Is the cease-fire deal at risk of falling apart? Donald Trump: Look, I can tell you that those people have been badly hurt, both mentally and physically. I’m talking about the young women that came out also previously. And I think one of the reasons they’re doing this is because they’re probably sending the best. What you see is probably the best because they want to send people that look at least healthy, and that’s not healthy. Donald Trump: These people have been badly hurt. They’ve been interviewed by our representatives. They’ve been interviewed by Israeli representatives. And they’re really hurting. They are really hurting mentally and physically. And I think Hamas is looking at that and saying, well, it’s not going to get much better than that because they probably send out their best as a representative, and they’ve got more to send out and they probably feel that they can’t do that because it’s not going to make them look very good. Question: [Inaudible] But if they delay that, sir, should the cease-fire then be off? Donald Trump: Well, I would say this, and I’m going to let that be because that’s Israel’s decision, but as far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock, I think it’s an appropriate time, I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out. I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday. Donald Trump: And if they’re not returned – all of them, not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two, Saturday at 12 o’clock. And after that, I would say all hell is going to break out. And I don’t think they’re going to do it. I think a lot of them are dead. I think a lot of the hostages are dead. Donald Trump: I think it’s a great – it’s a great human tragedy what’s – what’s happened. How people can be that mean to do? I mean, the one guy was laughing when – when a hostage is – he thought his – his family was alive. He found out the family was dead, and the – his captor, so to speak, his captor started laughing because he thought it was so funny. Donald Trump: You know, this is – this is a different group of people. No, I would say Saturday at 12, and we want them all back. I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it, but from myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock. And if they’re not – if they’re not here, all hell is going to break out. Question: And, Mr. President, in an interview this weekend – [Inaudible] Palestinians in West Bank – Mr. President, in an interview this weekend, you said that Palestinians would not be guaranteed the right to return to Gaza if the US were to develop it. What did you mean by that and under what – Donald Trump: We’ve spoken to a lot of Palestinians. They would love to leave Gaza if they could find a place to be. And I’ve spoken to various leaders of various countries in the not so, you know, distant area from where we’re talking about, the Gaza Strip, and I think they were very positive about providing land. Question: But what if they don’t leave? Donald Trump: We needed land. And if we could build a nice place for people to live safely, everybody in Gaza would do it. They’ve been persecuted. They’ve been – they’ve been spit on, they’ve been treated like trash, and they would love to get out of Gaza. But until now, they never had an alternative. Now, they have an alternative. Donald Trump: And as far as Hamas is concerned, you’re seeing the real Hamas now with the hostages. Question: Mr. President – But what if – what if they don’t leave? On Gaza, you have the – Donald Trump: Who are you and from what? Question: The Wall Street Journal, sir. The – the Jordanian leader is coming in to see you. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Folks in Jordan have expressed opposition to taking in more Gazans, more Palestinians. How do you – how are you going to convince him to do otherwise? Donald Trump: I think he’ll take. I mean, I do think he’ll take. And I think other countries will take also. They have good hearts. I think they’ll take. Question: But what about the Palestinians who just won’t leave? We’ve spoken – our team has spoken to many in Gaza who consider it their home? Donald Trump: They’re all going to leave when they have a place that’s a better alternative. When they have a nice place that’s safe, they’re all going to leave. It’s a hellhole right now. Question: But how are you so sure? Would the US force them to leave? Donald Trump: You’re going to see that they’re all going to want to leave. Question: Mr. President, when you say up to Saturday noon, are you – there’s an American hostage who is still being held by Hamas right now. Are you – are you worried about his life? Donald Trump: You know, who knows, are they alive, are they not alive? But I saw the condition – when I saw the condition of the last ones that came out and the women, too, everybody – the one woman had her hand blown off because she was trying to stop a bullet being fired at her, OK? What kind of a situation is that? Donald Trump: You saw her. I just think it’s time to either you release everybody – they’re not going to be alive right now. Based on what I saw over the last two days, they’re not going to be alive for long. Saturday at 12 o’clock. And after that, it’s going to be a different ballgame. Question: Mr. President, when you say all hell is going to break loose, are you speaking about retaliation from Israel? Donald Trump: You’ll find out, and they’ll find out, too. Hamas will find out what I mean. Question: Mr. President, with the consumer – Donald Trump: They’re going to find out what I mean. These are sick people, and they will find out what I mean, Saturday at 12 o’clock. Question: But no involvement from US? Sir, how about Palestinians from the West Bank, are they going to be relocated, too? What’s your position on the West Bank? Donald Trump: Right now, they’re there, and I assume they want to remain there. It’s different. They’re there. It’s never been like what we’re talking about with the Gaza Strip. Question: So, they’re continue to [Inaudible] Donald Trump: No, no. I have no plans. Question: Mr. President, regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren, have said that by freezing it, it’s giving big banks and giant corporations the green light to scam families. Your response. Donald Trump: Yeah, Pocahontas. Pocahontas, the fake – the faker. You know, that was set up to destroy people. She used that as her little personal agency to go around and destroy people. And she’s a fake, just like she said she was an Indian, and she wasn’t an Indian. You have more Indian blood in you than she has. She went to college based on the fact that she was an Indian. Donald Trump: She got jobs based on the fact that she was an Indian. She’s a fake. That was – that was set up to destroy some very good people, and – and it worked. I mean, it worked, a lot of – a lot of great people. I’ll tell you, before I ever heard the term, people would come up to me in the Midwest and areas, they’d say, “Sir, I’m being destroyed by them.” They – they use that to destroy people. Donald Trump: She’s a nasty woman. She’s a really nasty woman despite her phony beer commercial. Now, we did the right thing. That was very important thing to get rid of. Question: What’s next for – Donald Trump: And it was also a waste. I mean, number one, it was a bad group of people running it, but it was also a waste. If you looked at when she really ran it, wow, that was a vicious group of people. They really destroyed a lot of people. Question: And you can confirm it’s your goals to have it totally eliminated, the agency? Donald Trump: I would say yeah because we’re trying to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. Question: What’s next – Donald Trump: And – and then I hear that somebody made like $38 million or something running a little agency. What was her name? What was her name and what did she do? And what was – what was that all about, all the money that she made? Does anybody know? OK. Question: Are you going to talk to – Donald Trump: Yeah, Brian, go ahead. Question: Good to see you. The latest CBS poll has your approval ratings at an all-time high despite all these controversial subjects and executive orders that you’re doing. Want to get your thoughts on that, how you really connected to mainstream America? Donald Trump: Yeah, I have high approval ratings because I’m – you know, I’m using common sense, whether it’s getting men out of women’s sports. I mean, have you seen what goes on with the boxers and with the weightlifters and with the swimmers and everything? It’s so ridiculous. And I think it’s a 90 percent issue. And, you know, the amazing thing, the Democrats are still fighting for it. It’s crazy. Donald Trump: It’s crazy. I think we should go to Congress also, have that cemented in, you know, make it indelible. But we – you know, it’s – to me, it’s all common sense. Who wants an open border where – where prisons are dumped into our country, where prisoners are let into our country, many of whom are murderers? Donald Trump: Many of whom murdered far more than one person, and they’re now roaming our country. Who wants that? I mean, it’s – it’s terrible. Steve, I’d like you to say a couple of words about it. Stephen Miller: Yes. Well, as you know, Mr. President, since you issued your day one executive orders, border crossings are down approximately 95 percent. You talk to agents on the line. In their entire careers, they’ve never seen crossing days as low as what they’re experiencing right now. The cartels, in fact, are enormously frustrated because they’ve never seen a clampdown like this before in American history. Stephen Miller: There are people who are working at Border Patrol back when it was an INS in the ’80s and ’90s, they’ve never seen a day like this. That’s because you’ve mobilized the 10th Mountain Division, the Marines, the entire US military. They’re erecting physical miles of barrier, temporary and ultimately permanent, every single day. Stephen Miller: You have all of your border agents pushed to the front line. They’re not doing the “humanitarian processing” that Biden was doing. They’re doing law enforcement and national security. They’re interdicting weapons and drugs. They’re interdicting violent high-threat criminals. And the US military is repatriating illegal immigrants at a pace and a scale that has never occurred before in American history. Stephen Miller: And those who are committing human trafficking and child trafficking are being prosecuted for felony offenses, and they will be doing hard time in jail. There’s never been a lockdown like what you have implemented through your orders and vision since you took the oath of office. Question: What’s are your thoughts on DOGE? Wednesday at 10 a.m., they’re having their first subcommittee, going to focus on the fraud in Medicare? Donald Trump: Yeah. Before I discuss that, I just want to add to what Steve said, and we want people to come into our country, but we want them to come in legally. They have to go through a process. And we have to know that they haven’t killed nine people or they haven’t killed, like in one case, five – five people, and they’re out on the loose, and we’re all looking for that particular individual. Donald Trump: This was all led in by Biden and the group of stupid people, bad people and stupid people. Some are bad, some are stupid, some are both. But I’ll tell you what, what they’ve done to this country – but we’re cleaning it up. And hard to believe I can say it, it will be better than ever before, but we have a lot of bad people we have to get out. Donald Trump: We’re searching out for a lot of them. I think Tom Homan and Kristi are doing an unbelievable job, Kristi Noem. They are doing an unbelievable job. They’re taking out massive numbers of people. And you notice, every country is accepting those people back. Remember, everyone said, “Oh, they’ll never accept them.” They’re all taking them back. Donald Trump: They have to. They’re all taking them back. Every single country has taken them back. I don’t know if they want them or not. I don’t imagine they do. But they’re taking them back. OK. Question: Are you concerned about ICE – Mr. President, back on Gaza, you talked with Fox News about the billions of dollars we pay for Jordan and Egypt every year. Would you withhold aid to these countries if they don’t agree to take in the Palestinians? Donald Trump: Yeah, maybe. Sure. Why not? You mean if they don’t agree? Question: That’s what [Inaudible] you mentioned? Donald Trump: If they don’t agree, I would – I would conceivably withhold aid, yeah. Question: Are you going to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu about this Saturday deadline? Donald Trump: Sure. I mean, it’s just my deadline, but they may change it, but I think it’s – I’ve seen too many people come out. They look like Holocaust victims from – from many years ago. I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t think this could happen in this world today. You know, we think we have a civilized world, it’s not civil. Donald Trump: These are – these are bad people we’re dealing with. So, I would – that would be my suggestion. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: And he can open it up and not open it up, but that would be my – do you have anything to say about that? You’re commerce but you have a lot to say from the standpoint of your faith and your religion? Go ahead. Howard Lutnick: So, it’s amazing that four years of nothing and then you come in and you immediately start to move the needle. You have hostages coming out. You send Steve Witkoff, who’s done an amazing job for you. You’re changing the Middle East. You’re supporting your ally, Israel. And I, for one, can’t be more impressed with the outcome that you have driven. Howard Lutnick: And choosing this Saturday to save people’s lives or just be done with it seems like just the right choice. Donald Trump: But I think it’s time to come up with a date. It’s – Howard Lutnick: Totally. Donald Trump: What are we going to do? Keep every – every week two people, three people. No, I don’t think you can do that anymore. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: These are very seriously endangered people. These are endangered people. I don’t – I don’t think they’re going to last very long. Question: And, Mr. President, are you going to tell – Donald Trump: The people that came out yesterday, they – they wouldn’t last very long. Question: Were you ruling out any US involvement in whatever happens after this deadline? Donald Trump: We’ll see what happens. We’ll just see what happens. Question: Will you talk with Zelenskyy this week, sir? Donald Trump: Yeah, probably. Question: By telephone? What’s your message? Donald Trump: Who wants to make a deal? Let’s see – let’s see if Putin is. We’re dealing with them. And I think they both want to make a deal, but we’ll have to see. It’s got to be done. Question: What does Zelenskyy – Donald Trump: Would have never happened if I were president. This would never have happened. Millions of people are dead. Question: What will Zelenskyy have to give up, if anything? Donald Trump: We’ll talk about that later. Question: Your reaction to a judge today continuing a pause on the buyout program for federal workers. Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know how you can lose a case like that. We’re talking about people. You know, everybody, I got elected on making government better, more efficient, and smaller, and that’s what we’re doing. And I think it was a very generous buyout, actually. Also, if people don’t show up to work, we have a right to fire them. Donald Trump: And they have an option, they can show up to work or not. If they don’t want to show up to work, they let them work – because then the next step is have you worked before, have you worked during this time that you’re supposed to be working? You’ll find many of those people, in my opinion, have had other jobs, even though they’re collecting money from the federal government. Donald Trump: Many have had, in my opinion, other jobs. Question: If the buyout – Donald Trump: If they did – if they did, that’s a big problem. Question: If the buyouts are blocked in court, will you instead pursue layoffs in federal departments? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know how they can do this. This is free will. This is a buyout where people, you know, they – they were offered a good deal. Many people have taken that, as you know. But, you know, many of those people – and we talk about reporting to work, right? I happen to be a believer that you have to go to work. Donald Trump: I don’t think you can work from a home. I don’t – I don’t know. It’s like there’s a whole big, “Oh, you can work from home.” Nobody’s going to work from home. They’re going to be going out. They’re going to play tennis. They’re going to play golf. They’re going to do a lot of things. They’re not working. Donald Trump: It’s a rare person that’s going to work. You might work 10 percent of the time, maybe 20 percent. I don’t think you’re going to work a lot more than that. And I think we – they have an obligation to work. And they have an obligation not to have a second job when they’re supposed to be working for the federal government. Donald Trump: You’re going to find that a lot of these people have second jobs. Instead of working for – they’ll be collecting a federal government check and they’ll be working two jobs, and that’s – that’s big trouble for them. Question: Do you plan to bypass Congress? You’ve said a lot about South Africa in the last two weeks. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: It’s hosting the G20 summit this year. Are you planning to attend this or are you skipping it and telling your cabinet to not go? Donald Trump: Well, we’ll see what happens, but the South African situation is very, very dangerous and very bad for a lot of people. There’s tremendously bad things going on, including the confiscation of property and worse, much worse than that. You know what I’m talking about. And we’re not making any payment until we find out what’s going on in South Africa. Donald Trump: Yes, please. Question: What’s next for DOGE? General Kellogg is going to Ukraine this week, sir, I assume. Donald Trump: Yeah, he is. Keith Kellogg – General Kellogg is an excellent guy, and he’s spending time doing various things. We have numerous people working on numerous different problems. You know, when I left office wasn’t long ago, a little more than four years ago, we had no wars, we had no – we didn’t have problems. Donald Trump: Now, we got the whole world is blowing up. But we’ll put out the fires. Question: And you’ve been talking to Vladimir Putin. Are you trying to set up a meeting with him? Donald Trump: Well, I can’t tell you what I’m talking about, but we are talking as a group also. I think he’d like to make a deal, but it takes two to tango. Question: And so – I mean, you can’t give us any more clarity on whether you personally have spoken to Vladimir Putin? Donald Trump: I don’t want to talk about it. No, I don’t want to talk about it. It’s not going to help you to know. But we would like to get a deal done, if possible, only because, in my case, save lives. You know, we’re much further away. Remember, we have an ocean separating. They don’t. Europe should be paying what we’re paying. Donald Trump: And Europe has done it more in the form of a loan than with us, we just give it. You know, Biden gives it because he’s not a smart individual – not a very smart individual. We have people over there today who are making a deal that as we give money, we get minerals and we get oil and we get all sorts of things because why are we doing this? Donald Trump: And all this money, we’re in for maybe 350 billion and Europe is in for 100 billion, and Europe is in really as a form of a loan. In theory, they get that money back. In theory, they get interest on their money. It’s a whole different ballgame. And Biden is the one that started doing this. Every time Zelenskyy came here, he walked away with $60 billion to $100 billion. Donald Trump: I think he’s one of the greatest salesmen who have ever – who have ever lived, by the way. Question: Can you discuss your intentions with the Kennedy Center, which you’re now the board chair of? Donald Trump: Yeah. So, we took over the Kennedy Center. We didn’t like what they were showing and various other things. And – and I had a lot of the board members already, as you know, and we have some that will be replaced. But we have, I guess, a whole new group of people going in. I have Ric Grenell, who’s got some experience in that world. Donald Trump: He’s going to be – he’s very good. It’s going to be handling it on a temporary basis. I think he’ll do a great job. But we’re going to get some great professionals. I’m going to be chairman of it, and we’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke. There’s no more woke in this country. Donald Trump: This woke has cost us a fortune and cost us our reputation. But the reputation is coming back very, very rapidly. Thank you very much, everybody. Question: With regards to the penny, sir, the penny? Donald Trump: The penny is gone. Question: The penny is gone. Is the nickel next? Donald Trump: Huh. Question: What about the dime? Donald Trump: What about – what about anything? Good luck. Your penny – the penny is gone. Question: And your message – your message to Taylor Swift? Donald Trump: The penny – Unidentified: Thank you, press. Donald Trump: The penny cost this government [Inaudible] Question: Taylor Swift. Unidentified: Thank you, press. Thank you, guys. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Aide: Thank you, press. What the hell [Inaudible] Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-14
Donald Trump: OK. Go ahead, please. Unidentified: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Go ahead, please. Question: Mr. President, you are meeting Prime Minister Modi of India this afternoon. Donald Trump: Yes. Question: What kind of trade and tariff relationship would you like to have with India? And what’s the vision for India and U.S. [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Yeah. India, traditionally, is the highest – just about the highest tariffed country. They charge more tariffs than any other country. And – I mean, we’ll be talking about that. But again, whatever they charge us, we’re charging them. So, it works out very well. It’s very – it’s a beautiful, simple system, and we don’t have to worry about, gee, we’re charging too much or too little. Donald Trump: But traditionally, India is right at the top of the pack, pretty much. There are a couple of smaller countries that are actually more, but India is a very, very – they – they charge tremendous tariffs. I remember when Harley Davidson couldn’t sell their motorbikes into India because of the fact that India – the tax was so high, the tariff was so high. Donald Trump: And Harley was forced to build – I guess they built – I don’t know. That was a while ago, but I think they built a factory in India in order to avoid paying the tariffs. And that’s what people can do with us. They can build a factory here, a plant or whatever it may be, here, and that includes the medical. Donald Trump: That includes cars. That includes chips and semiconductors. That includes everything. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever. And I think that’s what’s going to happen. I think our country is going to be flooded with jobs. Question: [Inaudible] What should consumers expect? Are prices going to go up short term, long term, medium? Donald Trump: Not necessarily. I mean, not necessarily. But I’ll tell you what will go up is jobs. The jobs will go up tremendously. We’re going to have great jobs, jobs for everybody. This is something that should have been done many years ago. China did it. I mean, China did it at a level that probably nobody’s ever seen before. Donald Trump: If you manufactured a car, you couldn’t send it into China. The tariff was so high, so everybody went, and they built in China. It was no big secret. So, we’re going to see, but it’s going to mean tremendous amounts of jobs. And ultimately, prices will stay the same, go down. But we’re going to have a very dynamic country. Question: But if prices go up – if prices go up, Mr. President because of these tariffs, who do you think voters should hold responsible? Donald Trump: Oh, I think what’s going to go up is – jobs are going to go up, and prices could go up somewhat short term, but prices will also go down. And I think the farmers are going to be helped by this very much because product is being dumped into our country, and our farmers are getting hurt very badly by the last administration. Donald Trump: The last administration hated our farmers like at a level that I’ve never seen before. I think our farmers are going to be helped. Jobs are going to be helped, but our farmers are going to be helped. Our manufacturers are going to be helped. And again, if somebody wants to come in, including the car companies, if they want to come in and build car plants, they’ll do it without tariffs. Donald Trump: And therefore, prices won’t go up. There could be some short-term disturbance, but long term, it’s going to – it’s going to make our country a fortune. Question: So, Americans should prepare for some short-term pain probably? Donald Trump: No. You said that. I didn’t say that, you know? Question: Well, if the prices go up in that – Donald Trump: Let’s see what happens. Nobody really knows what is going to happen other than we know that jobs are going to be produced at levels that we haven’t seen before. We know that – we think interest rates are going to ultimately be coming down because of things that happen, and they go hand in hand with the tariffs. Donald Trump: But we think that – we think that the prices for some things, many things, it could be all things, will go down – ultimately will go down. Question: Mr. President, could you explain the timeline here, sir. There’s a period of time for a review, a report, 180 days. Donald Trump: Sure. Question: What’s the earliest date that you think tariffs will actually be implemented and executed? Donald Trump: Well, I would say – maybe I’ll ask Howard to answer that because he’s going to be the one that’s implementing. What do you think? Howard Lutnick: Our studies should be all complete by April 1st. So, we’ll hand the president the opportunity to start on April 2nd if he wants. So, I think we’ll be ready to go on April 1st. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Howard Lutnick: And – and we’ll hand it to the president, and he’ll make his decisions. But remember, if they drop their tariffs, prices for Americans are coming down. Our production is going up, and our costs are going down. Remember, it’s a two-way street. That’s why it’s called reciprocal. Question: Have you spoken to any American CEOs directly about this? Are they calling you and asking for exemptions for example? Donald Trump: I have. I have spoken to many, and many love it. And they say this is going to be the thing that makes our country really prosperous again. And this is going to what – be what pays down to $36 trillion in debt and all the other things. And this is going to be – this is an amazing day. This – I think this is going to be a very big day and in a very positive way for our country. Donald Trump: Yes, please? Question: Mr. President, you’ve talked about the VAT in the EU before and your concerns with how the EU treats you. Do you have a number in mind on the European Union? Do you have an idea where that number is going to land? Donald Trump: Well, what they are now is they have a 20% VAT tax which we’re considering to be similar or the same as the tariff. Plus, they charge lots of fees. And, you know, they’re doing something else. The European Union has been very tough on our companies. They sued Apple. They sued Google. They sued Facebook. They sued many other companies, and they’re American companies. Donald Trump: And the kind of numbers are staggering. And the court system over there is not very good to our companies. If you know that Apple had to pay, I think, $16 billion in a penalty – a court case that was really shocking because most people thought they would have won that court case, people that watched it. So, they’ve been very tough. Donald Trump: Airlines have called me up, and they said, “Could you help us with Europe because they’re charging us so many different fees.” I got a call from the head of American, United, and other airlines saying, “Every time we land a plane, we get just absolutely killed by the European Union.” And so, they haven’t been treated as good. Donald Trump: You know, we think European Union is wonderful. We all love Europe. We love the countries in Europe, but European Union has been absolutely brutal on trade. Canada has been very bad to us on trade, but now Canada is going to have to start paying up. And Canada has been tough on the military because they don’t have a very – they have a very low military cost. Donald Trump: They think we’re going to, you know, protect them with our military, which is unfair. So, Canada is going to be a very interesting situation because, you know, we just don’t need their product, and yet they survive off the fact that we’re – you know, we do 95% of what they do. And Canada is just absolutely – I say it and sometimes people smile, and sometimes they say great idea. Donald Trump: But Canada, their taxes would come down greatly. Their security would go up greatly. Amazing things happen to Canada. And really, Canada, in this particular – why would we pay $200 billion a year in subsidies to Canada when they’re not a state? You do that for a state, but you don’t do that for somebody else’s country. Donald Trump: So, I think Canada is going to be a very serious contender to be our 51st state. Question: [Inaudible] ongoing with Canada? There was obviously a delay in implementing those tariffs. Donald Trump: Well, I spoke to Governor Trudeau on numerous occasions, and we’ll see what happens. But it just sets up so good for them. Look, the people would pay much less tax than they’re paying right now. They’d have perfect military protection. They don’t have any military protection because they essentially – because – and you take a look at what’s going on out there. Donald Trump: You have Russian ships. You have China ships. You have Chinese ships. You have a lot of ships out there, and, you know, people are in danger. This is a different world today. It’s a different world. They need our protection. Yes? Question: You mentioned Elon Musk and the efforts that he’s undertaking with your authority. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: You granted him new authority this week. Will he secure any new government contracts while he is working on DOGE for you? Donald Trump: No. Not if – not if there’s a conflict. If there’s no conflict, I guess what difference does it make, but we won’t let him do any of the – anything having to do with the conflict. Question: Are you personally checking to make sure there’s no conflicts of interest? Donald Trump: Yeah, I am. I am. Question: And he answers to you? Donald Trump: Sure. He does. First of all, he wouldn’t do it. And second of all, we’re not going to let him do anything when there’s a conflict of interest. Question: Despite your negotiations with the EU, you know, the discussions ongoing already, how quickly do you expect that you’ll hear back from them about any of these other measures? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I can’t tell you. Yeah. The EU has been very nasty. It’s just been – they haven’t treated us properly. Look, we were great to them on NATO. Essentially, it’s a similar group of countries. When I came in my first term, I raised their fees. I mean, they were not paying. We were paying for, in my opinion, almost all of NATO. And now, you know, I – I had the bad moment with the press where the press said, “Well, does this mean you won’t protect them?” I said, “I won’t protect them if they’re not paying.” But because I said that, the secretary general, as you know, said it was the greatest thing he’s ever seen because the money came pouring in. And – but they don’t treat us right on trade. Donald Trump: They don’t treat us right on their military either. I mean, if you look at Ukraine, we’re in for probably $200 billion more than Europe. Why are we in for more than Europe? We’re in for more than Europe. I mean, think of it – or NATO. I mean, just call it – because Canada is in. By the way, Canada is just about the lowest payer also – just – you know, they shouldn’t be. They are just about the lowest payer in NATO in addition to everything else. Donald Trump: So, Canada has really been taken advantage of – and if they had to pay just something modestly fair, they wouldn’t be able to succeed as a country. And that’s why – that’s why I feel they have to become a state. Yes, ma’am. Question: Thank you. Mr. President. Is it your expectation that partners will offer major concessions and that you actually don’t end up applying those tariffs? Donald Trump: No. I think that a lot of them will stay the same, and whatever they pay, I’ll pay. I mean, we’ll – we’ll have – we’ll have a lot of them stay the same. I think some – look, I heard they – as an example, EU lowered their tax on cars down to the exact same amount that – they were much higher. They were approximately five times higher, and they lowered them down to the exact tax that we’re charging. Donald Trump: That took place like yesterday or the day before. Is that a correct statement? Unidentified: I think – Donald Trump: Think so. Yeah. Question: Do you expect any exemptions or waivers? Donald Trump: I don’t expect that. No, this is a simple system. I mean, there wouldn’t be any. And in the case of Apple, I gave them a waiver, an exemption in my first term because Samsung was in South Korea, and Samsung didn’t have to pay the tax because it was a tax on China. And Apple makes a lot of their product in China. Donald Trump: So, I did that because it wouldn’t have been fair. But now, this applies to everybody across the board. This is a much simpler way of doing it – much better way. Question: [Inaudible] You had that major call yesterday with President Putin of Russia. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: President Zelenskyy responded today basically saying any agreements, they won’t accept unless they’re made with Ukraine. Will Ukraine have a seat at that table for those negotiations? Donald Trump: Of course they would. I mean, they’re part of it. We would have Ukraine. We’d have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, too. A lot of people, a lot of – a lot of forks in the – a lot of forks in this game. I’ll tell you what. This is a very interesting situation, but the Ukraine war has to end. Donald Trump: The young people are being killed at levels that nobody’s seen since World War II. And it’s a ridiculous war, and it has to end. We had a good talk with President Putin. We had a good talk with President Zelenskyy, very good talk. And somebody said, oh, I should have called Zelenskyy first. I don’t think so. I mean, we have to find out whether or not Russia wants to make a deal. Donald Trump: I know that Zelenskyy wants to make a deal because he told me that, but I now know that Russia wants to make a deal. Question: Did you ask Secretary Hegseth to walk back his comments yesterday saying Ukraine won’t join NATO and won’t go back to pre-2014 borders because those are bargaining chips you could use? Donald Trump: No. No. No. No, I didn’t. Somebody just told me, but I thought his comments were good yesterday, and they’re probably good today. They’re a little bit softer perhaps, but I thought his comments from yesterday – Question: [Inaudible] redirection? Donald Trump: I thought his comments yesterday were pretty accurate. I don’t see any way that a country in Russia’s position could allow them, just in their position, could allow them to join NATO. I don’t see that happening. And long before President Putin, Russia was very strong on the fact that – I believe that’s the reason the war started because Biden went out and said that they could join NATO. And he shouldn’t have said that. Donald Trump: As soon as he said that, I said, “You know what, you’re going to have a war now.” And I was right about that. This is a war that would have never happened if I were president. Question: But you don’t think – you think it’s President Biden’s fault, not President Putin? I mean, he’s the one that – Donald Trump: I think Biden is incompetent. And I think when he said that they could join NATO, I thought that was a very stupid thing to say. I thought when he said, well, it depends if it’s a minor incursion. In other words, it’s OK if Russia does a minor incursion. I thought that was a very foolish thing to say. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Those things got it started. The other thing that got it started was how badly Milley and these stupid people, bad generals, how badly they did with Afghanistan. I was going to pull out, but we were pulling out with dignity and strength. And we were going to take our equipment with us and everything else. Donald Trump: They are – I mean, what they’re doing is – what they did with that – I think Putin looked at that mess, and he said, “Wow, this is a great time. I’m going to go in.” But what – what the Americans said – I’m not blaming Americans, but I will say, what they said had a big influence on his deciding to go in. Yeah? Question: When Elon Musk met with Prime Minister Modi earlier today, did he do so as an American CEO, or did he do so as a representative of the U.S. government? Donald Trump: Are you talking about me? Question: No. Elon Musk. Donald Trump: Elon, I don’t know. He – they met, and I assume he wants to do business in India. But India is a very hard place to do business in because of the tariffs. They – they have the highest tariffs just about in the world, and it’s a hard place to do business. No. I would imagine he met possibly because, you know, he’s running a company. Donald Trump: He’s – he’s doing this as a – as something that he’s felt strongly about for a long time because he sees what’s happening, and he sees how the country is really being hurt badly by all of the fraud, waste, and abuse. Yeah? Question: [Inaudible] he’s meeting with a CEO or meeting with a representative of your government? Donald Trump: Well, he’s meeting with me in a little while, so I’m going to ask him that question. All right? I’ll ask him that question. Yeah? Question: On tariffs, what should we expect, sir? You mentioned, obviously, steel and aluminum and pharmaceuticals. What are you thinking about autos’ tariffs? We haven’t talked about that much. Donald Trump: I think autos are coming soon. I think they’re all coming more or less at the same time, and it’s not going to be a big shock to the system. But what it’s going to do is it’s going to bring pharmaceuticals back to our country. Much more important than the money. It’s a lot of money, but it’s going to bring pharmaceuticals back to our country. Donald Trump: It’s going to bring chips back to our country. It’s going to bring automobile. We’re going to do a lot more automobile manufacturing in our country. You know, when I did this, when I announced this during the campaign, they were going to build the largest car plant in the world in Mexico. Was almost under construction, was just starting. Donald Trump: And when they heard me make that statement and they thought I was going to win the election, actually, it was a few months before the election itself, China was building the car plant. It was going to be the largest in the world. They immediately stopped construction. You can see the foundations there. They immediately stopped when they heard I was doing this. Donald Trump: That would have destroyed Detroit. It would have destroyed Michigan. This plant would have taken up more than almost the whole state built, and it would have – it would have been very destructive. When they heard me speak and they said, “Wow, if he gets in, we’re going to – we’re going to lose our shirt.” So, they stopped building. Donald Trump: That’s the impact that tariffs have. Again, you know I say it, and I say it loudly. It’s the most beautiful word, but now, I say religion, love, and a couple of other things are more beautiful because I’ve gotten in a lot of problems with the fake news when they said, “Oh, other things are more important.” God is more important. Donald Trump: But these are the words, but I would say it’s number four or five. To me, it’s – it’s the most beautiful. And I’ll tell you what. I think, really, reciprocal tariffs, those two words, reciprocal – reciprocal makes tariffs really fair. Question: [Inaudible] should be no exemptions, right? It would be all auto imports? Donald Trump: Any exemptions, no, because you don’t need to. With reciprocal, you don’t need to. Question: [Inaudible] Mr. President, Gavin Kliger just arrived at the IRS – Donald Trump: Who are you with? Who are you with? Question: Fox Radio. Donald Trump: Really? Question: Do you have a update on the TikTok negotiations? Donald Trump: Yeah. We have a lot of people – Question: [Inaudible] that timeline’s running out – Donald Trump: Well, I have 90 days from about two weeks ago, right? And I’m sure it can be extended. But let’s see. I don’t think you’ll need to. We have a lot of people interested in TikTok, and I hope to be able to make a deal. I think it would be good. You know, people have learned it’s very popular, and we’ll have to probably get approval from China to do it. But we have a lot of people that are interested and a lot of people – I think China will be interested because it’s to their benefit, too. Donald Trump: So, I look forward to that. But we have a lot of people that are interested in TikTok, quite a few. Question: Mr. President, DOGE – DOGE workers arrived today. Gavin Kliger and others arrived today at the IRS. Do you expect to close the IRS, or what are you expecting? Donald Trump: No, I don’t expect it but – Question: [Inaudible] talking about the ERS. That’s OK. Donald Trump: But I think – I think that the Internal Revenue Service will be looked at like everybody else. Just about everybody is going to be looked at, so it’s – they’re doing a hell of a job. It’s an amazing job they’re doing. And, you know, that force is building these – I call it the force of super geniuses, but it’s building. Donald Trump: And, you know, they go up and they talk to some of the people about certain deals, and the people get all tongue-tied. They can’t talk because these people get it. They’re very smart people. We need smart people. Yes, Brian? Question: On tariffs, sir – Donald Trump: Yeah, Brian. Question: Yes, sir. Mr. President, I know that during the campaign, it was huge in Pennsylvania as far as bringing back manufacturing. Donald Trump: Right. Question: Have we talked to any CEOs since the tariffs were announced in steel and aluminum? What’s the feedback from those people? Donald Trump: They are in love with it. As you know, in Pennsylvania, U.S. Steel is through the roof. They’re all through the roof, that’s why I didn’t want U.S. Steel to make a deal with Japan or anybody else. I think it’s going to do great. But I think maybe more than anybody else, the steel companies and aluminum companies, they’re in love with what’s happened. Donald Trump: And this will eventually be the car companies and chip companies. We have to have chips made in this country. Right now, everything is made in Taiwan, practically, almost all of it, a little bit in South Korea, but everything – almost all of it is made in Taiwan. And we want it to be made – we want those companies to come to our country, in all due respect. Donald Trump: You know, they took – they took the business away. Taiwan took our chip business away. We had Intel. We had these great companies that did so well, and it was taken from us. And we want that business back. We want it back in the United States. And if they don’t bring it back, we’re not going to be very happy. Question: Sir, on tariffs, are you – And you mentioned pharmaceuticals. Donald Trump: Yeah, Brian. Question: Pharmaceuticals as well in China. That’s national security to bring that back. Donald Trump: Yeah. China and other places, we want to get the pharmaceutical and drug business back into the United States where it should be. Right? Question: Sir, on – on tariffs, are you concerned that the countries that would be most affected like India would just shift their trading to China? Donald Trump: No, I’m not concerned about anything really. I mean, I’m just – I’m just doing what’s fair. This is a very fair thing. This should have been done a long time ago. I would have done it, but then COVID hit. I was getting ready to do this years ago. And the first time we had the most successful economy in history, and then COVID hit. Donald Trump: And I was – this was going to be the – the thing that I was most waiting to do, but it was awfully hard to do this with Italy and France and Spain and these – all those people were dying and then we put tariffs on. I have a – I have a big heart. Question: Sir, on Ukraine, when Putin says that he really wants peace, do you believe him? Donald Trump: Yeah, I do. I believe he wants peace. I believe that President Putin, when I spoke to him yesterday – I mean, I know him very well. Yeah, I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn’t. I think – I’d like to see peace. Question: Do you trust him? Do you trust President Putin? Donald Trump: I believe that – yeah, I believe that he would like to see something happen. I trust him on this subject. I think he’d like to see something happen. I think it could have happened a long time ago. I think Biden – number one, it shouldn’t have started, but it did. And now, all those cities are knocked down like demolition sites. Donald Trump: All those beautiful golden towers are knocked down. There’s nothing going to replace them. But much more importantly, you lost millions of people, a lot of soldiers, but you lost millions of people. When they knocked down those cities and they’re all laying down on the side, they’re laying down just in ashes and all crumbled up concrete, they literally look like a world-class demolition site. Donald Trump: And many of them, almost all of them, but many of them – and this should have been done by Biden years ago. This should have never been allowed to happen. I know he’s a friend of yours. Question: But couldn’t Putin just withdraw his troops today? Donald Trump: He’s a friend of CNN. That’s why nobody watches CNN anymore because they have no – no credibility. OK, who else? Yes, please. Question: If you can find a buyer in the United States for TikTok, do you think Xi Jinping will authorize the sale of it or will he – Donald Trump: I think so. I’m going to make it worthwhile for China to do it. I think so. I mean, I got to know TikTok because during the election, I ended up with 36% higher than my opponent with youth, OK. That never happened before. I mean, you know, that’s always been a Democrat thing, youth. It became a Trump thing. Donald Trump: And I think TikTok – I think Joe Rogan was a part of it. Some of the great people that I did interviews with were a part of it. But I think that TikTok – TikTok was a – I think it was a big part. Look, as you know, we were up by 36% with youth. Republican was never up with youth, and I focused on TikTok, and I found it to be amazing actually and very fair. Donald Trump: And I think the image of TikTok is different than it was before the election. I think people saw it, and they view it as a positive, not a negative. I think it will be to China’s advantage to have the deal be made. Yeah? Question: How much money do you think you’ll raise from tariffs on an annual basis? Donald Trump: That’s the most interesting question. I think it’ll be a staggering amount. It will be the external – I call it the External Revenue Service. That was the name that was devised by a few of us, but it’s – I think it’s going to be a staggering amount. Question: We’ve heard it’s the number one trillion floated in meetings with Senators. Is that a number you thought of? Donald Trump: I don’t know, but already, the Senate saying, “Well, wait a minute.” You know, they’re looking at some of the numbers, and they’re saying, whoa, this is – look, we want to – I say America first. I say make America great again. That’s what we’re doing. This is – I think it’s the most important thing I’ve signed. Donald Trump: I’ve signed some very important things. Right to Try was so important. I mean, a lot of important things. Space Force, the biggest tax cuts in history. You know, this could be one of the most important things that we’ve ever signed. Question: Do you expect the Russians and President Putin to attend the summit in Saudi Arabia? Donald Trump: Eventually, yeah. Not quite yet. It’s a little early. They’re having a meeting in Munich tomorrow. Russia is going to be there with our people. Ukraine is also invited by the way. I’m not sure exactly who’s going to be there from any country, but high-level people from Russia, from Ukraine, and from the United States are going to be there. Question: Do you want to have Russia back to the G7, sir? Donald Trump: I’d love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G8. And you know I said, “What are you doing?” You guys – all you talk about is Russia and you – they should be sitting at the table. I think Putin would love to be back. Donald Trump: Obama and a couple of other people made a mistake, and they got Russia out. It’s very possible that if that was the G8, you wouldn’t have had the problem with Ukraine. And if I was president, you definitely wouldn’t have had the problem with Ukraine. Russia would have never attacked Ukraine. But – but you ask a very good question, the G8. It used to be the G8, and then these people threw them out. Donald Trump: And I was arguing with Trudeau and with – with numerous of the people. Actually, Prime Minister Abe, a great man from Japan, agreed with me 100%. And some of the others did, too. But I got there, it was the G7 as you know. They – they had already been terminated. I think it would have been very helpful, and it still would be helpful to have Russia be a part of that mix. Donald Trump: And I think if they were, I don’t think you would have had the problem that you have right now. Question: Russia is part of the G20. They kicked them out, of course, because they illegally annexed Crimea. I mean, how would you have responded if Russia invaded or took over – Donald Trump: They took Crimea during Obama. They took – they took – well, now, they’re looking to take the whole thing. Then they took a big chunk of land and people, as you know during Bush. And now, they’re trying to take the whole thing during Biden. You know, the only one that didn’t give them anything is Trump. Donald Trump: They never took anything with Trump. Nothing, not two inches of property of – of land. But they had – Crimea was Obama, and then Bush gave them a lot if you remember. And then in fact, it’s a sort of a standard little phrase, and Biden is giving them everything because this is a war that shouldn’t have been had. Donald Trump: And the only one that didn’t give them anything is Trump. It’s just the way it is. Question: [Inaudible] What’s your message to the Wall Street about these tariffs, sir? There’s been some nervousness on Wall Street about the impact. Donald Trump: I don’t think so. I mean, there hasn’t been very much, and I think it’s going to make the United States stronger. And in many ways, it could make other countries stronger, too. You know, other countries want to have a strong United States. They want to have a strong America, and I think it’s going to make us very, very strong, much stronger. Donald Trump: And we have a lot of work we’re doing on the military. Our military, already, I’ve authorized some contracts to be built that are very substantial. We’re building the greatest equipment in the world. We have the greatest military equipment in the world. We’re building it. At some point when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two. Donald Trump: And I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost $1 trillion on military. There’s no reason for you to be spending $400 billion. China is going to be at 400 billion. We’re at a trillion. We’re going to be at close to a trillion. And I’m going to say we can settle this on – we can spend this on other things. Donald Trump: We don’t have to spend this on military because – and I’m going to be meeting with China. You know, we were trying to de-escalate nuclear, and I was in a position where Russia had agreed and China had agreed we were going to start. And then we had a rigged election, so that never took place. But this one was too big to rig. Donald Trump: We won by so much that it was too big to rig. Question: Where will you and China be meeting, in the United States, or would you travel to China for that? Donald Trump: For what? Question: The China meeting. [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I tell people all the time, you know, the question is who’s going to have the first meeting? Where are you going – I say this to – to Putin, to President Xi. I say it to everybody. Never bothered me. You know, I’m willing to say I’ll go first. It doesn’t matter. It’s the end result that counts. So, it doesn’t make any difference. Question: When do you want to have a conversation about global defense spending, you, China, Russia? Donald Trump: I’d like to have that. As soon as things settle down, I’m going to have that conference primarily with China and Russia because those are the two that – that really are out there. And we’re going to have them spend a lot less money. We’re going to spend a lot less money. And I know they’re going to do it. They agreed to it. We were talking about de-nuking, de-nuclearize, de-nuking. Donald Trump: And President Putin and I agreed that we were going to do it in a very big way. There’s no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons. We already have so many, you could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons. And they’re building nuclear weapons. Donald Trump: And China is building new nuclear weapons. And China is trying to catch up because, you know, they’re – they’re very substantially behind. But within five or six years, they’ll be even. And we’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually – hopefully much more productive. Donald Trump: Hopefully, there’ll never be a time when we need those weapons. If there’s ever a time when we need nuclear weapons like the kind of weapons that we’re building and that Russia has and that China has to a lesser extent but will have, that’s going to be a very sad day. That’s going to be probably oblivion. Question: Do you see that in separate conversations, or do you see one giant summit with you, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin? Donald Trump: Yeah, I could see that. Let things calm down a little bit. You know, when I left, we had no Middle East problem. We had no Russia going into Ukraine. They never would have done it. Putin never would have done it. And I came back, and we got like the whole world is blowing up. So, when we straighten it all out, then I want to have – one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. Donald Trump: And I want to say, let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that. And I think we – and I think we’ll be able to do it. Question: Elon Musk identifies wasteful spending in the Defense Department, defense contractors and the like. Are you willing to go after that spending as well that’s – Donald Trump: We’re going to have to go – we have to go waste, fraud, and abuse. Yeah. And we’re doing that. Question: I’m just wondering about your conversations on defense spending. Would you want to do that as a trilateral, or would you use the existing body that also already includes China and Russia, the G20? Donald Trump: No. It’s the people. It’s President Putin, President Xi. I don’t need bodies. I don’t need anything. It’s people. It’s all about people. It’s about relationship and people. And, you know, I’ve had a good relationship with President Putin. I’ve had a good relationship with President Xi. It’s about people. Donald Trump: And I think when things straighten out, which I hope will be in the not-too-distant future, the meeting I want to have first is a meeting with China and a meeting with Russia on slowing down, stopping, and reducing nuclear weapons, in particular, and also on not having to spend the kind of money we’re all spending on weapons, military weapons generally. Question: I think my question is, would you have those meetings separately with each of those leaders or would you try to bring them all together? Donald Trump: Both. You start off separately. That’s what was happening. I was dealing with President Putin. We had really an understanding where we were going to de-nuclearize. What a beautiful term that is, right, de-nuclearize. What a great thing if we could do that. And we were going to – he – he really liked the idea, and so did I. And we had then called China, and China was very open to it. And then the COVID hit, and then we had a rigged election. Donald Trump: But now, there was no rigged election. Now, we have a – an election that was too big to rig, that’s what – my whole theme was too big to rig. And they tried, but they didn’t pull it off. Question: Sir, as part of the reciprocal tariffs, would you also direct agencies to study the impact they would have on prices in the U.S.? Donald Trump: No, there’s nothing to study. There’s nothing to study. It’s going to go well. The United States is going to become a very, very strong economic – economically country. Yeah? Question: Mr. President, in the past, you have spoken against BRICS. India is part of BRICS. Do you want to dismantle BRICS, or you want to – U.S. want to be part – Donald Trump: I don’t care. But BRICS is – was put there for a bad purpose. Snd most of those people don’t want – they don’t even want to talk about it now. They’re afraid to talk about it because I told them, if – if they want to play games with the dollar, then they’re going to be hit with a 100% tariff. The day they mention that they want to do it and they will come back and say, we beg you, we beg you not to do this. Donald Trump: BRICS is dead since I mentioned that. BRICS died the minute I mentioned that. And I know – I remember when Obama and Biden, in particular, I guess he said that, “Oh, they have us over a barrel.” They don’t have us over a barrel. We have them over a barrel. If BRICS wants to play games, those countries won’t trade with us, we won’t trade with them. Donald Trump: And if any trading gets through, it it’ll be 100% tariff at least. Question: On your cabinet, sir – What would we – Donald Trump: And you know what, when they hear that, what do you think they’re going to do? They’re going to say, “Look, what happened to BRICS.” They didn’t even want to talk about – they don’t – they don’t even want to admit that they were a member of BRICS. That’s what’s happened. Question: On your cabinet, sir, we saw Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. get confirmed. He’s going to come in here and be sworn in. Mitch McConnell has now voted against several of your nominees. He voted against RFK Jr. as the next health secretary citing conspiracy theories. What’s your reaction to that? Donald Trump: Well, I feel sorry for Mitch. And I was one of the people that led. He couldn’t – he wanted to go to the end, and he wanted to stay leader. He wasn’t – he’s not equipped mentally. He wasn’t equipped 10 years ago mentally in my opinion. He let the Republican Party go to hell. If I didn’t come along, the Republican Party wouldn’t even exist right now. Donald Trump: Mitch McConnell never really had it. He had an ability to raise money because of his position as leader, which anybody could do. You could do it even, and that’s saying a lot. But the fact is that he raised money, and he gave a lot of money to senators. And so, he had a little loyalty based on the fact that, as leader, you can raise a lot of money. Donald Trump: Senators would call me, and they say, “He wants to give me 20, 25 million. Can I take it?” I’d say, “Take the money. Take the money.” But he – so, he engendered a certain amount of – I don’t even call it loyalty. You know, he’s able to get votes, but I was the one that got him to drop out of the leadership position. Donald Trump: So, he can’t love me, but he’s not voting against Bobby. He’s voting against me, but that’s all right. He endorsed me. You know, Mitch – do you know that Mitch endorsed me, right? Do you think that was easy? Question: Well he did have polio. Donald Trump: What? Question: He had polio, obviously, and he [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I don’t know – I don’t know anything about he had polio. He had polio. Question: Are you doubting that he had polio? Donald Trump: I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader. He knows that. He voted against Bobby. He votes against almost everything now. He’s a, you know, very bitter guy. And we have a very strong party, and he’s almost not even really a very powerful member. I’d say he’s not a power – he’s lost his power, and it’s affected his vote. Donald Trump: And, you know, it’s one of those things. But in the meantime, Bobby did great, got more votes than anybody thought. And I think he’s going to do phenomenally, just phenomenally in that position. And everybody else likewise did well. Not only well, they got more votes than anybody thought. Tulsi, look at how she did. Donald Trump: She did great. Marco got 99 votes. How about that? Marco got – Marco got 99 votes. And Marco – by the way, I have to tell you. Marco Rubio has done a fantastic job. He’s been a great secretary of State. They’re all doing great. But we’re going to have a swearing in today, and maybe we’re going to have a second one because I hear we have a couple of them coming up. And the man behind me is doing a fantastic job, secretary of Commerce. Donald Trump: And I think you’re going to see something very big come from – from today’s signing. This is going to be a very important signing, OK? Question: On U.S Steel, sir, can I ask you real quickly? You said you’d meet with the head of that company and the Japanese company that – Donald Trump: U.S Steel is going to be here and a lot of – a lot of the steel companies are coming. I think steel companies, they love what’s happening to them. We saved the – if I didn’t do the tariffs from my first term, you wouldn’t have one steel company here. You wouldn’t have one steel. There wouldn’t be a steel company alive in the United States. Donald Trump: And right now, they’re going to be thriving. They’re doing very well, but they’re going to be thriving. They’re going to be coming out. People are going to want to buy those steel companies like crazy. Question: Are you still planning to mediate talks between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel? Donald Trump: Yeah, I don’t know. I think U.S. Steel right now has all the power. The tariffs have given U.S. Steel a new lease on life. OK. Thank you, all, very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Aide: All right, guys. Thanks, guys. Let’s go. Thank you. Let’s go.
Date: 2025-02-18
Note: [Fox News aired parts of the interview of Donald Trump and Elon Musk on February 18, 2025, and released the full interview on February 19, 2025 on Fox Nation. The transcript has been checked against the full video and confirmed for accuracy. Transcript courtesy and copyright Fox News.] Sean Hannity: Mr. President, great to see you again. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Sean Hannity: How are you? Donald Trump: Thank you. Sean Hannity: Elon Musk. Elon Musk: Hi. Sean Hannity: Great to see you. Elon Musk: Thanks. Thanks for having me. Sean Hannity: I’ve been reading a lot about you. Sean Hannity: I’ve got to start with this. So, he’s working for free with DOGE. He’s – he’s kind of put a lot of his life on hold, and you sued Twitter a number of years ago. You just made him pay you $10 million? Donald Trump: That’s right. That’s right. Sean Hannity: That’s – that’s right. [Laughs] Donald Trump: Well, I sued – I sued from long before he had it. Elon Musk: Yeah. Yeah. [Inaudible] Donald Trump: And, I mean, they really did a number on me, you know. And I sued, and they had to pay. You know, they paid $10 million settlement. Sean Hannity: You’re okay with that? Elon Musk: I mean, I left it up to the lawyers and, you know, the team running Twitter. So, I said, “You guys do what you think is the right – makes sense.” Sean Hannity: I think it’s funny. Donald Trump: I think – Sean Hannity: Because – Donald Trump: – it’s a very low – I was looking to get much more money than that. Sean Hannity: So, you gave him a discount w- – in the lawsuit? Donald Trump: He got – oh, he got a big discount. I don’t think he even knows about it. Sean Hannity: He’s become one of your – if you read and believe the media – he’s become one of your best friends. He’s working for free for you. He’s – Elon Musk: Well, I love the president. I just want to be clear about that. Sean Hannity: You don’t care about that? Elon Musk: I – no, I love the pr- – I – Sean Hannity: You love the president? Elon Musk: I think – I think President Trump is a good man, and – and he’s, you know – I – I – Donald Trump: That’s the way he said that. You know, there’s something nice about. [Laughter] Elon Musk: No, it is. I, you know – Donald Trump: It is. Elon Musk: Because, I mean, the president has been so – so unfairly attacked in the media. It’s truly outrageous. And I’ve sp- – at this point, spent a lot of time with the president, and not once have I seen him do something that was mean or cruel or – or wrong. Not once. Sean Hannity: You know, I’ve known him for 30 years. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: And I’ve never seen anybody take as much as he’s taken. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: And we’ve discussed this. And I’m like, “How do you deal with it?” Donald Trump: Did have a choice? [Laughs] I didn’t have a choice. Sean Hannity: Well, you would say that to me. I’m like, “What – what am I going to do? Worry about it?” Donald Trump: That’s the only thing I can say. Sean Hannity: And, you know – and then culminating in two assassination attempts, which resulted in your endorsement. Elon Musk: Well, I was going to do it anyway, but that was – Sean Hannity: That was it? Elon Musk: – a precipitating event, yeah. Donald Trump: That speeded it up a little bit? Elon Musk: Yeah. Yeah. Sean Hannity: The day of the assassination? Donald Trump: Nice. I didn’t know that. Elon Musk: Yeah, it just – it sped it up, but I was going to do it anyway. Sean Hannity: Mr. President, with your indulgence, I’m convinced that people only know a little bit about Elon. I don’t think they know everything about Elon, because as I studied for and prepared for this interview, I learned a lot about you that I didn’t know. I think people will think about Tesla. Democrats are demonizing you and – and trying to make the country hate you. Sean Hannity: I just want people to understand you a little bit better, and the person that you’ve gotten to know and have now put a lot of trust in. Donald Trump: Sure. Sean Hannity: And, you know, just – let’s go over a little bit of your bio, starting – Elon Musk: Ah, okay. Sean Hannity: – with PayPal and how you became involved in Tesla and SpaceX and Neuralink – Elon Musk: This – this could take a while. Sean Hannity: – and all these – Elon Musk: I mean, you know, I – I think the way you think of me is, like, I’m a technologist and I try to make technologies that improve the world and make life better. Sean Hannity: You can show them your shirt. Elon Musk: Yeah, and that’s why, like, my t-shirt says “tech support” – [Laughter] – because I’m here to provide the president with – with technology support. And now, that – that may seem, like, well, is that a silly thing? But actually, it’s a very important thing, because the president will make these executive orders, which are very sensible and good for the country, but then they don’t get implemented, you know? Elon Musk: So, if you take the – for example, all the funding for the migrant hotels, the president issued an executive order: Hey, we need to stop taking taxpayer money and – and paying for luxury hotels for illegal immigrants – Sean Hannity: It’s crazy. Elon Musk: – which makes no sense. Like, obviously, people do not want their tax dollars going to – to fund high-end hotels for – for illegals. And yet, they were still doing that, even as late as last week. And so, you know, we went in there, and we were like, “This is in violation of the presidential executive order. Elon Musk: It needs to stop.” So – so, what we’re – what we’re doing here is – is – one of the biggest functions of the DOGE team is just making sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out. And this is – I just want to point out, this is a very important thing, because the president is the elected representative of the people, so he’s representing the will of the people. Elon Musk: And if the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the pres- – the president from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy. Sean Hannity: Yeah. You – you’re both aware – you have to be keenly aware that the media and – and the punditry class – not that – you know, I think you’ve proven they have no power anymore, because they threw everything they had at you, and they didn’t win. And that was, you know, the New York Times, Washington Post, three networks, every late-night comedy show, two cable channels – they – they just threw – they threw everything – lawfare, weaponization. Donald Trump: It’s true. Sean Hannity: And now I see they want you two to start – they want a divorce. They want you two to start hating each other. And they try – “Oh, President Elon Musk,” for example. You do know that they’re doing that to you? Donald Trump: Oh, I see it all the time. They tried it, then they stopped. That wasn’t – they have many different things of hatred. Actually, Elon called me. He said, “You know they’re trying to drive us apart.” I said, “Absolutely.” You know, they said, “We have breaking news: Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. Donald Trump: President Musk will be attending a Cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o’clock.” [Laughter] And I say – it’s just so obvious. They’re so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it. They’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president because I – I think nobody in history has ever gotten more bad publicity than me. I could do the greatest things; I get 98 percent bad publicity. Donald Trump: I could do – outside of you and a few of your very good friends. It’s, like, the craziest thing. But you know what I have learned, Elon? The people are smart. They get it. Elon Musk: Yeah. They do, actually. Yeah. Donald Trump: They get it. They really see what’s happening. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: And at the end of this interview, I – what I would like is, I – I want people to know the relationship and know more about you. What is the relationship, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Well, I respect him. I’ve always respected him. I never knew that he was right on certain things, and I’m usually pretty good at this stuff. He did Starlink. He did things that were so advanced and nobody knew what the hell they were. I can tell you, in North Carolina, they had no communication. They were wiped out. Donald Trump: Those people were – you know, they had rivers in between – land that never saw water, all of a sudden, there was a river and a vicious – like, rapids. People were dying all over. They had no communication. They said, “Do you know Elon Musk?” And they didn’t really know I knew him. I said, “Yeah.” They said, “Could you get Starlink?” It’s, like, the first time I ever heard of it. I said, “What’s Starlink?” “A communication system that’s unbelievable.” Sean Hannity: I have it. Donald Trump: And he – yeah. And he said – I called him, and I said, “Listen, they really need it.” And he got, like, thousands of units of this communication, and it saved a lot of lives. He got it immediately. And you can’t get it. I mean, you have to wait a long time to get it. But he got it to him immediately. And I said, “That’s pretty amazing.” And I didn’t even know he had it. We watch the rocket ships, and we watch Tesla. Donald Trump: I think, you know, something that had an effect on me was when I saw the rocket ship come back and get grabbed like you grab a beautiful little baby. You grab your baby. It just – Elon Musk: Just hug the rocket. Donald Trump: I’d never seen – Elon Musk: Everyone – right. Everyone needs [Inaudible] – Sean Hannity: You hug the rocket. You hug the rocket. Elon Musk: – [Inaudible] rockets. Donald Trump: Yeah. No, but – and he said, “You know, you can’t really have a rocket program if you’re going to dump a billion dollars into the ocean every time you fly. You have to save it.” And he saved it. First time – Sean Hannity: That’s ever been done. Donald Trump: – I’ve ever seen that done. Now nobody else can do it. If you look at the U.S., Russia, or China, they can’t do it, and they won’t be able to do it for a long time. He has the technology. So, you learn – I wanted somebody really smart to work with me, in terms of the country – a very important aspect. Donald Trump: Because, I mean, he doesn’t talk about it. He’s actually a very good businessman. And when he talks about the executive orders – and this is probably true for all presidents: You write an executive order and you think it’s done, you send it out; it doesn’t get done. It doesn’t get implemented. They don’t implement it. They – maybe they’re from the last administration – and they are, in some cases. Donald Trump: You try and get them out as fast as you can. But I could – as soon as he said that, I said, “You know, that’s interesting.” You write a beautiful executive – and you sign it and you assume it’s going to be done, but it’s not. What he does is he takes it, and with his hundred geniuses – he’s got some very brilliant young people working for him that dress much worse than him, actually – Elon Musk: Yeah, the do. Donald Trump: – they dress in just t-shirts. [Laughter] You wouldn’t know they have 180 IQ. Sean Hannity: Wait. Wait. So, what – he’s – he’s your tech support? Elon Musk: I – Donald Trump: No, no. He is – Elon Musk: I actually virtually am tech support. Donald Trump: He’s much more than that. Elon Musk: I actually am tech support, though. But that’s – Donald Trump: But he gets it done. He’s a leader. He really is a – he gets it done. You get a lot of tech people, and you have people, they’re good with tech, but they – he gets it done. You know, I said, in real estate, you had guys that would draw beautiful renderings of a building, and they’d draw the rendering, it would be great, and you’d say, “Great. Donald Trump: When are you starting?” But they were never able to get it built. They couldn’t get the finances. They couldn’t get the approvals. It would never get done. And then you have other guys that are able to get it done. You know, they could just get it done. I was in real estate. Same thing in this. He gets it done. Donald Trump: So, when he said that – he said, “You know, when you sign these executive orders, a lot of them don’t get done, and maybe the most important ones,” and he would take that executive order that I’d signed, and he would have those people go to whatever agency it was – “When are you doing it? Get it done. Get it done.” And some guy that maybe didn’t want to do it, all of a sudden, he’s signing – he just doesn’t want to bothered. Sean Hannity: Does – do a lot of those executive orders have to be codified into law to – do you need the Republican Congress to follow up? Donald Trump: Yeah, and they will. A lot of them will be. Yeah. Sean Hannity: They will? Donald Trump: Look, in the meantime, we have four years. The beauty is, we have four years. That’s why I like doing it right at the beginning. Because an executive order is great. I mean, the one problem – it’s both good and bad, because when they did all these executive orders, I’ve canceled most of them. They were terrible. Donald Trump: I mean, we were going to go radical left, communist, okay? It was crazy. Their – Elon Musk: Really crazy. Donald Trump: – executive orders were so bad, if they ever got them codified, you’d never be able to break them. So, the damage that Biden has done to this country – and it’s not even Biden; it’s the people that circled him in the Oval Office, okay? – but the damage they did to this country, in terms of, let’s say, open borders – you know, there’s so many things, but open borders, where millions of people poured into our country, and hundreds of thousands of those people are criminals. Donald Trump: They’re murderers. They’re drug dealers. They’re gang members. They’re people from prisons from all over the world. And we have a great guy, Tom Homan, and he is doing so incredibly. You saw the numbers. They’re down like 96 percent. Sean Hannity: Ninety-five percent. Donald Trump: He is a phenomenal guy. And Kristi Noem is doing an unbelievable job. And he wanted her. He said, “She’s so tough.” And I said, “I don’t think of her as that way. You know, she’s very nice.” He said, “No, she’s so tough.” And she is. I see her with the horses. She’s riding the horse. Let’s – [Laughter] – she’s great. Donald Trump: But the team we have is – is really unbelievable. But those executive orders, I sign them, and now they get passed on to him and his group and other people, and they’re all getting done. We’re getting them done. Sean Hannity: Let me go back a little bit to your background, because – Elon Musk: Sure. Sean Hannity: – it’s beyond impressive. You were the chief engineer, for example – you were an early believer in Tesla. You became the CEO and – and then the chief engineer, which was phenomenal. SpaceX, same thing, which is unbelievable. I mean, you were the first company – private company to send astronauts successfully into – into space, first private company to send astronauts into orbit. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: That’s – that’s pretty deep. Donald Trump: He’s going to go into orbit soon. Sean Hannity: Okay. Elon Musk: [Laughs] Yeah. Donald Trump: No, he’s going to go to Mars. He’s going to fly on his – Sean Hannity: Starlink. Elon Musk: At some point, yeah. Sean Hannity: As in [Inaudible] – Elon Musk: But they say – they always ask me, like, “Do you want to die on Mars?” And I say, “Well, yes, but not on impact.” [Laughter] Sean Hannity: Star- – Starlink is in 100 countries. This is going to be hard. I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here. Elon Musk: You go ahead. Sean Hannity: Starshield, which could be used for national defense. Elon Musk: Yeah, it is already being used for national defense. Sean Hannity: Then you have a – what is it called? Optimus, a part of Tesla. Elon Musk: They’re a robot, yeah. Sean Hannity: A robotic arm. Then you have an AI arm. And then you have something that really fascinated me, and it’s called Neuralink. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: You might help the blind to see and people with spinal cord injuries that they – that they can recover, where in the past – how close is that to becoming a success? Elon Musk: At Neuralink we’re – we’ve ha- – we’ve implanted Neuralink in three patients so far, who are quadriplegics, and it allows them to directly control their phone and computer just using their mind, just by thinking. It’s like – so, we call this product Telepathy, so you control your computer and phone just by thinking, and it’s possible to actually control the computer and phone faster than someone who has working hands. Elon Musk: Then the next step would be to add a second Neuralink implant past the point where these – the neurons are damaged, so that somebody can walk again and so the pe- – they can have full-body functionality restored. And – Donald Trump: And you like Bobby, right? Elon Musk: I like Bobby, actually. Yeah. I – I supported Bobby Kennedy. I think he – you know, he’s unfairly maligned as someone who is anti-science. But I think he – he isn’t. He just wants to question the science, which is the essence of the science – the scientific method, fundamentally, is about always questioning the science. Sean Hannity: Well, they didn’t tell us the truth about COVID. Elon Musk: Correct. Sean Hannity: That’s for sure. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: And we learned a lot with the Twitter files. And that just, then, raises a question. You’re the richest man in the world. You may not like that part. Donald Trump: Yeah. Sean Hannity: You’re pretty competitive. Elon Musk: I mean, it’s neither here nor there. Sean Hannity: I’ve known you a long time. Elon Musk: I don’t think it matters. Sean Hannity: But – Donald Trump: That’s why I became president. Sean Hannity: – he’s on your team. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] – Sean Hannity: Well, that’s true. He can’t top that. Donald Trump: He’s good. You know, I wanted to find somebody smarter than him. I searched all over. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. Sean Hannity: You really tried hard. Donald Trump: I couldn’t find anyone smarter, right? So, we had to – we had to, for the country. Sean Hannity: But this is the thing – Donald Trump: So, we settled on – we settled on this guy. Elon Musk: Well, thanks for having me. Donald Trump: [Laughs] Yeah. Sean Hannity: So – Elon Musk: I’m just trying to be useful here. Sean Hannity: But this is the interesting – but this is where we are as a so- – a society. And I – I hate to do this to you, but I’m going to do it anyway. You’re doing all of these things. At DOGE, nobody at DOGE gets paid a penny, correct? Elon Musk: Well, actually, some people are federal employees, so they do. Sean Hannity: Oh, okay. Elon Musk: Yeah. They’re [Inaudible]. But it’s fair to say that the software engineers at DOGE could be earning millions of dollars a year and instead of earning a small fraction of that as federal employees. Sean Hannity: Okay. So, just – Donald Trump: And they’re very committed people. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: So – you’re – you’re committed to helping the blind see, people with spinal cord injuries recover. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: You’re committed to getting to Mars. You’re committed to rescue – you’re going to help rescue, next month, two astronauts that I think were abandoned. They – they dispute that in an interview. Donald Trump: When are you – when are you getting them? Elon Musk: At the – at the president’s request, we – or instruction, we are accelerating the return of the astronauts, which was postponed, kind of, to a ridiculous degree. Donald Trump: They got left in space. Sean Hannity: They’ve been there. They were supposed to be there eight days. They’re there almost 300. Donald Trump: Biden. Elon Musk: They were put – Sean Hannity: Yeah. Elon Musk: Yes, they were left up there for political reasons, which is not good. Sean Hannity: Okay, it’s not good. Now, if I had the weight and pressure of doing that successfully on my shoulders, I think I’d be, you know – but you – when we spoke before we did this interview, you were very confident. You think this will be a successful mission. Elon Musk: Well, we don’t want to be complacent, but we have brought astronauts back from the space station many times before, and always with success. So, as long as we’re not complacent – Donald Trump: When are they – when are you going to launch? Elon Musk: I think it’s about – about four weeks to bring them back. Sean Hannity: About four weeks? Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: And you have the go-ahead. Elon Musk: We’re being extremely cautious. Sean Hannity: Yeah. Donald Trump: You now have the go-ahead. Elon Musk: Yes. Well, thanks to you – Donald Trump: They didn’t have the go-ahead with Biden. Sean Hannity: What’s that? Donald Trump: He was going to leave him in space. I think he was going to leave them in space. Sean Hannity: Well, it’s like the [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: He considered it a – Sean Hannity: – growing up, lost in space. Donald Trump: Yeah, he didn’t want the publicity. Can you believe it? Sean Hannity: Unbelievable. And so – Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: – I want to echo something that the president said and then ask an overarching question. So, people in – get hit with Hurricane Helene, they have no communication with the outside world. You come to the rescue. You donated that, I believe? Elon Musk: Yes. Yes. Sean Hannity: You donated to the people of – Donald Trump: He saved a lot of lives. In North Carolina, he saved a lot of lives. Sean Hannity: And California, after the wildfires? Donald Trump: California. But, I mean, in North Carolina, where they were really in trouble, they had no communication, people were dying. Sean Hannity: Nothing. Donald Trump: They were dying of starvation. He saved a lot of lives in North Carolina. Sean Hannity: Okay. Now you’re going to rescue astronauts. And now – again, you do – you do all of this – I would think liberals would love the fact that you have the biggest electric vehicle company in the world. Elon Musk: Yeah. I mean, I used to be adored by the left, you know. Sean Hannity: Not anymore. Elon Musk: Le- – less so these days. Sean Hannity: He killed that, huh? Elon Musk: I mean, less – Donald Trump: I really [Inaudible] – Elon Musk: Well, I mean, this – this whole sort of, like, you know – it was – they call it, like, “Trump derangement syndrome.” And I didn’t – you know, you don’t realize how real this is until, like, it’s – you can’t reason with people. So, like, I was at a friend’s birthday party in L.A., just a birthday dinner, and it was, like, a nice, quiet dinner, and everything was – everyone was behaving normally. Elon Musk: And then I happened to mention – this was before the election, like a month or two before – I happened to mention the president’s name, and it was like they got shot with a dart in the jugular that contained, like, the methamphetamine and rabies. Okay? [Laughter] And they’re like, “Whyy?” And I’m, like, “What is wrong – like, guys, like” – you just can’t have, like, a normal conversation. Elon Musk: And it’s like – it’s like they become completely irrational. Sean Hannity: He – he has no idea, if you’re friends with him – Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: – you pay a price. You know, it’s like, I walk into a restaurant in New York, and it’s like half the room gets daggers and they want to – Elon Musk: The eye-daggers – eye-daggers level is insane. [Laughter] I mean, there was, like – I had, like, some – some invitation because – so, I got invited to, like, so- – basically, a big, sort of, damn – damn event like that was – but I’d received the invitation, like, the beginning of last year and then – and I still attended, even after I’d endorsed President Trump, and I didn’t realize how profoundly that would affect, you know, how I was received. [Laughter] I mean, I walk into the room and I’m getting just the dirty looks from – from everyone. Elon Musk: Like, if looks could kill, I would have been dead several times over. Sean Hannity: But that was not – [Laughter] – before Trump Elon Musk: [Inaudible] – Sean Hannity: Before Trump: “BC” – Elon Musk: – ashes on the floor. [Laughs] Sean Hannity: – or “BT.” Before Trump, that never happened. Right? Elon Musk: No. Sean Hannity: No. So – Elon Musk: I – I just – doesn’t seem strange? Like, what – what is up with this total, like, madness? Sean Hannity: You’re smarter than me. Can you – I actually think that there’s a level of irrationality. It’s almost like a trigger and – Elon Musk: It totally triggers. Sean Hannity: And it’s like – look, I – I’ve been on TV – this is my 29th year. I’ve been on radio 35 years. I will – I’ve gone hard in the paint to – for candidates that lost. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: And guess what? I get over it. Elon Musk: Sure. Yeah, yeah. Sean Hannity: And I just keep doing my show, and I just – you know, I come back to fight another day. So, here’s the big – then this is the million dollar or billion dollar – I’m among billionaires – question. So, you have all this going on and you stop, in a way – you’re still doing it – and you partner with him. Sean Hannity: And this is what you get for it from the Democrats. You get “nobody voted for Elon.” Well, nobody voted for any of your Cabinet nominees. Okay? “People are dying because of DOGE cuts.” I’ll give you a chance to respond to all that. “What DOGE is doing is illegal.” “Elon Musk is” – more street vernacular for a male body part. “It’s a constitutional crisis.” Elon Musk: How c- – why – why are they reacting like this? Sean Hannity: Well, first of all, do you give a flying rip? Number one. And – Elon Musk: Well, I guess we must be – if we’re the target, we’re doing something right. You know, if – like, they wouldn’t be complaining so much if they – we weren’t doing something useful, I think. What – all we’re really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president. And – and what we’re finding is there’s an unelected bureaucracy. Elon Musk: Speaking of unelected, there’s a – there’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the – the president and the Cabinet. And you look at, say, D.C. voting. It’s 92 percent Kamala. Okay, so we’re in 92 percent Kamala. That’s a lot. Sean Hannity: Yeah. They don’t like me here either. Elon Musk: I think about that number a lot. I’m like, 92 percent. That’s, basically, almost everyone. And so – but if – but how can you – if – if the will of the president is not implemented, and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented, and that means we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy. Elon Musk: And so, I think what we’re seeing here is the – sort of, the thrashing of the bureaucracy as we try to restore democracy and the will of the people. Sean Hannity: You – Elon Musk: Is this making sense? I mean – sorry. Sean Hannity: Y- – no, of course it does. I mean, to me, if you look at our framers and our founders – and you’ve really become a student of history, Mr. President, and we’ve ta- – we’ve had conversations both on air and off air – and if we talk about constitutional order or transformational change, nobody can argue that what’s happening here is going at the speed of light. Sean Hannity: But however, what were the principles of our framers and our founders? They wanted limited government, greater freedom for the people – and we’ll get to the specific cutting of waste, fraud, and abuse. That – that is your goal, is it not? Donald Trump: Yeah. And my goal was to get great people. And when you look at what this man has done, I mean, it was something – I knew him a little bit through the White House. Originally, I’d see him around a little bit. I didn’t know him before that, and I respected what he did. And he fought hard. You know, he was a – he was maybe questioned for a while. Donald Trump: He was having some difficulties. It was not easy doing what he did. I mean, how many people have started a car company and made it really successful and made a better car where it’s, you know, beating these big companies that that’s all they do is cars? I mean, it’s really amazing the things that he’s done. Donald Trump: But I didn’t know it as much then as now. I mean, the fruits have sort of taken hold. But I wanted great people, and he’s a great person. He’s an amazing person. He’s also a caring person. You know, he uses the word “care.” So, they sign a contract in a government agency, and it has three months. And the guy leaves that signed the contract, and nobody else is there, and they pay the contract for 10 years. Donald Trump: So, the guy is getting checks for years and years and years, and he’s telling his family, obviously – maybe it was crooked, maybe he paid to get the contract, or maybe he paid that they didn’t terminate him. But, you know, we have contracts that go forever, and they’ve been going for years, and they’re supposed to end in three months or five months or two years or something, and they go forever. Donald Trump: So, the guy is either crooked – you know, where he knew this was going to happen – or he’s crooked because he’s getting payments that he knows he shouldn’t be getting. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: But they’re finding things like that. They’re finding things far worse than that. And they’re finding billions – and it will be hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of fraud. I say waste and abuse, but fraud, waste, and abuse. And he’s doing an amazing job. And he attracts a young, very smart type of person. Donald Trump: I call them high-IQ individuals, and they are. They’re very high Q and – high IQ. And when they go in to see the people and talk to these people – you know, the people think they’re going to pull it over. They don’t. These guys are smart, and they love the country. You know, there’s a certain something. Donald Trump: But he uses the word “care.” So, people have to care. Like, when I bought Air Force One – Elon Musk: Exactly. Donald Trump: – I negotiated the price. It was $5.7 billion, and I got it – I got them down $1.7 billion. Now they’re not building the plane fast enough. I mean, they’re actually in default – Boeing. They’re supposed to – Sean Hannity: When is it – Donald Trump: They’ve been building this thing forever. I don’t know – Sean Hannity: This is the new Air Force One? Donald Trump: – what’s going on. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: We don’t build the way we used to build. You know, we used to build like a ship a day, and now to build a ship is, like, a big deal, and we’re going to get this country back on track. We could do it, but so many things – it takes so long to get things built and get things done. And a lot of it could be something we’ve been discussing. Donald Trump: The regulators go in and they make it impossible to build. They make it very difficult to build anything, whether it’s a ship, a plane, or a building or anything. And some of them do it because they want to show how important they are. Some of them do it maybe because they think they’re right. They use the environment to stop progress and to stop things. Donald Trump: It’s always the environment. “It’s an environmental problem.” It’s not an environmental problem at all. But they do a lot of things. And, by the way, speaking of that, Lee Zeldin is going to be fantastic in the position. So important. He could take 10 years to approve or disapprove something, or he could do it in a month. Donald Trump: You know, just as good. Sean Hannity: Sure. Donald Trump: And I think you’re going to see some fantastic – a fantastic job done by him. He’s a tremendous guy. Sean Hannity: Newt – you echoed something when I had just met you, and it was very similar to what Newt has been saying, that we’re – he brought this country to the dance. This is the opportunity to be transformational, and to have, I would argue, a – the most consequential presidency if we – if we’d really dig down and do something that had never been done before, and that is get rid of this bureaucracy. Sean Hannity: And I’m going – Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: – to get to specifics. You say the same thing. It’s not done yet. Elon Musk: Absolutely. Sean Hannity: And what did you mean by that? Elon Musk: Well, I mean the – w- – winning the election is really the opportunity to fix the system. It is not fixing the system itself. So, it’s an opportunity to fix the system and to restore the power of democracy. And, you know, people – like, it’s funny how – how often it – you – when these attacks occur, the thing that they’re accusing the administration of is what they are guilty of. They’re saying that things are – are being done are unconstitutional, but what they are doing is unconstitutional. Elon Musk: They are guilty of the crime of which they accuse us. Donald Trump: That’s always the first thing they do. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: He’s in violation of the Constitution. They don’t even know what they’re talking – well, they know. Elon Musk: It’s absurd. Donald Trump: It’s just a con job. It’s a big con job. And they’re so bad for the country, so dangerous and so bad. And the media is so bad. When I watch MSNBC, which I don’t watch much, but you have to watch the enemy on occasion, the level of arrogance and – and cheating and – they’re just horrible people. These are horrible people. Sean Hannity: They lie. Donald Trump: These are horrible people. Sean Hannity: They tell conspiracy theories. Donald Trump: They lie, and they start up with the Constitution. They couldn’t care less about the Constitution. CNN, likewise. I mean, I watched them asking questions with, you know, the hatred with the – why – I said, “What are you asking the question with such anger? You’re asking me a normal question.” But you see the bias. Donald Trump: The bias is so incredible. Those two are bad. PBS is bad. AP is bad. CBS is terrible. I mean, CBS now – they changed an answer in Kamala. They asked her some questions. She answered them like, you know, a low-IQ person. The opposite of him – the absolute opposite. But she gave a horrible answer. They took the entire answer out, and they put another answer that she gave 20 minutes later into the – in- – as the answer. Sean Hannity: It was part of her word salad. Donald Trump: I’ve never even heard of that be- – I thought I heard of it all. Elon Musk: Right. Sean Hannity: That wh- – “60 Minutes” once – one – wanted to do an interview with me, and I said, “Live to tape.” Elon Musk: Yeah, exactly. Sean Hannity: They said, “No.” And I said, “No” – Elon Musk: Right. Sean Hannity: – “No deal.” Elon Musk: Exactly. They can- – Sean Hannity: Like, this interview will – Donald Trump: I’ve never even heard – you know, I’ve seen where they take a sentence off or something and they’ll do – but they – Sean Hannity: Sometimes you cut for time o- – Donald Trump: No, no. They took the entire – this long, terrible statement that she made and put another. Nobody’s ever seen what’s happening. And, you know, the people that do all this complaining, they’re very dishonest people. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: Yeah. I – I’m going to, just for the sake of saving time – Donald Trump: Yeah. Sean Hannity: – because I could spend – and I’ve done this on radio and TV, I – I can spend an hour finding the outrageous amounts of money being spent abroad, like USAID. Elon Musk: Sure. Sean Hannity: And I do want to mention a couple, but I’m going to – Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: – scroll it and – Elon Musk: Well – well, I guess, at a high level, I think it’s what the president mentioned earlier, which is that in order to save taxpayer money, it comes down to two things: competence and caring. And – Donald Trump: That’s right. Elon Musk: – and when – when president was shown the outrageous bill for the new Air Force One and – and then negotiated it down, if he had – if the president had not applied competence and caring, the price would have been 50 percent higher – literally, 50 percent higher. The president cared. The president was competent. Elon Musk: The price was not 50 percent higher as the result. And so, when you add more competence and caring, you get a better deal for the American people. Donald Trump: But we could take – we were talking about this yesterday. I could take – give me thousands of bills – any – I could pick any one of them, and I could – Elon Musk: Yes, exactly. Donald Trump: – take all thousand. And let’s say it’s a bill for $5,000 – just $5,000, and it’s done by some bureaucrat. And if he would say, “I’ll give you three. I don’t want to pay you five. It’s too high. I’ll give you three.” But they don’t do that. If a guy sends in a bill for $5,000, they pay $5,000. They expect to be cut. Donald Trump: Everybody expects to be cut. When you send in a bill, you expect to be cut. They send in the bill higher, for the most part. This is true with lawyers, legal fees. When they send in legal fees, you – I can cut – I wish I had the time, I would save so – but I could cut these bills in half – much better than half. Donald Trump: But you offer people a much lower number because you know they – they actually put fat – I’m not even saying it’s – it’s like a way of business. They put more on because they expect to be negotiated. When you send in a bill to the government, there’s nobody to negotiate. Elon Musk: Yes. Donald Trump: You send it a bill for $10,000, and they send you a check back for $10,000. If you would call them and said, “We’ll give you five.” “No, no, no. I need more than five.” “We’ll give you a five.” “I’m not going to pay any more than five.” “Make it six.” “No, I’m not going to make it six.” And you’ll settle for $5,500. You’ve just cut the bill almost in half, and it took, like, two minutes. Donald Trump: When did that stop? But – Sean Hannity: [Inaudible] the art of the deal? Donald Trump: – that’s caring. No, it’s not even the art of the deal. It’s caring. He uses the word – Elon Musk: It’s – it’s competence and caring. Donald Trump: – it’s caring. Sean Hannity: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s – it’s a certain competence, but I think it’s more caring. Elon Musk: I – if you – Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Elon Musk: Actually, if you add either ingredient – either competence or caring – you’ll – you’ll get a better outcome. But it stands to reason – Sean Hannity: Right. People don’t want to do this [Inaudible] Elon Musk: – that’s the reason that if you don’t have competency and you don’t have caring, you’re going to get a terrible deal. And the problem is that the American taxpayer has been – been getting a terrible deal, because – look at the last administration. Can you – can anyone – can any reasonable person say that last administration was either competent or caring? Sean Hannity: But they lied to us and said that Joe didn’t have a cognitive decline. Elon Musk: They fully lied. Sean Hannity: They said the borders were closed. They said that the borders were secure. They said that – Elon Musk: Right. Sean Hannity: You know, they said Obamacare would save – Elon Musk: They flat out lied. Sean Hannity: They flat out lied – Elon Musk: It was insane. Sean Hannity: – on many occasions. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: I tell my audience all the time: Don’t trust government. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: So, the – I want – as I scroll this information, and it’s – it’s – I’ll scroll a lot more than I’ll mention to both of you, and this is the cost savings. I want you – I want people at home to understand this part: The average American makes $66,000 a year. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: Okay? We have $37 trillion in national debt. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: Now, all the money I’m about to mention and what we’re going to scroll on our screen – and all of this is going to foreign countries. It is not being spent here in America – Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: – for better schools, law and order. Elon Musk: I – I think the average taxpaying American should be mad as hell because their tax money is being poorly spent. Sean Hannity: I’m mad. It’s stealing from – Elon Musk: It’s a – it’s an outrage – Sean Hannity: – our kids and grandkids. Elon Musk: Yes, and the – and people – Donald Trump: And a lot of fraud, Sean. A lot of fraud. Sean Hannity: Yes. Donald Trump: And a lot of kickbacks. They’re sending money out. They’re not that stupid. These people aren’t that stupid. They’re sending for transgender – something having to do with the opera, and they’re sending out $7 million – Elon Musk: [Laughs] Literally. Donald Trump: – $7 million. [Inaudible] – Sean Hannity: You just stole my next line. I can’t believe that. Donald Trump: No, it’s incredible. Sean Hannity: I was going to mention that. Donald Trump: No, but it’s incredible: $7 million. Now, you know they – they’re not so stupid. They’re sending all this money. They expect to get a lot of it back. And that’s what happens. Sean Hannity: Okay. So, let’s go through it. Elon Musk: Yes, they’re – a bunch of – Sean Hannity: So, for the average person at home – Elon Musk: – this stuff is round-tripping. To the president’s point, they’ll – they’ll make it sound like it’s going to help some people in a foreign country, but then they – then they get kickbacks. Sean Hannity: All right. Let me go to the ne- – to the fir- – Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: – to the second question first. I want to know, because people like Joni Ernst, and – and House – Elon Musk: Yeah, Joni – Joni Ernst has been – Sean Hannity: They tried to get – Elon Musk: – has tried for a long time, and she’s actually got a lot of good data. Senator Ernst has been really helpful, actually. Sean Hannity: Okay, but they – they actually hide what the real purpose of the spending is. Elon Musk: That’s true. Sean Hannity: In other words, they – and – and h- – this is a question: How did you decipher? It will say, “Humanitarian blah, blah, blah in Serbia or Afghanistan.” We’ve been giving money to China for crying out loud, which I think is nuts. Elon Musk: Well, we’re giving money to the Taliban. Sean Hannity: Money to the Taliban? Elon Musk: Like a lot. Sean Hannity: All right. So – Elon Musk: [Laughs] I’m like, for what? Sean Hannity: But they – Elon Musk: I – I want to see pictures of what they did. Sean Hannity: But they try to obscure it, and – and – but then you got to the bottom line, which is what I’m now scrolling on the screen – Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: – and that is: $20 million on a Sesame Street show in Iraq; $56 million to boost tourism in Tunisia and Egypt; $40 million to build schools in Jordan; $11 million to tell the Vietnamese to stop burning trash; $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma; $520 million for consultant-driven ESG investments in Africa; DEI programs in Serbia; the president’s favorite – I’m sure you – you love that taxpayer money was spent on a DEI musical in Ireland or a chan- – transgender opera in Colombia or a – Elon Musk: If I could, like, it sounds like – Sean Hannity: – transgender comic book in Peru. Elon Musk: It sounds like – it sounds like how can these things be real? But this is actually what was done. Sean Hannity: Okay. The – I – Elon Musk: It – it sounds like a comedy sketch or something. It’s like – Sean Hannity: I have 20 pages of this. Elon Musk: Right. It’s not – the list is a mile long. Donald Trump: The one thing you didn’t mention, the media. The media is getting millions of dollars. Elon Musk: Yes. Donald Trump: Now, they say Politico, which is a radical left – Sean Hannity: Subscriptions. Donald Trump: – you know, garbage magazine or – or program. I guess they have magazine and they have some – some media of all types. $8 million. I hear the New York Times got a lot. I hear they get subscriptions – where they have subscriptions but maybe the paper is not sent. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but it’s – they call it subscriptions. Donald Trump: Lots of subscri- – to different media, not just the Times – maybe the Times, and maybe not the Times. Sean Hannity: A million dollars in subscriptions is a lot. Donald Trump: Well – but – but millions of dollars going to media that’s radical-left, crooked, dishonest media. Elon Musk: Well – well, Reuters – this is actually really wild: Reuters got like – something like $10 million for something that was literally titled “mass disinformation campaign.” Sean Hannity: Well – Elon Musk: That was on the purchase order. Well, I – I thought that was a little bold. [Laughs] Sean Hannity: I will tell you what was bold is when you released – Elon Musk: I’m like – Sean Hannity: – the Twitter files. Elon Musk: – shouldn’t you at least try to call it something else? [Laughs] Sean Hannity: The Twitter files – how they targeted him; how Twitter, at the time, worked closely with the FBI, the CIA; and, even before the release of Hunter’s very real laptop, they were feeding them disinformation. That – Elon Musk: Absolutely. Sean Hannity: – you found all that out. Elon Musk: Well, I think – Sean Hannity: That’s called transparency, right? Donald Trump: The FBI has to be rehabbed. The FBI – Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: What’s happened with the FBI and the DOJ is just – their – their stock has gone way down. I mean, their reputation is shot. Sean Hannity: And intelligence. Donald Trump: And I think Pam is going to do great. I think Kash is going to do great. I think they have to do great or we have a problem. But when you look at what they did, the raid of Mar-a-Lago – the raid of Mar-a-Lago – you look at what they did, their reputation is shot. Sean Hannity: It is. What – you were going to say, Elon? Elon Musk: Well, no, I was going to say that I think probably a – like, a lot of people still – Sean Hannity: How – how did you find [Inaudible]? Elon Musk: – still believe, like, the Russia hoax, even though you’ve done a lot to combat that. The – you know, the – the Steele dossier was an incre- – a massive scam that was concocted by Hillary Clinton and her – her campaign. Sean Hannity: She bought and paid it – for it – Elon Musk: Right. Sean Hannity: – Russian disinformation. Elon Musk: There was – it was – the – people still think the – the Russia hoax is real. Like a lot of people s- – because they never – they never heard the counterpoint. I mean – I mean, a bunch of people should be in prison for that. That was a – that was outrageous election interference, creating a fake Russia hoax. Sean Hannity: How much – if you had to put a number on it, how much do you think you’ve identified waste, fraud, abuse, corruption at this point? And again, we’ve been – we’re going to be scrolling this throughout the program. Elon Musk: Well, the – the overall goal is to try to get a trillion dollars out of the deficit. And if we – if we – if the deficit is not brought under control, America will go bankrupt. This is a very important thing for people to understand. A country is no different from an individual, in that if an individual overspends, an individual can go bankrupt, and so can a country. Elon Musk: And – and the out- – the massive waste, fraud, and abuse that has been going on, which is leading to a $2-trillion-a-year deficit, that – that’s what the president was handed on Jan. 20th, a $2 trillion deficit. It’s insane. Sean Hannity: For this fiscal year? Donald Trump: Two trill- – yeah. We inherited it. Elon Musk: Two – Donald Trump: Yeah. And inflation is back. I’m only here for two and a half weeks. Sean Hannity: That was January – Donald Trump: Inflating is back – Sean Hannity: – you were there for a week. Donald Trump: No, think of it, inflation is back. And they said, “Oh, Trump infla-” – I had nothing to do with it. These people have – have run the country. They spent money like nobody has ever spent. They were – they were given $9 trillion to throw out the window – $9 trillion, and they spent it on the Green New Scam, I call it. It’s the greatest scam in the history of the country. Donald Trump: One of them. We have a lot of them, I guess. But one of them. Sean Hannity: Well – Donald Trump: Dollar-wise, probably – Sean Hannity: – and DEI – Donald Trump: – it is. Sean Hannity: – and wokeism – Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Sean Hannity: – and transgenderism – Donald Trump: Well, that’s all part of it. Yeah. Sean Hannity: – and LGBTQ+. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: And, by the way, not in America – other countries, not here. Donald Trump: You know, the amazing thing is when you see, like, the teaching of DEI: $9 million. How do you spend $9 million to teach no matter what it is? Elon Musk: Right. Donald Trump: You could teach physics. Elon Musk: Exactly. Totally. Donald Trump: You could go to MIT for a lot less. Elon Musk: It’s [Inaudible] expensive. [Laughs] Expensive. Donald Trump: Yeah, the teaching – Elon Musk: Expensive BS. Donald Trump: – of DEI. Sean Hannity: Well, I think it would be better spent on – Donald Trump: No, it’s a kickback. It’s got to be a kickback. Nobody is that – nobody could do that. Nobody is – Sean Hannity: Well, it – Donald Trump: Nobody is giving – to assess the dialog of an audience coming out of a theater: $4 million. Sean Hannity: How much do you believe, Elon, you’ve identified in – in waste, fraud, abuse, corruption now? And how much – Elon Musk: Well – Sean Hannity: – do you anticipate you will? Elon Musk: Sure. Well, the – I – I think – Donald Trump: One percent. Elon Musk: [Laughs] Donald Trump: No, because it’s so massive. It’s – this is – Elon Musk: Yeah, exactly. Donald Trump: – huge money. Huge money. Look – Sean Hannity: So, what we’ve found now is one percent? Elon Musk: Well, we’ve j- – we’ve just gotten started here. Donald Trump: As good as they are, they’re not going to find some contract that was crooked – you know, crooked as hell. And, I mean, there’s going to be so much that isn’t found. But what is found – I think he’s going to find a trillion dollars. Elon Musk: Yeah, I think so. Donald Trump: But I think it’s a very small percentage compared to what it is. I mean, he could tell you about treasuries; he could tell you about a woman that worked for Biden that became a very wealthy woman while she was working for him. Right? Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: Yeah, I know who you’re talking about. Elon Musk: I mean, there are some strange situations where people – where, you know, someone’s working for the government earning $200,000 a year, and then, suddenly, they’re worth tens of millions of dollars within a few years. Where’d the money come? Sean Hannity: How’d they earn it? Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: They have a private company on the side? Elon Musk: We’re just curious. Like, can you – Donald Trump: While they were working. Elon Musk: Can you show us – because, like, in order to be worth tens of millions of dollars, you’d have to start a company, or you’ve got to get some kind – the compensation has got to come from somewhere. So, how does a civil servant with – earning $200,000 a year suddenly, within a span of a few years, be worth tens of millions dollars? Sean Hannity: W- – Elon Musk: So, I just want to connect the dots here. Sean Hannity: All right, s- – Elon Musk: Maybe there’s a legitimate explanation, but I don’t think so. [Laughter] Sean Hannity: So, you know, and this gets to kind of the heart of where I am. I – I looked at your work, and I look at this amount of money, and I get angry. And I don’t get v- – I’m not an angry person. Elon Musk: Sure. Sean Hannity: I don’t get angry. I get a- – I get annoyed sometimes, but I don’t get angry. And I did live paycheck to bay- – paycheck a part of my life. And I think of, you know, the working men and women in this country that the – 56 percent of which cannot afford a $1,000 emergency after four years of Harris and Biden. Elon Musk: Sure. Sean Hannity: Okay? That is serious, you know, financial trouble. Or they’re putting bare necessities on credit cards. And I’m looking at this and I’m thinking, well, how much – when we – when all is said and done, we could have written a check or cut the taxes or fixed our schools – Elon Musk: Yes. Yes. Sean Hannity: – or deported these illegals that we keep finding, known terrorists, cartel members, gang members. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: And – and we’re not doing it. Donald Trump: Sean, the saddest thing is they don’t talk about the individual lines. I could go on your show right now, I could get a list that I have on the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, and it’s got 40 points, and all they are is the heading of what this money is. You don’t have to go deep into it, and you see it’s, you know, all different things and it’s so ridiculous. Donald Trump: I mean, normally, when you look for fraud, you’re looking for one thing out of a hundred. Here, out of a hundred, 95 are going to be bad. I mean, they’re – and they’re so obvious just by the heading. But they never mention that. They only mention, “This is a violation of our Constitution. This is a” – the word they give, you know, it’s like a sound bite – “constitutional crisis.” It’s a new thing, “constitution-” – But they never mention about where the money is going. Elon Musk: Yes. Exactly. Donald Trump: And when people hear that – I had a very smart man, John Kennedy – he’s actually a very smart man. He said, “Sir, you should just go on television and just read the name of the topic that you’re giving all the money – just the topic that you’re giving this money to, and don’t say anything more,” and he’s right. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: And I’ll do it at some point, you know, when – But they never talk about where the money is going. They just talk about, “It’s a constitutional crisis.” It’s so sad. And honestly, I think they’re bad people. I used to give them the benefit of the doubt, but you almost think they hate the country. I think they hate the country. Donald Trump: They’re sick people. Sean Hannity: Remember, what they can’t – what they couldn’t accomplish at the ballot box, what they can’t accomplish legislatively, now they’re using the courts. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: And they c- – they’re trying to bury you in lawsuits. Donald Trump: That’s right. You know the good news, though? They’ve lost their confidence. They’re not the same people. Sean Hannity: I think you’re right. Donald Trump: They’re – they’re not the same people. This election was brutal for them. We won every swing state. We won by millions and millions of votes. We won everything. We – all 50 states went up – all 50. It’s never happened. Sean Hannity: Popular vote. Donald Trump: Every one. All 50 states went up. They’ve lost their confidence. I see it. And they’re – they’re just swirling and twirling. They don’t know what the hell is happening. They’re much different. They’re just as mean, but they’re not getting to the point. Sean Hannity: Why do you invite them into the Oval Office nearly every day? Elon Musk: [Laughs] Donald Trump: Well, the media – you’re talking about the media. Sean Hannity: Yeah, your friends in the media. Donald Trump: The media – no, they’re – you know, the anger that – they ask questions so angry – a question – a normal question. I give them an answer. They – but they – I say, “Why are you so angry when you ask a question?” Just a standard question. And, I don’t know, there’s something – Sean Hannity: They haven’t had a- – they haven’t been allowed in that office for the last four years, and here you’re giving them access. Let me go to an area that I think is key, and – and you talked about this in recent interviews, and that is: We don’t need a Department of Education. Okay. And what some people are trying to do is stoke fears that, “Oh, my gosh, my kid is not going to get the money for education.” Donald Trump: [Laughs] Yeah. Sean Hannity: Or “grandma’s Social Security and Medicare.” This was a big promise of yours on the campaign trail. Donald Trump: Yeah. Yeah. Sean Hannity: So, I really want to give you both an opportunity to assure the American people you will keep – that money will be allocated for students, but with higher standards. For example, I would assume associated with monies given or vouchers. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] so much and – and then Elon goes. But, look, Social Security won’t be touched – Sean Hannity: Won’t be touched. Donald Trump: – other than if there’s fraud or something – we’re going to find it; it’s going to be strengthened – but won’t be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched. It’s just – Sean Hannity: Nothing. I want you to – Donald Trump: [Inaudible] don’t have to. Now, if there are illegal migrants in the system, we’re going to get them out of the system, and all of that fraud. But it’s not going to be touched. School – I want to bring school back to the states, so that Iowa, Indiana – all these places – Idaho, New Hampshire – there’s so many places, the states. Donald Trump: I figure 35 really run well. And right now, it’s Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, China – China, can you imagine? – has top – top schools. We’re last. So, they have a list of 40 countries. We’re number 40. Usually we’re 38, 39, but last time, we were number 40. And what I say is you’ve got to give it back. Donald Trump: So, it doesn’t work. I’ll tell you what we’re number one in: cost per pupil. We spend more money than any other country by far – it’s not even close – per pupil. Okay? So, we know it doesn’t work. So, we spend the most and we have the worst – right? – the worst result. When we give that – when we give that back to Indiana, when we give that b- – back to Iowa and back to a lot of the states that run well – they run well, a lot of them – 35, 37, 38 – now, you’re going to have 10 laggards, but you’re going to have 5 real laggards, but that’s going to be okay. Donald Trump: Take New York – you give it to Westchester County, you give it to Suffolk County, you give it to Upstate New York, and you give it to Manhattan – but you give it to four or five subsections. Same thing in California. Los Angeles is going to be a problem, but you’re going to give it to places that run well. Donald Trump: We can change education Now, school choice is important, but that will get care – taken care of automatically. We want to bring education back to the states. You will spend half the number. And I’m not even doing this – Sean Hannity: So, you’re leaning more towards grants not vouchers, like to parents? Donald Trump: I’m not even – I’m not even doing this to save, but you will save. It will cost you much less money. You get a much better education. If you go to some of these states, you’ll be the equivalent of Norway, Sweden, Denmark – places that really have a good school system. You’ll have – those places will be the equivalent, and your overall numbers will get so much better. Sean Hannity: Do you want standards associated with the money? Donald Trump: The only thing I want to do from – from Washington, D.C., is make sure they’re teaching English, reading, writing – Sean Hannity: Math and science. Donald Trump: – and arithmetic. Okay? Sean Hannity: Science? Science might help. Donald Trump: Okay. A little science. You know – Sean Hannity: Computers. Donald Trump: – you’re not going to have much of a problem with that, but that’s it. Do you know, we have half the buildings – I mean, you look at Department of Education – Elon Musk: It’s empty. Donald Trump: Look at the real estate and the – Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: – the level. For what? To – to – I mean, for – what do they do? We have really bad educa- – the teachers – I love teachers. I respect teachers. And, by the way, there’s no reason why teachers can’t form a union. They can do whatever they want to do, if it’s back in the states. So, we’re not looking to hurt the teacher – I’m – I’m going to help the teachers. Donald Trump: I think the teachers should be incentivized, because a good teacher is like a good scientist, is like a great doctor. Elon Musk: Sure. Donald Trump: It’s a valuable commodity. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: I think they should be incentivized. Elon Musk: Yes. Donald Trump: So, I’m totally for the teachers. Elon Musk: Absolutely. Sean Hannity: I interview a guy a lot on radio. He’s from Wichita, Kansas. And he started – Donald Trump: Right. Sean Hannity: – as a medical doctor. Started Atlas.MD, and he’s now – he’s rolled it out nationwide. Concierge care, $50 a month, 24-hour access to a doctor. Donald Trump: Right. Sean Hannity: You know, they use a lot of telemedicine now as part of it – very innovative. He negotiates directly with pharmaceutical companies. People – if they have high blood pressure, they walk out with their medicine. They have high cholesterol, they walk out with their medicine. And they pay pennies on the dollar. Sean Hannity: You mentioned – Donald Trump: By the way, forms of that could be done. Sean Hannity: Forms of that? Donald Trump: Forms of that could be done. Sean Hannity: Innovation. Donald Trump: We got hurt when we didn’t get the vote on Obamacare. I made Obamacare – I had a choice: I could let it rot and win a point, or I could do the best you could do with it. And that’s what I did. We did a great job with it, and we made it sort of work, but it’s lousy. We could do so much better. And when you say – you go to certain areas, they – they have doctors round the clock. Donald Trump: They have great medical care for a fraction of what we’re paying right now. There are things we could do. But, look, just overall, this man has been so valuable. I hate to see the way they go after him. They go after him. It’s so unfair. He doesn’t need this. He wants to do this. First of all, this is bigger than anything he’s ever done. Donald Trump: He’s done great companies and all, but this is much – you know, this is trillion – everything’s trillions, right? Elon Musk: Yeah. The numbers are crazy. Sean Hannity: To go back to my original point – Donald Trump: He can save – Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: But let me – give him his $10 million back. Elon Musk: Well – well – I – no. So, people ask me, like, “What’s – what’s the – what’s the – what’s, like, the – what’s your biggest surprise in – in D.C.?” And I’m like, “The sheer scale.” Sean Hannity: It’s massive. So, you love the challenge? Elon Musk: Well, I mean, to – Donald Trump: He’ll never do anything bigger. Elon Musk: To the president’s point – Donald Trump: That’s the only thing you can say, “He’ll never do anything” – Elon Musk: But, I mean, you do something slightly better, and you save billions of dollars for the American taxpayer – just slightly better. Slightly. [Laughs] Sean Hannity: When you say “tech support” – Elon Musk: You go one percent better, and it’s, like, you know, tens of billions of dollars saved to the American taxpayer. Now, if I may address the point that you – the question you asked earlier, which is, you know, how do we assure people that – Sean Hannity: They want to know. Elon Musk: Yeah, how do we assure people that we’re going to do the right thing, that their – that their Social Security benefits will be there, that their – the medical care will be good and s- – and – in fact, how do we make it – ensure that there’s better medical care in the future? How do we improve their benefits? Elon Musk: How do we make sure that their Social Security check goes further than it did in the past and not – it doesn’t get weakened by inflation? So, the – if we – if we address the – the massive deficit spending, the sort of – the – the waste in the government, then – then we can actually address inflation. Elon Musk: So, provided the economy grows faster than the money supply, which means you stop the government overspending and the waste, and the output of real useful goods and services exceeds the increase in the money supply, you have no inflation. Sean Hannity: Yeah. Elon Musk: And – and you also drop the – the interest payments that people pay, because if the government keeps – Sean Hannity: Way too high. Elon Musk: Yes. The – the reason the interest payments are so high is because the – the national debt keeps increasing. So, the – the government is competing for – to sell debt with – for – with – with the private citizens. This drives up the interest rate. So, if you have a – if you have a – if you cut back on the deficit, you actually have an amazing situation for people, because you get r- – you get rid of inflation and you drop the interest rates. Elon Musk: And that means people’s mortgage payments go down, their credit card payments go down, their car payments go down, their student loans go down. Everything – their – their life becomes more affordable and they’re standard of living improves. Sean Hannity: How quickly? Because I think people are suffering now. We’re still living under the Biden-Harris economy. Donald Trump: But, Sean, you have states right now – Sean Hannity: Yeah. Donald Trump: You have some states that operate that way. They operate as well as any corporation. They really operate well. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: Florida. Donald Trump: They have surpluses. They ha- – they don’t – Elon Musk: Texas is – has a surplus, for example. Sean Hannity: Yeah. Donald Trump: When they – when they look at New York and – and California and some of these places that should have an advantage – I mean, there’s a big advantage – or Pritzker does such a bad job in Illinois; it’s horrible how bad he is – and they don’t have that advantage. You know, New York has stock exchange and a lot of things. Donald Trump: And California has the weather and the beautiful water and all the thing- – Elon Musk: California has – has great weather. The most expensive weather on Earth. Donald Trump: Yeah. [Laughter] But – but – Sean Hannity: I like Florida. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: But some states operate the way he’s talking about. Sean Hannity: Efficiently. Donald Trump: When you go into some of these states, you’re going to find very little. You’re going to find almost nothing. They really operate well – big surpluses, low taxes. And – Sean Hannity: You know, my taxes went up the first time you were president, because you took away the SALT deduction – Donald Trump: I – well, I did. Sean Hannity: – which, by the way, I thought was the right decision. Donald Trump: It was the right decision – in fact, Reagan tried to do it – because it rewards badly run states. But at the same time, it’s a tough – it was – it’s tough for the states. I mean, it really is tough for the states. The sad part is it rewards really badly run states. Sean Hannity: Yeah. Donald Trump: And Reagan tried to do it. He was unable to do it. I got it done. Sean Hannity: You got it done, and – Donald Trump: And now we’re going to give some back. Sean Hannity: A little bit. Donald Trump: Because you know what? We’ve got to help them. Sean Hannity: It’s only a little. Donald Trump: We’ve got to help. Sean Hannity: Because otherwi- – we’re encouraging people to elect high taxes, spen- – Donald Trump: Nobody had any idea it would be that devastating. I did the right thing. I got something that Reagan couldn’t do. I got it done, where everybody is – are the same. But you know what? We’ve got to help them out. Sean Hannity: Reagan had the Grace Commission, some of the best business minds in the country. Donald Trump: Right. Sean Hannity: And they came up with recommendations. Congress adopted none of them, and none of them were implemented. I’ve got to ask this question, because the media is obsessed about it: What – what if there is a conflict? In other words, because you do business – it was funny, when it came out the other day, that there was going to be, I think, $400 million – billio- – I don’t know if it was millions or billions – a lot of money on Teslas that Joe Biden’s administration w- – did with Tesla, and – Elon Musk: I’m not familiar with that. Sean Hannity: You’re not even familiar with it? But – Elon Musk: I – I don’t think – are you talking about, like, the Inflation Reduction Act stuff or – Sean Hannity: It was some – it was a purchase order of Tesla vehicles. Elon Musk: Oh. Oh, that was – that was incorrect. There was s- – like, there’s some sort of – the media claim that there was, like, $400 million worth of Cybertrucks – Sean Hannity: That was it. Elon Musk: – being bought by the DOD. Sean Hannity: And that he gave it to you. Elon Musk: No – well, first of all, that was – Donald Trump: No, actually, it was – Elon Musk: Th- – it was fa- – Donald Trump: It was Biden. Sean Hannity: It was Biden. Donald Trump: And you know Biden wouldn’t give him much. Elon Musk: But – but it wasn’t even – it was fake news, six weeks to Sunday. Tesla is not getting $400 million for Cybertrucks. And the – and the – and this alleged – Sean Hannity: That’s what it was, Cybertrucks. Elon Musk: This – yeah. This alleged award occurred in December, before the president took office. So, it’s – it’s fake on multiple levels. There i- – Tesla isn’t getting $400 million. And even if it – even if it was, which it isn’t, it was awarded during the Biden administration. Sean Hannity: Okay, but you’re – you – you – Elon Musk: It’s total fake news. Sean Hannity: There – there is – Elon Musk: It’s fake on, like – it’s like multiple leverals – Sean Hannity: There is some integration – Elon Musk: – multiple layers of fake. Sean Hannity: So, you’re – you’re tasked now – and I pray to God this is successful. I really do. I wish you Godspeed. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: You know, “Godspeed, John Glenn.” Donald Trump: It’s – it’s going to be, by the way. I really believe it’s going to be. Sean Hannity: But – but there – Elon Musk: Oh, yeah. Sean Hannity: But there are legitimate areas – Donald Trump: Because the country is going to do well beside this. This is cutting. We’re only talking about cutting. We’re also going to make a lot of money. We’re g- – we’re taking in so much money. Sean Hannity: But what about his business? What if – if there is – Donald Trump: Then we won’t let him do it. Sean Hannity: – a contract he would otherwise get? Donald Trump: We’re not going to let him do it. He – if – Sean Hannity: You’re not going to let him do it? Donald Trump: If he’s got a conflict – I mean, look – he – Sean Hannity: Y- – now y- – Donald Trump: He’s in certain areas – I mean, I see this morning – I didn’t – I didn’t know, but I said, “Do the right thing” – where they’re cutting way back on the electric vehicle subsidies. Elon Musk: Yes. Donald Trump: They’re cutting back. Sean Hannity: You’re losing – Donald Trump: Not only cutting back – Sean Hannity: It hurts you. Elon Musk: Correct. Donald Trump: Yeah. Now, I will tell you – Sean Hannity: You don’t care? Elon Musk: Well – Donald Trump: He’s probably not that happy with it, but that would have been one thing he would have come to me and said, “Listen, you got to do me a favor. This is crazy.” [Laughter] But this was in the tax bill. They’re cutting back on the subsidies. I didn’t – I wasn’t involved in it. I said, “Do what’s right, and you get” – and they’re coming up with the tax, but it’s just preliminary. Donald Trump: But I mean, if he were involved, wouldn’t you think he’d probably do that? Now, maybe he does better if you cut back on the subsidies. Who knows. Because he figures – he does think differently. He thinks he has a better product, and as long as he has a level playing field, he doesn’t care what you do – Elon Musk: Exactly. Donald Trump: – which he’s very – he’s told me that. Elon Musk: Yeah. I mean, I haven’t asked the president for anything ever. Donald Trump: It’s true. Sean Hannity: And if it comes up, how – how will you handle it? [Inaudible] Donald Trump: He won’t be involved. Elon Musk: Yeah, I’ll – I’ll re- – I’ll recuse myself if it is a conflict. Donald Trump: If there’s a conflict, he won’t be involved. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: I mean, I wouldn’t want that, and he won’t want it. Elon Musk: Right. And – and also, I’m getting a – sort of a daily proctology exam here. You know, it’s not like I’ll be getting away from something in the dead of night. Sean Hannity: Welcome to D.C. If you want a friend, get a dog. Elon Musk: Well, I do have a dog, but I also have friends. [Laughter] My dog loves me, poor little creature. Donald Trump: You know the truth was – Elon Musk: I need to bring him to D.C. Donald Trump: He’s – I know every businessman. I know the – the good ones, the bad ones, the smart ones, the lucky ones. I know them all. This guy is a ver- – he’s a brilliant guy. He’s a great guy. He’s got tremendous imagination and scientific imagin- – far beyond – you know, you keep talking about a technologist and all, but you’re much more than a technologist. Donald Trump: You are that. But he’s also a good person. He’s a very good person, and he wants to see the country do well. And I know a lot of great businesspeople, really great business people, but, you know, they’re not really, in some cases, very good people. And I know people that would try and take advantage of the situation. Donald Trump: This guy is somebody that really cares for the country, and I saw that very early on. I saw it, really, a long time ago when I got to know him. He’s a very different kind of a character. That’s why – you know who loves him: young people that are very smart and that love the country. He’s got, like, a tremendous following, because that’s what he’s – he’s a good person. Donald Trump: And he doesn’t need this. He didn’t need this, and he’s doing this to help the country. If I didn’t win this election, this country was – I don’t think it could have made it. I don’t – I mean, we’re allowing criminals – millions of criminals into our country, where everything is transgender, it’s men playing in women’s sports. Donald Trump: I mean, none of this stuff – you could go – I could give you a hundred things. It’s almost like they’re trying to destroy the fabric of – of the country, of the world, because the world was following us. Now the world is following us out of this pit. We’ve done a lot. I’ll tell you what, in three weeks, we’ve done more – I think we’ve done more – in – in terms of meaningful, not just dollars – than maybe any president ever. Donald Trump: And a lot of people are saying that. Sean Hannity: Shock – it’s been shock and awe. Donald Trump: I mean, if we can keep it going at this level, this country is going to be at a level that it’s never seen before. Sean Hannity: You know one of the things you did that I really thought was pretty clever and smart and fair, and that was reciprocal tariffs. Donald Trump: Yeah, reciprocal. Sean Hannity: Ta- – I didn’t know India charged so much. I didn’t know the European Union to charge them. Elon Musk: Yeah, totally. Sean Hannity: I didn’t know Canada was charging us. Donald Trump: Everybody. Everybody. Everybody but us. Sean Hannity: Brazil, why? Donald Trump: And I was doing it – you know, I charged China tariffs. I took in hundreds of billions of dollars, and I was doing that. But when we got – we had the greatest economy in history. But then we got hit with COVID, and we had to solve that problem, because I was doing it – and now I said, I want to come back and do the recipri- – because every country in the world almost – we have a deficit with almost every country – not every one, but just about, pretty close. Donald Trump: And – but every country in the world takes advantage of us, and they do it with tariffs. They makes – make it – it’s impossible for him to sell a car, practically, in, as an example, India. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I think – Elon Musk: The tariffs are like 100 percent import duty. Donald Trump: The tariffs are so high – Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: – they don’t want to – now, if he built the factory in India, that’s okay, but that’s unfair to us. It’s very unfair. And I said, “You know what we do?” I told Prime Minister Modi yesterday – he was here. I said, “Here’s what you do. We’re going to do – be very fair with you.” They charge the highest tariffs in the world, just about. Sean Hannity: 36 percent? Donald Trump: Oh, much – much higher. Elon Musk: It’s 100 percent on – auto imports are 100 percent. Donald Trump: Yeah, that’s peanuts. So, much higher. And – and others too. I said, “Here’s what we’re going to do: reciprocal. Whatever you charge, I’m charging.” He goes, “No, no, I don’t like that.” “No, no, whatever you charge, I’m going to charge.” I’m doing that with every country. Elon Musk: It seems fair. Sean Hannity: Don’t you – Donald Trump: [Laughs] It does. Elon Musk: It’s – it’s like fair is fair. Donald Trump: Nobody can argue with me. You know, the media can’t argue – I said – they said, “Tariffs – you’re going to charge tariffs?” You know, if I said, like, 25 percent they’d say, “Oh, that’s terrible.” I don’t say that anymore – Sean Hannity: Can I – [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: – because I say, “Whatever they charge, we’ll charge.” And you know what? Sean Hannity: They stop. Donald Trump: They – then they say, “Oh, that sounds fair.” Elon Musk: All the president is saying is that – Sean Hannity: [Inaudible] Elon Musk: – it needs to be at a level playing field and – and fair and square. Sean Hannity: Yeah. And how does – how – Donald Trump: And we’re going to make a lot of money and a lot of businesses are going to come pouring in. Elon Musk: How can you argue with a fair and square situation? Sean Hannity: Don’t – don’t you think most of them will look at the – the – for example, without America, China’s economy will tank. They need our business. Donald Trump: They do. Everybody needs us. Sean Hannity: Everybody needs it. Donald Trump: And you know what? Sean Hannity: Do- – don’t you think they’ll stop? Donald Trump: We only have so long left where we’re in this position. We’re the bank, and the bank is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. We – we’re the bank. We got to do this now. We can’t wait another 10 years and have a shell of a country left, because that’s what was going to happen. Sean Hannity: Mr. President – Donald Trump: This country – if I didn’t win this election and have people like this man right here that really do care, because that’s the other word – if you don’t care, you could be the smartest guy in the world, it’s not going to matter. But if we didn’t win this election, I’m telling you, we would not have had a country for very long. Sean Hannity: How quickly – Elon Musk: May I say – Sean Hannity: – do you balance the budget and – and when do we start paying down that debt? Donald Trump: Well, potentially, very quickly, between what he’s doing and with income coming in from tariffs and other things. I mean, I hope we can – I don’t want to give a date, because then these people are going to say, “Oh, well, he didn’t make the date.” But I think we can do it very quickly. We would have never done it if this didn’t happen. Donald Trump: Never. It would have never been – it would only get worse and worse, and ultimately, it would have exploded. This country was headed down a very bad track. And the whole DEI thing, that was – that was a trap. That was a sick trap. Sean Hannity: [Inaudible] Elon Musk: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: And, you know, we’ve destroyed that. That’s gone. That’s pretty much gone. Sean Hannity: I agree. Elon Musk: [Inaudible] – Sean Hannity: We’re not – we’re not funding it. Elon Musk: If – I really want to – I really want to emphasize to people that – this is a very important point – if we don’t solve the deficit, there won’t be money for medical care. There won’t be money – Donald Trump: Right. Elon Musk: – for Social Security. We either solve the deficit or all we’ll be doing is paying debt. Sean Hannity: Nobody – Elon Musk: It’s – it’s got to be solved, or there’s no medical care, there’s no Social Security, there’s no nothing. That’s got to be solved. It’s not optional. America will go bankrupt if this is not done. That’s why I’m here. Sean Hannity: The president’s – Donald Trump: Europe takes advantage of us. Elon Musk: And – and I’d like to also just send a message – like, because, as the president said, like, this – there’s a lot of rich people out there. They should be caring more about the country because – the reason they should be caring about – more about country is: America falls, what do you think is going to happen to your business? Elon Musk: What do – what do you think – do you think you’re be going to be okay if – if the ship of America sinks? Of course not. Like, what – what I’m doing here, what the president is doing is it’s just long-term thinking. The ship of America must be strong. The ship of America cannot sink. If it sinks, we all sink with it. Donald Trump: Sean, you’re a – Sean Hannity: This is what – this is what drives you? Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: This is important. It says “tech support.” So, you’re not trying to be president, as the media suggests. You are really here because your heart and your passion is this. And the president described you as being – this is the biggest thing you ever done. Now you trying to bring sight to – Donald Trump: There could be nothing bigger. There’s nothing – Sean Hannity: You’re sending ships up to Mars – you know, spaceships up in the sky all the time – Donald Trump: That’s peanuts. Sean Hannity: – and saving astronauts. That’s pretty big. Donald Trump: That’s peanuts compared to what we’re talking about. Sean Hannity: It’s peanuts? Donald Trump: Yeah. Sean Hannity: Do you agree with that? Elon Musk: Well, it’s esse- – it’s essential that America be healthy, that America’s economy be strong. And – and if that – if – basically, like, my concern is like, if – if – America is the central pillar holding up Western civilization. That pillar must be strong. If that pillar falls, the whole roof comes crashing down. Donald Trump: Including his ships. Elon Musk: There’s no place to hide. Donald Trump: Including his ships going up. Elon Musk: There’s no place to run. Donald Trump: Nothing. There’s nothing left. Sean Hannity: Why – why, if this is your goal, your motivation, you’re losing money in the process, you’re offeri- – you do all these nice things for people for free; you’re trying to solve, you know, blindness; you’re going to rescue astronauts; you help the people in North Carolina, California; you’re cutting money that was sent abroad that’s not helping the American people, then why the rage – Elon Musk: Actually, I think it was like – Sean Hannity: But why this rage? Elon Musk: – it was not helping the American people and hurting people overseas, to be clear. Sean Hannity: Why this rage against you now? First, they hated him. Now they hate both of you. Elon Musk: Well, I think we’re seeing an antibody reaction from – from those who are receiving the – the wasteful and fraudulent money. Sean Hannity: They’re being exposed. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: Nobody wants to be exposed when you’re corrupt. Elon Musk: I’ll – I’ll tell you a lesson I learned at PayPal. You know who complained the loudest – the quickest and the loudest and with the most amount of righteous indignation? The fraudsters. That’s who complained first, loudest, and – and they would generally have this immense overreaction. That’s how we knew there were the fraudsters. Elon Musk: That’s how we knew. There’s a tell. Sean Hannity: What di- – I’ve never – I’ve never met you before today. Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: And it’s nice to meet you, by the way. Thank – thank you for doing this. You guys are really friends. I could s- – you guys – I could see you kicking up your shoes. Donald Trump: Well, he doesn’t do this kind of thing. And the way I figured that you’d get to know him is if I did it with him. I said, “Come on, let’s do it together.” He doesn’t do this. I think he’s smarter not doing it, overall. Because, you know, I mean, he’s done very well without doing it. But he doesn’t feel it’s really worthwhile. Donald Trump: He wants the product to speak for itself, or whatever he does speak for itself. But he views it as – you know, does it matter? And I’m doing this with you today because I wanted to have people understand him. And I think it’s very important – I disagree with him. I think it’s very important that they do understand him. Donald Trump: He doesn’t need this. He doesn’t need it. Now, I happen to think it’s made him very popular. I think it – he’s more popular now because there are so many people – you know, you’re talking about the radical left – they have the lowest ratings. MSNBC is dying. CNN is dying. They’re all dying. The New York Times is doing lousy. Donald Trump: The Washington Post is doing horribly. They’re all doing badly because people don’t buy it anymore. But I think it was important that he do this one interview. You’ve been a very fair guy. I think you were the right guy to do it. If we could get some radical left guy – and he’d do just as well, frankly, because it’s all about common sense. Sean Hannity: They would attack him – Donald Trump: But this – Sean – Sean Hannity: – as being unconstitutional, not – a fascist. Donald Trump: – to me this was a – it was important for people to understand, he’s doing a big job. He’s doing a very thankless job. He’s doing a thankless job, but he’s helping us to save our country. Our country was in serious trouble, and I had to get the best guy, somebody with credibility, because if he were just a regular, good – very good, solid businessman, he wouldn’t have the credibility. Donald Trump: He’s got the best credibility for this. And people also know he’s an honest guy. He’s an honest guy. He’s just a very, very smart guy who’s done amazing things. And this will be the biggest thing he’s ever done, because, you know, his companies are all great. But if this country goes bad – I guess where he is a little selfish is this. Donald Trump: He knows one thing and probably doesn’t think – but if his – if this country goes bad, his stuff is not going to be worth very much, I can tell you. Elon Musk: Well, I’d say, if the – if the ship of America sinks, we’re all go- – going down with it. You know, this idea that people can escape to New Zealand or some other place is false. If the central pillar of Western civilization that is America falls, the whole roof comes crashing down and there is no escape. Sean Hannity: It’s amazing, since you’ve been elected, to watch Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia – I – I was shocked at the statements that Vladimir Putin made about you. I – I was shocked at the hostage release. I was shocked that Venezuela had done it – had done it. Zelenskyy wants a deal. Putin wants a deal. Donald Trump: All good statements. Sean Hannity: King Abdullah was interested. Donald Trump: You mean by that all good statements. Look, they respect the president of this country. They respect – they did not respect the last president. They laughed at him, and they laughed at our country, and he’s done great damage to our country. Sean Hannity: Have foreign leaders told you what they thought of Biden? Donald Trump: Yeah, they have, but I’d rather not say. They – they have. It’s not – it – look – Sean Hannity: It’s the obvious. Donald Trump: He was not George Washington, let’s put it that way. Elon Musk: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Not the greatest. Sean Hannity: Sorry, if that’s [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: He’s done a tremendous disservice. Sean Hannity: Will you be here – Donald Trump: And, by the way, the Democrats have done a great disservice, and they ought to get their act together and use a little judgment, and they ought to work with us on straightening out this mess that – Sean Hannity: Who? John Fetterman? Donald Trump: – a lot of people have – Sean Hannity: Maybe? Who – what Democrat is not radicalized? Donald Trump: Actually, you mention John. Sean Hannity: John Fetterman. Donald Trump: He’s become the best voice in the Democrat party. You know, I had lunch with him, and I thought he was terrific, but he’s a much different man than he was before he had this difficulty. He used to be radical left, and I think he became much smarter, actually. He’s really – he’s really a voice of reason. Donald Trump: But the Democrats have to get together. They have to get their act together, because the stuff they – they talk about makes no sense. It makes – none whatsoever. And they must know it. They must know. Elon Musk: Yeah. I mean, like, the country has spoken very clearly and rejected the core tenets of the Demo- – Democratic Party. The country voted t- – fo- – I mean, the country made the – America has made its vote clear. The president won the popular vote decisively. The Republicans won the House. Repub- – Republicans won the Senate. Elon Musk: What more do you need? The Democratic Party needs to take a hard look in the mirror and – and change their ways. Sean Hannity: I think they went from shock, denial, into the depression stage of grief, and now they’re in the rage stage, where I anticipate they’ll stay for four years, and if they get the chance, they’ll want to impeach him 10 times. Do you anticipate you’ll be here in four years? My last question. Elon Musk: I’ll – I’ll be as helpful as long as I can be helpful. Donald Trump: That’s a good question. I mean, I was thinking about that just now. I said, “I wonder how long he’s going to be doing it.” You can’t get somebody like this. He cares, and he’s brilliant, and he’s got energy. You need energy, also, in addition to those other things. You know, I have a lot of guys that are very smart, but they have no energy. Donald Trump: They want to sleep all day long. You need a lot of energy. He’s got a lot of energy. He’s doing a great job. If there’s any conflict, he – he will stop it. But if he didn’t, I’d stop it. I’d see if there’s a conflict. I mean, we’re talking about big stuff. But he’s under a pretty big microscope. Elon Musk: Yeah, seriously. Donald Trump: I mean, everybody is watching him. If there’s a conflict, you’re going to be reading about it within about two minutes after the conflict. Elon Musk: Exactly. There – there’s – the possibility of me getting away with something is 0 percent – 0.0. I – I’m scrutinized to a ridiculous degree. And – and the other thing is that we – you know, what – what’s – you know what’s better than saying “trust – trust me” is just full transparency. So, what we’re doing with – with the DOGE – DOGE dot – just go to DOGE.gov. Elon Musk: You can see every single action that’s being taken. And now –and I want to be clear, we are going to make some mistakes. We’re not going to be perfect. Nobody bats a thousand. But we’re going to fix the mistakes very quickly. That’s what matters: not that you don’t make mistakes, but that you fix the mistakes very fast. Donald Trump: And you’re going to ask the other side, when they talk about, “This is a constitutional crisis,” you got to a- – what are they paying for? Where are those tax – because when you read off the list of things, it’s a big con job. See, when they talk Constitution – Elon Musk: Totally. Donald Trump: – it’s a total con job. Elon Musk: Yes. Donald Trump: They never talk – and I watch some of the shows – Elon Musk: It’s specifics – they avoid specifics. Donald Trump: Yeah, when you start talking about how did – how come they spent money on transgender here and transgender there – Elon Musk: Yeah, totally. Donald Trump: – and all the stuff in some country that nobody ever heard of, they don’t want to talk about it. They just talk about, “This is a constitutional crisis.” Sean Hannity: It shocks the conscious. Donald Trump: The money is being squandered purposely – tremendous theft, tremendous kickbacks, everything – and we’re straightening it out. And thank goodness. I look up, and I say, “Thank you,” because I think if it went on for four more years, it would not be salvageable. You wouldn’t be able – Elon Musk: Absolutely. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t be able to save it. Sean Hannity: You believe, too, that when you were in Butler, came within a millimeter being assassinated – Donald Trump: Yeah. Sean Hannity: The day you endorsed him, that was that day. Elon Musk: Yes. Sean Hannity: But you had been planning on it? Elon Musk: Yeah. Sean Hannity: Pretty – I think everybody will never forget that iconic blood on your face. “Fight, fight, fight.” I actually was afra- – watching it and thought you might drop again. You know, I didn’t know if it had hit you. You can sometimes get up and then the blood starts to accumulate. It was scary – pretty scary. Elon Musk: Well, I mean, th- – this is how you know someone’s true character, because everyone can say they’re brave, but the president was actually shot. Okay? Courage under fire. “Fight, fight, fight,” blood streaming down the face. That’s true courage. You can’t fake that. Sean Hannity: Yeah. Thank you both. Mr. President, thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Sean Hannity: Appreciate it. Elon, thank you for your time. Really nice to meet you.
Date: 2025-02-18
Donald Trump: I want to thank some of the great people from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. They’re here to take photographs and it’s my honor to do so. Also, the fire department, the great firefighters. So, they’re here throughout the room. And I want to thank you very much for being here. I’ll be with you in a little while. Donald Trump: We’ll do some great photos. We have plenty of time. Policemen, police women and firemen, firewomen, they’re here and we appreciate it very much. You’ve done a fantastic job. I think it’s very important to state that incredible things are happening in our country. I think we’ve made more progress in three weeks than they’ve made in four years, especially with respect to the reputation of our country. Donald Trump: And people are respecting us again as a country and as a powerful country and maybe a smart country, but maybe not so smart. Because when you look at some of the waste fraud and abuse that’s being uncovered by DOGE and the people at DOGE, these are young, often young but super brilliant people, incredible computer scientists and other things and they’re finding levels of fraud and waste and abuse like I think nobody ever thought possible. Donald Trump: But before we do that, I just want to ask Will to come over. I’ve just finished signing some executive orders and if we could start with that. Will, you might want to come up here and just explain what we did. Thank you. Will Scharf: Good afternoon, y’all. A short while ago, President Trump signed three items. The first is an executive order relating to the affordability and availability of In vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments. These are treatments that have become unaffordable for many Americans or have been unaffordable for many Americans. Will Scharf: And the executive order is a directive to the Domestic Policy Council to examine ways to make IVF and other fertility treatments more affordable for more Americans. The second item that we signed was a presidential memorandum imposing radical transparency requirements on government departments and agencies, in keeping with President Trump and the administration’s broader commitment to governmental transparency. Will Scharf: What this presidential memorandum would do is require as waste fraud and abuse is uncovered, as programs are canceled and ultimately, as taxpayer dollars are saved, this presidential memorandum would require departments and agencies to make all of the details of that freely available to the public. Lastly, we have another executive order that President Trump signed relating to independent agencies. Will Scharf: This executive order would establish important oversight functions in the Office of Management and Budget and its subsidiary office, OIRA, supervising independent agencies and many of their actions and also reestablishes the long-standing norm that only the president or the attorney general can speak for the United States when stating an opinion as to what the law is. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Will. That was the primary purpose of this conference, to explain that. They are all very important in their own way. Fertilization, I’ve been saying that we’re going to do what we have to do and I think the women, and families, husbands, are very appreciative of it. But that was it. I do want to say, while I’m up here, I’ve been contacted by some of the biggest companies in the world and, because of what we’re doing economically and through tariffs and taxes and incentives, and they want to come back into the United States. Donald Trump: And we’ll be announcing various very large companies, the biggest actually, and they’ll be coming back – having to do with chips and having to do also with cars and lots of other things. We’re going to be announcing some very, very big – very big momentous, I think momentous decisions are being made by companies all around the world, the biggest, and they want to come back into the US. Car plants are being canceled in other locations now because they want to build them here. Donald Trump: And you read about a couple, not that I want to mention names or anything, but you read about a couple of big ones in Mexico just got canceled because they’re going to be to be building them in the United States. And that’s very simply because of what we’re doing with respect to taxes, tariffs and incentives. Donald Trump: And I think it’s a very important thing and you’ll be seeing this over the next – probably over the next two years to be honest. But you’re going to see a lot of it over the next couple of weeks, a lot of big ones are going to be announcing. And so, while we’re here, I guess we can take a couple of quick questions. Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Please. Question: Mr. President, have you decided specifically what the auto tariff rate should be? Donald Trump: Yeah, I probably will tell you that on April 2nd, but it will be in the neighborhood of 25 percent. Question: What about semiconductors and pharmaceuticals? Donald Trump: It will be 25 percent and higher, and it will go very substantially higher over the course of a year. But we want to give them time to come in because, as you know, when they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff. So, we want to give them a little bit of a chance. Donald Trump: Yes, thank you. Question: Following up on that, the EU – I’m sorry, Andrea Shalal. An EU representative is going to be here in Washington next week. I’m sorry, tomorrow, he’s going to be meeting with Hassett and Greer and Lutnick. What can the EU do to sort of avoid the reciprocal tariffs that you’ve talked about? And you’ve talked a lot about the VAT. Do you expect them to reduce that? Donald Trump: Well, they did already, as I understand it, reduced their car tariff all the way down to what we have, and a lot of that will take place and I think some won’t do it and some will do it. But the EU had a 10 percent tax on cars and now they have a 2.5 percent tax, which is the exact same as us. So, already we’ve saved a tremendous amount. Donald Trump: That would be great – if everybody would do that, then we’d all be on the same playing field. Because essentially what we’re doing with the tariffs is, they charge us, we charge them the same amount and it’s called reciprocal actually. And whatever they charge us, we’re charging them. And so, the EU is – you know, I appreciate that they did this. Donald Trump: But you know, the EU has been very unfair to us. We have a deficit of $350 billion. They don’t take our cars; they don’t take our farm products. They don’t take almost anything. They take very little and we’re going to have to straighten that out. And we will – I have no doubt about it. Yeah, go ahead, please. Donald Trump: Thank you, Mr. President. Could you tell us a little bit more about the Russia talks, your impression of how they went today? And if you’re perhaps more confident or less confident of a deal after what happened today? Well, much more confident. They were very good. Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism. Donald Trump: I mean, what’s going on over there, it’s soldiers are being killed by the thousands on a weekly basis. It’s ridiculous. And they’re not American soldiers, they’re Russian soldiers and they’re Ukrainian soldiers largely, although a lot of Koreans have been killed as you know. Quite a bit of them have been killed. Donald Trump: They came over to fight and a large portion have been wiped out. But we want to end it. It’s a senseless war. It should have never happened, would have never happened if I was president, and it’s a shame to see it. And I see pictures that you don’t see. But I see pictures of fields that look just horrible. Donald Trump: It looks like Gettysburg, if you see the old pictures of Gettysburg, it’s soldiers lying all over the field, body parts all over the field, they’re all dead. And this is going on on a daily basis. It’s a horrible thing. Both Russia and Ukraine, they’re losing thousands and thousands of soldiers. And a lot of people have been killed too. Donald Trump: I think that’s one of the things that you’ll see historically, and you’ll see later on as it goes along. I think people are going to be surprised at how many people, not only soldiers, have been killed in Ukraine, a lot more people than you think. Yes, please. Question: President Trump, as part of a peace deal with Putin, would you be willing to consider removing all American troops from Europe? Donald Trump: Well, nobody’s asked me to do that. So, I don’t think we’d have to do that. I wouldn’t want to do that. But that question has never really come up. Yeah, please. Question: Sir, do you support stationing European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine as part of this peace deal? Donald Trump: If they want to do that, that’s great. I’m all for it. If they want to do that, I think that’d be fine. I mean, I know France has mentioned it, others have mentioned it. UK has mentioned it. But yeah – well, if we have a peace deal, I think having troops over there from the standpoint of Europe. We won’t have to put any over there because we’re very far away. Donald Trump: But having troops over there would be fine, I would not object to it at all. We’re talking about this now peace, we have either a ceasefire or peace itself, and we’re looking to do both, would start off with the ceasefire and if they want to do that. I know France was willing to do that and I thought that was a beautiful gesture. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Do you have any message for Ukrainians who, after three years of fighting, might feel betrayed or disappointed at not having a seat at these initial talks in Saudi Arabia? Donald Trump: Well, I think I’m really disappointed in what’s happened. I’ve been watching this for three years. It’s a war that would have never happened if I was president. And I’ve been watching these people being killed at levels that you’ve rarely seen, not even close, since the Second World War. And I’m very disappointed. Donald Trump: I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat. Well, they’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that. This could have been settled very easily, just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without – I think without the loss of much land, very little land, without the loss of any lives, and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their sides. Donald Trump: You have those magnificent golden domes that are shattered, will never be replaced. You can’t replace them – thousand-year-old domes that are so beautiful, you can’t replace that. A whole civilization has changed because of what? So, when they’re worried about not being seated, you mean somebody that should have gone in and made a deal a long time ago, you could have made a deal. Donald Trump: This is one that could have made a deal. There was no talk of this during the Trump administration. Putin would have never ever done it. And by the way, we wouldn’t have had October 7th. You know that. We wouldn’t have had October 7th, either in Israel, and we wouldn’t have had that mess that’s going on over there. Donald Trump: It’s like we’re – we have great fire people here. We’re putting out fires – all over the world, we’re putting out fires. So, that wouldn’t have happened. And you know what else wouldn’t have happened? Inflation, because it was caused really by the cost of energy going through the roof because of their bad energy policies and also their spending, their terrible spending, wasteful spending on the Green New Scam. Donald Trump: It’s a scam, it’s a whole big scam. Yeah, please. Question: Yes, sir. I want to ask you a little closer to home. What would it take for you to reconsider the restrictions on the Associated Press? And secondly, some of your advisers are concerned with the Associated Press’s style guide, using language and giving guidance to not use words like illegal immigrant or to use phrases like gender affirming care. Question: And they’re concerned about that being a – encroaching amount of liberalism in the way in which the press writes about things. Do you share those concerns? Donald Trump: Well, I do think that some of the phrases that they want to use are ridiculous. And I think, frankly, they’ve become obsolete, especially in the last three weeks, because many things have happened in the last three weeks. And I didn’t know about that, but I would say that if they want to use certain phrases like that – and I guess some are okay, but many aren’t. But the Associated Press just refuses to go with what the law is and what is taking place. Donald Trump: It’s called the Gulf of America now; it’s not called the Gulf of Mexico any longer. I have the right to do it, just like we have the right to do Mount McKinley and nobody’s even challenging that. But only the Associated – essentially, it’s primarily the Associated Press. And I don’t know what they’re doing, but I just say that we’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America. Donald Trump: We’re very proud of this country and we want it to be the Gulf of America. Now the Associated Press, as you know, has been very, very wrong on the election, on Trump and the treatment of Trump, and other things having to do with Trump and republicans and conservatives and they’re doing us no favors. And I guess I’m not doing them any favors; that’s the way life works. Donald Trump: But thank you for the question. Who are you with? Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Very good question. Thank you. Yes. Question: We’re hearing that Russia wants to force Ukraine to hold new elections in order to sign any kind of a peace deal. Is that something that the US would ever support? Donald Trump: Well, we have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine. Well, we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at four percent approval rating and where a country has been blown to smithereens. You got most of the cities are laying on their sides. Donald Trump: The buildings are collapsed. It looks like a massive demolition site, the whole – I mean, so many of the cities. I mean, they haven’t done it in Kyiv because I guess they don’t want to shoot too many rockets in there. They’ve done it 20 percent, but they haven’t done it 100 percent. If they wanted to do it, 100 percent, it would probably happen very quickly. Donald Trump: But you have cities that are absolutely decimated. And yeah, I would say that when they want a seat at the table, you could say the people have to – wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election. That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also. Donald Trump: Ukraine is being just wiped out. Look at what’s happening to the cities. There are cities, there’s not even a building standing. You talk about Gaza. I mean, it’s literally these cities look like Gaza. Actually, many have, percentagewise, more buildings knocked down than in Gaza. So, people are tired of it. People want to see something happen. Donald Trump: And the other thing that it’s been bothering me for a long time because I solved the problem with NATO. They paid hundreds of billions of dollars into the funds of NATO when I said you got to pay, because the United States was paying for European countries. And then they take advantage of us on trade. But I’ve seen it. Look, they have to pay. Donald Trump: They have to find out where is the money going to. I believe President Zelenskyy said last week that he doesn’t know where half of the money is that we gave him. Well, we gave them, I believe $350 billion, but let’s say it’s something less than that. But it’s a lot and we have to equalize with Europe because Europe has given a very much smaller percentage than that. Donald Trump: I think Europe has given $100 billion and we’ve given let’s say $300 plus and it’s more important for them than it is for us. We have an ocean in between and they don’t. But where is all the money that’s been given? Where is it going? And I’ve never seen an accounting of it. We give hundreds of billions of dollars. Donald Trump: I don’t see any accounting. So I want to see peace. Look, you know why I want, because I don’t want all these people killed anymore. I’m looking at people that are being killed and they’re Russian and Ukrainian people, but they’re people. It doesn’t matter where they’re from on the whole planet and I think I have the power to end this war and I think it’s going very well. Donald Trump: But today I heard, oh, well, we weren’t invited. Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land and no people would have been killed and no city would have been demolished and not one dome would have been knocked down, but they chose not to do it that way. Donald Trump: And President Biden in all fairness, he doesn’t have a clue. He was so bad for this. He was so bad, so pathetic, so sad. But with all of that being said, look, it is what it is. When I left, there was no chance that this could have happened, but it happened because we had incompetent leadership at many different levels. Donald Trump: But when you see what’s taking place in Ukraine with millions of people killed, including the soldiers, millions of people killed, a big percentage of their cities knocked down to the ground. I don’t know how anybody even lives there. When they say they took a poll and Zelenskyy is at 4 percent, who’s living there? Donald Trump: I mean, it’s hard to believe that people live there. Their cities are being knocked down and this is something that would have never happened. And by the way, for four years it didn’t happen. It was never going to happen. Go ahead. Question: I have one follow-up question. How would you counter the perception, because Russia is pushing for this, obviously. They don’t really hold true elections, that that would be a capitulation of some sort. How would you guard against potentially Russia installing a puppet government? And then finally, how would that new election have an impact on getting Zelenskyy to sign the rare earth minerals deal? Donald Trump: Look, you have leadership, and I like him personally. He’s fine, but I don’t care about personally, I care about getting the job done. You have leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened, even without the United States. Look, we had a president who was grossly incompetent. Donald Trump: He had no idea what he was doing. He said some very stupid things, like going in for portions and all of the things. He made a lot of bad statements. But he’s grossly incompetent, and I think everyone knew that. This is something that should have never happened, would have never happened. And I used to discuss it with Putin. Donald Trump: President Putin and I would talk about Ukraine. It was the apple of his eye. I will tell you that, but there was never a chance of him going in. And I told him, you better not go in. Don’t go in, don’t go in and he understood that he understood it fully. But I’m only interested – I want to see if I can save maybe millions of lives. Donald Trump: This could even end up in a World War III. I mean, to be honest with you. You’ve been hearing now, Europe is saying, well, I think we’re going to go in and we’re going to go – all of a sudden, you’re going to end up in World War III over something that should have never happened. And it’s a very sad situation. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: In a court filing, the White House said that Elon Musk is not a DOGE employee and has no authority to make decisions. Can you clarify for us today what his exact role is there? Donald Trump: Yeah. Yeah. Elon is, to me, a patriot. So you could call him an employee. You could call him a consultant. You could call him whatever you want, but he’s a patriot. I mean, look at the kind of things I just said, just write it down just in case that question got asked, right, and which I’m surprised it took so long, actually. Donald Trump: But you know what, Ukraine is a bigger deal because people are dying by the thousands a week, thousands. But look at this, from 90 to 99, Social Security, 6,054,000 people. Well, that’s OK. Maybe that’s possible, 90 to 99, maybe it’s possible. It’s a lot of people, though. But people that live to 100 to 109, 4,734,000, wow, that’s a lot. Donald Trump: That means over 100 years old. There are four million people. I don’t know too many. I know people that are doing great in their 90s but not too many people over 100. But over 120, from 120 years old, people that are 120 years old up to 129, 3,472,000 people. Wow. You know that can’t possibly be because the record is like, I think it’s one person, a woman lived to 127, but they have 3,472. OK. But now we’re going really in. People from 130 years old to 139 years old, 3,936,000. Wow. I wonder if people are getting paid with all this? Donald Trump: I mean, are these checks – and that’s what we’re checking right now. People from 140 years old to 149 years old, 3,542,000, 140 years old and beyond. Now, we’re really going because we’re looking to break the record by 25 years. People from 150 years old to 159 years old, 1,345,000. By the way, these are in the computer files. Donald Trump: This is what they do well. I asked Elon, who are these DOGE people. He said, they’re super brilliant computer people and they love the country. It’s simple. Wait a minute. People from 160 years old to 169 years, 121,000. So 160-year-old people. 170 to 179, 6,087. But now let’s go into the real numbers. From 200 to 209 years old, 879 people. Donald Trump: From 210 years old, I haven’t met any of them. And if I did, I would bless them. I would worship the ground they walk on, 210 to 219 years, 866. From 220 years old to 229 years old, 1,039. And then you have two people from 240 years old to 249 years old, one person. And there’s one person that’s 360 years old. Donald Trump: That’s just that. And then where’s the money being spent, right? Let’s go into that for just a second. $520 million for a consultant on the environment. It’s called environmental, social and governance investments in Africa and mobilize private sector resources, $520 million. Somebody got $520 million for an environmental – sounds like an environmental study. Donald Trump: I’ve always been one that paid a lot of money for my environmental studies, but I’d pay like $50,000, not $520 million. $520 million for ESG, $25 million to promote biodiversity, conservation and promote licit livelihoods by developing socially responsible behavior in the country of Colombia. Well, it’s nice, $25 million going to Colombia for something that nobody ever heard of. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants, $40 million. $42 million for Johns Hopkins, great place to research and drive social and behavior change in Uganda, $42 million. Donald Trump: What about us? What about social change in our country? $70 million for a center at Purdue to research university sourced evidence-based solutions to developmental challenges. I mean these are massive numbers on things that nobody ever heard about. $10 million for Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcisions, $10 million for circumcisions in another country. $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills. Donald Trump: In other words, let’s teach them something about enterprise. What about our people? Can’t we teach them about enterprise? $2.3 million for strengthening independent voices in Cambodia. $32 million to the Prague Civil Society Center, which is a very liberal group of people. Wonder how much of that money came back to the people that approved it. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. $486 million to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, including $22 million for inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova. Donald Trump: And $21 million for voter turnout in India. Well, why are we giving $21 million to India? They’ve got a lot of money. They’re one of the highest taxing countries in the world in terms of us. We can hardly get in there because their tariffs are so high. I have a lot of respect for India. I have a lot of respect for the prime minister. Donald Trump: He just left as you know two days ago, but we’re giving $21 million for voter turnout. It’s voter turnout in India. What about like voter turnout here? We’ve done that, I guess. We did $500 million, didn’t we? It’s called the lock boxes. $20 million for fiscal federalism in Nepal. Listen to these numbers. Donald Trump: These are – this is all fraud. $19 million for biodiversity conservation in Nepal. $1.5 million for voter confidence – we want to give them confidence in Liberia. $14 million for social cohesion in Mali. $2.5 million for inclusive democracies in South Africa. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Donald Trump: Asia is doing very well. They’re doing a lot better than we do in the schools, aren’t they? $2 million to develop sustainable recycling models to increase socioeconomic cohesion among marginalized communities in Kosovo and Ashkali. And in Egypt, we’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. I could – by the way, I could read this all day long, I could go on all day long and you’ll see hundreds of billions of dollars and we’re doing it. But when I saw the Social Security numbers, I said, wow, that’s really something. Donald Trump: So, we have – let’s just go above 100 years old; we have millions and millions of people over 100 years old. Everybody knows that’s not so. We have a very corrupt country, very corrupt country, and it’s a sad thing to say, but we’re figuring it out. Now the good thing about Social Security and what I read is, if you take all of those numbers off, because they’re obviously fraudulent or incompetent. Donald Trump: But if you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden, we have a very powerful Social Security with people that are 80 and 70 and 90, but not 200 years old. So, it’s a very positive thing. How about over here? Yeah, please. Question: Your reaction to Michelle King, the head resigning after – Question: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Who resigned? Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I don’t know, I mean I resigned or got fired? I think got fired. You know, when you fire somebody, they always resign and then they say I was resigned. But when you have numbers like that, I think really it’s got fired. They have to get fired. Who would keep them? How could you have numbers like this? Now the big thing is how many of these people got paid? Donald Trump: Were they getting paid? Were they getting paid? How many of them were getting paid Social Security, because if that’s the case, it’s a massive fraud. We’ll have to call those great Palm Beach police into this situation, right? You guys would figure that out very quickly. But how many of them are being paid? Donald Trump: I mean, maybe millions of them, but it’s a total fraud. Also, a lot of illegal immigrants are in Social Security that shouldn’t be there. Yeah, please go ahead. Question: Mr. President, there was a big wave of probationary federal workers who were fired over the weekend. Some of these workers focused on nuclear weapons security were immediately rehired. Do you have any concerns about how these terminations – Donald Trump: No, not at all. I think we have to just do what we have to do. You’re going to – it’s amazing what’s been found right now. It’s amazing. Some – if we feel that, in some cases they’ll fire people and then they’ll put some people back. Not all of them, because a lot of people were like – oh, don’t forget, I got elected on the basis of making our government stronger and smaller because we have millions of people that – obviously they’re paying millions of people that shouldn’t be paid. Donald Trump: And that has also to do with workers. Yeah, please. No, Go ahead, Axios, New York Times. Question: Mr. President, given your concerns about corruption, you said that if there were any conflicts of interest with Elon Musk, you wouldn’t let him anywhere near it. Donald Trump: Yeah, that’s right. Question: DOGE and SpaceX employees are now working directly at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department, agencies that have billions of dollars in contracts with Musk’s companies or that directly regulate his companies. How is that not a conflict of interest? Donald Trump: Well, I mean, I’m just hearing about it, and if there is – and he told me before I told him, but obviously I will not let there be any conflict of interest. He’s done an amazing job. They revealed – in fact, he’s going to be on tonight a big show called Sean Hannity at 9:00, and he’s on. And I’m on and we talk about a lot of different things and any conflicts – I told Elon, any conflicts you can’t have anything to do with that. Donald Trump: So, anything to do with possibly even space, we won’t let Elon partake in that. Yeah, please. Question: On immigration, sir, you said you would be sending the worst of the worst to Guantanamo Bay. What we’re finding out is that there are a lot of low-risk migrants who don’t have a criminal background who are also being sent. Are you thinking about this differently now? Donald Trump: No, they’re going to be brought back to their countries. And with some persuasion, every one of those countries, every one in the – as you know, every country is taking the people back. So, some of them are going to be brought back to – many of them, any of them that are low risk as you say are going to be brought back to their countries. Donald Trump: Yeah, go ahead, please. Question: Can you give us a bit of an update on where you stand with Venezuela? It’s [Inaudible], there’s basically a monthly license that can soon – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, you know, we had Venezuela on the run and it looked like that was going to be very good. And when Biden came in, as he always does, he screws it up and they started buying millions and millions and millions of dollars of oil, billions of dollars actually of oil. And it gave them a new life, a new, really, lease on life. Donald Trump: But we’ll see. We had some pretty good discussions with a lot of people within our government, in the United States government that are involved in that. And Venezuela is a little bit early. But we were not buying from Venezuela. When Biden came in, for whatever reason, instead of just taking the beautiful, as I call it, liquid gold, we have more than anybody, they started paying a fortune to Venezuela and we’re looking at that actually. Donald Trump: Why did they do that? Why were they doing that? Why would they go to the enemy and give them billions and billions of dollars? Now, with that being said, as you know, Venezuela has said very strongly they will not take any – any illegal immigrant, any of the people that they sent over to us. They sent their gangs, probably the worst gang anywhere in the world, as bad as MS-13, maybe worse, and they came out of the jails of Venezuela. Donald Trump: They emptied their jails into our country, and they said we’ll never take them back. Well, they took them back and they’re taking them back. And they are taking them back rapidly. We’re sending a lot of people to Venezuela. They said they wouldn’t take them back and they are taking back. But we’re looking at Venezuela very seriously and we’re going to be able – don’t forget, I’ve only been here for three weeks. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Just a little clarity on, are you inclined to continue to allow Venezuela through, I think, Chevron and other oil companies, to export those petroleum products or are you [Inaudible] to pull back? Donald Trump: Maybe not. Yeah, maybe not. We’re looking at that now. I just got here. When I was – when I left, they weren’t doing anything, they were ready to go, we give up. And then Biden came along, and he gave them literally, billions of dollars. I couldn’t believe it actually. And we have so much under our feet, liquid gold. Donald Trump: We have so much and it was pretty amazing. So we’re looking at that whole situation, why he did it. All right. How about one more? Yeah, please. Question: Thank you. Mr. President. What can you tell us about the CIA drone flights over Mexico? Is this the next step in the war against the cartels? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to see. Question: Should they have the authority to take lethal action? Donald Trump: Mexico has allowed a tremendous number of people to go through their country into ours, and even people coming from Mexico and illegals. It’s totally illegal. They’ve allowed people to empty jails into Mexico and then let them come through with this totally ridiculous open border policy of the Biden administration. Donald Trump: So, millions of people have come in and hundreds of thousands and actually, millions are criminals. They came in from jails all over the world. They released them into Mexico and they come into our country. And they also came in from Canada, by the way, large numbers through Canada. In fact, when we closed up the one border, they came in through the other border. Donald Trump: So, Canada is not an un-interested party. But I will say this, we’re dealing with Mexico. I have a very good relationship with Mexico. But I think Mexico is largely run by the cartels and that’s a sad thing to say. And if they wanted help with that, we’d give them help. But Mexico, if you look at what’s gone on with Mexico for years now, but now especially it’s run by the cartels, and they’ve allowed millions of people to come into our country from jails and prisons of other countries from all over the world, not just South America, Africa, Asia, all over, a lot from the Congo in Africa, a lot. Donald Trump: They opened their jails. They came in through Mexico, and we have some of the worst criminals coming in from the Congo and other places. So it’s not just South America and it’s not just Venezuela, but they opened their jails and the crime rates in Venezuela and other places all over the world has gone way down. Donald Trump: You know why, because they’ve given us their prisoners. They’ve given us their drug lords and their gang members and it’s hard to believe that we accepted this. It’s hard to believe that we allowed open borders and we’re taking in hundreds of thousands and millions of people coming in from all over the world that are absolute stone-cold criminals. Donald Trump: In fact, 11,088 murderers and many of those people have murdered more than one person. Why are they giving us these people and why are we taking these people? Under Biden, you had a border czar that never went to the border, happened to be a vice president, never went to the border, never called the border people. Donald Trump: I call them all the time. I speak to them all the time. But here’s the good news. We have the most secure border we’ve ever had right now, as secure and even more secure than I had it four years ago. And the Border Patrol is doing incredible. ICE is doing incredible. Tom Homan is unbelievable and Kristi Noem has been just working very, very hard, very, very hard. Donald Trump: And we have the best numbers we’ve ever had and we’re going to keep it that way. And we’re going to find out how a thing like this could have happened to our country because who would allow this to happen? What they’ve done to our country is so sad. Thank you, very much. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-20
Karoline Leavitt: Hello. Good afternoon, everybody. I brought some heavy hitters in here with me today. Today marks one month of President Trump’s return to the Oval Office, and there is no denying this administration is off to a historic start. The President has already signed 73 executive orders. That is more than double the number signed by Joe Biden and more than quadruple the number signed by Barack Obama over the same period. Karoline Leavitt: These executive orders have ended burdensome regulations; sealed the border; unleashed our domestic energy sector; eliminated divisive DEI from our federal government; stopped the weaponization of government; cut waste, fraud, and abuse; reinstituted “America First” trade and foreign policies; and ultimately restored common sense. Karoline Leavitt: The President also signed the Laken Riley Act into law, which ensures ICE will detain illegal aliens arrested or charged with theft or violence. As of today, the Senate has already confirmed 18 Cabinet-level nominees, which is more than at this point under the Obama administration in 2009 and more than double the pace of the Biden administration in 2021. And today, we expect Kash Patel to be confirmed as the next director of the FBI. Karoline Leavitt: We are proud to announce that the president will host his first official Cabinet meeting here at the White House next Wednesday, February 26th. In just four weeks, President Trump has already hosted the leaders of Israel, Japan, Jordan, and India. And next Monday, the President will host France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, and on Thursday, the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, will visit the White House as well. Karoline Leavitt: As you all know, over the past month, the President has taken questions from the press – all of you – nearly every single day, sometimes on multiple different occasions in the same day, on any topic any of you wish to talk about. President Trump set the tone on this approach immediately when he took more than 12 times the questions in his first few hours in office as Joe Biden did in his entire first week. Karoline Leavitt: Yesterday, we hosted a local media row here at the White House with television and radio stations from across the country that reached up to 60 million viewers and listeners. In our ongoing pursuit of transparency, on this one-month celebration, I am thrilled to bring three of my colleagues and our policy experts here at the White House to further recap this incredible first month of accomplishments in greater detail. Karoline Leavitt: We have Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller; the Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett; and our National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz. I will hand it over to them. They will deliver brief remarks on the accomplishments of this administration in the first month, and then we will open it up to Q and A. When we open up the Q and A portion, I do ask, for the sake of efficiency in this room, that you direct your question to the principal you seek an answer from. Karoline Leavitt: And I will call on you in this room. But first I will let them roll through their remarks. And first up, I’ll turn it over to Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller: Thank you. It’s great to be back. And I want to just thank you all for joining today our one-month celebration of the most historic opening to a presidency in American history. No president comes close to what Donald Trump has achieved over just the last 30 days. He has packed eight years of transformative action restoring this nation, restoring our laws, restoring fairness, restoring economic opportunity, restoring national security in just one month. Stephen Miller: No one in this country has ever seen anything like it. And when you look at the consequentiality and the significance and the transformative nature of the actions he’s taking, it truly defies description. For example, in just one area, this nation has been plagued and crippled by illegal discrimination: diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Stephen Miller: It strangled our economy. It has undermined public safety. It has made every aspect of life more difficult, more painful, and less safe. He has ended all DEI across the federal government. He has terminated all federal workers involved in promulgating these unlawful policies. He has ended diversity, equity, and inclusion in all federal contracting. Stephen Miller: He has restored merit as the cornerstone of all federal policy; restored the full, fair, impartial enforcement of our federal civil rights laws for the first time in generations; and he has cracked down on individuals across this government and nonprofits who have engaged in illegal racial discrimination against the American people. Stephen Miller: This includes making clear to every educational institution in this country that ending diversity, equity, and inclusion, ending unlawful race discrimination is a precondition of receiving federal funds. He has also saved women’s sports by ending the participation of men in women’s sports. He has ended radical gender ideology across the entire federal government, and he’s pressured the private sector to also end and combat radical gender ideology. Stephen Miller: He’s reestablished the scientific and biological truth that there are only two sexes in this country – male and female – that those are biologically based determinations. They are not based and can never be based on gender identity. That includes rooting out of the Department of Defense all DEI policies, all critical race theory, all gender madness, and once again having a military that is focused solely and exclusively on readiness, preparedness, and lethality. Stephen Miller: As I’m sure Kevin will talk about more, of course, he has undertaken a historic cost-cutting effort across the federal government, launching the first-ever Department of Government Efficiency, uncovering corruption on a scale that we never thought imaginable, terminating every single federal worker that we – that we have found to be engaged in the corruption and theft and the waste of taxpayer dollars, and already saving $50 billion in a single year, which over a 10-year period would be $500 billion. Stephen Miller: Just think about how vast and enormous that sum is. Of course, as you all know, he has renamed the Gulf of Mexico to its correct and proper name: the Gulf of America. He has renamed Mount Denali into Mount McKinley, part of a historic effort to restore patriotism and national pride all across this land. He has ended the weaponization of the federal government, restored the Department of Justice to its true mission of combating threats to this nation and keeping the American people safe. Stephen Miller: He has ended all federal censorship of free speech. This has been one of the greatest crises that has plagued this nation. Years and years and years, the federal government violating the First Amendment to take away Americans’ right of free speech – President Trump has ended that. And he has demanded that all federal workers, all law enforcement cease any effort to intimidate the rights of Americans or to police their speech. Stephen Miller: He has also restored the death penalty at the Department of Justice, including for illegal aliens who commit murder, including for those who murder cops, and including for all of those who threaten Americans with heinous acts of violence. The death penalty is back. Law and order is back. The streets are being made safe once again. Stephen Miller: On the public health front, he has launched the nation’s first-ever commission – the MAHA Commission – Make America Healthy Again, following the historic confirmation of RFK Jr., to finally uncover the true root causes of the public health crisis in this country, the childhood disease epidemic in this country, the spiraling rates of pediatric cancer and devastating childhood sickness. Stephen Miller: He has finally created a situation where the federal heal- – health agencies in this country will be focused on preventing disease, on keeping children from getting sick in the first place, not sentencing them to a lifetime in and out of hospitals, suffering needlessly, when we can find ways to prevent this epidemic of illness. Stephen Miller: Then, of course, on homeland security. Today, it is officially the law of the land at the conclusion of the congressional notification process that six Mexican cartels and two transnational gangs – Tren de Aragua, or TDA, and MS-13 – so eight organizations in total – are now formally designated as foreign terrorist organizations, which means that every single member of those organizations who operates on U.S. soil is now, as a legal matter, a terrorist, and they will be treated as terrorists. Stephen Miller: This is a sea change in U.S. policy. And this means the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, along with the rest of U.S. law enforcement and the Department of Defense, are now operating in a legal reality where these cartels are recognized as terrorists, and there will be a whole-of-government effort to remove these terrorists from our soil and to degrade their ability to threaten or undermine any American security or sovereignty interests. Stephen Miller: Border crossings since the day he took office are down 95 percent. I think it’s almost impossible to even describe the scale and scope of that achievement. President Trump, within days of taking office, cut border crossings 95 percent. And those few who have dared to cross are being either prosecuted or deported. Stephen Miller: They’re either facing significant jail time for trafficking, smuggling, harboring, aiding, impeding, or they’re being immediately removed from our soil. Either way, at the end of the process, they are going home. He has reimplemented Remain in Mexico, and he has obtained historic cooperation from foreign countries all around the world in accepting their deportees back. Stephen Miller: And he has used the United States military to fully seal the southern border with a historic deployment of both active duty and National Guard troops, resumed the building of infrastructure. He has opened up Guantanamo Bay, and he’s using military aircraft to carry out deportations all across this country. Stephen Miller: And ICE is joining with ATF, DEA, and FBI to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. The criminals are going home. The border is sealed shut. America is safe, sovereign, proud, and free. We are a nation that everyone in the world understands all across this planet: You do not come here illegally. Stephen Miller: You will not get in. You will go to jail. You will go home. You will not succeed. This is the biggest and most successful change in any area of law enforcement that this nation has ever seen, and he did it in under one month. Thank you. Kevin Hassett: Should I go? Karoline Leavitt: Yes, yes. Kevin Hassett: Well, thank you, Karoline. Thank you, Stephen. You know, one of the things that President Trump cares most about is job creation. And it was about seven years ago I had the honor of joining you in this room for the first time, and it looks like we’ve created a lot more jobs in the last month. Look at how many people are here. Kevin Hassett: I – my estimate is about 180 but – but I didn’t count. So, thank you. It’s really an honor to be back here. I think that I just want to go over a few things and then hand it off to Mike. The first thing is that the President has told us to prioritize fighting inflation, and he had to do that because, as you know, President Biden let inflation get completely out of control. Kevin Hassett: And he did it with policies that made no sense. They made no sense. You know, a lot of times, you people say to us – our friends, the journalists – you know, “Why are you doing that?” But – but, you know, I like to think, “Why did they do that? Why did they spend so much money and then – why did the Fed print so much money so that we had inflation as high as we’ve ever seen since Jimmy Carter? Kevin Hassett: So, why did they do that?” So, we’re addressing inflation. We didn’t have to address it in the first term, because it was always in the 1s, almost always. But we’re going to get it back there. And how are we doing it? Well, we’re doing it with a plan that President Trump and I and others have talked about in the Oval that involves, like, every level of fighting inflation. Kevin Hassett: First, the macroeconomic level. We’re cutting spending. We’re cutting spending in negotiations with people on the Hill. We’re cutting spending with the advice of our IT consultant, Elon Musk. And then we’re also looking into supply-side things, like restoring Trump’s tax cuts, maybe even expensing new factories so that there is an explosion of supply. Kevin Hassett: If you have an explosion of supply and a reduction in government demand, then inflation goes way down. And then, one of the things that you want to say is “Well, when are you going to see it?” Well, the first thing that you’ll see when the markets believe that we’re going to get inflation under control is that the 10-year Treasury rate goes down, because that’s how they think about future expected inflation. Kevin Hassett: And so, we’re still going to see some memory of Biden’s inflation. It’s not going to go away in a month. But the 10-year Treasury before the last Consumer Price Index had dropped about 40 basis points. Forty basis points because markets were optimistic about our ability to fight inflation. Forty basis points is kind of not a fun thing to say. Kevin Hassett: I – economists talk that way. I apologize. But the way to think about it is, for a typical mortgage, if that affects the mortgage rate, then it’s going to save a typical family buying a house about a thousand bucks a year, and that’s just in our first month. Okay. The second thing we’ve done is we’ve had a lot of trade talks. Kevin Hassett: In fact, I was just meeting a minister from Mexico with Howard Lutnick just a couple of hours ago. And we’re talking about reciprocal trade, and we’re also talking about the fentanyl crisis. And so, reciprocal trade is about our government treating other governments the way they treat us. We want trade to be fair. Kevin Hassett: It turns out that Americans have been disadvantaged by foreign governments over and over, and President Trump wants it to stop. And the fact that struck me as most noticeable, when I started to look at what President Trump was asking us to do, is that last year – last year – we have data – U.S. companies paid $370 billion in taxes to foreign governments – $370 billion. Kevin Hassett: Last year, foreign multinationals paid us $57 billion in taxes. We have one quarter of world GDP. They have three quarters of world GDP. And we’re paying $370. They’re paying $57. This is not reciprocal. We’re going to try – or we’re going to fix it. The other thing that we’ve done is we’ve had an all-of-the-above energy approach that’s led by Doug Burgum and Chris and a really large team – EPA – and we’ve already made so many actions that are going to affect the price of energy and lower inflation. Kevin Hassett: We’ve opened up 625 million acres to energy exploration. We’ve cut 50 years of red tape that makes it so you can’t have permits. And we’ve even made it so that when you go home, if you get a new one, then you can take a shower or flush a toilet or read under a light bulb. We’re doing that too. So – so, finally, let’s just think about, like, the facts that we can see right now that we think are awesome. Kevin Hassett: So, guess what? Small-business optimism is – has go- – gone up by the most ever since President Trump came in. ISM, which is the measure of what’s going on in manufacturing, it’s expanding again for the first time in years. CEO confidence is the highest it’s been in years. And the reason – the reason people are thinking this is that our policies give people cause for optimism. Kevin Hassett: And then I want to reiterate what Stephen Miller said, because it’s so important – and it’s so important for financial markets to start to digest this – that if, say, the Treasury secretary or the – any Cabinet secretary, with Elon Musk, is able to find some savings – say, $100 billion – well, in CBO land, that’s actually, like, about 10 times that or maybe 12 times that over a 10-year window. Kevin Hassett: And so, when you’re thinking about the negotiations right now over reconciliation and thinking about, well, $4 trillion, $5 trillion, well, those numbers, in terms of the savings, are going to end up being small because of all the waste that we’re finding. And so, we’re incredibly optimistic about the future of inflation and the future of our economy. Kevin Hassett: And we’re optimistic because we’re making so much progress so far, and we already see it in market prices. And, with that, I’ll hand it off to Mike. Mike Waltz: All right. Thanks, Kevin. Well, good afternoon. What a month and what a sea change in our – in our foreign policy. In addition to what we’re doing on the border and restoring American sovereignty, in addition to what we’re doing in our economy and the job creation and the inflation reduction, we are bringing the world back to where it was at the end of President Trump’s first term, which is a world of peace, prosperity, and – and looking forward and getting us out of the chaos that we’ve just seen over the last four years. Mike Waltz: So, over the last month, just to name a few, I had the honor of sitting in the Oval Office as President Trump spoke with President Putin and then immediately spoke with President Zelenskyy, and both of them said only President Trump could bring both sides to the table, and only President Trump could stop the horrific fighting that has been going on now for the better part of four years and that only President Trump could drive the world back to peace. Mike Waltz: Both of those leaders said that in back-to-back calls. And, of course, we just had our historic talks mediated by our – our good friends and partners, Saudi Arabia – we give great thanks to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for hosting – and sat down for the first time in years with the Russians and talked about a path forward with peace. Mike Waltz: On top of that and one of the things that led to that was a tremendous co- – confidence-building measure that we had with the release of Marc Fogel. I’ll remind everyone, the last time that we had an American released from the Russians, either we gave up a deadly spy; pressured our allies to give up a lethal killer; or we released, under the Biden administration, the world’s most notorious arms dealer, Viktor Bout, who, by the way, had one of his main clients for arms the cartels in – in Mexico and Central America. Mike Waltz: We gave up none of that. This was released as a confidence-building measure, working with our great Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, and our secretary of State as a first step towards opening these talks and then moving forward towards peace. On top of that, we’ve secured, just in a month, the return of a dozen – 12 – American hostages from Russia, from Bulgaria, from Venezuela, the Taliban, and Hamas. Mike Waltz: Excuse me, that’s from Belarus, not Bulgaria. We also had – for the first time in quite some time, we took out a senior leader of ISIS, an international financier and recruiter that the military had been trying to take out for quite some time and – and wasn’t able to do so, frankly, because of a bureaucratic approval process. Mike Waltz: President Trump said, “Take him out.” And that ISIS financier and leader is no longer on this Earth. We’ve also taken action to eliminate other terrorist organizations in the Middle East. We drove – before the President was even in office, he started talking consequences for people that would hold Americans. Mike Waltz: Heretofore, there’s been nothing but upside. You take an American, you get some better deal. You take another one, maybe you get a better deal. No more. There is now nothing but downside for taking Americans illegally, either as hostages or illegal detainees. And when President Trump sent a very clear message across the Middle East, but particularly to Hamas, that there would be all hell to pay, we suddenly saw a breakthrough. Mike Waltz: And now we just saw the release of yet another group of hostages. There have been dozens now, including two Americans that we’ve seen once again reunited with their families. As part of the talks with King Abdullah, he offered – and – and I think the entire world has graciously accepted – to take 2,000 sick children, cancer patients, and others out of Gaza. Mike Waltz: As a humanitarian – as a humanitarian gesture, 2,000 Gazans will come out of that hellhole that it is, that wasteland that Gaza is right now, with unexploded ordnance, with debris everywhere, with no sewage, with no water. And – and President Trump has – has put forward a plan to deal with the practical reality that is 1.8 million Gazans now – now truly suffering. Mike Waltz: And then, you know, just to bring it back to our own hemisphere, we’ve seen literally, in the last month – after years of national security experts, the generals in charge, and others testifying and ringing the alarm bells about – about the Chinese Communist Party’s presence in our own hemisphere, particularly in the Panama Canal, we’re seeing the leadership of Panama step away from the Belt and Road program, move away from China and back towards the United States, and even enter into talks and – and other negotiations about addressing the ports on either side of the canal. Mike Waltz: And then, finally, last but not least, we’ve had four world leaders in the White House, in the Oval Office. We’ve had the prime minister of Japan, the prime minister of India, the king of – of Jordan, and, of course, the prime minister of Israel just in the last four weeks. And next week, we’ll have the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and we’ll have the president of France, Macron. Mike Waltz: So, President Trump is on what we call Trump warp speed. We are all – we are all honored to be really serving under – under his leadership and his vision. And truly, you know, when we all say – and the President himself say – says, he is a president of peace. He is a president focused on restoring stability. Mike Waltz: I think the entire world saw what the world would look like without strong American leadership in the last four years. And it’s truly been an honor to get us back to where we were and back on track under President Trump’s leadership. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you, Mike. Mike Waltz: Mm-hmm. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I’m sure you’re very eager to ask questions of these very smart people working very hard on behalf of the president. We do have somebody in our new media seat today. We have John Stoll, who is the head of news at X. As you all know – you’re all on X – it’s home to hundreds of millions of users, a large contingent of independent journalists and news organizations across geographies and political spectrums. Karoline Leavitt: And at the same time, X remains the go-to platform for many legacy news outlets. And I know, as I mentioned, many of the reporters in this room use X to attract eyeballs to your work. Prior to joining X, John spent two decades in journalism, including several years as an editor at The Wall Street Journal. Karoline Leavitt: We are excited to have him in the briefing room today. John, we’ll let you kick it off. And as I said at the top, please direct your question to the individual up here who you’d like an answer from. John, why don’t you begin. Question: All right. Thank you very much. I am sitting in for a thriving ecosystem of journalists, independent and – and emerging news organizations who do depend on X for publicity, for a business model. And so, I look forward to seeing many of them in this seat in months and years to come. I also thank you, Karoline, for opening this seat up to new media. Question: It – it really is a testament not only to your open-mindedness but also to innovation that you’d actually think about, you know, folks that are not traditionally credentialed to be in this room to be in this room and to not only have a question but also to witness – you know, this is at a very important intersection of power and the free press. Question: And so, just the ability to witness this and – and be part of it, it brings everybody’s game up. So, thank you for that. I think this is for Mike Waltz. My question is about Ukraine. Mike Waltz: Sure. Question: For about more than 10 years, I’ve been fascinated, like all – like many, with what’s going on. I was in Northern Europe working out of the Baltics when Crimea was annexed and was – a lot – a lot of this came on Twitter. The platform used to be known as Twitter. Was – a lot of European leaders would – would talk about their disappointment and – and solidarity with Ukraine, but when it came to actually doing something, it felt like they were passing a hot potato and sent it over the Atlantic. Question: I wonder how much of what we’re seeing right now out of the administration and President Trump is a call to Europe and the European leaders and allies that we’ve traditionally had to pick up that hot potato and – and start doing something a little bit more concrete to win and preserve the peace in Ukraine. Question: The second question I have is – it – it’s related – is there’s been some – a lot of speculation that President Trump and the administration might be manipulated by Pre- – by Vladimir Putin. I wonder if you can just talk a little bit about the administration’s posture – Mike Waltz: Yeah. Question: – and your confidence in the competence of this administration to d- – go toe to toe with Vladimir Putin. Mike Waltz: Well, if there’s an- – I’ll take the l- – second question first. If there’s anybody in this world that can go toe to toe with Putin, that could go toe to toe with Xi, that could go toe to toe with Kim Jong Un – and we could keep going down the list – it’s Donald J. Trump. He is the dealmaker in chief. Mike Waltz: There is no question that he is the commander in chief. And I, for one – and I think all Americans and around the world should have no doubt about his ability to not only handle Putin but to handle the complexity of driving this war to an end. And then on your first piece on Europe, I’ll take you back to 2014. You’re right. Mike Waltz: There was a lot of hand-wringing in Europe and not a lot of action. There was also a lot of hand-wringing here in Washington under the Obama administration and not a lot of action. They literally threw blankets at the problem. And so, I’ll remind everyone that Putin had, you know, some type of conflict, invasion, or issue with their neighbor under President Bush, with Georgia; under President Obama, with Ukraine in 2014; not under President Trump, 45; and again with President Biden in 2022. The war should have been deterred. Mike Waltz: The war should have never happened, and I have no doubt it would not have happened under President Trump and will stop under President – President Trump again. But I just want to push back on this notion of our European allies not being consulted as we’ve entered into this process. I already mentioned the immediate phone call President Trump made to President Zelenskyy. Mike Waltz: He has talked to President Macron of France repeatedly last week. President Macron convened European leaders and then is coming here on Monday. Prime Minister Starmer is coming next Thursday. We’ve also – I’ve talked to every one of my national security – national security advisor counterparts across – across the spectrum in Europe. Mike Waltz: I’ve talked to Secretary-General Rutte, the – the leader of NATO, the secretary-general of NATO. We have repeatedly – oh, by the way, we had half our Cabinet – seven Cabinet officials, including the vice president, at the Munich Security Conference, all engaging, all listening, and all making sure our allies were heard. Mike Waltz: However, we’ve also made it clear for years – decades, even – that it is unacceptable that the United States and the United States taxpayer continues to bear the burden not only of the cost of the war in Ukraine but of the defense of – of Europe. We fully support our NATO Allies. We fully support the Article 5 commitment. Mike Waltz: But it’s time for our European allies to step up. And one of the things that Secretary-General Rutte said on our call was this last couple of weeks have been a real wake-up call. And I asked him, “What have you been missing the last couple of years?” The fact that we are going to enter into a NATO summit this June with a third of our NATO Allies still not meeting the 2 percent minimum, a commitment they made a decade ago – literally a decade ago – with a war on their doorstep – the largest war that they’re all extremely concerned about – but yet it’s “Well, somebody else needs to pay. Mike Waltz: We’ve got other domestic priorities.” It’s unacceptable. President Trump has made that clear. And the minimum needs to be met. We need to be at 100 percent in – this June at the NATO summit. And then let’s talk about exceeding it, which what – is what President Trump has been talking about, with 5 percent of GDP. Mike Waltz: Europe needs to step up for their own defense as a partner. And we can be friends and allies and have those tough conversations. Karoline Leavitt: Great. Peter. Question: Thank you, Karoline. I have a Ukraine one and a DOGE one. Who can talk DOGE? Karoline Leavitt: Stephen, go ahead. Question: Well, so – so, Stephen, we’re hearing about these DOGE dividend checks that would be 20 percent back to taxpayers, 20 percent to pay down the debt. Sixty percent is left. Who gets that? Stephen Miller: Well, the way that it works is when you achieve savings, you can either return it to taxpayers, you can return it to our debtors, or it can be cycled into next year’s budget, and then it just lowers the overall baseline for next year. So, in other words, you can just transfer it into the next fiscal window and then lower the overall spending level. Stephen Miller: And that means that you can achieve a permanent savings that way, and that reduces the deficit. Question: And when is it that people might see those checks? Stephen Miller: Well, this is all going to be worked on through the reconciliation process with Congress that’s going underway right now, as you’ve seen. The Senate is moving a bill. The House is moving a bill. The president has great confidence in both chambers to deliver on his priorities. I would just take this opportunity to note that President Trump has made a historic commitment to the working class of this country to fight for a major tax relief and major price relief. Stephen Miller: And cutting spending, as DOGE is doing, and cutting taxes is the key to delivering on both of those promises. And President Trump is resolutely committed to doing both. Question: Thank you. And on Ukraine. I guess, this is for Mike. Mike Waltz: Sure. Question: After the president’s post on Truth Social yesterday, need to know: Who does he think is more responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin or Zelenskyy? Mike Waltz: Well, look, his – his goal, Peter, is to bring this war to an end, period. And there has been ongoing fighting on both sides. It is World War I-style trench warfare. His frustration with President Zelenskyy is – that you’ve heard – is multifold. One, there needs to be a deep appreciation for what the American people, what the American taxpayer, what President Trump did in – in his first term, and what we’ve done since. Mike Waltz: So, some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv, frankly, and – and insults to President Trump were unacceptable. Number one. Number two, our own secretary of Treasury personally made the trip to offer the Ukrainians what is – can only be described as a historic opportunity – that is for America to coinvest with Ukraine in their minerals, in their resources, to truly grow the pie. Mike Waltz: So, case in point, there’s a foundry that processes aluminum in Ukraine. It’s – it’s been damaged. It’s not at its current capacity. If that is restored, it would account for America’s entire imports of aluminum for an entire year – that one foundry. There are tremendous resources there. Not only is that long-term security for Ukraine, not only do we help them grow the pie with investments, but, you know, we do have an obligation to the American taxpayer in helping them recoup the hundreds of billions that ha- – that have occurred. Mike Waltz: So, you know, rather than enter – enter into some constructive conversations about what that deal should be going forward, we got a lot of rhetoric in the media that was – that was incredibly unfortunate. And I could just tell you, Peter, you know, as a veteran, as somebody who’s been in combat, this war is horrific. Mike Waltz: And I think we’ve lost sight of that, of the literally thousands of people that are dying a day, families that are going without the next generation. And I find it kind of, you know, frankly, ridiculous. So many people in Washington that were just demanding, pounding the table for a ceasefire in Gaza are suddenly aghast that the president would demand one and both sides come to the table when it talks to – when it comes to Ukraine, a war that has been arguably far greater in – in scope and scale and far more dangerous in terms of global escalation to U.S. security. Question: And I do have one for Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Does President Trump have a bet with Trudeau about this USA-Canada hockey game tonight? [Laughter] And when there is a big hockey game on, is the president watching for the goals or for the fights? Karoline Leavitt: [Laughs] Probably both. I think he’s watching for the United States to win tonight. I know he talked to the USA hockey team this morning. He talked to the players after their morning practice, around 10 o’clock. And I also spoke to some folks from that team after. They were jubilant over President Trump’s comments to the team. Karoline Leavitt: I believe they’re going to put out a video of that call. So, he looks forward to watching the game tonight, and we look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada. [Laughter] Bloomberg, go ahead. Question: My question is for Mike Waltz. Can you give us a readout of Kellogg’s meeting with Zelenskyy that just wrapped up? And, in particular, Zelenskyy publicly rejected this deal about the rare earth minerals. Where – where does that stand? Mike Waltz: Well, we’re going to continue to have – he needs to come back to the table, and we’re going to continue to have discussions about where that deal is going. Again, we have an obligation to the taxpayer. I think this is an opportunity. The president thinks this is an opportunity for Ukraine going forward. Mike Waltz: There can be, in my view, nothing better for Ukraine’s future and for their security than – than to have the United States invested in their prosperity long-term. And then a key piece of this has also been security guarantees. Look, the – the reality that we’re talking about here is: Is it in Ukraine’s interest? Mike Waltz: Is it in Europe’s interest? It certainly isn’t in Russia’s interest or in the American people’s interest for this war to grind on forever and ever and ever. So, a key part of his conversation was helping President Zelenskyy understand this war needs to come to an end. This kind of open-ended mantra that we’ve had under the Biden administration, that’s over. Mike Waltz: And I think a lot of people are having a hard time accepting that. And then the other piece is there’s been discussions from Prime Minister Starmer and also President Macron about European-led security guarantees. We welcome that. We’ve been asking Europe to step up and secure its own prosperity, safety, and security. Mike Waltz: So, we certainly welcome that. And we certainly welcome more European assistance. As I told my counterparts, “Come to the table with more, if – if you want a bigger seat at the table.” And we’ve been asking for that for quite some time. Question: And has Russia pushed for sanctions in your talks with them? And have you consulted with international partners and allies about potentially rolling back sanctions in these negotiations to end the war? Mike Waltz: Those – the talks with – with our Russian counterparts – both with my counterpart, the national security advisor; Secretary Rubio’s counterpart, the Foreign Minister, Foreign Minister Lavrov – you know, it – it really were – was quite broad, focused on what is the goals for our broader relationship, but very clear that the fighting has to stop to get to any of those brighter goals. Mike Waltz: And as a first step, we’re just going to do some commonsense things, like restore the – the ability of both of our embassies to function. And, again, you know, this is – this was common sense. In – in foreign policy world, they call it “shuttle diplomacy.” We have to talk to both sides in order to get to both sides to the table, and both sides have said only President Trump could do that. Karoline Leavitt: Diana. Question: Thank you. And my question is for Mike Waltz. [Laughter] Mike Waltz: All right. Question: The president has called Zelenskyy a dictator. Does he view Putin as a dictator? And does he want Zelenskyy out of power? I know he’s called for elections. And then, thirdly, the head of the Defense Committee in Ukraine’s parliament just has claimed that the U.S. has stopped selling weapons to Ukraine. Is that true? Mike Waltz: Well, most of our weapons that have gone to Ukraine have been part of a drawdown authority, where we’ve literally taken them out of our stocks and then, eventually, through appropriations, started buying them again to refill our stocks. I’ll, you know, just state that there has been a lag in a lot of that process. Mike Waltz: So, many of our stocks, as we look at our operations around the world, are becoming more depleted. That’s one of the reasons many people have had a lot of concern about: When does this end? How much is it going to take? How many lives will be lost? How much will we be – how much will we spend? As a member of Congress, we repeatedly asked the Biden administration those questions, and we never got a satisfactory answer. Mike Waltz: Look, President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelenskyy – the fact that – that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered. I think he eventually will get to that point, and I hope so very quickly. But President Trump is – as we made clear to our Russian counterparts, and I want to make clear today – he’s focused on stopping the fighting and moving forward. Mike Waltz: And we could argue all day long about what’s happened in the past. Karoline Leavitt: Reagan. Question: Thanks. I have a question for Stephen – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – and a question for Mike. Karoline Leavitt: Excuse me, I just called on Reagan. Reagan, go ahead. Question: I have a question for Stephen and a question for Mike. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Stephen, I can start with you. There have been reports – Stephen Miller: Thank you. Question: – that Trump is unhappy with the rate of deportations and he wants them to be higher. Is the president happy with the rate of deportations, and are there any plans to speed up the process? Stephen Miller: Well, first of all, we all appreciate the encouragement from the media to deport as many illegal aliens as humanly possible. So, thank you. And I will promise you that the full might of the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, and every element and instrument of national power will be used to remove, with speed, all criminal illegals from the soil of the United States of America, to enforce final removal orders, and to ensure that this country is for American citizens and those who legally belong in this country. Stephen Miller: We inherited an ICE that was completely shuttered. We inherited a Department of Homeland Security whose sole mission was to resettle illegal aliens within the United States of America. In 30 days, the president sealed the border shut, declared the cartels to be terrorist organizations, has increased ICE deportations to levels not seen in decades, and we are shortly on the verge of achieving a pace and speed of deportations this country has never before seen. Stephen Miller: Thank you. Question: And Mike. Mike Waltz: Mm-hmm. Question: There have been reports that there’s some underground opposition to Trump’s pick for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge Colby. Have you or anyone from the administration been personally lobbying senators to support Elbridge Colby? Mike Waltz: Look, I’ve worked with Bridge Co- – Colby in the past. He has the president’s full support to be the Undersecretary of policy, which will be a critical policy arm for Secretary Hegseth going forward that will implement a lot of these policies. And – and really, that’s – that’s been the extent of it. I think there’s been a lot of kind of, you know, breathless – I don’t know – back-and-forth in the – in the press, but we’re full speed ahead to get the president’s team in place so we can implement his America First policy. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you. Mike has spoken pretty extensively. Does anybody have questions for Stephen or for Mr. Hassett? Question: I do. Karoline Leavitt: Nobody wants to talk about the economy? [Laughter] Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: IRS. Karoline Leavitt: IRS. Okay. Go ahead. Question: And this would be for either one of you. So, we have reported, several other outlets have reported that about 3,500 people are due to be – lose their jobs at the IRS by the end of the week. If the goal of these spending cuts across the federal government has been to reduce the debt, why impose some of the deepest cuts we’ve seen so far at the agency responsible for raising revenue for the federal government? Kevin Hassett: Well, I think our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and effective. And there are many, many – more than 100,000 people working to collect taxes, and not all of them are fully occupied. And the Treasury secretary is studying the matter and feels like 3,500 is a small number and probably can get bigger, especially as we improve the IT at the IRS. Kevin Hassett: And so – so, I think that it’s absolutely something that is on the table for good reasons. And the point is that – don’t just talk about the IRS. Talk about all of government, that there are so many places – I live in D.C.; you maybe live in D.C. – where you never – there – nobody – nobody is going into the buildings. Kevin Hassett: People aren’t commuting because nobody is doing their job. We look back and we see that there are all these people doing two jobs while they’re getting a government payroll – on the payroll. So, the point is, we’re fixing that, and the IRS is a small part of that picture. Question: So, you’re saying that everybody who’s being let go was doing a bad job? Kevin Hassett: I’m saying that we’re studying every agency and deciding who to let go and why, and we’re doing so very rationally with a lot of support from analysis. Question: Because we’re being told by a lot of people who have been let go at other agencies that they were told they were being dismissed because of poor performance, when, in some cases, they haven’t even had a performance review yet because they’ve only been on the job a couple of months. Kevin Hassett: Yeah, I’ve never seen a person who was laid off for poor performance say that they were performing poorly. [Laughter] Okay? Question: Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Good point. Sure, Kaitlan. Question: I have a question. I’ll start with you, Kevin Hassett. Thank you for being here. And then I’ve got a question for Mr. Waltz. On these potential checks that you might send out from DOGE, is there a concern, as you’re thinking through this, that they could be inflationary? Kevin Hassett: Oh, absolutely not, because imagine if we don’t spend government money and we give it back to people, then the – you know, if they spend it all, then you’re even. But they’re probably going to save a lot of it, in which case, you’re reducing inflation. Question: Okay. So, you’re not – Kevin Hassett: And also, when the government spends a lot, that’s what creates inflation. We learned that from Joe Biden. And so, if we reduce government spending, then that’s – you know, reduces inflation. And if you give people money, then they’re going to save a bunch of it. And – and when they save it, then that also reduces demand and reduces inflation. Question: Okay. So, you’re not worried about it. Kevin Hassett: No, I’m not. Question: And, Mr. Waltz, to follow up on Peter’s question, you wrote in an op-ed in the fall of 2023 that, quote, “Putin is to blame, certainly, like al Qaeda was to blame for 9/11.” Mike Waltz: Mm-hmm. Question: Do you still feel that way now, or do you share the president’s assessment, as he says Ukraine is to blame for the start of this war? Mike Waltz: Well, it shouldn’t surprise you that I share the president’s assessment on all kinds of issues. What I wrote as a Member of Congress is – was as a former Member of Congress. Look, what I share the president’s assessment on is that the war has to end. And what comes with that? What comes with that should be, at some point, elections. Mike Waltz: What comes with that should be peace. What comes with that is prosperity that we’ve just offered in this natural resources and economic partnership arrangement: an end to the killing and European security and security for the world. The President is not only determined to do that in Europe, he’s determined to do it in the Middle East. Mike Waltz: And just a few months ago, we had an administration that had tried for 15 months, week after week, sitting with you here, and couldn’t get us to a ceasefire, couldn’t get our hostages out. Now we’re at that point. We’re back to the maximum pressure on Iran. And we will – we have just begun, and we will drive towards a ceasefire and all of those other steps. Mike Waltz: I’m not going to pre-negotiate or get ahead of the sequencing of all of that. It’s a very delicate situation. But this is a president of peace. And who here would argue against peace? Question: Okay. So, you do share that assessment. And can I follow up. In 2017 – Karoline Leavitt: No. Go ahead, Jordan. Question: – then-President Trump – Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead, Jordan. Question: Can I just follow up really quickly? Question: Thank you. So – Karoline Leavitt: You just had two questions, Kaitlan. Question: May I – can I just – Karoline Leavitt: Jordan, go ahead. Question: Mr. – Mr. Hassett – Karoline Leavitt: Thank you. Question: I have an important follow-up for Mike Waltz. Karoline Leavitt: Jordan, go ahead. Go ahead. Question: So, Mr. Hassett, you were speaking about tariff revenue, and you also addressed a question about the R- – IRS. President Trump has spoken about replacing income tax with tariff revenue, especially with all this waste, fraud, and abuse that we’re seeing cut. Is that a possibility? Kevin Hassett: Absolutely. And, in fact, if you think about the China tariff revenue that we’re estimating is coming in from the 10 percent that we just added, plus the de minimis thing, that it’s between $500 billion and a trillion dollars over 10 years, is our estimate. And that’s something that is outside of the reductions that markets are seeing through the negotiations up on the Hill. Kevin Hassett: And so, we expect that the tariff revenue is actually going to make it much easier for Republicans to pass a bill, and that was the President’s plan all along. Thank you. Question: And I – I have a question for Stephen Miller about DOGE. So, you – you spoke about DOGE. You said roughly $50 billion is set to be cut in a year of waste, fraud, and abuse by unelected bureaucrats. We’re hearing this ironic narrative from the President’s critics and the left-wing media that Elon Musk is an unelected bureaucrat, and he’s doing all this terrible stuff. Question: Isn’t one of DOGE’s objectives to get – get rid of the federal bureaucracy, the – the deep state? And also, who was running the White House when Joe Biden was in office – Stephen Miller: [Laughs] Question: – because I don’t know a single person who believes it was Joe Biden? Stephen Miller: Yes. You’re – you’re tempting me to say – [Laughs] – some very harsh things about some of our media friends. The – yes, it is true that many of the people in this room, for four years, failed to cover the fact that Joe Biden was mentally incompetent and was not running the country. It is also true that many people in this room who have used this talking point that Elon is not elected fail to understand how government works. Stephen Miller: So, I’m glad for the opportunity for a brief civics lesson. A president is elected by the whole American people. He’s the only official in the entire government that is elected by the entire nation. Right? Judges are appointed. Members of Congress are elected at the district or state level. Just one man. Stephen Miller: And the Constitution, Article Two, has a clause, known as the vesting clause, and it says, “The executive power shall be vested in a president,” singular. The whole will of democracy is imbued into the elected president. That president then appoints staff to then impose that democratic will onto the government. Stephen Miller: The threat to democracy – indeed, the existential threat to democracy – is the unelected bureaucracy of lifetime, tenured civil servants who believe they answer to no one, who believe they can do whatever they want without consequence, who believe they can set their own agenda no matter what Americans vote for. Stephen Miller: So, Americans vote for radical FBI reform, and FBI agents say they don’t want to change. Or Americans vote for radical reform in our energy policies, but EPA bureaucrats say they don’t want to change. Or Americans vote to end DEI – racist DEI policies, and lawyers in the Department of Justice say they don’t want to change. Stephen Miller: What President Trump is doing is he is removing federal bureaucrats who are defying democracy by failing to implement his lawful orders, which are the will of the whole American people. Thank you. Question: Thanks, Stephen. Can I follow up? Question: Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you very much, everybody. I’m looking at the clock. We’ve almost had an hour of time. Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: I know a couple of these individuals have a meeting to get to at 2:00 p.m. So, you’re welcome to follow up with my team for further questions. We’re going to let these guys get back to running the United States government. And we will see you all later. President Trump will be speaking at 3 o’clock at the Black History Month reception. Karoline Leavitt: So, thank you. It’s good to see you. We’ll see you in a bit. Thanks. Question: Are you going to the Black History Month reception, Mr. Miller? Question: Stephen, on the fraud. Should we expect indictments? Question: What is your reaction to Mitch McConnell’s retirement? Question: Are there indictments coming for all the fraud we’ve found? Stephen Miller: I’d love to follow up with you. Just set up a time with Karoline. Question: Okay. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-20
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. That’s such a great song, it’s hard to cut it off, isn’t it? You know? I want to get you home for the hockey game, I guess, but we’ll get this done real quick, quickly. And I want to thank you all. We have so many great friends here, a lot of great governors, a lot of talent. I’m thrilled to be with the republican governors. Donald Trump: And they have done an amazing job and I look forward to working with each and every one of you as we complete the mission of saving America. They left us a real mess, didn’t they, huh, and making our country great again. We’re going to do it. We’ve made a lot of progress. We’re giving credit for having the best four weeks that anybody’s ever had as an opening. Donald Trump: So now a few hundred more weeks like this and we’re going to be in great shape, but we’ve had a lot of fun doing it too. It’s a pleasure to do it. We just rip down whatever they’ve done. It’s almost like I want to just do one executive order, anything he signed is now terminated. It’s easier than point after point after point. Donald Trump: I sign and sign, just do one. Everything he signed is no good because that’s really what basically it’s all about. I especially want to thank the chairman of the republican governors’ association, Brian Kemp, who was fantastic. He was fantastic. We won Georgia by a lot. Where is Brian? We won Georgia by a lot. Donald Trump: Where are you, Brian? There you are. We did a great job together and I appreciate it. We won’t forget it. Thank you, Brian. As well as vice Chairman, Greg Gianforte, a friend of mine who has done a fantastic job as governor, for organizing this beautiful evening. In addition to – hi, Greg. How are you doing, good? Donald Trump: You look good. You look good. In addition to our fantastic governors, we also have secretaries Doug Burgum and Chris Wright. They’re very important. Where are they? Where are they? Doug, you were great on television. Chris. These two guys are going to do it. I tell you, if they get the energy pumping, we’ll get that energy price down and everything’s going to follow. Donald Trump: Everything is going to follow and we’re going to work very, very hard. Here’s a gentleman from Virginia that I recognize that we’ve become – we almost won that, didn’t we, huh? We almost won it. We were just a little bit shy. But I want to thank you for the help. We did a great job together. But another man that’s with us is really unbelievable and you’re going to be working with him very closely, RNC Chairman, Michael Whatley. Donald Trump: And Michael worked with Laura and the team of him and Laura were pretty unbeatable, I would say. She was great, and had the victory and she’s solid. There was no nepotism either. Nobody said, oh, gee! They said, how did you get her? And I said to Michael, so who would you like to work with? Well, how about Laura again? Donald Trump: But Laura came, right after we won, she said, now dad, I want to go home to my family. She did a great job and she just wanted to go back home to the family, but what a team that was. We beat him left and right. They tried to cheat, but how many lawyers did you have, like 2,000 lawyers or some crazy number, right? 6,500 lawyers. Donald Trump: I would say that’s a lot. And the reason I picked him is because with North Carolina in 2020, we did so great in 2020. But the one that just held steady was him with a 601 lawyers at that time. And I remembered that, and I said that’s the guy because we’re going to win, but we have to keep him from being really bad, being naughty. Donald Trump: They tried. But you know, we had an expression, we got to make it too big to rig and that’s what we did, too big to rig and it was a great night. And Michael, thank you. Just a fantastic job. You’ll be working with these, ladies and gentlemen on just keeping everything, including keeping governor’s seats. Donald Trump: I assume you’re going to work with them on governor seats too, right? But there’s no better man than Michael. Thank you, Michael. Great job. Appreciate it. And we’re gathered tonight at a really exciting time for our nation. I think it’s going to be a very exciting time. We have tremendous potential. I have been called by every company. Donald Trump: Brian just told me about a big one that’s going to be moving in, in a very big way. But I’ve been called by so many big companies that they’re going to want to beat – they want to beat the tariffs and there’s only one way to beat the tariffs. Tariffs, one of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard. In fact, I went around saying it’s my favorite word in the dictionary and I got killed by the fake news media. Donald Trump: They said, what about God, what about religion, what about love? I said, all right, I gave up, it’s my fourth favorite word. So now I say God, religion, love and then tariffs, number four and now I’m OK. I can get away with that. I couldn’t get away with making it number one, but it’s close. The American people gave republicans a historic mandate in November – if you remember that November 5th, what a day that was, huh? Donald Trump: There was no games. November 5th, 2024 will go down as one of the most important days in the history of our country. I believe that. We won the House, we won the Senate, we won the White House and in the presidential race, we won all seven swing states by a lot and the popular vote by millions and millions of votes for the first time of any republican in decades. Donald Trump: It’s hard for us to win the popular vote, but it’s not going to be anymore because we’re a much different republican party right now. Nobody can believe what’s happened to this party. It’s become a big party, really big and powerful party. We won 85 percent of all counties in America. Think of that, 85 percent. Donald Trump: Have you seen the map? It’s all red. There’s a little blue on the outside here and the outside. The whole thing is like red. They won 525 counties, compared to us, 2,600 counties. Think of that. I don’t know why we only won by millions of votes. We should have won by a lot more than that. Maybe it’s because they cheated. Donald Trump: Who knows? And incredibly all 50 states shifted toward the republican party. That’s never happened before. It’s the first time ever in history that that’s happened. All 50 states shifted toward the republicans and significantly in many cases. Most importantly for this room, we’re pleased to welcome eight new republican governors. Donald Trump: Could you stand up, please? Just stand up. Look at these people? Oh, I know them. I know the man. Good, great. I know every one of them. Mike Braun of Indiana. Mike Kehoe of Missouri. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Larry Rhoden, that’s great. Larry Rhoden of South Dakota. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota. Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia. Donald Trump: Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico. Nicola Polo of American Samoa. And I want to congratulate you all. You have great races. You won generally pretty easily. We’re going to win a lot of races. In presidential races, they say when you win the presidency, usually the midterms don’t go well. I think we’re going to do great. Donald Trump: I think we’re going to really increase our margins by a lot. That’s why I went to Michael. I said, you got to stay, you can’t go anywhere, Michael. But I can tell you that I did something very different. Our win was so big and so conclusive presidentially and we had great help from donors. We have a lot of great donors in the room tonight, but – this is a nice room, by the way. Donald Trump: It’s very nice, nice place, but we did something differently. I said that to my people that do the fundraising, I said, listen, everyone’s so happy. Usually, you wait two or three years to go back to the donors. You let it rest. You let their wallets cool off a little bit. But I did it the next morning after we won. Donald Trump: I said to Meredith who may or may not be here, I don’t think she is. Maybe she is. She’s great. But I said to a whole staff of people, I said call everybody and see if they’ll double up. Now, we raised $1,000,000,006. They raised $2.7 billion and they’re running short. They can’t raise the final 28. When you lose, it’s very hard to raise money, but when you win, it’s not so hard. Donald Trump: I said, see what you can do. Call everybody and say thank you very much. We appreciate it. Would you like to make a contribution? So this was not a good situation, but they fully understood. They were so happy they didn’t care. And Michael, we raised $608 million in three weeks. Can you believe that? So we’ve got that money and I got to spend it somewhere and they tell me I’m not allowed to run. Donald Trump: I’m not sure. Is that true? I’m not sure. So if I can’t spend it on me, I guess that means I’m going to be spending it on some of my friends, right, a lot of my friends. We’re going to be running. But think of that, we raised $608 million, isn’t that great? And I think I’ll keep going. I’ll just keep bugging them and bugging them, build it up, but it’s going to be great. Donald Trump: I think we’re going to do fantastically. I think the midterms are going to be a big surprise and it just seems, I don’t know what it is. You go back to the last, I think eight elections in a row. The midterms haven’t been great for the person that wins the presidency and I think so far, we’re very popular. Donald Trump: I had an approval rating today of 71 and another one of 69. I have not heard of those numbers before. So we’re going to fight very hard because the better I do, the better you do. It makes your races a lot easier if we do well and we’re going to keep doing well. With the help of everyone here tonight, the golden age of America has officially begun and the golden age of just this whole thing. Donald Trump: The red states, it’s going to be leading the way to making our country richer and safer and stronger than ever before. The red states are going to do good and the blue states, I don’t know, maybe they’ll totally disappear off that map. It’s like, they don’t learn because like men and women’s sports, I say we become the party of common sense. Donald Trump: Men and women sports is not a winner for them, but I saw somebody fighting like hell for the fact that a man should partake in women’s sports, a democrat, a radical left lunatic and they’re still going at it and we shouldn’t really fight them too hard until just about a week or two before the election. Just let them go. Don’t convince them not to. I’m always saying, they haven’t learned. Donald Trump: I don’t want to say that. Don’t say that. Let them keep going and then about a week before the election, just blast the hell out of them. It’s like in a race, you hang in there and then you just go – because there’s no way. Open borders with prisoners coming in, jails, some of the worst murderers in the world. Donald Trump: We had one guy killed five people, separately killed five different people. This is not going to be a great person for our country, but we had 11,088 murderers right now. Some of them have been already brought back. And when you think about it, transgender everything, everybody should be transgender, these are not things that play very well. Donald Trump: I would say they’re seven percent issues for them and they’re over 90 percent for us, but they keep going. So don’t tell them they’re wrong. It’s too long. Two years or four years, it’s too long. Let them continue to go and say, I think it’s a brilliant idea to have open borders, to allow prisons and mental institution people to pour in from all over the world, every bit. Donald Trump: They came from everywhere. But about a week before that election, go crazy. Just save up your money and explain, we can’t live like this and they understand it. Every day of my administration will be fighting to help your state succeed and prosper. And together, we’re going to bring back the American dream, something nobody talks about anymore. Donald Trump: In our last four weeks, our new administration has accomplished more than most administrations do in four years and the last administration was a negative. I mean, it was an accomplishment, I would say, negative 50 percent. There wasn’t any accomplishment. It was a complete decomp – de-accomplishment. On day one, I declared a national emergency on our southern border. Donald Trump: I sent our military to the border to secure the sovereign territory of the United States of America. We ended catch and release. We began the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. You know, he was sort of a moderate guy, but he was very strong on the fact he didn’t want people pouring into our country from all over the world. Donald Trump: He was very tough. He had the record. We now have the record. It’s not a record I’m really proud of. You don’t like to do that, but we have no choice. We can’t let it – I mean, they let criminals many, many criminals, hundreds of thousands, probably millions of criminals, 21 million people, I believe is the number. Donald Trump: And of that, millions of people are hard, stone-cold criminals. In the past four weeks, illegal border crossings have plummeted by nearly 100 percent and the tiny number of illegals that do make it across are being apprehended and sent right back to their home where they belong. All countries are taking the illegal aliens back, every single one, even though they said and strongly, we’re never taking them back, don’t even try. Donald Trump: They said that during the Biden administration. It didn’t work. They’re taking them back. They have no choice. They’re taking them back. They know we’re not playing games. You remember Venezuela saying it, we’re not taking them back, don’t even waste your time? They said that to Biden. He said, well, they have us over a barrel. Donald Trump: They don’t have us over a barrel. How about bricks? You know the brick states, there were like six of them? And they were trying to destroy our dollar. They were going to say, they wanted to create a new currency. They probably wanted to use the won, China. They wanted to use the won and Biden said, well, this is a tough situation. Donald Trump: There’s not much we can do about that. We can’t help that. I said, oh, we can help it. So when I came in, the first thing I said is any brick state that even mentions the destruction of the dollar will be charged a 150 percent tariff. And we don’t want your goods, we don’t want to partake. And the brick States just broke up. I don’t know what the hell happened to them. Donald Trump: We haven’t heard from the brick states lately. But he said that wasn’t much we could do about it. It took once, literally, they said, sir, what about the brick states? They’re going to take over the dollar, the sanctity of the dollar. They’re going to create a new currency to rule the world. I said, no, they’re not. Donald Trump: They said, yes, they are, sir. They said it. I said, no, they’re not. Tell them 150 percent tariff, plus we’re not going to do business with them, and that includes China. And all of a sudden, they went to the brick states and they said, could I ask you, how do you feel about that? I have no comment on this. Donald Trump: I don’t know what you’re even talking about. It was an amazing turnaround. No, we’re not playing games. Just this week, I officially designated the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, including trendy Aragua and MS13, which gives us great power. And to facilitate the rapid deportation of the worst criminals that we have anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: We’ve also opened the full capacity of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. People don’t realize, that thing was built – we hear about a few prisoners and they do have maximum security, but it holds, actually, was built for thousands and thousands of people. And we’re using that prior to bringing back to their country. Donald Trump: We use it for the bad ones, the really bad ones. And in some cases, they’re so bad, we don’t want them to go back to the country. We want to watch them because they’ll be able, if they do sneak in, we don’t want that. We don’t want them anywhere near our country. In addition, we’re waging war on Joe Biden’s inflation disaster, the worst inflation probably in our history. Donald Trump: They say 48 years, which isn’t bad, but probably in our history. And to bring down the price of energy, I declared a national energy emergency. It’s going to be an emergency and you know what, what we say and what Doug is going to do, Doug, you are so important. You and Chris. Chris is known, and I got this from Doug, as the best energy guy in the entire country. Donald Trump: And people were shocked that he wanted to do this. He gave up something tremendous. He was the biggest guy. There was nobody bigger, nobody better. And Chris Wright. Is Chris Wright here? Is he here? Where is he? This guy is – and this is from Doug. I said, Doug, I want to make you the energy czar and he said, sir, there’s one man that blows me away. Donald Trump: Right, Doug? He said his name is Chris Wright. He’s much better. I said, I want to see this man and I met him and I just agreed immediately that he was far superior to Doug. I’m only kidding. So what I did, we have a weird deal. We have the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior and Interior has all of the energy and Doug has none of the energy, but he’s got – Chris has none of the energy, but he’s got a hell of a good title. Donald Trump: But we want the guy with the energy to be able to drill. So we sort of merged them and their friends and everything else. And they’ve got a thing going on. I think it’s going to set records like nobody’s ever seen before. So we have the man that controls the energy, we have the man that drills the energy, and now we’ve put them together and you’re going to see some action. Donald Trump: You’re going to see something come way down. So thank you. And thank you, Doug. You were really terrific. He was a great governor, by the way. A couple of you may know him slightly, but he was a great governor, did a fantastic job. He made a lot of money in the technology business, sold to Microsoft for a lot of money. Donald Trump: I won’t tell you how much. I don’t want to embarrass him. Some people would say it’s a lot. Some people would say it wasn’t that much, right? But when you get close to $1 billion, that’s pretty good. And he didn’t know much about energy. When he became governor, he became one of the great experts of energy anywhere. Donald Trump: We did unbelievable, really, an unbelievable job with the state. He did like me. He did well in business and then he said let’s run for politics and they love him in the state, but he was term limited and I watched him running. He was running against me, but I still liked him. And I said, that guy’s got real talent. Donald Trump: And he was one of the first people I called. So you’re doing a great job, and thank you for leading us to Chris. I’ll give you a bigger thank you in two years if Chris is as good as you say, OK? But I know he’s going to be. Thanks a lot, Chris. Good, go out there. If we can bring energy down, everything’s coming down. Donald Trump: The eggs are coming down and the bacon’s coming down. Everything is coming down and that’s the biggest thing, the energy. So those two guys are very important. To cut through the red tape, I’ve established a National Energy Dominance Council chaired by the former colleague and your former colleague, Secretary Burgum. Donald Trump: He’s going to do a fantastic job. We’re putting incredible people on it. I withdrew from the one-sided and very expensive Paris Climate Accord. It’s a one-way street. Under that accord, we pay $1 trillion. Think of it. We pay $1 trillion. They pay nothing. China doesn’t pay anything. India doesn’t pay anything. Donald Trump: Russia doesn’t pay. We just pay everybody. It’s like a health organization and every deal is no good, but we’re changing it. We terminated health. On the world health, we paid $500 million a year and China paid $39 million a year. I said, that doesn’t sound good. They have 1.4 billion people and we have, nobody knows what the hell our number is because so many people pour into our country. Donald Trump: We used to say like 325. I have no idea. We’ll figure it out eventually. But let’s put it this way. It should be substantially less than 1.4. But we have, let’s say we have 325 million, they have 1.4, We’re paying $500 million. I mean, relative to government, these aren’t huge numbers. But this is an example of what happens when you have bad government, when you have incompetent people. Donald Trump: So it would explain this and they called me and they said, we’ll let you in for the same $39 million. I said, well, we should be much less than $39 million. But I didn’t even want to do that because I’m not going to talk. I said, I’ll think about it and it was very public. And when Biden came in, he agreed to go back into the world health for $500 million. Donald Trump: He could have gotten – I mean, it’s a lot of money. You could have gotten it for $39 million, Joe. That’s why you’re not president any longer, I guess. He could have had it for $39 million. They were saying it. It was very public. But he took the $500 million instead because he never laid in bed at night sweating, tossing and turning like half of these governors, not all of them probably, but half of them, sweating, how are we going to do a great job? Donald Trump: He never did that. But that’s just a case study in how not to run. Because if we had people at that level that would have negotiated – I bought a plane, it’s really two planes, Air Force One. Now if Boeing would build the damn thing, it would be nice too. We don’t build like we used to. We don’t build too fast. Donald Trump: I gave the order out about six years ago. They’re still waiting. Getting a little tired of it. I gave a fixed price deal, but it was $5.7 billion. I negotiated with Boeing. It took about two months and I got the $5.7 down to $4 billion. Actually, one penny less than four. I said, it has to have a three on it. And he said, you went from $5.7 billion to $3 billion. Donald Trump: I said, yeah, three on it, meaning it has to start with a three. And after about two months of saying, no, no, no, no, it has to have a three, it has to have a three. He called up, he said, sir, I want and this is what happened, $3,999,999,999 and $0.99, one penny less. I said, you have a deal, but we saved $1.7 billion just by negotiating. Donald Trump: And in all fairness, most of you can do that. And some of you do do it. Some of you do. You have surplus states. You have incredible states. And you have to do that because every time somebody sends you a bill, they expect to be negotiated. And in the past administration and sometimes, I guess in this, it happens because people don’t care. Donald Trump: Elon talks about caring. Caring is very important, and they have to care. If they care, they’ll say, no, no, I’ll pay you – they’ll send you a bill for $10,000 and you say, nope, I’ll give you $5,000. And they’ll say, no way, no way, no way and you’ll end up paying $6,000 or $7,000 or something, but all you have to do is care a little bit and try and get it down. Donald Trump: And literally, every contract. I think there’s not a contract that’s sent in government that I couldn’t cut, and that many of you couldn’t cut and cut very substantially. And boy, what a difference it would make for the government. I terminated the Green New scam, one of the great scams in the history of our country. Donald Trump: I canceled Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry from destruction. That was an easy one. And all of this helps to combat inflation and bring down costs. We’re bringing down costs, way down. We’re going to bring up jobs like you haven’t seen because the companies pouring in. And we’re going to have announcements over the next three or four weeks that you’re not going to believe from some of the biggest companies in the world. Donald Trump: And the numbers are staggering, hundreds of billions of dollars of investment, hundreds and hundreds, trillions of dollars when you add it up, to slash hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud. We’re talking about also an abuse. I’ve created as you possibly have read just a little bit, the Department of Government Efficiency. Donald Trump: And here are just some of the things that we’ve paid and we’ve stopped and we’ve gotten the money back, $520 million for a consultant to do ESG, that’s environmental, social and governance investments in Africa, $525 million. $25 million to promote biodiversity conservation and social responsibility behavior in Colombia. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Donald Trump: Nobody even knows what the hell it means. $42 million for social and behavioral change in Uganda. $10 million for Mozambique medical male circumcision. We’re doing circumcisions in Mozambique to the tune of approximately $12 million. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. $486 million to the consortium for elections and political process strengthening, including $ 22 million for inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova. Donald Trump: And $21 million for voter turnout in India. Why are we caring about India turnout? We got enough problems. We want our own turnout, don’t we? Can you imagine all that money going to India? I wonder what they think when they get it. Now it’s a kickback scheme. It’s not like they get it and they spend – they kick it back to the people that send it, I would say, in many cases, many of these cases. Donald Trump: Anytime you have no idea what we’re talking about, that means there’s a kickback because nobody has any idea what’s going on. $29 million to strengthen the political landscape in Bangladesh. Nobody knows what they mean by political landscape. What does that mean? $20 million for fiscal federalism and $19 million for biodiversity in Nepal. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Donald Trump: What the hell do I care about? We got a lot. We got enough problems and all of this is terminated. We terminated this stuff and we’re on the track – and by the way, so many others I could read all night long, but so many were so terrible and some were actually disgusting. And I know you’re eating your dinner, so I didn’t want to do that, but we’re draining the swamp. Donald Trump: And one of them was $100 million for condoms for Hamas. You heard about that, $50 million and $50 million. It’s $50 million and then they decided they needed more condoms, so they sent another $50 million. So it’s $100 million condoms for Hamas. But now that’s the good stuff, here’s even worse. Social Security, as you know, generally speaking, people don’t live to be over 100 years old. Donald Trump: We all will, I think, 120, 130, hopefully. But you hate when you get near that number, it’s like, let’s hope we can live to length like this, but here’s what we’re finding and what we found. And these were all found by these computer geniuses. I asked Elon, what trait do these have? You know, they started off with 12 guys, then they had 30 guys, then they had 57 guys. Donald Trump: Now they have over 100 guys and he attracts very young people with high IQs. Some people attract very beautiful people. I think I like them better actually. But he attracts young people that are brilliant and they love the country too. But I said, what trait do they really have? And the trait that they really have was that they’re extraordinary with computers. Donald Trump: They can take them – he said, they make love to their computer. I said, I don’t want to hear about that. It doesn’t sound too good. He said, they can take apart the most complex computer instruments and literally put them back blindfolded. So when they go into some guy that’s ripping off the country by doing some of the things you’ve just heard or what you’re going to hear, they can’t be bullshitted. Donald Trump: They can’t say, oh, gee, there was a mistake, there was a big mistake. And we’re finding hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of fraud, waste and abuse. But I think fraud will be the number one as we see. But listen to this. On the program, there are 4.7 million Social Security members who go and live from 100 to 109. Well, I’ll tell you, I know some people that are close to 100. I know one or two that got over that mark, but you don’t have millions. 3.6 million people from age 110 to age 119. 3.47 million people from age 120 to 129. In other words, 120 to 129 years old, millions of people, millions. 3.9 million people from age 130 to 139, which is pretty amazing because the longest living person ever on record, and they’re not sure it was correct, was a woman from a very faraway place lived to 127 years old. Donald Trump: She was a healthy specimen, but she lived to 127. 3.5 million people from age 140 to 149. So we have 140-year-old people, plus, millions of them. 1.3 million people live to over 150 years of age, 150 to 159 to be exact. Over 130,000 people over the age of 160 years old, including 1,039 people between the ages of 220 to 229, and we’re going to be investigating this fraud. Donald Trump: Actually, we had one person at who was 361 years old. And what we’re doing now is we’re finding how many of these people were paid. So we have millions of people, could be well over 100 million people on our Social Security rolls. So the good news is, when we take them off, whether they were paid or not, it looks like our Social Security could be really solid. Donald Trump: It could be a lot better than we thought, if you think about it. And I’m going to do something. I’m actually going on this one. All my life, I’ve heard about Fort Knox. That’s where the gold is kept right. I heard Fort Knox, ho, ho, ho, but you know we’re getting a little bit shaky. We’re getting the yips on this stuff. Donald Trump: I want to find out. So we’re going to open up the doors. I’m going to see if we have gold there. We want to find out. Did anybody steal the gold in Fort Knox? It’s a pretty amazing place. But I’m going to actually go. We’re going to open the doors. We’re going to inspect Fort Knox. We want to make sure that we actually have 400 tons of gold or whatever the hell it is. It’s a lot of gold. Donald Trump: I don’t want to open it and the cupboards are bare. Could happen. If you look at some of the things – oh, by the way, wait till we go into the education department. We haven’t even done that. So we could find as much as $1.5 trillion worth of waste, fraud and abuse. If we do that, we can balance budgets. Donald Trump: We can do a lot of other things, especially when you couple it with the massive amounts of tariffs that are coming in. Already, just with what we are charging, I won’t mention the country because I don’t want to anger people that like me and I like them very much, but we’re finding at least $60 billion a year in one country alone, and I haven’t even started. Donald Trump: It’s just a very small portion that I’ve attached to them. So I got a call from Congress. They said, a lot of money is coming in from these tariffs and they’re starting to change their whole thing. So if you can add the tariffs and this is numbers that I don’t want to say it because then they’ll say he didn’t produce. Donald Trump: But you could wipe out your income tax. You could maybe not even have an income tax system when this thing works out. Because in the old days that’s what happened. Our country was the richest ever from 1870 to 1913. That’s when we were actually the richest and we were a full tariff country. McKinley, and I just, by the way, I just renamed Mount McKinley, Mount McKinley. Donald Trump: I hope you’re happy about that. But McKinley was the president. He was a tariff guy and he believed that countries should not be allowed to come in and plunder. He had beautiful language on tariffs, plunder our wealth, plunder our jobs, steal our companies and take our money without paying a very fair price. Donald Trump: And he said and that price should be more than fair, it should be high because what they do is they hurt our country. And we became very rich. He was assassinated. And as you know, Roosevelt took over, Teddy, and he spent money on parks and on dams and on everything. But he really spent a lot of the money. Donald Trump: McKinley never got the credit, but he spent a lot of the money that McKinley made, but it was the richest we ever were in the 1800s, early 1900s. And then in 1913, we went to the income tax system. And to be honest, we did fine but we were never like we were. They formed the Tariff Commission of 1887 and it was a commission of people like you, blue bloods, are you blue bloods? Donald Trump: A couple of them, about three of them over here, but blue bloods. But it was a commission and it was set up for the sole purpose of we have so much money, this is in the United States, we don’t know – we had no debt. We had no, nothing. We had massive amounts of money. The commission was set up to determine where we should spend our money. Donald Trump: Where do we spend it? We’ve got so much. Can you imagine? Wouldn’t that be nice. Now look at what they’re doing, but this is money we have to borrow, where they’re doing it. But we’re going to find out that this money went to people and it got kicked back. You’re going to find out a lot of that, but we’ll catch it all. Donald Trump: We’ve launched the largest deregulation campaign in our country’s history. For every one new regulation, I’ve directed that 10 old regulations must be eliminated. And I will say, in my first term, we did more deregulation than any president in history by far, not even close. With republicans in Congress, we’re also racing to pass the largest tax cuts in American history. Donald Trump: We brought it down from 41 percent, much higher if you add the state things, but 41 percent to 21 percent, which people said was impossible. And now I’m trying to bring it down to 15 percent. So it will go from 21 to 15, but only if you make your product in the United States of America, otherwise you pay 21 percent. Donald Trump: It’ll be great. To protect American autoworkers, which who, by the way, they’re going to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of what we’re doing with tariffs because they just stopped two big auto plants in the middle of construction from being built in Mexico because they see-when I got elected, they saw, oh, this is going to be a problem for us because we have big tariffs going on and we have tariffs going on autos and they don’t have to pay any tariffs. Donald Trump: There is no tariff. All you have to do is build your plant in the United States. They were building plants in Mexico, right opposite the border. They’re making them in Mexico. They’re selling them into the United States with virtually no tax and they’re killing all our – Detroit, all these places are being killed. Donald Trump: Now it’s the exact opposite. And by the way, Canada was a big participant in that too. And I think Canada, they’re going to have to pay tariffs on automobiles, lumber and oil and gas, etc., etc. And they get 95 percent of their product from the United States. I think they have to become the 51st state. And you heard the people booing the national anthem, but I think, ultimately, they’ll be praising the national anthem. Donald Trump: We’ll have to work out some deal with – because I do like the oh, Canada, right? It’s a beautiful thing. I think we’re going to have to keep it for the 51st state. I call him Governor Trudeau. I said, Governor Trudeau is doing a wonderful job. I think it’s actually cost him his election, if you want to know the truth. Donald Trump: But we’re going to see about that. We’re looking at Greenland. And we have to take back the Panama Canal because that wasn’t the deal. We gave the Panama Canal to Panama. It was the most expensive thing ever built in our country. It would be the equivalent of $2 trillion today. We spend massive amounts. We lost 38,000 lives from the mosquito and snakes, a lot of bad snake bites, but mostly the mosquitoes, the malaria. Donald Trump: They kill 38,000 of our people. They paid laborers five times what they were getting in the United States to go, knowing that there was a good chance they were going to die. 20 percent of them died. And Jimmy Carter, may he rest in peace. The late great Jimmy Carter gave it away for $1. It’s also the most profitable thing ever built. Donald Trump: What you hear about casinos and you hear about all the stuff, they’re peanuts compared to this. It’s the most profitable thing ever built. There’s never been anything – I mean, you have ships lined up. And by the way, when they gave it away, they gave it away like a bunch of dummies, for $1. The day after they took over, they raised the price per ship by four times. Donald Trump: That wasn’t high enough. There was no problem. They raised it again twice. And they’re getting almost $1 million a ship and their product is water. It’s Pacific and Atlantic, where they meet. And one is about 18 feet higher than the other, which a lot of people don’t know. Actually, it’s one of the great marvels of the world. Donald Trump: Well, we built it and we’re not going to let – because China has essentially taken it over. We’re not going to let that happen. China knows it and so does Panama. To protect American workers and bring billions of dollars into our treasury, we’re in the process of imposing reciprocal tariffs on any nation that tries to cheat us or steal our jobs. Donald Trump: So India, as an example, has very, very high tariffs. And I was going to impose a flat tariff, but that wouldn’t really do the trick because some of the countries have really high tariffs. So it really works out much better. Nobody can even fight it. Whatever they charge us, we charge them. So if they’re at 25 percent, we are 25. If they’re at 75, we’re at 75, whatever they charge us. And it was very interesting. Donald Trump: The European Union, we were at 2.5 percent for cars. European Union was much higher. They just reduced their tariffs on cars to 2.5 to be reciprocal with us. So that’s just an early sign, but I think that’s going to happen and then some will want to fight us a little bit, but it doesn’t matter. They’re reciprocal. Donald Trump: And even the press says, oh, I see, well, they don’t fight us. If I put a flat tariff on like 25, 30 percent, even if it was lower than we would have gotten, if we put a flat tariff on the press would have gone crazy, that’s terrible. Even if somebody was paying like five times more, charging us five times more, when you say reciprocal – I said it the other day to the failing New York Times. Donald Trump: I said, listen, whatever they charge us, we charge them. They go, well, that sounds fair. It really does, doesn’t it? So it’s a reciprocal tariff, whatever they charge us. I’ve ended Joe Biden’s weaponization of our government and removed his hand-picked radical left Marxist prosecutors from the Department of Justice. Donald Trump: We have a great attorney general, Pam. I immediately halted all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. I signed an executive order to end all of the lawless diversity equity and inclusion policies across the entire federal government and private sector. Do you see how much it costs? Donald Trump: One company said they’re going out of that business and they’re going to write off $229 million. How do you spend that much money to convince people that they should have transgender operations and various and sundry other things that we don’t like to talk about? It’s crazy the amount of money that was – it was almost like a, just a mind blower, what they were doing. Donald Trump: It was terrible. And all over. And by the way, our military is now free of that. Anybody that even tries it, they’re gone. I signed really historic orders to get critical race theory and transgender ideology out of the schools and out of our military. It’s all going out. It’s no longer. And I heard men are still playing in Maine. Donald Trump: Is anybody here from Maine? Ah, who is that? Is that the governor? Well, I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money. They are still saying we want men to play in women’s sports and I cannot believe that they’re doing that. Find out who that guy is that raised his hand. Maybe he’s just kidding. Donald Trump: So we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever until they clean that up. And the other one, we have a fight with one news organization, AP, a radical left organization, treats us all very badly. And they refuse to acknowledge that the Gulf, former of Mexico, is now called the Gulf of America. Donald Trump: So we just told them – we’re holding them out of any news conferences right now. I’m sure they’ll get sued and maybe they’ll win, doesn’t matter. It’s just something that we feel strongly about. No, and I said we changed Mount McKinley. Nobody’s fighting that. You’re allowed to do it. Well, we’re allowed to do – and most of the shoreline is – 85 percent of it is on our soil, but I thought it would be appropriate. Donald Trump: I never understood quite the Gulf of Mexico when it really covers us far more. And I think Doug is a big believer in what we did, the Gulf of America. So we’re having a little dispute, but only one. But Google Maps has already changed. Almost everybody’s already changed. It’s called the Gulf of America. And earlier this month, I signed an order banning men from women’s sports. Donald Trump: And that’s why, when somebody wants to do that, when somebody wants to do that and even the NCAA has already complied and they have sent us a letter. They have fully complied with that. I also proudly banned the use of puberty blockers, hormone injections, you believe this, and other chemical and surgical mutilations of all minor youth. Donald Trump: Do you believe you have to say that? I mean, it’s terrible. Who would believe that we’re talking about even these things, men playing in – 10 years ago, 15 years ago, can you imagine – people would say, is he crazy, talking about this? And they’re still fighting us, but let them fight. As I said, we’re going to make universal school choice a very big, strong thing, school choice. Donald Trump: And we’re working very, very hard to send these schools and education back to the states where they can be properly run. In other words, this really affects the people in this room. But you’re going to be running your schools. And who can do worse? Look, they rate them in the top 40. So we just came out with one that we were number 40, but we were number one in cost per pupil. Donald Trump: And I mean, I know a lot of the governors in this room, you run a great state and you’ll do great with education at a much lower price. We’re going to give you whatever you need, but at a much lower price. We have people in Washington, D.C. that in all fairness, in many cases, don’t give a damn about your pupils or your students or your states. Donald Trump: And they’re running everything and they’re running it into the ground. So it came out we’re last in education, but first in cost per pupil. Norway, Denmark, Sweden, I hate to tell you, China and a few others are always in the top five. And I really believe that 35 or 36 states and all of you are here, almost all of you are here representing those states, I think you’re going to have education that’s every bit as good as Norway and Denmark and Sweden and all of them. Donald Trump: And then we’ll have some laggards and you know who the laggards are going to be. You just have to look at everything else. But in everything we do, we’re putting America first because the republican party is now known as the party of common sense. It’s the party of common sense, very important. I think it’s a very important phrase for you to use. Donald Trump: It’s all about common sense. We’re conservative and we’re a lot of things, but most important thing is we have to use common sense. Thanks in part to the hard work of the people in this room, we’re forging a new political majority that is shattering and replacing Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition, which dominated American politics for nearly 100 years. Donald Trump: Under our leadership, the republican party has become the proud voice of hard-working citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. We are a much bigger, much more powerful party. Now is the time for us all to press forward, think big, be bold and deliver the once in a lifetime reforms our citizens need and really deserve. Donald Trump: They’ve gone through hell for four years. Some of them don’t even know it. They’ve just been led down a path. They don’t even know what they’ve gone through. As one team, we can make our borders stronger, our communities safer, our schools better, our families happier, our citizens wealthier and our country freer, freer, freer and more exceptional than ever before. Donald Trump: We will work together and we will absolutely, without question, make America great again. God bless you all and do a great job and go home and watch the hockey game. It should be interesting. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-20
America First Patriot Meshawn Maddock is running to serve as Chair of the Michigan Republican Party! Meshawn is running to replace my friend, the GREAT Pete Hoekstra, who will serve as the next United States Ambassador to Canada. Like Pete, Meshawn has been with me since Day One, and has been key to our many Republican Victories in Michigan, including our HISTORIC WIN in 2024. Meshawn will be fantastic for the MAGA Movement, and I look forward to working with her to Make Michigan, and America, Great Again. Meshawn Maddock has my Complete and Total Endorsement – SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!
Date: 2025-02-20
I’ll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State. I will be speaking before the Governors tonight in D.C., and will sadly, therefore, be unable to attend. But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
Date: 2025-02-21
Brian Kilmeade: Hi, everyone. Welcome back. Brian Kilmeade Show. It’s my privilege to bring in the 45th and the 47th president of the United States. The first time interviewing you in your second term. Mr. President, how does the first 30 days feel? Donald Trump: Well, I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had. So, that feels good. It’s always nice. We won all seven swing states in addition, and we got the popular vote by millions of votes. But now, I have a much higher poll numbers than even the elections. I’ve never – I’ve never had such wonderful numbers. People have always said, “Well, I don’t know. Donald Trump: Is he doing good or don’t we know or whatever –” But I guess people did feel we did a great job in term one, and that’s how we won. But right now, I just got – I just got the best poll numbers I’ve ever had beating everybody. So, that’s nice. That’s always nice, Brian. Brian Kilmeade: Right. I know. You always like to keep score. Mr. President, the one thing that you inherited – and that is Hamas – since October 7th, they’ve been at war, and the IDF has been at war with Hamas. Yesterday, we got four hostages back in caskets. Two of which were children, nine months and four years old. Brian Kilmeade: And the mom that they gave back was not even the right body. As we wait for six more hostages to be returned on Saturday, what do you think should happen with Benjamin Netanyahu, the IDF, and Hamas? Donald Trump: Well, I speak to him, and he’s certainly – he’s actually not torn. I mean, you know where he stands, and he would like to go in. He just is so angry, and he should be. If he’s not angry, then there’d be something wrong with him, frankly. He is very angry. He’s a very angry man at what happened, especially what happened yesterday with these kids. Donald Trump: These were – they were – they were babies, and it’s rough stuff. It’s rough stuff. And it looked like they were celebrating as they were bringing the bodies back. And you know it’s – the seed is not even believable, Brian, when you see what’s happening. It’s sort of not even believable. It would – it’s so barbaric. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t think that could happen in a modern age, but it happened. Brian Kilmeade: You dropped off 2,000-pound bombs to them that they had ordered a while ago. You said, basically, you’re not going to tell them not to go into any province where Joe Biden was saying, “Don’t go into Rafah. You better stop humanitarian aid here.” Threatening with sanctions. You have a different approach. Its, “Prime Minister, do what you have to do.” So, he’s got the toy – he’s got the decision to make. Brian Kilmeade: Do I worry about the 30-plus hostages that may still be alive, or do I finish off a terrorist organization that’s trying to destroy you? Are you OK either way? Donald Trump: I am. I really am. It’s a – you know, when you see what’s happening here, it’s a hard thing to say. You just wonder the condition of the hostages that they have. One group came in so bad, it looked like it was concentration camp in – in Germany. This was a terrible, terrible thing when I looked. And then, the other day, a group came in which was not as bad – actually, not really close – closely as bad, but I think, really, a lot of the people they have are in such bad shape. Donald Trump: They’re so violent and vicious. I think a lot of people, if you – if you look, I think they’re in really bad shape. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: I really do. I think they’re trying to give the best ones first. And if the best ones are the ones I’m seeing, they’re in really bad shape. And sometimes, you have to make a decision. You know, it’s – it’s a decision that has to be made. It’s a rough decision. But the scene yesterday was really terrible because you’re talking about babies. Donald Trump: And who would do this? Brian Kilmeade: But Mr. President, there’s no scenario where there’s a two-state – Donald Trump: This is really – this is really a low level. There’s no scenario where there’s a two-state solution anymore. I know, Mike Waltz, your national security adviser, says there’s no way Hamas is in charge there. So, there seems a – it seems like we’re the ultimate impasse. Your idea of taking over Gaza, making it more international, well, wasn’t necessarily well received by Jordan or Egypt. Donald Trump: So, what’s next? Do you know? Well, we paid Jordan and Egypt a lot – billions of dollars a year, and I was a little surprised they’d say that, but they did. And I’ll tell you the way to do it is my plan. I think that’s the plan that really works. Brian Kilmeade: OK. Donald Trump: But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it. And then the U.S. would own the site. It’d be owned – no Hamas, and there’d be development. And you’d start all over again with a clean plate. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: Another way of doing it – but I don’t think it would work – would be to do it with people there. But I just don’t see that working. I mean, it’s been – it’s been so many years, so many decades of – of killing on that site. That is one dangerous place. And Hamas would be there, I guess, depending on what happens over the next little while. Donald Trump: But the question is, can you wipe them all out? You know, they’re so interspersed among people, and it’s certainly not an easy thing to do. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: But I like my plan. I thought my plan was good. You get them out. You move them. You build a beautiful community and a permanent community. And you then take the site, the Gaza Strip, you take Gaza, and you – it’s really essentially leveled now. You don’t have too much to do other than, you know, remove debris. Donald Trump: It’s really that – that place is not livable. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And if you gave the people a choice between that and living in a nice community, I think I know where they’d go. But we’ll see what happens. I thought it was – I thought it was great because the location is – you know, it’s a great location. I don’t know why Israel ever gave that up. Why did they give it up? I guess they look at us and say, “Why did you give up the Panama Canal,” Brian? Donald Trump: Right? Brian Kilmeade: It’s all connected. Ariel Sharon decided to do that. Donald Trump: I don’t know. I can’t believe it. You look out on a map, they have the whole ocean. And somebody from Israel, I guess – you know I can’t tell you who, but he was well known. But he decided to give it up. Brian Kilmeade: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s one of – it’s one of the – it’s one of the bad real estate deals. I see a lot of bad real estate deals. That’s one of them right there. Brian Kilmeade: So, Mr. President, cover of every newspaper, just about, as your stance on Ukraine. I was looking up, I almost found no indications that you said anything bad about Zelenskyy up until the last few days. And it seems as though when he didn’t take the mineral deal and was critical of you for having – having a delegation talk in Saudi Arabia with Russia, that was a turning point for you, correct? Donald Trump: I’ve been watching this man for years now as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as the soldiers get decimated where you have old – you have old men and young men. You have men that are too old to fight, and men that are too young to fight. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: I’ve been watching this for years, and it’s a war that shouldn’t have started. I know because I was there and I had it – it didn’t start. Would have never started. If – if I won the election, which I did, it’s a war that never ever would have started. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: So, I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards. And you get sick of it. And you just get sick of it, and I’ve had it. And he then made a deal with us for rare earth and things. And who knows what rare earth it’s worth? You know, but at least it’s something, and who knows what it’s worth? Donald Trump: Who knows if they even have it. But we made a deal with rare earth. And secretary of Treasury, a very good guy, actually went there, and they couldn’t even come close to getting a deal done. And frankly, I wish he didn’t go there, waste all of his time like that. But they couldn’t get close. They met. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And then when he wanted to get it closed, he was unable to meet him again. But – so, it was just a wasted trip, a dangerous trip, too. I didn’t like it that he was doing it because, you know, he’s a good man. I didn’t want him to be – put himself under danger because I had a feeling something like that would happen. Donald Trump: But look what you have. You have a man who’s led a country that had the most beautiful cities. They’re demolished. Had the most beautiful domes. Those domes are the most beautiful in the world of all that type of architecture. Brian Kilmeade: But it’s all Russia’s – but that’s Russia’s fault though, Mr. President. Russia did the – Donald Trump: They’re all demolished, the thousand-year-old domes. And everything’s demolished. I mean, it’s like a demolition site. The whole – it’s sort of like Gaza. In fact, it’s more – at least Gaza has a couple of buildings standing. I mean, this place, you take a look at the demolition of so many of those cities and – and all those people that are killed, never to come back again. Brian Kilmeade: But, Mr. President, that’s all – this – that’s Vladimir Putin’s fault. Don’t you agree? Donald Trump: And I get tired of listening to it. I’ll tell you what. I’ve seen it enough. And then he complains that he’s not at a meeting that we’re having with Saudi Arabia trying to intermediate a piece. Well, he’s been at meetings for three years with a very – with a president who didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Donald Trump: He’s been in the meetings for three years, and nothing got done. So, I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you. He’s been there for three years. He makes it very hard to make deals. But look, what’s happened to his country, it’s been demolished. Brian Kilmeade: But no, no, I hear you. Donald Trump: He’s going to go back. Brian Kilmeade: But, Mr. President, but you know who’s to blame for that. Donald Trump: If and when there’s peace, Brian. Brian Kilmeade: But don’t you think it’s Vladimir Putin that did the invasion unwarranted to try to take back land he had no right to? And don’t you think, fundamentally, that’s that? And if you could just – and now, both sides want to talk, it seems, so we should just get to that point? Donald Trump: They only want to talk because of me. If I wasn’t involved, they wouldn’t be talking to each other. Brian Kilmeade: Sure. Donald Trump: And Russia would continue to, you know, go through Ukraine because they are going through, Brian. They’ve taken a lot of land, and Russia would continue the march through Ukraine. If it wasn’t for me, they wouldn’t be talking at all. I’m the only reason they’re talking. Brian Kilmeade: No – no, I think that everybody agrees with that. We have Macron coming to see you for France and then Starmer for the U.K. this week to move forward. Donald Trump: But they didn’t do anything either. The war is going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: You know, they haven’t done anything. And if – you know, Macron is a friend of mine. And I’ve met with the prime minister, and, you know, he’s a very nice guy. But nobody’s done anything, and I’ve been watching this go on for years. And I’m doing it for one reason. I hate the killing. I hate to see those young people killed. Donald Trump: They’re not Americans. They’re Russians and Ukrainians. I hate to see the killings. Brian Kilmeade: So, I just saw the Polish president just tweeted. And he essentially – he essentially told Zelenskyy to go back and do a deal with you and try to get to get to peace. And he just put that out a short while ago. So, do you believe that the – that the Russians want a deal and even though they’re the aggressors in this situation, they want a deal because they’ve had about 700,000 casualties? Brian Kilmeade: They’re losing 46,000 a month, too. So, do you believe they were sincere in – in Saudi Arabia? Donald Trump: Look, Russia – and who is the Polish – are you talking about Duda? Brian Kilmeade: Duda. Yep. Donald Trump: Was it Duda that put it out? Brian Kilmeade: Yes. Donald Trump: Because you have different leaders in Poland. It’s very interesting. But no, look, are you ready? Russia did not attack during my administration, but I will say he hates Zelenskyy. He hates him with a tremendous passion. You’re lucky you don’t hate people, Brian. You don’t hate anybody. You’ve never – Brian Kilmeade: But it’s mutual. Donald Trump: You’ve never been a hater. Brian Kilmeade: I’ll give you the exact read. He said I suggest that President Zelenskyy remain committed to the course of calm, constructive cooperation with Donald Trump. I trust that goodwill and honesty from a former foundation of the U.S. negotiation strategy. I have no doubt that President Trump is guided by a deep sense of responsibility for global stability and peace. Brian Kilmeade: And he said he just spoke to Zelenskyy. So, are you expecting a call from – would you accept a call from Zelenskyy today? Donald Trump: Yeah, of course. I’m not playing games, I don’t accept or not accept calls. Of course, I’ll take a call from him, but he’s been negotiating for three years. And just so you know, when you say Russia was the attacker, yes – Brian Kilmeade: Yep. Donald Trump: Russia was attacked, and Russia attacked. But there was no reason for them to attack. You could have talked him out. You – there was no reason that he should have attacked. That whole thing was – was going on for years. There was no reason he was going in. It should have never happened. That war should have never happened. Donald Trump: And I’m telling you, the way they talked, I said, you know, these guys are going to go into a war. It’s – this is a – you know, every time I say, “Oh, it’s not Russia’s fault,” I always get slammed by the fake news. But I’m telling you, Biden said the wrong things. Zelenskyy said the wrong things. They got attacked by somebody that’s much bigger and much stronger, which is a bad thing to do. And you don’t do that. Donald Trump: But Russia could have been talked out of that so easily. That should never have been a war. And all those dead people shouldn’t be dead, and all those cities shouldn’t be demolished right now. So, when Zelenskyy said he wasn’t invited to a meeting, I mean, it wasn’t a priority because he did such a bad job in negotiating so far. Donald Trump: Number one, you shouldn’t have had a war. And if you did, it should have been solved and settled immediately. It could have been. This war could’ve been settled three years ago. Brian Kilmeade: Mr. President, I think you’re 100% right. There’s two things Zelenskyy – Zelenskyy made two mistakes in in three days. He criticized you. And then he criticized the meeting. And then he said, “I’m walking away from the deal,” which was, I think, 55% of their rare earth minerals. It would have allowed America to have a stake there, and nobody would attack Ukraine if America had business there. Brian Kilmeade: Having said that, I think if both sides – do you think the Russians should be celebrating right now because they hear the rhetoric coming from the White House? Donald Trump: No, because if I got out, they – I think they really want to make a deal. I do. They – they found it impossible to make a deal with Zelenskyy as his buildings came down. You know, the buildings came down all over. They were just raining – raining down. You got nothing. You know, take a look at what he’s going to – let’s assume I make a deal. Donald Trump: I’m getting him back many demolished cities and the bodies of many dead people. What kind of a deal is that? What kind of a – what kind of a situation is that? There was no reason for that. Brian Kilmeade: Right. No, I hear you. Donald Trump: Now, Russia attacked, but they shouldn’t have let them attack because they wouldn’t have attacked if they – if you had people that knew what they were doing. Joe Biden is a very dumb man. You know that, and I know it. Joe Biden is a very dumb man who was dumber than ever before because, you know, things have happened to him. Donald Trump: He had no idea what he was doing, and everything he said was wrong. And I said, you know what? I think this guy is going to cause a – I think he’s going to cause a war. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And that’s what happened. And I will tell you, Putin could have been talked out of that so easy, but they didn’t know how to talk. Brian Kilmeade: Right. So, Mr. President – Donald Trump: He would’ve been talked out that war so easy, but they didn’t know how to talk. Brian Kilmeade: Right. But you – Donald Trump: They said all the wrong things, and I’m – I’m not trying to make Putin like nicer or better. I’m just telling you the fact. That war should have never happened. Putin would have never gone in. Brian Kilmeade: And we’ll see where we go from here. But, Mr. President, you have some sway with him. You definitely talked to him more than probably anybody else in the world outside China. Donald Trump: He wants to make a deal. Brian Kilmeade: But here’s the thing. They have taken – Donald Trump: And he doesn’t have to make a deal because if he wanted, he’d get the whole country eventually. Brian Kilmeade: But he’s paying a huge price, as you pointed out a couple of weeks ago. They have taken about 20,000 Ukrainian kids, and they basically kidnaped them, gave them new names, and put them into homes in Russia. Can you get Vladimir Putin to reverse that? Could that be one of the precursors to show they sincerely want to negotiate? Donald Trump: I believe I could, yes. I didn’t know too much about it. I was hearing about it yesterday. It’s pretty tough stuff, but I believe I could do that. Yes. Brian Kilmeade: Great. I want to talk about something different. Right now, Kathy Hochul says game on. You drew first blood as you got rid of – after you got rid of congestion pricing in New York City. What’s your response to her? In fact – in fact, here is what she said exactly. Donald Trump: Well, congestion pricing was very bad for New York. Brian Kilmeade: Cut one. Listen to this, Mr. President. Listen to this. Cut one. Donald Trump: And it was going to kill Manhattan in certain parts of New York. Ultimately, when Manhattan goes, the whole state goes. Manhattan is not doing well to start off with. And all you’re doing with congestion pricing is saying, don’t go in, and it’s like $15 a day. Brian Kilmeade: Yep. Donald Trump: And if you’re a shoe salesman or if you’re a waiter or if you’re the owner of a restaurant or the owner of just about any business, it’s a disaster. It’s been a disaster every place it’s been used. And it is an – you know, they call me for help, and yet, nobody’s treated me worse than they have in Manhattan. Donald Trump: They have a rigged court system that no – they treated me worse than anybody. There’s never been treatment like I’ve been treated. And that’s the way they treat people. They go after people. And, you know, people think that, oh, I should come and help. I view it and I say, what a – what a shame. But despite that and despite the way I got – I get treated, I do help. Donald Trump: I helped New York tremendously. And everybody says I shouldn’t even bother with New York the way they – the way they are. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: It’s a – it’s a really vicious place from a legal standpoint from a weaponization – it’s totally weaponized. The courts are weaponized, and they’re horrible. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And I had the best cases, nobody could even believe. Every single one of the pundits, from McCarthy to Turley to Gregg Jarrett to Dershowitz, said they had no case against me whatsoever. It shouldn’t be brought. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And you can’t win in New York. You get these judges that you can’t win. The whole thing is a rigged, horrible system, and it’s crooked and corrupt. Brian Kilmeade: Gotcha. Donald Trump: And they put this congestion pricing on, and it would have destroyed the city even further. You would have had you would have had no business left in Manhattan. Numbers were way down. They need business. They need people to go in. They – basically, it’s like putting up a wall. People weren’t going to go in. Everybody was going to lose their jobs. Donald Trump: Really, it’s a very, very sinister place. What’s taking place in New York over the last eight years or so, it’s a very, very sinister place. Brian Kilmeade: And Mayor Adams is finding that out right now. Donald Trump: With de Blasio a little bit, but it’s gone on and on and on. And it just gets worse and worse, nastier and nastier. And they got to do something about the court system in New York. It is a rigged system. It’s a horrible system. Brian Kilmeade: So – Donald Trump: I had three judges. They were totally dishonest judges. They were the most dishonest judges. Look, I’ve been around. I’ve been to many courts. And I will tell you, these are the most dishonest group of judges I’ve ever had. I’ve never seen anything like it. Brian Kilmeade: I think Mayor Adams would agree with you. Donald Trump: It’s a very corrupt place. And now, on top of everything, what they want to do – and people are leaving, businesses are leaving in record numbers. And people are leaving. And I’ll tell you, Brian, it’s really a shame to see such a great place go so bad. Brian Kilmeade: All right. Donald Trump: And now, they put this horrible payment that you have to have for the privilege of going to a place that’s not doing very well. It’s a loser. And I give my – I give my secretary a great – literally, a great applause for what he did. Brian Kilmeade: All right. That was – that was Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. So, Mr. President, right now, the market dropped a little because Kmart is not for – Kmart – or Walmart is not forecasting growth in revenues. And they look at inflation. Inflation is stubborn. You inherited it. When does it become your economy. Brian Kilmeade: When is it a Trump economy where we get to see if your plans are working. Donald Trump: Well, it takes a period of six months to a year. Biden really screwed up our country. He really screwed it up badly. If you look at the deficits we have with other countries that should have been taken care of, Brian, we have a deficit with China of over $1 trillion, a trillion. And so, it takes a period of time, and we’re going to have a very strong country. Donald Trump: It’s going to take a little while to get it back, just like inflation. You know, I gave him almost no inflation 1.2%, which is perfect. And it went up to 9.9%, went to – I think the worst inflation in the history of our country. But I gave him no inflation, a powerful, great economy. And he screwed it up with two ways. Donald Trump: He spent too much, and Mitch McConnell shouldn’t have approved all that stuff. Mitch McConnell did a very poor job. Very, very poor job. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: He shouldn’t have approved a lot of this stuff. He approved it. It was like – I said, “What does he have on Mitch McConnell?” It’s just so sad to see that. But – but I gave him – and they – what they’ve done to this – what they’ve done to this country is just incredible. Between the open borders and prisoners pouring in and mental patients and everything else pouring in, and it’s not easy to get them. Donald Trump: You know, they’re looking all over the place. They have searches all over the place. But, you know, these are professionals at escaping. And Tom Homan is doing an unbelievable job. And Kristi – Kristi Noem, unbelievable job. Brian Kilmeade: Right. So, can we – Donald Trump: They – they really made a mess of things in foreign policy and in local policy. They have made a mess of this country, but it’ll be straightened out. I would say, in 12 months, we’re going to have a whole different country. Brian Kilmeade: All right. So, yesterday, it just happened. Actually, they voted through the night, that vote-a-rama. And the GOP, the Republican-led Senate, just passed one of two bills. So, this was adopted. It’s a 5248. And they’re going to get financing for defense and financing for the border. But they didn’t do – they didn’t do a re – they didn’t re-up on your tax reform. Brian Kilmeade: You said this is what Senator Thune told me yesterday about what he’s trying to do. Because now, you want one bill, and he’s giving you two. Cut four. Note: [Begin audio clip] Brian Kilmeade: [Audio clip] What would that one bill consist of? And what would the second bill consist of? And why not just do one? John Thune: [Audio clip] Well, I think we’re – I’m game. And if the House can execute on getting one done, more power to them. I think, at the moment, what we’re trying to do is preserve optionality for the president. The president has, you know, campaigned on and said his No. 1 priority is securing the border. And this – this bill that we’re doing today is heavily focused on giving the president the resources he needs to secure the border. Note: [End audio clip] Brian Kilmeade: So, your thought about the one bill that passed? Donald Trump: Yeah. Look, the Republicans mean very well, everybody. But I think Rand Paul voted against it. Is that right? Brian Kilmeade: Yeah. Donald Trump: Did I hear that? Oh, boy. It never ends with these guys. They have to – they have to go and grandstand. But I was very honored by the bill that he did. I think John Thune is doing a fantastic job, but it does – it gives you optionality, Brian. We want one big, beautiful bill, as I say. And, you know, that would include many other things and what we – were approved yesterday. Donald Trump: But to have what we approved yesterday is nice. And we’ll see now how the House is going to do. The House is going with a one-bill concept. The Senate, the two. And the Senate will come along and do – if they see good progress with the House, they’d rather have everything included also. But we’re going to see what they – we’re going to see what the House comes up with. Donald Trump: They’re working very hard. They think they’re going to get there on one bill, and then the Senate would be able to vote on the one big, beautiful bill that would include taxes and tax cuts and really the biggest – it will be the biggest tax cuts in American history. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And I would think it’s very hard for even Democrats to vote against that. Brian Kilmeade: So, it sounds like you’re almost open to two. You’re still feeling like, let me see what happens, right? Donald Trump: As long as we get to the same point, you know, two bills. Now, what they approved yesterday is one part of it, and then they approve another part of it. And, you know, you could – I guess you could make the case. You could do three. You could do for 10, as long as we get along – you know, as long as we get them all added up, and it’s the same thing. Donald Trump: And, you know, I think we’re in very good shape. I think that’s a good signal that – I think it’s a very good signal that we – we got the one bill passed because there’s great unity. We have great unity in the party. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: The House has – is great and the Senate is great. We have fantastic unity. And I think it’s going to go good. If – if this didn’t get approved, the Democrats essentially would have approved the largest tax increase in the history of our country. And I don’t think that works very well for them politically. Brian Kilmeade: Right. And they keep saying your tax reform was for the rich. It is not. It was for the middle class, and everyone benefited across the line. That’s one thing I don’t think you guys do a good job pushing back on. In fact, a lot of people who were wealthy got hit on your tax reform bill. But I want to talk about, if I can. Brian Kilmeade: Forty media outlets, including ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, Newsmax, all want you to reinstall the AP because they fear that another president will come in and ban Fox and Newsmax. Do you worry about the precedent of banning something like the Associated Press, even though you have – might have legitimate concerns about their reporting? Donald Trump: I don’t care if they come in or not. It doesn’t matter to me, the fake news. They’re all fake. Most of them. So, if they don’t come in, that doesn’t matter to me. And they’re getting the highest ratings they’ve ever had since I’ve had – you know, since, since – look, if they had somebody else, nobody would be watching them. Donald Trump: And Sean Hannity had a show the other night with Elon Musk. He set like a record on ratings. And if they don’t want to come in and interview and do news conferences, that’s OK with us. We just close down the room; let them find out how to do it some other way. Associated Press is a third-rate outfit with a first-rate name. Donald Trump: It’s got a great name for many years ago, but it’s third rate. It’s run badly. It’s radical left. Colvin, their reporter, the primary reporter, is terrible. She’s a horrible person and a horrible reporter, a terrible reporter. And if they don’t want to come in and if some people don’t want to come in – the one good thing about today is there’s so many. Donald Trump: You know, there’s so many media outlets that – look, I got elected probably by using the nontraditional outlets. Joe Rogan and a group of people that a lot of people didn’t hear of so much. I did interviews, and I’d have 100 million people. With Joe, I had 250 million people. And, you know – I mean, there’s a whole lot of other people that will take their seats if they don’t want to come in. I don’t care. Donald Trump: I really don’t care. Brian Kilmeade: But the fact that you said they wouldn’t put Gulf of America in, so you told them to stay out. So, you’re just saying forget it. Just come back in? Donald Trump: Well, I have – here’s the thing. I legally have – the Gulf of America is now, you know, from the Gulf of Mexico. It’s called the Gulf of America. And it should have for years. But, you know, nobody thought about it. I think of things that nobody thought about. And if you look at the frontage, we have most of the frontage on the Gulf of America – what we call now the Gulf of America. Donald Trump: By the way, everyone’s accepted it. Google Maps accepted it. Just about everybody accepted it. And – Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: AP wants to be cute. You know, AP is radical-left lunatics. They are very – I don’t think I’ve had a good story in AP in 10 years. They don’t do good stories. And so, I view that a little bit, too. And that’s why they don’t want to do this. They don’t want to admit. Everybody says it’s the greatest idea. Donald Trump: Why didn’t somebody think of it? Well, I have a very fertile mind, and I think of things. And I also got Mount McKinley put back. Mount McKinley was taken away by people that shouldn’t have done that. He was a very good president. He left Teddy Roosevelt a large amount of money. He was a tariff president, and he left Teddy Roosevelt a lot of money. Brian Kilmeade: Yep. Donald Trump: And Teddy Roosevelt took all that money, and he went in and did a good job. He built the park system and lots of other things. Brian Kilmeade: All right. Donald Trump: He built the Panama Canal, by the way. He built the Panama Canal, which we have to take back because the Panama Canal is being run by China. It was one of the dumbest deals ever made in the history of our country. We lost 38,000 people. We – we – it was the most expensive development ever built at that time. Donald Trump: But if you bring it up to this day, to this day, it was the most expensive development ever built, over $1 trillion. And think of this, Brian. The Panama Canal, we lost 38,000 people, and they – they gave it away for $1 for no reason. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: They gave it away for $1 to Panama. You know, they wanted to be politically correct. And we’ve got to take it back because China has taken over the Panama Canal. And that wasn’t the deal. They were charging our ships more than they were charging regular ships. Think of it. They were charging more for our ships. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: They were charging more for our Navy than for other navies. It’s ridiculous what happened. And we’re taking it back. Brian Kilmeade: Yesterday you called the U.S.A. hockey team. They lost in overtime to Canada, but the way they stood up in Canada really stood out and upset the team. They lose in overtime yesterday. What did you say to the U.S.A. hockey team? Because they were all motivated afterwards, very patriotic people. And what do you say to Justin Trudeau who’s kind of taunting you afterwards saying, Canada will always be for Canadians, and we’ll always, to paraphrase, will always own hockey. Donald Trump: Well, we won the first game, and the second game was a great game. It could have gone either way. Justin’s a loser, always has been. And, you know, he’s – he’s just a guy that really doesn’t – I think he’s done a very bad job for Canada. He’s taken it radical left, and he’s going to lose the election it looks like pretty big if he even runs. Donald Trump: I don’t know. Brian Kilmeade: He’s not running. Donald Trump: He’s not going to run. Looks like he’s not going to run. That’s a smart move. Because he wouldn’t have a chance of winning. So, you know, Justin’s sort of a nice guy, but he’s a loser. And the game was a fantastic game. I watched the end of it. I was making a speech to the governors of our country, and so I couldn’t watch most of it. But I got back. Donald Trump: I watched the end. It was a great game. I mean, both teams played really well. I thought it was – I thought it was a terrific thing. And I congratulate the Canadian team because the American team is fantastic. But they each won one game. Brian Kilmeade: But here’s the thing, Mr. President. They booed our national anthem. And in Boston, we did not boo theirs. Are you proud of your – you’re proud of the people that attended? Donald Trump: Yeah, I think it’s great that they didn’t. I think it’s great that they didn’t. And we have a good relationship with Canada – not with Justin because Justin’s really – he’s too far radical left. He’s so radical left. He’s – he’s killing Canada. Canada is doing terribly right now. And his – his policies, his radical-left Marxist policies have absolutely destroyed Canada. Donald Trump: Canada is in bad shape. Brian Kilmeade: So – so, Mr. President, a couple of things. You’re trying to get LIV and the PGA together. What kind of progress did you make? And could your next project be college sports, between the NIL and everything else. Their money’s pouring in, but certain colleges are getting locked out. Do you – are you concerned about the direction of college sports? Brian Kilmeade: And is that something you want to get involved in? Donald Trump: Well, that’s a decision in colleges that should have been appealed. I mean, I couldn’t believe how easily they seemed to have given up on that. And I don’t like what’s happening in college sports. I don’t like that decision that was made. College sports was so great for so many years. And they go in and they win one case. Donald Trump: I don’t know that that case was appealed. You know, I won a lot of cases, as you know, better than anybody on appeal. So, I don’t know what’s – what’s going on with that. That’s – I think it was a terrible decision and very bad for college sports. Absolutely. Brian Kilmeade: All right. Do you see your playing – do you see yourself playing a role in that of maybe bringing sides together to try to get some – Donald Trump: Well, they’re still fighting it, but are they fighting it? They didn’t fight the decision. Why didn’t somebody go in and appeal the decision? Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: Now, maybe they did, but it doesn’t seem to me that they did. But maybe they did. Brian Kilmeade: OK. Donald Trump: But, you know, you’ve got to fight these cases right until the end. You’ve got to take them up to the Supreme Court. You have judges. You have radicalized judges. But, you know, you have to take these cases up to the Supreme Court sometimes. It just seems to me that they didn’t use the power of – of the appellate courts. Brian Kilmeade: Mr. President, I know you got to run, but I have a couple of things. Number one, Booker T. Washington needs to be in your African American, Black History Month. I think he’s the type of guy that he was teamed with Teddy Roosevelt. Like Frederick Douglass – you will just love like Andrew Jackson, who’s – who made the cut again in the Oval Office. Brian Kilmeade: And number two, if you could bring me back to this moment: You’re sitting in the White House. And when you were marched down in Georgia and you’re taking your mug shot and you’re sitting there by yourself, and then you got to walk out, get in your car, and go back. Did you think to yourself, I – “I’m going to be president. Brian Kilmeade: It’s just a matter of time.” Or were you thinking possibly at that moment, “I don’t know if I could turn this thing around.” Too many cases, too much momentum in the other direction. Donald Trump: Well, it was a very low period. It was a horrible thing. We had some real sleazy, corrupt prosecutors doing things in many cases. I mean, Deranged Jack Smith, Fani Willis. She calls herself Fani, I think. Over absolutely bogus cases. I have it in New York, you know, with the – with cases in New York that are just so – so disgraceful. Donald Trump: You know, so disgraceful how – how corrupt it is. And everybody knows it. Everybody knows it. You know, whether you like these people or not, but every one of the pundits that you have on the show all the time, not one of them said that I should have been sued on any of this stuff. It was all made-up stuff, especially the New York stuff. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And just all made-up stuff with crooked judges, corrupt judges, very corrupt judges. And it’s a shame. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: So, I knew that, and I knew that – I knew how crooked the system was. In New York, they wouldn’t even let me go to the courts that you were supposed to go to. They had these judges hanging onto cases for dear life. They wouldn’t let those cases go. Vicious, vicious stuff. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And – and people know it. And that’s one of the reasons businesses aren’t coming into New York. But if you would have – if you would have told me, you know, what was my attitude, then? I think, honestly, Brian, my attitude was just fighting. I wasn’t thinking about losing. I was thinking about fighting. Brian Kilmeade: Fighting. Donald Trump: Because I knew how corrupt they are. And when I had to take a mug shot, that was a low – a low point. But when I looked at how the mug shot turned out, it was one of the – it was a – it was a picture that somehow got snapped up by the whole world. It’s – they rate it now, the No. 1 mug shot. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: It used to be Frank Sinatra and Elvis and – Brian Kilmeade: Now, it’s you. Donald Trump: They were some pretty good mug shots taken. But this was – this has blown everything away. You understand what I mean by that. So, it started off as a – you know, it’s a hard – look, it was a horrible thing to have to go through that, and it taught me a lot. It taught me that we have to have an honest court system. Donald Trump: We also have to have an honest press. We don’t have an honest press. Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: And many of our courts, not everywhere, but in particular in New York, they’re so corrupt. And what happened in – in Georgia was a very corrupt prosecutor. That was a very, very corrupt prosecutor. You know that better than any – Brian Kilmeade: Right. Donald Trump: If you look at what happened in Georgia with Fani Willis. Brian Kilmeade: Yeah, I remember. Donald Trump: That was a very corrupt situation, too. I mean, they indicted so many people. So many people were so badly hurt. And they were hurt for nothing, for being patriots. Brian Kilmeade: And you – and you – Donald Trump: And they were old – some of the people were very old people. They loved our country. They love our country. I hope they still love it, and they were treated so badly. But I think I was really thinking – people do ask me that question. I think I was only thinking about winning. Brian Kilmeade: That’s amazing. Mr. President, thanks so much. I appreciate your loyalty to the radio show. It’s been a fascinating 30 days. I look forward to covering the next four years. Thanks so much. Mr. President. Donald Trump: Hey, Brian. Brian Kilmeade: Yes? Donald Trump: I have no loyalty to your radio show. I only have loyalty to you. So, if you’re doing radio, that’s good. If you’re doing television, that’s good, too. And if you’re writing something – if you ever reduce yourself to that, that’ll be fine, too. OK? Brian Kilmeade: I’m honored with that comment. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Have a great day. Donald Trump: So long. Thank you, Brian.
Date: 2025-02-22
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. And a very special hello to CPAC. It’s been a long time. We’ve loved being back and it’s hotter than ever. This place is packed. You got to see outside. They don’t know what’s happening. They have no idea what’s happening. And our friend is here from Argentina and a friend is here from Poland. Donald Trump: Stand up. Great job. Great job. Thank you. Thank you very much. Welcome back to the nation’s capital where our movement is thriving, fighting, winning and dominating Washington like never before. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this before. They used to have little, smaller crowds here. It’s a little bigger. Donald Trump: The fraudsters, liars, cheaters, globalists and deep state bureaucrats are being sent packing. The illegal alien criminals are being sent home. We’re draining the swamp and we’re restoring government by the people, for the people. For years, Washington was controlled by a sinister group of radical left Marxists, warmongers and corrupt special interests who drained our wealth, attacked our liberties, obliterated our borders, and sucked our country dry. Donald Trump: Not any longer. But on November 5th, we stood up to all the corrupt forces that were destroying America. We took away their power. We took away their confidence. They lost their confidence. You know? Do you ever watch? They lost their confidence? Oh, it’s so nice to watch. Donald Trump: And we took back our country. And we must be doing something right, because we’ve got the highest poll numbers that I’ve ever had and that any republican president has ever had. Donald Trump: And our approval rating is now the highest ever across all demographics. Rasmussen just came out at 56 percent. Insider Advantage, 56. RMG research, 57 percent. And we have many polls in the mid 60s, one at 71 percent. We like that, 71. And according to YouGov, a big deal, 70 percent of Americans believe that what we are doing is right and we are keeping our promises. Donald Trump: That’s all we’re doing when you think, is keeping our promises. That’s all we had to do. And their promises weren’t worthwhile to go and vote for. They loved men playing in women’s sports, open borders, little things like that. But don’t tell them, don’t tell them, keep it quiet. We’ll tell them about a week before the next election. Donald Trump: No, keep it quiet. Let them think it’s a great thing, what they’re doing. You saw Maine yesterday, right, the governor of Maine? She’s fighting to keep men in women’s sports. Do you ever see what happens to a woman when a woman boxes a man who transitioned to womanhood? Did you ever see what happens? It’s not pretty. Donald Trump: It’s not pretty. Let her to that fight, let them all do that fight because I think that’s about a 90/10 issue and I can’t figure out who the 10 percent are, nobody can. So today, I want to say thank you to all of the incredible patriots of CPAC and all of the incredible patriots in our country, 77 million. Donald Trump: And it’s actually much more than that because despite that, they cheated like hell. It was just too big to rig. It was too big to rig. 77 million. Remember, you used to go–I said, look, we’re leading in the polls by a lot. Don’t believe the polls, just go and vote. You got to vote. We got to make it too big to rig. Donald Trump: And they tried, but it was too big to rig, one of the great statements. We love it. Because everybody went and voted. We fought through hell together, but in the end, we achieved the great liberation of America. We’re liberating our country right now. We’re doing all these things that you’re reading about. Donald Trump: We’re liberating our country. I first spoke to this gathering 14 years ago and I won your straw poll. I didn’t know anything about a straw poll. They took this big straw poll and I won by like 27 points and I figured, you know, that’s good, maybe I should keep doing it. And I did, and I became president. Isn’t that great? Donald Trump: Who would think? Who would think? But he became president too. He’s a MAGA guy top, make Argentina great again, right? Make Argentina great again. I kept hearing about this man. I kept hearing about this man in beautiful Argentina and it is beautiful, but boy, did it have inflation. Inflation made it less beautiful. Donald Trump: I hear you’re doing fantastically. We’re very proud of you, actually. And make Argentina great again. Thank you very much. Great honor to have you. But now it’s my honor to address you for the first time as your 47th president of the United States. Great honor. [Audience chants] I want to begin by thanking Matt and Mercedes Schlapp for the incredible job they do and everyone they put together. Donald Trump: They put together an amazing team, the American Conservative Union, for organizing this event. Along, oh, you have some big players here, Senator Ted Cruz, Eric Schmidt, Jim Banks of Indiana. Where’s Eric? Where is Eric? Hello, Eric. You can see Eric anywhere, if he’s right in the back of the room, he stands up. They’re all good. Donald Trump: These are great people, Representatives Riley Moore; James Comer, Harriet Hagerman, Byron Donalds. Our great attorney general, she’s going to be great, Pam Bondi. Where’s Pam? I don’t know where she is. So many people. So many people. Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary Chris Wright. Oh, he’s going to get that energy out of the ground, Secretary Scott Turner. Donald Trump: Our next ambassador to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik. Who just gave a great speech, by the way. A very good friend of mine, is this guy central casting though, Tom Homan, is he central casting? Where is–hello, Tom. I love that. How can I love a guy like that, but I do. He’s doing a great job. Thank you, Tom, very much. Donald Trump: Thank you. Appreciate it. Arkansas governor, Sarah Sanders. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. And Pennsylvania Attorney General, Dave Sunday. I love that name. We’re also honored to be joined by President Duda of Poland, who’s a fantastic man and a great friend of mine. And we got 84 percent of the Polish people that voted for us, so you must be doing something right, huh, hanging out with Trump. Donald Trump: And again, President Melaye of Argentina, thank you very much. Thank you very much. What a great guy. And the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico. Robert? Thank you, Robert. Thank you. Nice to see you. The leader of the UK Reform Party, who by the way, did really well in that last election. I’ve been his friend for a long time and I wasn’t sure, am I supposed to be his friend or not, but it never mattered to me if he did well or not. Donald Trump: I always liked him, but it’s easier to like him when he got the kind of votes he got. He really took it by storm and they say he’s going to do even better this time. Nigel Farage, where is Nigel? Thank you, Nigel. Thank you. What a great guy. The leader of Spain’s Vox party, Santiago Abascal. Thank you, Santiago. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. I thought that was you. Thank you very much. Great job you’re doing. And a friend of mine, Eduardo Bolsonaro of Brazil. The Chamber of Deputies. Thank you. Thank you. Say hello to your father. Thank you very much. Great family. Great gentleman and a great family. And our great First Lady, Melania, is watching us right now on television. Donald Trump: So give her a hand. Give her a hand. Whoa. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, she’s going to be happy. That’s so nice. We love our First Lady, everybody does. With the help of so many incredible supporters here today, we’re going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come. Donald Trump: I think we’re going to do fantastically well in the midterms. You know, in theory, the one that wins the presidency does not do well in the midterms but I think this is going to be a change. We’re at a level–I don’t think we’ve been at this level maybe ever as the republican party. We’re a bigger, better, stronger party than ever before, more people in our party than ever before. Donald Trump: But the people have given us a resounding mandate for dramatic change in Washington and we are going to deliver it. We’re going to use it. And we’re going to make America great again by using it, so it’s going to be something. But think of it at the presidential level, we won the popular vote by millions and millions of votes. Donald Trump: We swept all seven swing states, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, all by great margins. We won 85 percent of all of the counties in America. That means that map was red. Did you ever see the map? Did you see the certified map? Where is it? I want to see a certified map. Donald Trump: It’s all red. You can hardly find the blue. Think of this, they won 525 counties and we won 2,600 counties. It’s the biggest margin ever recorded. And incredibly, for the first time ever, all 50 states shifted toward the republican party. It’s never happened before. So it was indeed too big to rig. We won the largest number of African American votes in Republican history by far. Donald Trump: We won the largest number of Hispanic American votes, any republican ever. Hispanic Americans, we love you, the energy, the brilliance of Hispanic Americans. We want all of the cities and towns along the Texas border. Whereas before Iran, we won none. We never used to win any. I got a call from our great governor of Texas who said, President, you just won every single town along the Texas border to Mexico. Donald Trump: I said, oh, is that good? He said, it hasn’t happened since reconstruction. I said, define reconstruction for me. He said, that means essentially the Civil War. That’s a long time. But that was when I first heard about it, actually. Our party has become the proud voice of hard-working citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. Donald Trump: And I think one of the main reasons, not that we’re conservative or not that we’re anything else, we are the party of common sense. It’s about common sense, right? It’s all about common sense. Over the past month, we’ve confirmed an all-star team of warriors, patriots, visionaries and put the America First agenda into action. Donald Trump: I see Doug Burgum sitting right over there. I tell you, he was so good. I looked at him, I said I got to have him here. I got to have him. He was a great governor. He’s involved with a little thing called energy. He’s got the Department of Interior, and Chris Wright has the Department of Energy. So Chris has no energy and Doug has all of the energy. Donald Trump: Chris has more interior, but he doesn’t have–so I merged them. So now you have an energy guy and you have the guy with all the energy and you’re going to drill, baby, drill, aren’t you, huh? Drill, baby, drill. And Catherine, stand up. His wife is incredible. She is such an incredible woman, incredible woman. Donald Trump: He got very lucky, Doug. It’s good to be successful, isn’t it, Doug? She’s an incredible woman. He’s an incredible guy. In addition to the great cabinet secretaries we have here today, we confirmed Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to end the woke insanity and rebuild our military. Pete is fantastic. Thank you. Donald Trump: To stop the weaponization of federal law enforcement, I know about that I think better than any human being on earth. This week we swore in a new director of the FBI, somebody that everybody wanted, Kash Patel. Kash is great. He’s a popular guy. He went through. He went through with a blessing of a lot of good people too. Donald Trump: I’ll tell you, it was great. To end the politicization of our intelligence agencies, we confirmed Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who is something, very respected, highly respected. And to make America healthy again, we confirm Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Great guy. Donald Trump: We need him. We need him. There’s a number on autism, as an example, with children, autism. And you go back 15 years, it was from 10,000 to 20,000. You had like one in 10,000 to 20,000. Some say 10,000, some say 20,000, but it was in that vicinity. That’s a big vicinity. Now it’s 1 in 36 babies have autism, 1 in 36. Think, it was one in probably 20,000 people. Donald Trump: Now it’s 1 in 36. There’s something wrong. Something’s wrong, and Bobby is going to find it, working with Doctor Oz, by the way, working with Doctor Oz. Together, we’ve achieved more in four weeks than most administrations achieve in four years. We made a lot of progress. I heard O’Reilly last night say, Donald Trump for the first four weeks is the greatest president ever in the history of our country. Donald Trump: That was O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly, he’s all right. You know who he said second was, George Washington. That’s not bad. I beat George Washington. I love beating George Washington. Thank you, Bill. On our first day in office, we declared a national emergency at our southern border after years of politicians using our military to defend foreign borders while leaving our country defenseless and helpless. Donald Trump: We deployed a group of people, active duty troops to defend our border and repel the invasion of our country. This was an invasion. You know, we had a great first term, a really great first term. And I called it an invasion and we had great numbers, but now we have the best numbers we’ve ever had. We’ve never had numbers like this. Donald Trump: We’ve done it all in four weeks. Think of it. That was Tom Homan, Kristi Noem, the whole group. On day one, I ended the catch and release. I reinstated remain in Mexico and I signed an order that will end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens because it wasn’t meant for these children. Donald Trump: It wasn’t meant for people that escaped or invaded, came into our country illegally. It was meant for the children of slaves. Because when it was done many, many years ago, it was during a very tough period in this country’s history. And that was meant for the children of slaves. I wish people would understand that, so they could get this thing approved and we don’t have millions and millions of people coming into our country and they shouldn’t be here. Donald Trump: This week, I also canceled temporary protected status for migrants from Haiti. They’re pouring into our country, pouring in. If I weren’t elected president, there’d be nobody in Haiti anymore. They were pouring in at levels, from other countries too, all over Africa, the Congo, all over South America. And they were coming in from prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums, jails and gang members. Donald Trump: And you have to see gang members, drug lords, people that are drug addicted. They were sending them all into our ridiculous and very stupid Biden open border. Our borders czar was Kamala. I haven’t said that name in a while. I haven’t said that name. No, I haven’t said that name in a while, Kamala. I’ll bet nobody knows her last name. Donald Trump: Nobody ever knows her last name. Even during the campaign, you’d have to say Kamala. It’s strange, a little different name. Kamala, because the last name was Harris. I used to say, Senator Harris, nobody knew who the hell I was talking about. So I had to go, Kamala. But think of it, I was beating Joe badly, really badly and they changed him. Donald Trump: I’m the only one that ever had to beat two people. I had to beat two, had to beat two. We beat two, we. I didn’t beat, you beat. You beat two people. No, he was doing bad. That’s like the great Dana White. He has a fight and one guy is doing really badly, so they take him out. They put another guy in to fight the same guy that’s–I had that, never happened before. Donald Trump: A lot of things we do never happen before. Do you ever notice that? We’re the first at everything. So we beat two candidates. They said, who did you run against? Well, we ran against Biden and we ran against Kamala Harris. But illegal border crossings now have plummeted by almost 100 percent. The border czar never called the border, never called the great people of the border. Donald Trump: They have unbelievable–I called them so much, they couldn’t take my calls. They hated me, but then they became to love me. You know why? Because the border people want to have great borders, but you have to call them on occasion. How are we doing today? Pete, how are we doing? You have to call. And we called the right guys. Donald Trump: I became friends–the Border Patrol endorsed me and these people, you have no idea. They weren’t supposed to because you’re not supposed to do that. I don’t think you’re allowed to do it, actually. They did it anyway. They said this is crazy, but these are great people, and ICE and our general law enforcement. Donald Trump: And by the way, our great, great firemen and firewomen too. They were great. They all endorsed us. With the police, we got high 90s in terms of–and many of them were unionized. We have a young lady, who’s right now going for the Department of Labor, and she tends to be a little bit on the slightly left of center. Donald Trump: And everybody said, why did I do that? I said, you know why I did that, because unions like her and labor likes her and a lot of people like her and she’s very solid, very strong and she’s going to do the right thing. But they all voted for us. They didn’t vote for me. They voted for us. We got the teamsters, we got the firefighters, we got the police, we got the auto workers. Donald Trump: We’re so great. We had tremendous support. So I think it’s nice to give them a person in the center, because that’s what she is. She’s going to be very good, I think. But a lot of people say, why did you do that? I said, because I want to do something nice for these people that voted for me. Oh, gee, what a great political move that was. Donald Trump: Now they’re all saying, what a great political move. No, it’s all common sense, remember that? Remember that. Sean O’Brien was fantastic. The whole group, they were great. Over the past few weeks, we’ve begun the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a very moderate man, but he was very strong on that. Donald Trump: He didn’t like people running into our country and taking over our country. I’ll tell you, I had four years, I don’t know if you had this, I couldn’t stand it. Don’t get angry. Donald, don’t get angry, please. I couldn’t stand it, watching these people come in from jails and mental institutions. And the worst criminals in the street, gang members being dropped off in busses and bussed into our country. Donald Trump: I couldn’t stand it. So I said, I’m going to run for president again, and now we don’t have that problem. Now we don’t have that problem anymore. We don’t have that problem anymore. We now have the best border we’ve ever had. And by the way, if they could ever find my world’s favorite chart ever in history, I’ll show you what it was when I left and now it’s even slightly better. Donald Trump: Can you drop that chart, do you think? I don’t know. I never tell them about this, but they used to drop it like magic. If they can, they’ll drop it. Who the hell knows. But it’s my favorite chart, my favorite chart in history. We’re liberating communities like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio, that have been occupied by illegal alien criminals from all over the world. Donald Trump: We’re rescuing the Americans whose jobs have been stolen, whose wages have been robbed and whose way of life has been absolutely destroyed. And under the Trump administration, our country will not be turned into a dumping ground. We’re not going to do it. We’re going to have a great country. Again, it’s going to happen soon, a lot sooner than you think. Donald Trump: And we’re going to have so much money coming in from tariffs, oh. You’re going to say, your Senators and your Congressmen are going to say, please, sir, please, you’re making us look so bad. We have so much money coming in. I didn’t know this was going to happen. Please don’t do this to us. We look very bad. Donald Trump: But they’re great. I’ll tell you, the republican Senators, just they’re sticking together. The republican Congressmen and women are sticking together. And every once in a while, you have one that wants a little action or something. I don’t know what it is. It’s so sad to see. I just hate to see it. I hate to see it, but they’re sticking together. Donald Trump: One thing about the democrats, they have rotten, horrible policy, the worst policy in history, but they stick together. We have great policy, but sometimes they don’t stick, but they’ve been sticking for us. They’ve been sticking. And I think the speaker and the leader have done a fantastic job. That’s Thune and Johnson. Donald Trump: And I think they’ve done–two guys really working hard and doing a–they’re really doing a great job, but we have a lot to stick with. We have a lot to stick together for because what we’ve done has never been done before. Nobody’s ever seen anything like this and nobody’s ever seen four weeks like we’ve had, especially the first four weeks. Donald Trump: You know, that’s like if you golf, when you sink that first four-footer in the first hole, it gives you confidence. On the next hole, you sink another one. Now you go into that third hole and you can’t–and by the time you get to the fifth hole, you feel you can’t miss, right, like a baseball player. He gets up and he hits the first one. Donald Trump: And then the second at bat, he hits that one. And we have great confidence, and they’ve lost their confidence, as I said. They’ve really lost their confidence. I watched them. They’re really screwed up. I watched this MSNBC, which is a threat to democracy, actually. They’re stone-cold mean, but they’re stuttering. Donald Trump: They’re all screwed up. They’re all mentally screwed up. Their ratings have gone down the tubes. I don’t even talk about CNN. CNN is sort of like–I don’t know, they’re pathetic, actually. But MSNBC was mean their ratings are absolutely down. This Rachel Maddow, what does she have? She’s got nothing, nothing. Donald Trump: She took a sabbatical where she worked one day a week. They paid her a lot of money. She gets no ratings. I should go against her in the ratings because I’ll tell you she gets no ratings. All she does is to talk about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, all different subjects, Trump this, Trump that. But these people are really–I mean, they lie. Donald Trump: They shouldn’t be allowed to lie every night. They are really a vehicle of the democrat party. They should be paying–is that Gordon? Yes, is that Gordon? The great Gordon Chang. Is that Gordon? Stand up, Gordon. Wow! We have everybody here today. Thank you very much. How am I doing on China? Am I doing good? Donald Trump: Am I doing good on China? Tell you one thing, nobody’s ever done like I’ve done on China. Nobody ever let people know what was happening with respect to China. And I happen to like President Xi, and I have tremendous respect for the people of China, love the people of China. But we’ve been treated very unfairly by China and many other countries and we’re not being unfairly treated anymore. Donald Trump: We had that down to a science in the first term and then they lost it. We lost over $1 trillion to China this last year under Biden, crooked Joe Biden. What do we like better crooked Joe or sleepy Joe, ready? Ready, crooked Joe or sleepy, ready? Crooked Joe? Sleepy Joe? Got to stay with crooked. He had one ability that I didn’t have. Donald Trump: He could do something that I couldn’t do. I don’t say that, because he was a horrible golfer. Remember, he challenged me during the debate to a golf match. He said I’m a six handicap. I said you’re not a 36 handicap. He said he’s a six and then he said, well, I’m eight. Remember? I said that was quick, picked up two strokes. Donald Trump: He said, no, I’m an eight, but he’s not a 36 handicap, but he had one ability that was amazing. He could go with cameras on him, television, fake news on him. Probably because he knows they wouldn’t cover it badly. They covered him as well as you can cover him. How the hell can you cover the guy well? But he had this incredible ability. Donald Trump: He could barely walk in the sand. Somebody thought he looked great in a bathing suit, and he’d walk in the sand pulling a thing that weighed about six ounces. You know, those aluminums? The aluminum is very good. It’s meant for children and very old people to lift, right? So he would put it down and he’d put it down and he’d fall into it and he’d immediately fall asleep in front of the media. Donald Trump: I could never do that. That’s the only thing. That’s the only thing. I could never do it. No, he was sleepy Joe, but he was crooked as hell. You know, there’s no question. He was a sleepy, crooked guy, terrible, terrible president. He was the worst president in the history of our country. I don’t care, I’ll say it. Jimmy Carter passed away recently and he passed away a happy man. Donald Trump: He was a happy man when he passed away because he said that it’s not even close. Joe was the worst and believe me, I have to clean up the mess. I’m cleaning up the mess and it is a mess, on the border, with inflation, to go over. Every single thing he touched turned to shit, OK, everything. It’s true. It’s true. Donald Trump: No, that’s true. Now Franklin Graham’s angry at me. You know that, Franklin wrote me a letter. He said, I love your speeches, I love them, I love them so much, but they’d be better if you would never use foul language. And I told him, I said, Franklin–Franklin Graham is a great guy, by the way, does a great job. Donald Trump: The son of the great Billy Graham, right? But I said to Franklin, you know, sometimes you need it for emphasis. And he said, no, no, they’d be even better if you wouldn’t use any bad language. That’s not really a terrible word, you know, but that’s a much more appropriate word, a better–what word would I use to describe? Donald Trump: What word could I use? And we have to be truthful too, so you know? All countries are now taking their illegal aliens back, even those that stated strongly, we will never take them back, don’t ever send them to us. But they said that during the Biden administration. They never said it during my administration. Donald Trump: Venezuela’s taken them back. Colombia’s taking them back. Remember, Colombia said we will not take them back, he said. And within about 13 minutes, I think, we would love to take them back. In fact, we will send our planes to pick them up. Remember? And they said, what happened, what happened? And you see these Venezuelan planes loaded up with some real nice people. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t have wanted to be the pilot on any of those planes. But they know we’re not playing games. And just this week, I officially designated bloodthirsty cartels and murderous gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, something which Biden didn’t want to do and nobody wanted to do. It’s true. The full might and power of the federal government now be dedicated to eradicating MS13, Tren de Aragua, that’s the Venezuelan prison gangs. Donald Trump: These are very nice fellow. The only thing good about them is they make our criminals look like nice people. It’s true. Remember, when they used to say, people that come in from foreign countries are nice people? These are wonderful people. These are good people. They’re not murderers. They’re not terrible. Donald Trump: These people make us look like babies, OK? You know the Hell’s Angels? They’re among the nicest people on earth when you compare them to these thugs and the Hell’s Angels actually love our country if you can believe that. They actually do. But their members and their leaders in the United States will be hunted down. Donald Trump: I’m talking about MS13. They’re hunting them down. We removed tens of thousands MS13, Tren de Aragua, routed out arrested and expelled from our soil like the savage monsters that they are. We don’t have anybody coming up from Argentina. Nobody’s coming up from Argentina. To facilitate the mass removal of criminal aliens, I also issued an executive order to make available the full capacity and detention. Donald Trump: We’re going to use Guantanamo Bay. We have a detention facility that’s actually massive. Nobody even knew it existed, holds thousands of thousands of prisoners. We never used it. For four long years, you had a President who put illegal aliens up in penthouse suites and beautiful hotels on Park Avenue, on Madison Avenue, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Donald Trump: Now you have a president who is stamping their ticket to Gitmo, on a one-way trip back to the places from which they came, wonderful places. Big difference. My administration is also moving swiftly to save the US economy from the train wreck of inflation and worse that Joe Biden created. I withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Accord. Donald Trump: It was a disaster. That was a disaster. I terminated the Green New scam. One of the greatest hoaxes ever played on this country is the Green New scam. We spent trillions of dollars on this nonsense and just a total hoax. It really set back our country, I want to tell you, monetarily and every other way. And I canceled Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate, where everybody has to have an electric vehicle. Donald Trump: And if you want an electric car, get an electric car. If you want a gasoline powered car, if you want to have a hybrid, you get it. The only thing you can’t do is a hydrogen powered car. You know why? They said it really works great, but when it doesn’t work, you never find the body. That’s a bad sign. When it doesn’t work, they found the body on a tree about 250 yards up the road. Donald Trump: It’s seriously bad. So we’ll leave hydrogen out of it for a little while, I think, or maybe permanently. I’d say permanently. To crush inflation by slashing spending, I imposed an immediate federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze and a foreign aid freeze. We’re giving to countries that hate us. We’re giving billions and billions of dollars to countries that hate us and I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency. Donald Trump: You probably haven’t heard of it, which is now waging war on government waste, fraud and abuse. And Elon is doing a great job. He’s doing a great job. We love Elon, don’t we? He’s a character, with his son X. We love X. He’s the only one kid get away–his son is really named X. He’s the only one can get away with naming his son X. We ever did it, they say, you’re crazy. Donald Trump: But he’s great. He’s doing a great job and he doesn’t need this either. He doesn’t need it. But he wants to see–he’s a patriot. People said, well, what official position does he have? I said, patriot. Oh, they didn’t know. They said that was good. He’s a patriot. Here are some of the flagrant scams that as an example, they’ve spent money on and we’ve been able to recapture for a large dose of it, at least. $520 million for a consultant to, think of it, $520 million, $520 million. Donald Trump: You know, when I hired consultants and they just take advantage of you. It’s a horrible thing to watch and I give them $25,000. I feel I’m overpaying. These guys got $520 million, environmental, social governance and investments in Africa. $25 million to promote biodiversity conservation and socially responsible behavior in Colombia. Donald Trump: This is Columbia, South America, not Columbia University. Of course, that might be worse, actually, based on their actions. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants Donald Trump: Nobody knows where, who are they, where do they come from, just sedentary migrants. Nobody even knows what a sedentary migrant is. If they were sedentary, they wouldn’t be a migrant, right? Donald Trump: They wouldn’t move. No, they wouldn’t move. They’d stay in the same place, right, Doug? $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda. $10 million for Mozambique medical male circumcisions. Why are we going to Mozambique to do circumcisions? It’s a lot of money. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. Donald Trump: Here’s a beauty, $486 million to a consortium of elections and political process strengthening ideas, of which $22 million goes to inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova. $29 million goes to strengthen the political landscape and help them out so that they can vote for a radical left communist in Bangladesh. Donald Trump: You had to see who they supported. You wouldn’t believe–yeah, you would believe it. Nobody in this room would be in that group. $20 million for fiscal federalism and $19 million for biodiversity in Nepal. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. $18 million for helping India with its elections. Donald Trump: What the hell? Why don’t we just go to all paper ballots, let them help us with their elections, right? Voter ID. Wouldn’t that be nice? We’re giving money to India for elections. They don’t need money. They take advantage of us pretty good, one of the highest tariff nations in the world. We try and sell something, they have a 200 percent tariff and then we’re giving them a lot of money to help them with their election. $32 million for the Prague Civil Society Center. $14 million for social Cohesion in Liberia. $9.7 million to develop a cohort Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills, think of that. Donald Trump: Millions of dollars for sex change operations in Guatemala. $20 million for Sesame Street in Iraq. They put on a little play on the street, $20 million. You could do it on Broadway and have $19 million left over. No, it’s a scam. They get kickbacks and all sorts of things happen. It’s a scam. Who ever heard of it? Think of it, $20 million Sesame Street, a play. Donald Trump: We’re also uncovering outrageous incompetence and fraud in the Social Security. Look, let’s assume that people, generally speaking, in our case and everybody in this room, we’re going to all live way over 100. But this is a little ridiculous because not too many people are going over 100. Everybody hopefully in this room will, but there are in the Social Security ranks and files and what we’re doing now is finding out, do they get paid? Donald Trump: Do they get paid? In other words, is somebody taking all of this money? So they have over 100 to 109, 4.7 million Social Security numbers. Think of that, from people whose age is over 100. 3.6 million people whose age is over 110 years. 3.47 million people who are over 120 years of age. 3.9 million people whose age goes from 130 to 139 years of age. 3.5 million whose age goes from 140 to 149 years old. 1.3, see it’s coming down now, slowly. Donald Trump: No, it’s all a scam. The whole thing is a scam. 1.3 million people, 1.3 who are over 150 years of age. And over 130,000 people are listed on our Social Security rolls as over 160 years of age. Now, the final is at 1,039. So now we’re down into reasonable numbers. 1,039 people are listed between the ages of 220 years old to 229. And we have one person who’s listed at 241 years of age. Donald Trump: And we have one person listed at 360 years of age, an all-time record. And our country is 250 years old. So that person is substantially older than our country. Under our administration, there will be no tolerance for Social Security fraud. We will not allow anyone to cheat our seniors. And those who will do that will be prosecuted by Pam Bondi and others. Donald Trump: We are also going to Fort Knox. I’m going to go with Elon. Would anybody like to join us? Because we want to see if the gold is still there. We want to see. Wouldn’t that be terrible? We open up this–Fort Knox has got–it’s just solid granite that’s five feet thick. The front door, you need six men to open it up. I don’t even think they have windows. Donald Trump: Wouldn’t that be terrible if we opened it up and there was no gold there? So we’re going to open those doors. We’re going to take a look. And if there’s 27 tons of gold, we’ll be very happy. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to measure it, but that’s OK. We want to see lots of nice, beautiful shiny gold in Fort Knox. Donald Trump: Don’t be totally surprised if we open the door, we’ll say, there’s nothing here. They stole this too. No, we have a very corrupt group of people in this country and we’re finding them out. We’re removing all of the unnecessary incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce. That’s what we’re doing. Donald Trump: And under the buyouts, we offered federal employees more than 75,000 federal bureaucrats, think of that, have voluntarily agreed to surrender their taxpayer funded jobs. We want to make government smaller, more efficient. We want to keep the best people and we’re not going to keep the worst people. And we’re doing another thing. Donald Trump: If they don’t report for work, we’re firing them. In other words, you have to go to office, right, right? Look at her. If you don’t report to work–that’s another scam. Who the hell? If I’m staying home, I’m going to–let’s see, my golf handicap would get down to very low number you. You’d be shocked if I told you the real number. Donald Trump: But I would be so good, I’d try and get on tour. I would be so good. I’d call up, I’d say, listen, I’m really working here. Where are my clubs? Where are my clubs? Either that, or in many cases, they have second jobs while they’re getting paid by us. So one of the reasons they’re leaving is because they don’t want to have to show that. Donald Trump: And we’re demanding to see that information, how many jobs have you had, who paid you while you were working for the government and all. And we are demanding that people, if they work for the government, they have to show up and sit in an office and do their job, right? And we’ve also effectively ended the left-wing scam known as USAID, the agency’s name, has been removed from its former building and that space will now house agents from Customs and Border Patrol, beautiful. Donald Trump: And at the ultra-left, CFPB, which was terrible. So many people have been hurt by that. I used to get calls from lending officers, from owners of small banks and they were almost crying. What they did to those people, they destroyed them, put them out of business. It was established by Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren. Donald Trump: Does anyone know? Remember the Pocahontas scam? I’m an Indian, therefore, I’m entitled to be a Senator. I’m an Indian, she said. Could we see proof of that, please? She said, well, the only proof I have is my mother said I have high cheekbones. Oh, that’s nice. That’s no good, right? Remember, she went out. Donald Trump: I really spooked her, I tell you. Remember, she went out, she couldn’t take it anymore. I was calling her Pocahontas, Pocahontas. Everyone knew she was not an Indian. I had more Indian blood than her and I have no Indian blood. I’d be honored to, but I don’t have any, but I had more than her. Do you remember, she went out and she had a blood test and it came back and she was so happy because it said 1,024th. That means everybody in this room had more than her. Donald Trump: But because there was even a scant, in other words, one million years ago, something could have happened and she was so happy that she released it and she got killed. That was the end of her presidential career. She does not like me very much, but she’s a very angry person. Do you notice the way she is? She’s always screaming and she’s crazy. Donald Trump: These people are crazy. The radical left is meaner. I don’t know what it is, Doug. They’re meaner than us, aren’t they? We’re like normal people. You know, we’re smart, we get our word–but we don’t go crazy. Of course, they’ll take my little rant from 15 minutes ago, the fake news, he lost control on the stage. Donald Trump: He lost control. And they’ll have me screaming having to do with Franklin, poor Franklin. He lost control of the stage. These people are bad. They are really sick too. I don’t get it. You’d think they’d want to love our country. They have no ratings anymore. Nobody listens to them. Nobody believes the fake New York Times. Donald Trump: Washington Post is doing no business. They’re losing all their business. Nobody believes them. But we’ve escorted the radical left bureaucrats out of the building and locked the doors behind them. We’ve gotten rid of thousands. I withdrew the United States from the corrupt World Health Organization. I withdrew from the anti-Semitic UN Human Rights Council. Donald Trump: The council is horrible. And I withdrew from the terrorist supporting UN Relief and Works Agency. The UN has such great potential, but not the way it’s run now. It’s terrible the way it’s run now. We stopped all taxpayer money to these corrupt institutions. And by the way, just so–because who the hell knows? Donald Trump: We got to talk about something very important, the war between Russia and Ukraine. People are being killed, mostly young men, mostly Russian and Ukrainian men, at levels you’ve never seen before, thousands of people a week. And I’ve spoken to President Putin and I think that thing is going to end, but it’s got to end. Donald Trump: It’s a horrible, horrible thing to watch. I’m dealing with President Zelenskyy. I’m dealing with President Putin. I’m trying to get the money back that, or secured, because Europe has given $100 billion. Donald Trump: The United States has given $350 billion, because we had a stupid, incompetent president and administration, $350. But here’s worse, Europe gave it in the form of a loan, they get their money back. Donald Trump: We gave it in the form of nothing. So I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up and I’m going to try and get the war settled and I’m going to try and get all that death ended. So we’re asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get. But we feel so stupid. Here’s Europe, and it affects Europe. Donald Trump: It doesn’t really affect us, except we don’t like to see two things. Number one, how Biden got us into this thing in the first place, terrible, but why is it that he didn’t ask for equalization? Europe should put up more money than us. But even if you said the same thing, how come we went so far out front? Donald Trump: And he didn’t know that Europe gets his money back. They did it in the form of a loan. We don’t get our money back. We get nothing. So we’re getting our money back. We’re going to get our money back because it’s not fair. It’s just not fair. And we will see, but I think we’re pretty close to a deal and we better be close to a deal because that has been a horrible situation. Donald Trump: It would have never happened if I were president. And by the way, October 7th, Israel would have never happened if I was president too, would have never happened. Iran was broke. They had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah. They had no money to give. Everybody knows that. Jewish people in the audience know that. Donald Trump: Iran was broke. They were not giving money around. And when I got out, they took all the sanctions off, Biden, and Iran became rich very quickly. With oil, you can become rich very, very quickly. And the rest is history. What a horrible thing. Even though the hostages are coming back, I saw this morning where we got six more back. Donald Trump: Biden got none back, by the way, just so you understand, none, zero. He would have never gotten any of them back. But they’re coming back in pretty bad shape. It’s a horrible thing, and many are dead, many are dead. So we’ll see how that all ends up. But it’s a horrible thing, but I just want you to know we’re working on that. Donald Trump: That’s a very big part of it and I don’t like talking about it because we’re in the middle of negotiations. But it’s a very, very sad–it’s a very sad, would have never happened. There was no way. Russia was never going to go in and they went in because of a lot of reasons and so many people are dead. Far more people are dead than you’re reading about. Donald Trump: When they blow up all these cities, all those cities are–they look like demolition sites. Every single building is down. All of those beautiful golden towers that are a thousand years old, they’re lying on the ground in smithereens, blown to smithereens. There’s nothing left of them. They’re just lying on the ground, never to be rebuilt again, not possible to rebuild them again. Donald Trump: And all of that heritage is gone. People have done a really horrible job. That would have never–if I were president, zero chance that a shot would even have been fired, wouldn’t have happened. So sad. To further turbocharge our economy, we have launched the most aggressive deregulation program in any nation’s history and we’re also going to be seeking the largest tax cuts in American history. Donald Trump: Again, we brought them down, as you know, from close to 40 percent down to 21 percent. Now we’re bringing them down to 15 percent if you make your product in the United States of America. We’re defending the American worker like never before, and that’s why the auto workers and the union workers and the teamsters and so many others, they supported us, the firemen, the policemen, so many others. Donald Trump: Whether they were union or nonunion, they all supported us. They’re called workers and they supported us at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. Weeks ago, I imposed a 10 percent tariff on all goods coming from China because of the fact that they’re sending fentanyl into our country, through Mexico, by the way, I’m not happy with Mexico or I’m not happy with Canada either. Donald Trump: I imposed 25 percent tariffs on all foreign steel and aluminum and I will soon impose reciprocal tariffs on any country that charges us. And by the way, reciprocal means they charge us, we charge them, same thing. So nobody can be upset, right? But we have countries charging us 200 percent and we charge them nothing. Donald Trump: They charge us, we charge them. Our country is going to become rich again, very rich. I always say it’s my favorite word in the dictionary. The word tariff is my favorite word in the dictionary. You know, we were richest, the richest, relatively, from, think of this, from 1870 to 1913. That was our richest because we collected tariffs from foreign countries that came in and took our jobs and took our money, took our everything, but they charged tariffs. Donald Trump: And we had so much money, they set up the 1887 eight. Think of that, long time ago, 1887 Tariff Commission. It was a commission of very important people to determine where we should spend all of the tremendous vast wealth that we had. We had so much wealth. Wouldn’t it be nice today? Of course, now we give it away to transgender this, transgender that. Donald Trump: Everybody gets a transgender operation. It’s just wonderful. No, we give it away like to crazy things, but in those days it was different. It was a different world, it was a different country, but we were very rich because of tariffs. And I get myself in trouble because I say that tariff is my favorite word and the fake news went crazy. Donald Trump: What about God? What about wife and family? What about love? I said, OK, tariff is now my fourth favorite word. I got myself into a lot of trouble with that. You can’t believe it. I said tariff is my favorite word in the dictionary and I got killed by the fake news. So I say now it doesn’t sound good, tarrif, it’s my fourth favorite word. Donald Trump: I go, tariff is my fourth favorite word. It sounds so terrible, but this way I’m free, I ride free. I don’t get clobbered by the fake news. But tariffs are also a powerful tool of diplomacy and all around the world are moving quickly to bring back peace through strength. We have the greatest–I rebuilt our entire military in the first term. Donald Trump: We left a lot of it, although a lot of it, but very small relatively, in Afghanistan. The Taliban has it. They have their parade every year where they take our military vehicles and run them up some little street, like it’s their form of a military parade, and it makes me angry when I see that. Angry. When I see that, I get angry. Donald Trump: We give them, I don’t think anyone knows this, we give Afghanistan about $2 billion or $2.5 billion a year. Do you know that, for aid, aid? We need aid ourselves. And I’m going to go back and I told them yesterday, I want to look at it, but if we’re going to give them money, it’s OK, but I want them to give us back our military equipment that they have. Donald Trump: They’re selling it. Doug, will you take that, please? All right? Write something up. No, I want them to give back. If we’re going to give them that kind of money, let them give back the military equipment which they have. They have tanks and trucks and guns and goggles. They have goggles. They have night goggles better than we have, brand new, right out of the box. Donald Trump: It’s unbelievable. So I want to do that and I want the–if we’re going to pay them, I want to get that equipment back. OK? Doug can do it. He’s one of the guys. He’s a business guy. To him, he’s sitting there saying, how the hell did this ever happen? Right? Can you believe it? We give them billions of dollars and we gave them our military equipment, just tremendous numbers of billions of dollars’ worth of–billions and billions. Donald Trump: We have a ceasefire in Gaza and we’re joined today by several survivors of the captivity under Hamas, including Noah Ajmani and Ilana Gritzewsky. Gritzewsky. Wow! Look at that, how beautiful. What a beautiful group of people. Wow. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And you’re sitting next to a great guy, Sebastian Gorka, who’s also now in the administration. Donald Trump: From day one, right, Sebastian? He’s been a loyalist from day one. We love Sebastian. Thank you very much, Sebastian. Thank you, everybody. That’s very nice, beautiful. We’re going to make it work somehow. We’re doing the best we can. It should have never happened. That’s the sad part, would have never happened. Donald Trump: If I were president, and I should have been, if I were president, it would have never happened. But it did so, we’re doing the best we can with it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Also with us are family members of some individuals who are still hostages and we will not rest until all of the hostages have been returned back home. Donald Trump: Some of them are coming home in very bad condition and some of them are coming home only as bodies. They’re dead. We have a lot of them coming home now, they’re dead. And these are largely young people. Young people don’t die. Young people are young people. They don’t die like this, but they’re dead. And the parents come to me and they say, please, sir, could you get my son back? Donald Trump: How old is he, sir? My son is dead. It’s important, just as important as if that son were alive, to get the body back. It’s amazing, actually, amazing, just as important. Thank you. Thank you. It’s amazing, the parents. The parents are strong. I mean, look, strong. What does strong mean? Strong is their life is ruined, really, it’s ruined. Donald Trump: I see the people. But they come up to me and it’s so important to get the body back. They know. And some are not sure. They’re 80 percent sure he’s dead or she’s dead, but they have that little glimmer of hope and I say, let them have that hope, right, let them have that hope. But getting the body back is just as important as getting the son back healthy or the daughter back healthy. Donald Trump: It’s amazing to see, when I see the level of intensity and love and sorrow and tragedy. As I said in my inaugural address, it’s my hope that my greatest legacy will be as a peacemaker, not a conqueror. I don’t want to be a conqueror. Under the Trump administration, every day brings more good news for America. Donald Trump: I’ve ended all of the so-called diversity equity and inclusion programs across the entire federal government and the private sector, and notified every single government DEI officer that their job has been deleted. They’re gone. They’re fired. You’re fired, get out. You’re fired. I made it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. Donald Trump: That was easy. I banned men from competing in women’s sports. And I also proudly banned the use of–thank you. We banned the use of puberty blockers, hormone injections and other chemical and surgical mutilation of your youth. Can you imagine making a speech like this 10 years ago? People would say what the hell is he talking about, right? Donald Trump: This is a sickness that came along with critical race theory and all of the other things that we had to put up with. And it’s all out now, critical race theory and transgender insanity. It’s all gone from our schools and from our military. And I believe it’s gone too. I think we’ve turned the heads of even the people that, if you can believe they’re believers, I don’t know if they were, but I believe that it’s all gone. Donald Trump: And I’ve directed the reinstatement of any service member who was expelled from the armed forces due to the COVID vaccine mandate. They will be returned to their former rank with full back pay, full back pay. I banned government censorship from your voices and brought back free speech in America. We have free speech. Donald Trump: We didn’t have free speech. We do have it now, actually. No, this was a very vicious regime. You know? I was put under investigation more so than the late great Alphonse Capone, one of the great killers of the world, Trump. My father would look down, my mother, how the hell did this happen to my boy? No, I was under investigation at a far greater level than Al Capone or anybody else, probably in the history of our country. Donald Trump: These people are sick. They’re sick. They’re bad people. I ended Joe Biden’s weaponization. As soon as I got in, I said, I’m going to hit him with the same stuff, but I ended his whole weaponization of our government and removed his hand-picked radical left Marxist prosecutors from the Department of Justice. Donald Trump: I was so happy to do that. They weaponized government. They weaponized government. I pardoned hundreds and hundreds of Biden’s political prisoners, including Christians, pro-life activists and the J6 hostages, who were treated terribly for years. We even got rid of people like Pete Buttigieg, who did the worst job of anybody in the history of transportation. Donald Trump: What a bunch of losers. I revoked the security clearances of Anthony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, John Brennan, James Clapper and every non-patriot who lied to cover up Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell. We took away their security clearances, and they’re not allowed to enter any government building either. I also revoked Joe Biden’s security clearances, the Biden crime family security clearances, and they’ll no longer be allowed to access state secrets while selling themselves all around the world. Donald Trump: Oh, well. No, these were bad people. These were bad people and I do that because this should never be allowed to happen again. What happened to me in this administration, what happened on J6, what happened on all of the things they did that were so bad should never ever be allowed to happen again. And on a friendlier note, I renamed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. Donald Trump: And we are restoring the name of a great President William McKinley to Mount McKinley in Alaska. And as you know, many years ago, Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal and Panama started the process of giving the Panama Canal–by the way, the most expensive development ever in the history of our country, relatively. Donald Trump: It would have been $1.5 trillion in today’s dollars. 38,000 people died from our country building the Panama Canal. They died from mosquitoes and snakes. Think of it. They paid them five times their salary. They brought them to Panama and they had a 25 percent chance of dying. They dug under nets, so the mosquitoes wouldn’t get them. Donald Trump: But we lost 38,000, mostly men, laborers, construction workers, because it was such a harsh way to live. It was very brutal. They died, 38,000. Again, it was the most expensive thing we ever built and they gave it away for $1 to Panama. And last year, it made $5 billion. Now, also that’s one of the most successful projects ever built in terms of money, monetarily. Donald Trump: And it’s the eighth wonder of the world. It connects two oceans with one being 16 feet higher than the other. Think of it, the Pacific and the Atlantic. Think of what that is. You’re going through dikes and canals and amazing what they did. It was really a wonder of the world. We gave it away for nothing, but we didn’t give it to China. Donald Trump: We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama. We’re going to take back the Panama Canal. In a matter of weeks, we have restored America’s pride, America’s confidence and America’s spirit. According to a brand-new poll from Rasmussen, the number of Americans who believe we are on the right track now exceeds the number who think we’re on the wrong track. Donald Trump: This is the first time in 23 years. That’s hard to believe. And we had one poll where we were at 81 percent right track, wrong track. I guess it depends on who. But that one poll, because Rasmussen has been a good poll, first time in over 20 years that we’ve had a positive number on that. That’s great. That’s great. Donald Trump: November 5th, 2024 will go down as one of the most important days in the history of our country. I’m pointing to Mike Lindell. That man suffered. That man suffered. The FBI thugs went up to him and they took away everything he had. He suffered. And Mrs. Lindell. He’s a great guy. They went after him. It was just terrible. Donald Trump: This was a vicious weaponization of your government, but he’s all, I’ll tell you, he stood up. He’s all man. He stood up. He stood up strong and nothing was going to faze him. And I want to thank you on behalf of everybody. Mike, you put up with a tremendous amount and he never changed his mind. He said that election of 2020 was rigged and he’s more of a believer today than he was even four years ago. Donald Trump: But now it’s OK to say it, Mike. Now, it’s fine. No, that’s why–when it comes to a day where you can’t challenge crooked elections, we’ve got a real problem in this country and as of January 20th, 2025, the dark days of high taxes, crushing regulations, rampant inflation, flagrant, corruption, government weaponization and total incompetence, those days are over, they’re over. Donald Trump: But we cannot stop now. We’re going to push forward every single day in the immortal words of that great American hero, Captain John Paul Jones, I have not yet begun to fight. And neither have you. [Audience chants] So together for the next four years, we are going to stand strong. We are going to work hard. Donald Trump: We are going to fight, fight, fight and win, win, win. Thank you to CPAC. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Thank you, Mercedes. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. God bless America. Thank you very much. God bless America. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-24
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everyone. Great honor to be here with my friend. I’m delighted to welcome President Macron back to the White House. We’ve been together quite often, but not that often in the White House. We honored the president, first lady of France not so long ago. It was a beautiful evening and we will not soon forget it. That was a beautiful day and evening, and many fond memories. Donald Trump: I also want to thank Emmanuel for hosting me in Paris last December after a historic election win, to witness the reopening of the spectacular Notre Dame Cathedral, where you did an outstanding job in bringing it back together. That was a sad day, watching that burn. And five years later, you had it up and it was, they say more beautiful than it was before, so I think that’s a great achievement. Donald Trump: It was not easy. France is America’s oldest ally. Our cherished partnership has been a force for freedom, prosperity and peace from the very beginning. We’re now working on some very interesting developments. One, in particular, as you know, the war between Russia and Ukraine. In the American Revolution, French support helped us to seize our destiny as an independent nation. Donald Trump: In the first and second world wars, our citizens shed blood together on the battlefields of Europe. And I’ll never forget joining President Macron six years ago in the 75th anniversary of D-Day. That was some day. The purpose of our meeting today is to end another battle, a really horrible one, a war, something that we haven’t seen since the second world war, that is ravaging European soil, the deadliest and most destructive conflict that one can imagine. Donald Trump: I’ve seen the pictures. I’ve seen the satellite photos and lots of other photos and it’s a horrible thing that’s happening. Thousands of people are dying a week. This very day is the third anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, which would never have happened if I was president. That was not going to happen. Donald Trump: The horrors of this gruesome and bloody war can scarcely be overestimated. Hundreds of thousands of people, Russians and Ukrainians in particular have needlessly died. An entire generation of Ukrainians and Russian men has been decimated. 1000-year-old cities have been turned into rubble. Those beautiful spires that you used to see there, they were most beautiful in the world, they say, are lying in heaps of rubble, blasted to smithereens. Donald Trump: And it’s time to end this bloodletting and restore peace and I think we’re going to do it. We’ve had some great conversations, including with Russia. Since my return to the White House, we’ve made more progress toward that goal in one month than occurred in the past three years. And I’ve spoken with both President Putin and President Zelenskyy. Donald Trump: And again, a lot of good things toward peace are happening, moving it, I think pretty quickly. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff conducted successful talks in Saudi Arabia with the delegation from Russia. And I’d like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the King and Mohammed, great people. Donald Trump: They’re really working hard to get this done. Our focus is on achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible and ultimately a permanent peace. My meeting with President Macron today was another important step forward in that sphere. because he’s been very much involved right from the beginning in trying to get it over with and we’re going to get it done. Donald Trump: I believe that Emmanuel agrees with me on many of the most important issues. Chief among them is, this is the right time. It may be the only time. That’s a very interesting and horrible situation and that could evolve into a third world war. We’re not going to let that happen. Should have never started, but it did. Donald Trump: And what a mess, what a horrible bloody mess. I’m also pleased that President Macron agrees that the cost and burden of securing the peace must be borne by the nations of Europe, not alone by the United States. And Europe must take that central role in ensuring long-term security of Ukraine, which they want to do, and that’s not a very big step. Donald Trump: A big step is what’s going to happen over the next few weeks. The United States has put up far more aid for Ukraine than any other nation, hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ve spent more than $300 billion and Europe has spent about $100. $100 billion, that’s a big difference and at some point, we should equalize, but hopefully we won’t have to worry about that. Donald Trump: We have other things happening that maybe take that out of the realm of necessity. And while we’ve given vast amounts of military aid and money in form of grants, much of Europe’s contribution has been economic relief structured as loans for which they’ll be repaid. Like the Europeans, I believe that taxpayers and the United States also deserve to recoup the colossal amounts of money that we’ve sent. Donald Trump: The previous administration never even thought of that. They didn’t think of a lot of things, like why did they let it start in the first place. That is why we must have an agreement with Ukraine on critical minerals and rare earths and various other things as security. And I think that that’s happening. Donald Trump: I think we’ve made a lot of progress. I had a report just given to me before walking in, that we’ve made Emanuel a great deal of progress toward getting that. I’ve been elected by the American people to restore common sense to Washington and indeed to the world. And I believe strongly that it’s in the best interests of the United States, the best interests in Europe, the best interests of Ukraine and indeed the best interests of Russia, to stop the killing now and bring the world to peace. Donald Trump: My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy failures of the past administration and frankly, the past. I ran against a very foolish foreign policy establishment and their recklessness has led to the death of many, many people. Under our administration, we’re forging a new path that promotes peace around the world. Donald Trump: And when I left office for the first administration, first term, we had no wars. We had no problems. We didn’t have October 7th with Israel. We didn’t have Russia and Ukraine going at it. We didn’t have the problems in other parts of the Middle East. We didn’t have inflation. It was a whole different world. Donald Trump: And you know what else, we didn’t have millions of people pouring through our borders, many of them criminals released from other nations and put right into our land, murderers and drug dealers, gangs. We didn’t have any of that. It’s a different time. But now we have it and we’re fixing it. We’ll fix it all up. We’ll get it done as quickly as possible. Donald Trump: And we’ve made a great deal of progress. People are saying it was the best month for a president in our country’s history. I hope that’s right. But I feel it’s right. We’ve done a lot of things in a very short period of time, four weeks. As I’ve said before, it’s my hope that my greatest legacy, however, will be as a peacemaker and a unifier. Donald Trump: I want to bring peace, not war. I thank President Macron for joining us today in this urgent work we’re doing. We have some wonderful people up front right here that have worked so hard. And Steve Witkoff, thank you very much. And Michael Waltz, thank you. Scott, thank you very much. And JD, thank you. They’ve really done a job. Donald Trump: They worked very hard. It’s a real passion to get this war ended. And I’d like to now invite Emmanuel to say a few words and then we’ll take questions. And again, Emmanuel, it’s a great honor to have you with us at the White House. Thank you very much. Please. Emmanuel Macron: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Dear Donald. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be saying a few words in French. Thank you very much, Mr. President, Dear Donald, for your hospitality and for this visit. As you mentioned, we have had the opportunity to meet over the past few years. Since your first term, we’ve been able to discuss matters in Paris and also here at the White House, and it has always been a great joy to do that. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And I would like to commend you and thank you, Mr. President, for extending this friendship to France and taking part in the ceremony at Notre Dame that you mentioned before. It was a great honor for the French people to reopen the cathedral to the rest of the world and your presence was a testament to that friendship. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] As the president said, this friendship dates back to the Revolutionary War, since the beginning of the United States. And whenever we’ve needed to, we’ve been able to come together and be on the right side. We’ve been able to be united to defend peace and sovereignty, namely in the two world wars that marked the 20th century from Lafayette to Pershing and to the many Americans who landed on Omaha Beach. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And we spoke earlier before and you mentioned that one of those gentlemen was able to visit you here, one of the veterans. This is part of history, which puts us in the world that we are in today. And as the president just said, there are many challenges in this world. And over the past few days, we have one main objective, which is the geopolitical situation. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Mr. President, I really wish to thank you for making changes to your schedule to meet with us so quickly. I think we’ve made very substantive steps forward during our discussions and this is a major step in what we’re experiencing today. We had a video conference with all of the G-7 leaders, which was an opportunity for us to discuss this matter three days after the Russian war in Ukraine and to express our support for President Zelenskyy to the Ukrainian people, but also to speak and share about our desire for a lasting peace. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] This is what we have spoken about very forcibly over the past few weeks. We thought that this war was only going to last a few weeks when it broke out in 2022. We admire greatly the courage of the Ukrainian people. And Mr. President, I wish to thank you for this. You mentioned that there are responsibilities on Europe’s side and indeed we have invested $128 billion in aid to Ukraine and the Ukrainians. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Ukraine has been able to hold the front of our collective security. It’s fought over these past few years for its independence and for its sovereignty, but also for our collective security, because I think that no one in this room wants to live in a world where it’s the law of the strongest and international borders can be violated from one day to the next by anyone. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Over the past few hours and as you mentioned this, Mr. President, we’ve been able to see a few things take shape. First of all, allow me to commend you on your decision to work with President Zelenskyy and to conclude this agreement that’s so important for the US and Ukraine on rare earths, critical minerals, but also having substantive conversations with President Zelenskyy during this key phase of achieving this deal, which is a major commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And I think that’s very commendable. We also have a shared desire to build peace. We will have this responsibility. This is 10 years after the war started in Crimea and then we saw the events in the Donbas region and along the northern part of the country. We want to save lives. We want to bring prisoners back and bring back families and children, because there is also humanitarian tragedy affecting the Ukrainian people. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] We had lengthy discussions with the president and we spoke about our desire to bring an end to conflicts, to have a truce that is measurable, verifiable and that enables negotiation of a lasting peace where we will discuss not only Ukraine’s reconstruction, its territories, but also the security guarantees, meaning maintaining peace over the long term. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] As I said to the president, we’ve experienced peace accords that were only ceasefires without ensuring security guarantees, Minsk one and two. And we want to make sure this doesn’t happen again. And I know that the president has expressed the desire to be a player for peace in the region. I’ve spoken with some 30 European leaders and allies in recent days. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] We want to bring together these allies rather and share the same vision. This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine. It must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty and allow Ukraine to negotiate with other stakeholders regarding the issues it affects – that affects it rather. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] But it is also a country in which we need to shoulder our responsibilities so that we ensure security and stability for Ukraine and for the entire region. And for us Europeans, this is an existential issue. We also spoke about these issues at length with the president. We’ve worked with President Zelenskyy and gotten to some of the details of the various phases of the negotiation. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And we’ve also been able to speak about some of this work with our British partners to talk about deployments of peace forces on Ukrainian soil, which are part of these security guarantees. Other countries are ready to join in this effort. Solidarity and support from the US will be crucial to this. And I thank you, Mr. President, for beginning to work with us on this issue. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And the agreement that you are preparing to sign with Ukraine and with all the discussions we’ve had are very solid guarantees that we are understood that we have the same wish, peace as soon as possible, lasting solid peace for everyone. And the renewal of an international situation where we are all able to shoulder our responsibilities, Europeans shouldering their responsibilities alongside their American allies who will shoulder their own responsibilities. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] I also wanted to be very clear, Mr. President, about Europe’s commitment. We have committed to building a lasting peace. As Europeans we have committed to being stakeholders in in these security guarantees. And we are also well aware that Europeans need to do more for security in Europe, for defense in Europe, and to more fairly share the Security burden that your country has been carrying for so many years. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Mr. President, you know how much friendship I show towards you, and I have towards you since your first term. Europe is very clear-eyed about this. We know what we need to do as Europeans, given the threats surrounding us and the responsibilities that we must shoulder. We spoke about the Versailles agenda, which allowed the Europeans to take a historic step and increase their investments. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Europeans are ready to do even more and to go even farther. And several leaders said that to me before I came here to meet you, Mr. President. Dear Donald, you spoke about this peace through strength. We fully share that because we must recognize the sacrifices made by the Ukrainian people and what we owe to them. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] The President and I also spoke about economic matters and our desire to see more prosperity in the United States and in Europe. We had discussions which will be carried on by our teams, our ministers and secretaries to flesh out some of those ideas. But the idea is to have fair competition and no bias within competition between our industries. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Now the American and European economies are extremely intertwined, some $1.5 billion in trade – $1 trillion rather in goods and services. And I know you’ve spoken about wanting to look at the balance of payments. We also have a trade deficit, and I know that we need to look not only at goods but also digital items and goods which you export. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And we want to make a sincere commitment towards fair competition where we have smooth trade and more investments. You already invest a great deal in France and France is the fifth most – the fifth largest investor in the United States. And I would like to recognize here all of the American investors who announced investments, some $120 billion that were announced at the AI summit. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] This is our wish; we want to have more prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. We have a shared agenda in that regard. We also spoke about the Middle East among other subjects. And here again, we have the same desire. We don’t want to see Iran obtain nuclear weapons. We don’t want – or rather we want an approach with partners in the region that we can trust. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Given Iran’s nuclear activities, we want to limit its ballistic capabilities and avoid any type of regional destabilization. With respect to Syria and Iraq, we also share the same desire. We don’t want to see Islamic terrorist groups resume any of their activities because, for some time, our armies have very bravely been engaged in the Gulf as you have led, and contributions have been significant and helped stability in the region. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And I say this with great sincerity. France was affected by a terrorist attack in 2015, which was linked to the terrorist activity in Syria, and we are in that region at your side to work for more security. Ladies and gentlemen, we had extremely productive discussions this morning during the conference and we spoke with our ministers and counselors and advisors. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] And I wish to say, after speaking with President Trump, I am – fully believe that there is a path forward. We share the same beliefs. We know what work needs to be done. And in the weeks to come, we will work on that. Our teams will come together in various formats to make sure that we have this solid, lasting peace with great strength. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] Mr. President, thank you so much for welcoming me here today. Thank you so much for these productive discussions and for your commitment. Thank you, Dear Donald. Donald Trump: Thank you, Emmanuel. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you again. OK, thank you very much. Brian, would you like to ask a question? Go ahead. Question: Mr. President – welcome, President Trump. I just want to touch upon real quickly the Harvard poll that came out that had – thank you very much. The Harvard poll that came out had you up nine plus points. And all of your agenda that you ran on, you’re accomplishing that. You’ve got the support of the American people including stopping the war in Ukraine. Question: If you can comment on the latest Harvard poll, I appreciate that. Donald Trump: Well, I was honored by it. It was a big poll and it’s usually a poll that leans on the other side of things, the other side of the world, so to speak. But the Harvard poll is a respected poll, and it has us not only leading but leading by a lot and leading on every single issue that we’ve talked about. And as I said, we’ve become the party of common sense, and I think that’s a very important element now, common sense, because what’s happening in the world and even in this country. Donald Trump: Some of the things that took place, many of them are now canceled and the rest are being canceled as we speak, but we’ve moved very rapidly, and I think very effectively. So, I was honored by that poll. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Go ahead. Please, go ahead. Question: Mr. President, you said before that you would like to see Russia [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Yes, go ahead. Question: Are there any conditions that you want to meet before we can move on? And [Inaudible] Saudi Arabia – with your meeting in Saudi Arabia with President Putin, will that happen regardless of any progress on the Ukrainian file? Donald Trump: Yeah, I think the meeting in Saudi Arabia was a fantastic one. We met with the crown prince who’s a fantastic young guy. He’s young but with great imagination and tremendously respected all over the world. And he goes right to the king and the King is incredible. I’ve gotten to be friends with both of them very much. Donald Trump: And they want to see this ended and they’re going all out to make sure that it is ended. I think Russia, likewise, I’ve spoken to President Putin and my people are dealing with him constantly and his people in particular and they want to do something. I mean that’s what I do, I do deals. My whole life is deals. Donald Trump: That’s all I know is deals and I know when somebody wants to make it and when somebody doesn’t. I will say this, before I came here there was no communication with Russia whatsoever and Russia wasn’t answering calls. They were not talking to anybody. They wouldn’t talk to anybody. And people sort of accepted that as being that they want to go forward and just keep going without stop. Donald Trump: But when I got here, one of the first calls I made was to President Putin, and we were treated with great respect, and they want to – they want to end this war. So, that’s a big thing because I didn’t know if I could say that, but it’s a big thing. They want to do it. And the group in the front row that I introduced, they’re very – all very active in it. And we’re working on deals right now, transactions right now and in particular, the big one is to get the war stopped, whether it’s ceasefire or direct to an agreement. Donald Trump: I’d like to go directly to an agreement. But a ceasefire will always happen a little bit quicker and every day you’re saving thousands or at least hundreds, but thousands, in some cases, lives. So, we want to see if we can get that done very quickly. Yes, for the president, please. Question: Thank you. Sylvie Corbet, a correspondent based in Paris. Question for both of you actually. Mr. Macron, you were one of the last Western leaders to speak to Putin before Ukraine’s invasion. What advice – what recommendation could you make to President Trump to make sure that this time you can get strong enough guarantees from Putin to get a peace deal that lasts this time? Question: And Mr. – President Trump, what makes you think you can trust Putin in those negotiations? Thank you. Emmanuel Macron: Look, I will never give any advice to President Trump. We have friendly and trustful discussions. But my experience with President Putin is the following. Number one, I always think it’s good to have discussions with other leaders and especially when you disagree. I stopped my discussion with President Putin after Bucha and the war crimes because I considered that – I mean we had nothing to get from him at that time. Emmanuel Macron: Now there is a big change because there is a new US administration. So, this is a new context. So, there is good reason for President Trump to reengage with President Putin. But my experience is the following, and I shared it with President Trump and the team. In 2014, our predecessors negotiated peace with President Putin, but because of the lack of guarantees and especially security guarantees, President Putin violated this peace. Emmanuel Macron: And I had several discussions especially beginning of 2022, several times, seven hours with President Putin, 15 days before launching of the attack. He denied everything, but we didn’t have security guarantees. So, this is why being strong and having deterrence capacities is the only way to be sure it will be respected. Emmanuel Macron: And I insisted on that, and this is why I believe that the US has the capacity to do so. And this is why I think we should never say I will never send in boots on the ground because you give a blank check to violate any type of commitment. So, I think it’s good to have discussions. I think it’s useful to have negotiation. Emmanuel Macron: I think it’s super important to go to the peace, but my strong point was to say, let’s try to get something first, which is – which can be assessed, checked and verified. And let’s be sure that we build sufficient guarantees in the short run. And this is where we are ready to be engaged. As for France, a lot of my European colleagues are ready to be engaged. Emmanuel Macron: But we do need this American backup because this is part of the credibility of the security guarantees, and this is our collective deterrence capacity. And I have the feeling that the president has this capacity. Donald Trump: I think it’s very much to the benefit of Russia to make a deal and I feel that we will do that. It is what it is. Again, it’s a war that should have never been started. It’s a war that would not have been started if I were president. But it did start and it’s at a terrible level where cities are burned down and shot down to the ground. Donald Trump: It looks like demolition sites, a whole big pile of demolition sites and we’ve got to get it stopped. Too many people, too much agony. The whole culture is destroyed. When you rip down some of those ancient – really ancient or near ancient buildings, it’s so sad to see, but I think it’s very much to the benefit of – there’s tremendous distrust on both sides. Donald Trump: That’s why it’s good that I’m coming in now, but I think it’s to the very much benefit of Russia to make a deal and to go on with leading Russia in a very positive way. That’s what you have to do. But I really believe that he wants to make a deal, may be wrong, but I believe he wants to make a deal. Yeah, go ahead, please. Question: Mr. President, next week, there’s a key deadline for your Canada and Mexico tariffs – Note: [Audio gap] Question: – believe those countries have done enough on the border to stop those from taking effect? And for President Macron, I’m wondering if you believe that this critical minerals deal with Ukraine represents a de facto security guarantee by the United States, since the US would have an interest in protecting those reserves in Ukraine. Question: Thank you. Donald Trump: We’re on time with the tariffs and it seems like that’s moving along very rapidly. We’ve been mistreated very badly by many countries, not just Canada and Mexico. We’ve been taken advantage of. We were led by, in some cases, fools because anybody that would sign documents like they signed, where they were able to take advantage of the American people like has happened over the last long period of time, except for a little four-year period that took place four years ago. Donald Trump: But anybody that would agree to allow this to happen to our country should be ashamed of themselves. No, the tariffs are going forward on time, on schedule. This is an abuse that took place for many, many years. And I’m not even blaming the other countries that did this, I blame our leadership for allowing it to happen. Donald Trump: I mean, who can blame them if they made these great deals with the United States, took advantage of the United States on manufacturing, on just about everything, every aspect that you can imagine they took advantage of. I look at some of these agreements. I’d read them at night, and I’d say who would ever sign a thing like this? Donald Trump: So, the tariffs will go forward, yes, and we’re going to make up a lot of territory. We’re going to – all we want is reciprocal. We want reciprocity, we want to have the same. So, if somebody charges us, we charge them. It’s very simple, but it will be very good for our country. Our country will be extremely liquid and rich again. Donald Trump: Plus, we’re doing other things, as you know, we’re finding tremendous waste, fraud and abuse at levels that nobody thought possible. You’re seeing what’s going on, and that was also part of the Harvard poll. Do you agree with what President Trump is doing with Elon and others that are looking for the waste, fraud and abuse? Donald Trump: And the numbers were staggering. It was like 70 percent to 2 percent. Everybody wants to find out. They don’t like it. And you know, the radical left, or whoever it may be, starts screaming about the Constitution. But it has nothing to do with the Constitution. It has to do with fairness to this country. Donald Trump: It has to do with being ripped off. And when you read the things that all of these billions, and I mean many billions, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on, that’s all you have to do is stand up here and read them. I could stand up all day and read the kind of things where we’re spending all of this money. Donald Trump: The good news is that when you think of how rich a nation we can be, when we get rid of this. You know, sometimes you’ll buy a company, and you’ll see it was really well run, they accounted for every penny. Well, not much you can do there. You got yourself a bad deal. This one is the exact opposite, tremendous fraud, tremendous waste. Donald Trump: And when you think of what it is, Elon uses an expression, caring. If we had people that cared, just cared a little bit when they did contracts, when they negotiated with outside vendors on behalf of the United States. That’s what I’m doing now. I’m negotiating for the people of the United States, so we’re doing a great job of it. I will say we found, it’ll be hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud and abuse. Donald Trump: Thank you. Please. Emmanuel Macron: Look, I think this discussion is a very important one. First, because it’s important for the US and it will be a good occasion for a first very important meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy. Second, I think it’s – there is a lot of economic upside on both sides. And third, de facto, there is a recognition of Ukrainian sovereignty, a recognition of the Ukrainian interests, and this is de facto, a very important alignment of interests. Emmanuel Macron: Now the security guarantees will be negotiated in due time in a full-fledged package of a peace security. But this peace, as it is now written and negotiated and as this meeting is settled, is an important step forward, full-fledged peace agreement. Donald Trump: OK, please go ahead. Question: To the president. President Trump, President Macron – Note: [Audio gap] Question: – to make a deal with Putin. So, when you do a deal, it’s a win-win deal. What are you giving to him and what is he going to give you, to America? And I was impressed by the way you referred to Notre Dame and that you were impressed by the reconstruction of Notre Dame. A lot of Americans have sent money to Paris to participate to the reconstruction of Notre Dame. Question: As a president of the United States, are you going to contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine? Monsieur President Macron – President Macron, what for you is the main area of progress in your meeting with President Trump? Can you confirm that there is an agreement to send European peacekeeping troops? Question: Will France participate in that? How many troops? What would they be doing? Would this represent a great danger to send French and European troops to Ukraine? Donald Trump: Well, I guess it’s a little strange question because you ask whether or not we’re going to, on behalf of the United States, contribute to Ukraine. I mean we’re in there for about $350 billion. I think that’s a pretty big contribution. I do appreciate the first part of your question, however, because I think they’ve done an incredible job with the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Donald Trump: I think the president has done – I know he headed it up and I know how hard he worked. And it took a period of time, but really not a long period of time considering what that was, so delicate, so beautiful. And I was there, and I saw the work and I’m very good at construction, I know good construction, I know bad construction. Donald Trump: They did a beautiful job and this man has to be given a lot of credit for that. It’s an incredible cathedral. Most people thought it couldn’t be saved and, if it was, it would have to be built in a different form. And we didn’t want to see a different form. We wanted to see the same form that you built. So, I just want to congratulate you. Donald Trump: That was an amazing job. I don’t think you’ve gotten enough credit for it. Some day you will, some day you will. Emmanuel Macron: Thank you, Donald. Merci beaucoup. To go back to your question. Today’s discussion showed several areas of progress. First, we have been working a great deal with President Zelenskyy to have a proposal that’s acceptable to Ukraine. President Trump has confirmed that he will be meeting with President Zelenskyy very soon to finalize the agreement on Critical Minerals and Rare Earths and to speak together about that matter. Emmanuel Macron: That’s a very important step forward. The second thing is that, during our discussions, we were able to go into some of the details about the proposal that we have just made to have a truce, a peace and be able to measure that and then structure our discussions on that basis. France and several other European countries along with Ukraine are hard at work to build this lasting peace with very specific points, including security guarantees, the territories that belong to Ukraine, the issue of reconstruction, the economy and critical minerals. Emmanuel Macron: We’ve been able to go into the details of those proposals. The third area of progress, which really mark a turning point, is the fact that we were able to talk about the details of the security guarantees. And the president has shown this over the past few days. And he said so a moment ago, we want peace. Emmanuel Macron: He wants peace. We want peace swiftly, but we don’t want an agreement that is weak. The fact that there are Europeans that are ready to engage to provide for these security guarantees, and now there’s a clear American message that the US as an ally is ready to provide that solidarity for that approach. That’s a turning point in my view and that is one of the great areas of progress that we’ve made during this trip and during this discussion. Emmanuel Macron: When it comes to troops, in the past, a year ago specifically, we saw a reason to talk about sending troops for strategic regions. Today when we talk about troops, we’re talking about sending them in after we’ve negotiated a lasting peace. And once we have that solid lasting peace, that’s part of an agreement signed by Ukraine, signed by Russia and for which we will provide the guarantees. Emmanuel Macron: Then at that point – and recently France has worked with the UK to provide its contributions. We’ve worked on plans, we’ve worked with our militaries not to go to the front lines, not to go into occupied territories, but as a show of support to show that we have a negotiated peace signed by both sides and that is a peace we will preserve. Emmanuel Macron: So, these would be peaceful deployments of troops, not for combat. These would be deployments of an assurance force, they would be limited, but they show solidarity. I have also spoken with all of our allies, and they are European and non-European allies who are ready and willing to take part in that effort. Emmanuel Macron: Countries have helped Ukraine maintain its military capabilities in terms of the number of soldiers it has, equipment, whereas others have provided logistical support on the ground. The question is whether – or in what form the US will contribute. And during our discussions and during the discussions with Russia, we’ve understood that this would be acceptable to Russia. Emmanuel Macron: And that’s a very important area of progress. And that means that in this context the Europeans will shoulder their part of the burden, their share of the burden. We have a strong alliance that we’ve built over the decades. We have our solidarity, and we have deterrence capacities. What does it mean? Would it be dangerous – if there is an agreement signed by Ukraine and Russia thanks to the efforts of President Trump? Emmanuel Macron: And if we provide the guarantees and Russia violates the agreement, then it would be in conflict with everyone who is engaged in the peace process. And that is a change. That was something we did not see in the past. That’s not what we saw in 2014. So, that is the real change that we’re marking. We have this deterrence capacity on the American side. Emmanuel Macron: We have the capacity for engagement on the European side and that’s something we’re going to continue working on together. It’s not dangerous, but it’s credible. It’s less dangerous than things that could happen in the long term. And I think this is what we need to do to ensure security, and I say this very clearly. Emmanuel Macron: We’re also talking about security for Europeans. I’ve been saying this for weeks now. If we do not guarantee the security of this territory within Europe, then how can we guarantee our own security for one and all. We live just 1,500 kilometers from Ukraine and the Germans and Polish are even closer. So, our collective security is important. Emmanuel Macron: We need to answer this call for Europeans to be more engaged and Americans will be there still in solidarity. Europeans are working for their collective security, but I really think this was a turning point today in our discussions. Donald Trump: Emmanuel, thank you very much. Great job and it’s been wonderful being with you. Say hello to your beautiful wife and we will see you again soon. We’ll be speaking often; we’ll get this thing worked out. We’re going to get it done, so important and great job. Emmanuel Macron: Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-24
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. We very much appreciate the attention. Today is a big day in that we had a G-7, and President Macron is a very special man in my book. We were together. We did it together. And I think a lot of progress has been made. We’ve had some some very good talks with Russia. We’ve had some very good talks with others and we’re trying to get the war ended with Russia and Ukraine. Donald Trump: And I think we’ve come a long way in a short period of weeks, and the president’s been very helpful also. And we’re also talking about trade, various trade deals that we will be doing with France. And we’ll be discussing a little bit further then we’ll have a press conference later on. You can ask some questions. Donald Trump: We’ll be having a press conference in a little while. We’re going to have lunch with the entire French staff and we look forward to it. And again, the relationship has been very special with France and very special with this gentleman on my right. And we look forward to keeping that going for a long period of time. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Emmanuel Macron: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank Mr. President for his hospitality. We had a good discussion this morning for the G-7 here and for the third year of this war in Ukraine. And I think our common objective clearly is to build peace and a solid and long-standing peace. Emmanuel Macron: And this is what we will discuss obviously, because I have great respect for bravery and the resistance of Ukrainian people. And we do share the objective of peace, but we are very aware of the necessity to have guarantees and solid peace in order to stabilize the situation. I’m here as a friend because through centuries, we’ve been friends and we are personal friends, as you mentioned it, because we work very well together. Emmanuel Macron: And I think the US and France always stands on the same side, the right side, I would say of history and this is exactly what is at stake today, and this is a very important moment for Europe as well. And I’m here as well after discussions with all my colleagues to say that Europe is willing to step up to be a stronger partner, to do more in defense and security for this continent and as well, to be a reliable partner and to be engaged on trade, economy, investment in a lot of topics. Emmanuel Macron: So I’m very excited by the discussion we will have. And obviously we will follow up. And I want to thank you again, Mr. President, for your presence for Notre Dame de Paris. It meant a lot for French people, and I want to thank you for that. Donald Trump: That’s the cathedral and they’ve done a fantastic job. The president’s done a great job in bringing it back. That was a terrible thing like what, five years ago? Emmanuel Macron: Yeah. Donald Trump: Watching that burn was a very horrible, horrible sight and you’ve done a fantastic job in bringing it back. So I congratulate you. Thank you for being here. Emmanuel Macron: Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Anybody want to ask a question or two? [Inaudible] question. Question: Have you reached an agreement with the Ukrainians on the critical minerals deal? Donald Trump: It looks like we’re getting very close. The deal is being worked on where I think getting very close to getting an agreement where we get our money back over a period of time. But it also gives us something where I think it’s very beneficial to their economy, to them as a country. But we’re in for $350 billion. Donald Trump: How we got there, I don’t know, but that’s a lot of money, a lot of lot of money invested and we had nothing, nothing to show for it and it was the Biden administration’s fault. The Europeans are in for about $100 billion and they do it in the form of a loan. And the Europeans have been great on this issue. Donald Trump: They understood it wasn’t fair and we were able to work something out. But with the Ukrainians, I think I can say that we’re very close. Scott’s around here someplace and I think we can say that we’re very – hi, Scott. I think we’re very close. Do you have something to say about that, Scott? Scott Bessent: We are very close, the one-yard line. Donald Trump: All right. Good. What? Question: Would a minerals deal include a security guarantee for Ukraine? Donald Trump: Well, it’ll be – Europe is going to make sure that nothing happens. I don’t think it’s going to be much of a problem. I think once we settle, there’s going to be no more war in Ukraine and it’s not going to be a very big problem. It’s going to be the least of it. Question: – the Greek media reporting that the US has agreed to shut down a military base in Greece that’s been a logistical hub for NATO. Donald Trump: That who shut down? Question: The US has agreed to shut it down at the request of Turkey and Russia. Is that all true? Donald Trump: Marco, do you have anything to say about that? Marco Rubio: Sir, that’s a no. That’s a no. Donald Trump: Is it a no, you said? Marco Rubio: It’s a no, sir. Donald Trump: It’s not a correct story. Question: Thank you. Mr. President, how do you react to people in Europe, who said that you are abandoning Ukraine and that you are going to sacrifice the security of Ukraine by making a deal with Putin? Donald Trump: No, we’re helping Ukraine like nobody’s ever helped Ukraine before. And I can say this, if I didn’t become president, Ukraine would right now still be at a level where there would be no even thinking about a peace. And it’s a sad thing that this happened. This would have never happened, this war, if I were president. Donald Trump: Zero chance, and it has happened. So my function is to get you out of the war, get them out of the war, let them live. It’s a bloody war. It’s a horrible war. Thousands of people have been killed a weak. And I would say Russia, may be 700,000 people. I think Ukraine probably a similar number, and that’s not talking about the towns and the cities that have been blown up. That’s talking about soldiers. Donald Trump: This has been a horrible, bloody mess and we’re going to get it solved. We got to get it solved. And we’re not talking about American soldiers, soldiers from this country. We’re talking about Russia and Ukraine. But on a humanitarian basis, we have to get this very, very bloody savage problem solved. And I will say this also, it could lead to World War III if it’s not solved. Donald Trump: There’ll be a point at which it’s not going to stop at those two countries. Already, there’s such involvement from other countries and it could really lead to a very big war, World War III, and we’re not going to let that happen either. Question: Would you support the idea to send European troops in Ukraine to back the ceasefire? Donald Trump: Yeah. European troops may go into Ukraine as peacemakers. So when the agreement is done, they can watch that everything is followed properly. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. And a lot of the European countries, I think, I don’t want to speak for France, but I know that the president has talked about doing that also. Donald Trump: I think that will be a very good day, when we can go in as peacekeepers as opposed to what’s going on right now with everybody being killed. Question: Will they have US backing? Those troops going into Ukraine, will they have US backing from US troops? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to have a backing of some kind and obviously, the European countries are going to be involved and I don’t think you’re going to need much backing. I think that’s not going to be a problem. Once an agreement is signed, Russia is going to get back to its business and Ukraine and Europe are going to get back to their business. Donald Trump: I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Question: Mr. President will you meet with President Zelenskyy soon? Donald Trump: What? Question: Will you meet with President Zelenskyy soon? Donald Trump: I will be meeting with President Zelenskyy. In fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement, which would be nice. I’d love to meet him. We’d meet at the Oval Office. So the agreement is being worked on now. They’re very close to a final deal. It will be a deal with rare earths and various other things. Donald Trump: And he would like to come, and I understand it, here to sign it and that would be great with me. I think they then have to get it approved by their council or whoever might approve it, but I’m sure that will happen. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Yeah. At some point, I will be meeting with President Putin also, yes. Question: How soon? Donald Trump: I don’t know when. We speak. We’re trying to get this thing worked out. But yeah, at some point, I’ll be meeting with President Putin too. Question: [✧ AI Transcript] Monsieur Macron, pouvez-vous dire quelques mots? [In English: “Mr. Macron, can you please say a few words?”] Emmanuel Macron: I can say a few words in French. Donald Trump: Yes, please. Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript: Le président l’a dit. Je pense que c’est 1.1 moment important parce que c’est un moment important de la discussion. On veut bâtir la paix en Ukraine et le bilan qui a été rappelé, c’est une réalité. Il y a 1,000,000 de morts et de blessés depuis le début de ce de ce conflit et de cette guerre d’agression. Emmanuel Macron: Notre volonté, c’est que cette paix dure parce que nous, nous avons déjà eu un cessez le feu et une paix qui n’a pas été respectée.] Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript: C’étaient les accords de Minsk un, puis deux. Et donc le corps de cette discussion, c’est de s’assurer d’abord qu’il y ait un cessez le feu, ensuite que les Ukrainiens soient impliqués. Et je pense que ce que vient de dire à l’instant le président Trump est très important, c’est à dire qu’il va rencontrer rapidement le président Zelinsky pour signer cet accord sur les minerais critiques et les terres rares, et que c’est aussi un moyen d’avoir une implication américaine forte. Emmanuel Macron: Les Européens sont prêts à prendre leur charge sous des formes diverses de soutien à l’armée ukrainienne de présence, y compris pour pour s’assurer que la paix soit durable et l’implication dans la durée des Etats-Unis d’Amérique à travers cet accord est une bonne chose. Et donc tout est encore à construire. Emmanuel Macron: Et je ne veux pas préempter les discussions. Mais nous partageons le même objectif et ce qu’on a discuté ce matin pendant 1 h après la visioconférence ensemble et ce qu’on va continuer de travailler et sont pour moi des bonnes avancées. Et l’annonce de l’intégrité Territoriale de l’Ukraine est encore un objectif très [Inaudible].] Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] President Trump has already spoken about this this just a moment ago. This is exactly what we want to do. We want to build a peace with Ukraine. As President Trump mentioned, there are already one million dead and wounded in Ukraine since the war began. We had a ceasefire in the past that was not respected. Emmanuel Macron: [Via translator] This was under the Minsk agreements one and two. President Trump, as he said, will be meeting with President Zelenskyy to sign a deal on rare earths and we are pleased to see this very strong American involvement. Europe, of course, also stands ready to support Ukraine in various ways, supporting its military and we don’t want to preempt any sort of discussions that are currently underway, but we do share the same objective of building this lasting peace. Donald Trump: I just want to tell you a little story. So we we’re at the Eiffel Tower having dinner with your wonderful wife and with my wonderful wife, and we came out and he started speaking the French deal. And we didn’t have an interpreter and he was going on and on and on and I was just nodding yes, yes, yes. And he really sold me out because I got back the next day and I read the papers. Donald Trump: They said, that’s not what we said. He’s a smart customer, I will tell you. Question: [Inaudible] President Zelenskyy a dictator. Would you use the same words regarding Putin? Donald Trump: I don’t use those words lightly. I think that we’re going to see how it all works out. Let’s see what happens. I think we have a chance of a really good settlement between various countries. And you’re talking about Europe and you’re talking about Ukraine as part of that whole situation. The other side has a lot of support also. Donald Trump: So let’s see how it all works out. It might work out. Look, you can never make up lives. And one thing you can’t, you can make up the money, but you can’t make up the lives. A lot of lives lost. I think probably a lot more lives than people are talking about. It’s been a rough war, but I think we’re close to getting it solved. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Question: Mr. President, do you think that DOGE could benefit from more streamlined communications? There is that email telling employees to give five things that they’ve done last week. Agency heads then told people to ignore it. Donald Trump: You’re talking about the last email that was sent, where he wanted to know what you did this week? You know why he wanted that, by the way, I thought it was great, because we have people that don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government. So by asking the question, tell us what you did this week, what he’s doing is saying, are you actually working? Donald Trump: And then if you don’t answer, like you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist. They’re trying to find – that’s how badly various parts of our government were run by and especially by this last group. So what they’re doing is they’re trying to find out who’s working for the government. Donald Trump: Are we paying other people that aren’t working? And where’s the money going? We have found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud so far. And we’ve just started. We’re actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there because maybe somebody stole the gold, tons of gold. So I think it was, actually, there was a lot of genius in sending it. We’re trying to find out if people are working and so we’re sending a letter to people, please tell us what you did last week. Donald Trump: If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working. Question: Some of the agency heads instructed their employees not to respond. They’re waiting on further guidance. But Elon Musk’s tweet said failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. So there’s been a disconnect in communications. Are you concerned at all about that? Donald Trump: No, no, no. That was done in a friendly manner. Only things such as perhaps Marco at State Department where they have very confidential things, or the FBI where they’re working on confidential things. And they don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They’re just saying there are some people that you don’t want to really have them tell you what they’re working on last week. Donald Trump: But other than that, I think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea. We have to find out where these people are, who are they. And we said, if you don’t respond, we assume you’re not around. Question: And that holds? That stands? Donald Trump: You’re not getting paid anymore too. So we’re doing a real job and we just had a poll come out, I guess the Harvard poll, saying that it’s massively popular, what we’re doing. Question: So Mr. President, do you still believe in NATO, in the alliance between Europe and America in NATO? Are you going to go to the summit in June? Donald Trump: NATO is very much involved in this. When I first got elected at the very beginning, first term, I got hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO. NATO had no money because they hadn’t paid for years. And I said, look, if you don’t pay and we’re not going to be a part of NATO, we’re not going to protect, we’re not going to do what we’re supposed to do. We took in hundreds of billions of dollars into NATO. Donald Trump: No, NATO is a good thing if it’s done properly and if it’s used properly. Question: Mr. President, in these days, these days, you speak a lot about tariff in Canada, in Mexico, and Europe. I want to know, what is your idea about Italy, if you want to make the same thing [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: What? Can you talk up a little bit? Question: In these days – Donald Trump: No, louder. Can you talk a little louder? You have a beautiful voice, but you’re not – where are you from? Question: Italy. Donald Trump: From Italy. Oh, I love Italy. Go ahead. Question: I want to know if you have the same idea with Italy about Paris. Donald Trump: Well, look, I love Italy and Italy is a very important nation. We have a wonderful woman as your leader and she was on the conversation today, one that we had, the G-7. And no, I think Italy is doing very well. I think Italy has got very strong leadership with Georgia. Question: [✧ AI Transcript] Monsieur le Président, qu’est-Ce que vous répondez au président Trump, qui a dit que les Français et les Britanniques n’avaient pas – [In English: “Mr. President, what do you say to President Trump, who said that the French and the British did not have –”] Donald Trump: Any other questions over here? Question: Mr. President? Donald Trump: Yes, ma’am. Question: Can you clarify what you meant in your truth today on the major economic development transactions between the US and Russia? Any more details? Donald Trump: With respect to what Russia? Question: In solving a peace deal. You said there would be major economic development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia. Donald Trump: Yeah, we’re trying to do some economic development deals. They have a lot of things that we want and we’ll see. I mean, I don’t know if that will come to fruition, but we’d love to be able to do that if we could. You know, they have massive rare earth. It’s a very large – it’s actually the largest in terms of land; it’s by far the largest country and they have very valuable things that we could use and we have things that they could use and it would be very good if we could do that. Donald Trump: I think it would be a very good thing for world peace and lasting peace. Well, I mean our first, by far, our first thing that we want to do, the first element of the overall transaction is ending the war. But just as we’re doing with Ukraine, if we could do some economic development in terms of Russia and getting things that we want, something like that would be possible. Donald Trump: Yes. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Donald Trump: Yes, go ahead, please. Question: Can you explain the rationale in having the US vote against the UN resolutions that Ukraine proposed and also the US proposed? Donald Trump: I would rather not explain it now, but it’s sort of self-evident, I think. Question: Mr. President, you talked about increasing the tariffs on products from the European Union. Is that still something you want to do today? Donald Trump: Well, it’s not increasing, it’s reciprocal. So whatever they charge us, we’re charging them. So it’s not a question of increasing. If they charge us 20 percent, we charge them 20 percent. If they charge us 30 or 40 percent, then we do that too. So that would be on European Union, but that really would be with respect to everybody. Donald Trump: It’s reciprocity. So reciprocal, whatever they charge us, we charge them. Nobody has a problem. Even you, I see you have a problem. Question: Mr. President, are you thinking of going to Moscow soon, maybe in May for the 9th of May for the anniversary? Donald Trump: I mean, not soon. But I would be certainly – if this all gets settled out, which I think it will, sure, I would go there. And he’d come here too. Question: On the 9th of May, on the red square? Donald Trump: I don’t know the 9th of May. No. I think that’s pretty soon. But no, at the appropriate time, I would go to Moscow. Question: When do you think [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: I think the war could end soon. Question: How soon? Donald Trump: Within weeks. Question: Weeks? Donald Trump: Yeah. [Inaudible] you think so? I’d like to ask you. I think we could end it within weeks if we’re smart. If we’re not smart, it’ll keep going and we’ll keep losing young, beautiful people that shouldn’t be dying and we don’t want that. And remember what I said, this could escalate into a third world war and we don’t want that either. Question: Mr. President, your envoy Steve Witkoff suggested a temporary ceasefire in the conflict but the Russian government has denied that out of hand. Are you worried that they’re not dealing in good faith? Donald Trump: No, I think they at some point will agree to that. I think they probably wanted to. And I think once you have a ceasefire, it’s going to end because they’re not going from a ceasefire back to war. I think people have had their full. I’m just glad I was able to help because there was no communication with Russia until I came along. Donald Trump: Biden didn’t communicate. He couldn’t communicate with his own child. So Biden didn’t communicate, he couldn’t. It was terrible. He hadn’t spoken to Putin in three years. You’re trying to end a war. People are being killed. Every week, thousands of people are being killed, soldiers, in this case, mostly. Donald Trump: Also towns, as missiles go in and back and forth. No, it’s a shame. This should have never happened. This is a very sad – this is going to go down in the history books. This is a very sad moment because that should have been stopped. That should have never started. And if it did start, it should have stopped the first week, not three years later, OK? OK? Note: [Crosstalk] Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript] Des réponses justes. Je pense que plusieurs questions – [In English: “Fair answers. I think that several questions –”] Donald Trump: Please. Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript] – au niveau de votre collègue qui ont été posées en français et qui rejoignent les questions posées par les collègues américains. D’abord, cette discussion est utile et construire la paix est une nécessité. La deuxième chose, c’est qu’il y a aujourd’hui une capacité de dissuasion qui est restaurée et que c’est ce que veut dire le président Trump quand il dit Il n’y aura plus de problème. [In English: “– at the level of your colleague that were asked in French and that join the questions asked by American colleagues. Emmanuel Macron: First, this discussion is useful and building peace is a necessity. The second thing is that today there is a deterrence capacity that is restored and that is what President Trump means when he says There will be no more problem.”] Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript] Je pense que la force du réengagement américain aujourd’hui, c’est en quelque sorte l’incertitude aussi pour le président Poutine. Et donc il y a une capacité de dissuasion qui est là, qui permet de sceller d’abord sans doute une trêve, la capacité à vérifier que cette trêve est respectée et ensuite un accord de paix qui permettra de reconstruire l’Ukraine, mais de lui apporter aussi les garanties de sécurité dans le cadre de ses garanties de sécurité. [In English: “I think that the strength of the American re-engagement today is in some way the uncertainty also for President Putin. Emmanuel Macron: And so there is a deterrent capacity that is there, which allows us to seal first of all a truce, the capacity to verify that this truce is respected and then a peace agreement that will allow Ukraine to be rebuilt, but also to provide it with security guarantees within the framework of its security guarantees.”] Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript] Nous pensons que nous avons notre rôle à jouer. Et donc on verra à ce moment là la discussion, je ne veux pas la préempter, ce qui est nécessaire pour que l’Ukraine puisse rester un pays souverain. Et d’ailleurs, dans les discussions entre l’Ukraine et les États-Unis d’Amérique. Il y a cette question de d’une souveraineté ukrainienne qui est, qui est respectée. [In English: “We believe that we have our role to play. Emmanuel Macron: And so we will see at that time the discussion, I do not want to preempt it, what is necessary for Ukraine to remain a sovereign country. And moreover, in the discussions between Ukraine and the United States of America. There is this question of Ukrainian sovereignty which is, which is respected.”] Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript] Et donc nous, ce que nous avons préparé, en particulier avec nos partenaires britanniques, dans le cadre d’un travail très étroit qu’on a mené ces dernières semaines et partager avec tous les pays européens et alliés qui sont prêts à s’y joindre. C’est l’idée de dire On est prêts à apporter ces garanties de sécurité. Les conditions doivent en être définies par l’envoi de troupes. [In English: “And so we, what we have prepared, in particular with our British partners, as part of very close work that we have carried out in recent weeks and shared with all European countries and allies who are ready to join. Emmanuel Macron: It is the idea of saying We are ready to provide these security guarantees. The conditions must be defined by sending troops.”] Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript] Elles doivent être définies par par l’accord. Ça peut aller jusqu’à l’envoi, comme l’a dit le président. De troupes qui iront observer que la paix est bien respectée et qui iront se positionner. Pas sur la ligne de front, pas pour justement en quelque sorte être dans le conflit, mais marquer une présence comme une garantie. Emmanuel Macron: Il y a d’autres moyens de soutenir qui peuvent être des soutiens accrus et capacitaires à l’armée des des structures nouvelles. [In English: “They must be defined by the agreement. It can go as far as sending, as the president said, troops who will go and observe that peace is being respected and who will go and position themselves. Emmanuel Macron: Not on the front line, not to be in the conflict, but to mark a presence as a guarantee. There are other means of support which can be increased and capacity support for the army or new structures.”] Emmanuel Macron: [✧ AI Transcript] Et je pense aussi que l’accord qui est discuté, le Président l’a dit, la crédibilité américaine qui est mise dans ce moment, c’est aussi montrer que chacun est dans son rôle, mais que nous avons une unité. Européens et Américains, et donc avec une forme de garantie que les Américains prennent par la discussion sur les minerais critiques qui sont en train de finaliser. [In English: “And I also think that the agreement that is being discussed, the President said it, the American credibility that is being put into this moment, is also showing that everyone is playing their role, but that we have unity. Emmanuel Macron: Europeans and Americans, and therefore with a form of guarantee that the Americans take through the discussion on critical minerals that are in the process of being finalized.”] Donald Trump: That is the most beautiful language. I have no idea what he’s saying, but that is the most elegant, beautiful language. Go ahead, please. Emmanuel Macron: This is a question that was asked by several. What we need to do is make sure that we are building peace. Donald Trump: Can you speak up, please? Emmanuel Macron: We have deterrence capabilities that have been restored. As President Trump said, there won’t be any more problems. We’ve seen the US re-engagement and the message that that sends to Mr. Putin. We have deterrence, which will allow a truce to take place. Verification of that truce and then a peace agreement can be put in place so that we can start rebuilding Ukraine with security guarantees and we have a role to play in that. Emmanuel Macron: Again, I’m not preempting any discussions, but we’ve spoken about Ukraine’s sovereignty and that has been a subject of discussion between the US and Ukraine. We have also been working closely with our British partners this week. We’ve shared this information with other European countries and we are ready and willing to provide those security guarantees, which could perhaps include troops, but they would be there to maintain peace. Emmanuel Macron: They would not be along the front lines. They would not be part of any conflict, but they would be there to ensure that the peace is respected. Our assistance may include other capacity building perhaps for the military. We see US credibility here. We each have our role to play, but we will be done in a united fashion. Question: Mr. President, do you think that Ukraine should give up a part of its territory? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to see. It’s a negotiation that’s just starting and they’ve been fighting and there’s been a lot of land that’s been taken. So we’ll have to see how that works out. That’s part of the negotiation. I will say, there was great unity in that room today. They were via Skype or whatever, but it was great, tremendous unity today in that room with the other countries. [Inaudible] Question: – is back. Can they take back what they lost in the past years? Donald Trump: That’s not an easy thing to do. Is it, right? It’s not an easy thing to do. Asking whether or not you can take back the land that they lost. And I say that, yeah, perhaps some of it, yeah. I hope so, but that’s not an easy thing to do. Question: But not everything? Donald Trump: It’s going to be something we’re talking about. Question: Will you convince Putin to accept the European troops as peacekeepers would you think? Donald Trump: Yeah, he will accept that he will that. Question: He will accept it? Donald Trump: I’ve asked him that question. Question: You talked to him? Donald Trump: I’ve asked him that question. Question: He said yes? [Inaudible] lift the block on – Donald Trump: Look, if we do this deal, he’s not looking for more war. He doesn’t mind, but I’ve specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it. Question: Is France going to lift the block on the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets in Belgium? France has opposed unfreezing it to pay Ukraine and compensate the US for its support. Is France going to lift its opposition to that? Emmanuel Macron: I mean, we speak about frozen assets. We already used them to backs precisely the loans negotiated at the G-7, and it’s part of the sanctions. So it will depend on the follow up of the discussions. But clearly, we respect international law, it’s just frozen assets now. You can take the proceeds of the frozen assets, but you cannot take the assets themselves because it’s not respecting international law and we want to respect international law. Question: How is one different than the other? If you can take the proceeds from it, how can you not take – Emmanuel Macron: Because it’s very different. To keep the assets, you take the proceeds because they are paralyzed in a certain way. You take the proceeds during the wartime, but you keep the asset and it’s part of the negotiation at the end of the war. Because I mean this war cost all of us a lot of money. And this is the responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia. Question: Should the US be compensated? Emmanuel Macron: So at the end of the day, this frozen asset should be part of the negotiation, all in all. Question: Will France support the US being compensated? Emmanuel Macron: I support the idea to have Ukraine first being compensated because they are the ones who have lose a lot of their fellow citizens and being destroyed by these attacks. Second, all of those who paid for it be compensated, but not by Ukraine, by Russia because there wasn’t one to agress. Donald Trump: Just so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back. Emmanuel Macron: Now, in fact to be frank, we paid. We paid 60 percent of the total defaults and it was like the US, loans, guarantee grants and we provided real money to be clear. We have $230 billion frozen assets in Europe, Russian assets. But this is not as a collateral of a loan because this is not our belonging. So they are frozen. Emmanuel Macron: If at the end of the day in the negotiation we will have with Russia, they are ready to give it to us, super. It will be loan at the end of the day and Russia will have paid for that. This is my wish. Donald Trump: If you believe that, it’s OK with me. They get their money back, we don’t and now we do, but that’s only fair. Question: Mr. President, do you think Russia should be the one that pays everybody back? Are they the aggressor? Donald Trump: Well, we’re negotiating everything and everything is on the table and we’ll see if we can get some land back and we’ll see about a lot of different things. And we’re going to be making a little speech and say a few words. In a little while we’re going to have another meeting, a luncheon meeting and we’ll see you in about two hours. Donald Trump: OK? Thank you very much, everybody.
Date: 2025-02-24
Today, President Emmanuel Macron of France joined me in the Oval Office to speak to the G7 Summit. The meeting was convened by Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, the current chair of G7, to acknowledge the Third Anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine War – Which would have never started if I was President. Everyone expressed their goal of seeing the War end, and I emphasized the importance of the vital “Critical Minerals and Rare-Earths Deal” between the United States and Ukraine, which we hope will be signed very soon! This deal, which is an “Economic Partnership,” will ensure the American people recoup the Tens of Billions of Dollars and Military Equipment sent to Ukraine, while also helping Ukraine’s economy grow as this Brutal and Savage War comes to an end. At the same time, I am in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia. Talks are proceeding very well!
Date: 2025-02-25
Peter Navarro: – [Inaudible] in there. But, uh, this – this, uh, nonsense from the Financial Times, uh, is a product of a culture in the media where they report stories and never name their sources. And my view is that we should never have to comment on any story where it’s based on unnamed sources. Have you ever noticed that? Peter Navarro: OK. And what – that was just crazy stuff. We would never ever jeopardize our national security, ever, with allies like Canada ever. So, um, please stop doing that. And I – you know, I have – I have proposed – I hope somebody’s hearing me that, uh, we just don’t pay any attention to any questions that are based on anonymous sources. Peter Navarro: That’s all I got to say. We’ll talk uh maybe later today. We got a nice sign in the Oval on another executive order, but I appreciate any progress. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – on the tariffs, on Canada – Can we do a quick one on the Canada and Mexico –
Date: 2025-02-25
Note: [Begins in progress] Question: Mr. President, is that the culmination of ongoing conversations you’ve had with your counterparts, this particular executive order? Donald Trump: Which one? last or – Question: The one – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: No, they’re – the digital taxes is taking place all over Europe, they’re taxing us, and they’re doing other things. They’re suing all our companies, and uh, if that’s going to happen, we want to be the ones that sue, not them. And they use it almost as a form of running European countries and the EU, in particular, has been very violent in its lawsuits against our companies and frankly, very violent and very bad to our airlines. I’ve gotten calls from the heads of airlines saying they stop in Europe and they’re getting charged all sorts of taxes that they never even heard of. They stop and they’re getting fined and charged and they do it only with American companies. Donald Trump: They’re not doing it to other countries, so we’re stopping it. And we have another thing. We have another step to go and if they don’t shape up, as an example, Apple has had to pay like $17 billion in a lawsuit that nobody thought was worth anything. And I won’t get into the judge or the decision or how the decision was arrived, but I’m pretty good at this stuff and I think it’s disgraceful. Donald Trump: And Google’s being sued, Facebook’s being sued and many others are being sued by their so-called government, if you call it a government, EU. And they don’t treat us right. They don’t treat us right as a country. So we’re going to protect our companies. We have to protect our companies or we’re not going to have any companies left anymore. Donald Trump: I also want to thank Apple, though, for announcing they’re going to invest $500 billion in our country. That’s the biggest investment anybody’s probably made to this date, and they’re going to do it very quickly and that’s because of tariffs. They don’t want to pay the tariffs, and they feel very strongly about the country. Donald Trump: Now, they wouldn’t have done it without us. Without the Trump administration, they wouldn’t have done it, but they feel very strongly about the direction of the country. The polls have shown that too. The polls are coming out showing the direction of the country is the best they’ve ever seen, actually, the best they’ve ever seen. Donald Trump: So I just want to thank Tim Cook and Apple for the confidence, $500 billion. That’s the biggest investment anyone has made in a short period of time. Question: Mr. President, have you spoken today with the House republican holdouts who said they would not be supporting the budget resolution [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Well, I’m not involved in that. They know what I want and the Senate knows what I want too, and the Senate’s got a bill that’s very strong, having to do with the taxes because the taxes is what’s bringing all these companies in. And without it, by the way, you’d have to double your own taxes. Everybody would be doubled up and you’d have the biggest tax increase ever. Donald Trump: So the House has a bill and the Senate has a bill, and I’m looking at them both. And I’ll make decisions, but I don’t know where they are in the vote. I know the Senate’s doing very well and the House is doing very well. But each one of them has things that I like, so we’ll see if we can come together. Question: Mr. President, can you clarify hopefully once and for all what your expectations are with this email to federal employees? What are you going to use that information for and do you see it as voluntary like OPM has said or mandatory? Donald Trump: Well, it’s somewhat voluntary, but it’s also, if you don’t answer, I guess you get fired. What it really is – Question: I’m still lost on that. Donald Trump: What it is, is do people exist? We have this massive government with millions of people and nobody knows who’s working for the government, who’s not. So what they’re doing is they’re sending out a letter to everybody and they’re saying, what were the things you did last week? I guess they ask for five. And if people are working, it’s easy. Donald Trump: I could tell you five things I did last week. I could tell you five things I did six weeks ago, right? If they’re there and they’re working, they’re able to say they did five things during work and that means they’re working and they’re with us and they have no further obligation. If they’re not, it could be there’s no such person. Donald Trump: It could be that the person is no longer working, they’re no longer living at that address. They may be moved. Maybe they moved to a different country or maybe the person doesn’t exist. And we then take that person off the payroll and we save a lot of money by doing that. But that’s one of the only ways. Donald Trump: I think it’s a very smart thing. And it says if you don’t answer, essentially, there’s a penalty to pay, like that’s the end of the job. Question: Well, Musk has said that. The order itself doesn’t say that. I think that’s part of the confusion. Is he speaking for you when he says you’ll be terminated? Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Everybody speaks for me. I’m the one. I’ll take responsibility. You know the old statement, the buck stops here, right, famous statement. Well, I can say the same thing. The buck stops here. No, we have to find out if people are getting paid and they’re not working and they have a problem. Let’s say they have another job and then they write in false statements. Donald Trump: It’s a big problem if they write in false statements. They may be working for somebody else but getting paid by the US government. And that would mean that they’re not allowed to be doing that. They’re not allowed to be working for us and be working for somebody else. We’re paying them; a lot of money we’re paying them. Donald Trump: So we’ll see. That solves that problem. Most people aren’t willing to say that we’re doing this, this, this and this and this for the US government and yet they’re at another job because that’s a big problem for them if they do that. So in some cases, they’re not writing back. And if they don’t write back, they end up eventually losing their job. Donald Trump: We give them extensions, but that was something we thought about a long time ago. We gave them extensions, but we’ll see. We have to make sure, number one, that we have people, number two, that they’re working; and number two, they’re working for us, not for another company. Question: Is it true that President Zelenskyy is coming on Friday to meet with you? And is the mineral deal sorted out? Donald Trump: Yeah, I hear that. I hear that he’s coming on Friday. Certainly, it’s OK with me if he’d like to and he would like to sign it together with me and I understand that it’s a big deal, a very big deal. And I think the American people, even if you look at polling, they’re very happy because Biden was throwing money around like it’s cotton candy and it’s a very big deal. Donald Trump: It could be $1 trillion deal. It could be whatever. But it’s rare earths and other things. And look, we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine and Russia fighting, a war that should have never ever happened. That’s a war that would have never happened if I were president, and it didn’t happen for four years. Donald Trump: People say, how do we know that? It didn’t happen for four years, would have never happened. And nevertheless, this guy went into this situation and he spent money like nobody’s ever seen, $350 billion. The other thing that we don’t like is that Europe has spent $100 billion. We’ve spent $350 billion. Europe gets their money back because they spent it in the form of a loan and we just gave them, whether it’s $300 billion or $350 billion, nobody really knows. Donald Trump: They can’t even tell me the answer to that, means probably more than that. So what we’re doing is now we’re saying, look, we want to be secured. We want to get that money back. We’re helping a country through a very, very big problem, a problem like very few people have had. Shouldn’t have had this problem because it shouldn’t have happened, but it did happen so we have to straighten it out. Donald Trump: But the American taxpayer now is going to get their money back, plus. Question: Mr. President, yesterday with Emmanuel Macron, you said you had spoken to Putin about the idea of peacekeepers in Ukraine, that Putin was fine with it. The Kremlin, I guess, has said that that’s actually unacceptable to them. What’s real here? Donald Trump: That’s not what I was told, but you’re going to need some form of peacekeeping. So something will be done that’s going to be satisfactory to everybody. We need peacekeeping too. Question: Any situation where it’s American troops involved? Donald Trump: It’s actually something I did discuss, but a form of peacekeeping that’s acceptable to everybody. Ultimately, we’ll be able to agree on something, I’m sure. Question: With Ukraine and this mineral deal, what does Ukraine get in return, Mr. President? Donald Trump: $350 billion and lots of equipment and military equipment and the right to fight on and originally, the right to fight. Look, Ukraine, I will say, they’re very brave and they’re good soldiers, but without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time. Donald Trump: In fact, I was the one that gave the Javelins. Do you remember the famous Javelins? That was me. That wasn’t Obama, it wasn’t Biden, it wasn’t anybody else. It was me, and they wiped out a lot of tanks with those Javelins and they – especially ones that Obama gave sheets and I gave the Javelins. That was a big deal at the time. Donald Trump: It wiped out. That was the beginning when people said, wow, that’s something. Well, that was American equipment. Without American equipment, this war would have been over very quickly and American money too. I mean, a lot of money. Question: Mr. President, that war fighting equipment and the ammunition, is that sustained going forward for Ukraine and how long is it sustained? Donald Trump: Well, it could go forward for a while and maybe until we have a deal with Russia. Look, we need to have a deal with Russia, otherwise it’s going to continue. But now when Americans put up their money, the taxpayer money and the president approves it, we’re getting our money back in some form. But it could go on for a while or it could be settled quickly. Donald Trump: I think it’s going to be settled quickly. I spoke with President Putin. I think he wants to settle it and wants to get on with life. It’s horrible. What’s happening, horrible. Thousands of soldiers a week are being killed and others too, but especially on the battlefield. Thousands a week are being killed and we want that to end. Question: Mr. President, when you spoke to – Donald Trump: Yeah, Brian. Question: Yes. OK. Real quickly. Karoline Leavitt, your press secretary sent an earthquake through that briefing room earlier today announcing that the WHCA would not have any control over placing media in the seats, the briefing room. I just want to get your thoughts on that. And also on Air Force One, it’s trending on X. People are talking about it, get your thoughts. Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to be now calling those shots. As you know, we won that lawsuit right there. See, the Gulf of America, which is a beautiful name. Most people agree, I don’t know. It’s – AP has been terrible. I think they’re radical left. I think they’re third-rate reporters. I know the specific young lady that works on the account is terrible. Donald Trump: She’s a radical left lunatic as far as I’m concerned. They don’t treat us fairly. That’s number one. And number two, they had no right to do that. This is the Gulf of America. And if you look at that shoreline – look at that shoreline. Look from Florida, all – most of it is – it’s called America and vast majority, like big numbers. Donald Trump: So, I’m just admiring it as I look at it. I’m getting teary eyed, but I don’t want you to say Trump broke down and started crying. No, how beautiful is that? Look at the shoreline. Look at that, that’s America. Question: Can I shift your attention to Canada real quick? Donald Trump: Yes, please. Question: Last week I spent some time with two government officials from Canada and was asking them how realistic is it that Canada would be the 51st state. And they told me there is a path, Alberta is first and if they sign on Saskatchewan would follow. And then you go west to British Columbia. There is a movement in Canada to join us. I want to get your thoughts on that and how that’s proceeding right now? Donald Trump: So, it’s true. Thank you, Brian. It’s true. A lot of people in Canada are liking becoming our beautiful cherished 51st state. They’ll have to pay much lower taxes. They’ll have the ultimate security. You know, they don’t pay very much for security right now because they rely on us, which is really unfair to us. They make cars that we could make, and they send them back into the United States. Donald Trump: They make a lot of things, including the sending of oil and everything. We don’t need their oil. We don’t need their lumber. In fact, we’re going to be freeing up. And I’ve asked Howard Lutnick to get that done with Lee and everybody, Lee Zeldin, environmental. We’re freeing up our forests. We’re going to be able to take down trees. Donald Trump: Right now, we’re so restricted environmentally, we’re going to be freeing it up with an emergency order. We have an emergency order and we’re going to be freeing up our forests. We have more forests than almost anybody and great lumber, great trees. We don’t need anybody’s trees. We don’t need trees from Canada or anybody else. Donald Trump: In fact, we have to put the slits as they call them, the area, you know, 50-, 60-yard area in between areas of trees. It stops the fires. And frankly, California should have been doing that for years. It’s almost getting late. They’re going to run out of forests the way they’re going, what a shame, and by the way, the water is flowing in California. Donald Trump: I hope you people have seen it, but the water is flowing. Do you have a picture of that? I’d hold it up. Do you have a picture of that, get a picture of it, please? You know, he had a little skirmish in California. I can’t believe we had to do that, but we opened up the water in California. The water was flowing into a place called the Pacific Ocean, which for the Pacific Ocean is only a drop. Donald Trump: But for us, it’s more water than we can use in California. So, I’ll get you some photographs, but it’s a beautiful site. The water is flowing in California, beautiful water from the Pacific Northwest and beyond and it flows down and, instead of being routed out to the Pacific Ocean – and this has been going on for 20 years more – in order to take care of a certain species of fish, which wasn’t doing very well without water, I can tell you. Donald Trump: So, that’s a big deal. It’s like not reported, it’s incredible. But California has a lot of water. That’s going to take care of farmers. It’s going to wetten up the land, and it’s going to go all the way down to Los Angeles where they have curfews on water, where they have all sorts of blocks on water. You can only use so much. Donald Trump: We’re going to put a – until just recently they were going to put a number of gallons per person living in a house in Beverly Hills on water. You’re not going to have that problem anymore. Do you have a picture? Let me just see what that looks like, how beautiful is that? Look at that beautiful water flowing. Donald Trump: That’s coming in the – the dikes and other means of transportation? The environmental problem with clean water, if this water were there, you wouldn’t have had those fires. You had sprinklers, they make people put sprinklers in the ceiling of a home and they had no water in them, with this they would have had a lot of water in them. Donald Trump: They would have all been full. That would have had a – you would have had a whole different deal down there. You probably wouldn’t have had a fire, but if it was, it would have been small, would have been put out. You had the fire hydrants not working in California. So it’s a beautiful sight. These are canals that were built. Donald Trump: These were all built and you saw them for years. They were empty concrete, they call them the V shapes or the pipe half pipes and they’re shaped different forms, but – and they rush down through the farm areas where the farmers can take it and down to Los Angeles. And they were sitting empty for years and now look at that, look at that way, it looked – it wasn’t easy. Donald Trump: We had to be very unfriendly to get into those areas. We opened it up. Question: Mr. President. Mr. President. Donald Trump: I essentially attacked California, can you believe it? I attacked I attacked California. Let’s go. Will Scharf: At the outset of your administration, sir. You committed to ending the weaponization of government to holding those accountable who participated in the weaponization of government. Donald Trump: Hold it, this is a good one is everybody listening? Deranged Jack Smith, we’re going to call it the deranged Jack Smith signing or bill. Go ahead. Will Scharf: One law firm that provided pro bono legal services to the special counsel’s office under Jack Smith’s leadership was Covington and Burling. As a result of those actions, we’re now going to be suspending and putting under review the security clearances for the attorneys and employees at that firm who worked with Jack Smith’s team. Will Scharf: And we’re going to continue holding the people who were responsible for the weaponization of government and who supported it accountable for what they did. Donald Trump: And you’ll be doing this with other firms as time goes by, right? Will Scharf: We’re looking at at sort of the whole panoply of options. The – Donald Trump: The weaponization of our system by law firms, even pro bono work, they’re doing just in order to clog up government and stop government and nobody knows about it more than me and hopefully that’ll never happen again. Question: So that’s Covington and Burlington? Will Scharf: Covington and Burlington. Question: Mr. President, may I ask you a question about Europe. So long-term, do you plan to maintain the number of US troops? Donald Trump: I just want to savor this one please, who would like this pen? Hey, why don’t you send it to Jack Smith? [Laughter] A deranged person. Question: What do you say to people who were targeting an individual firm or individuals who aren’t Jack Smith for his actions? Donald Trump: I’ve been targeted for four years, longer than that. So you don’t tell me about targeting. I was the target of corrupt politicians for four years and then four years after that. So, don’t talk to me about targeting. Yeah, go ahead. Question: Mr. President. There are approximately two million federal employees right now. By the end of your term, what do you expect that number to be? What would you like that number? Donald Trump: Well, it’ll be lower, but I can’t tell you we – Everybody knows I ran on downsizing government but making government better. I ran on tariffs and making our country rich and that’s what’s going to do. We’re going to be doing something else. It’s going to be very, very good. We’re going to be selling a gold card, you have a green card, this is a gold card. Donald Trump: We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $ 5 million, and that’s going to give you green card privileges plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. Donald Trump: And we think it’s going to be extremely successful and never been done before or anything like this. But it’s something that we’re going to be putting out over the next, would you say two weeks, Howard? Howard Lutnick: Two weeks. Donald Trump: Or do you want to say a couple of words about it? Howard Lutnick: Sure. Question: Mr. President [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Wait a minute [Inaudible] yeah, exactly. Howard Lutnick: So the EB-5 program was really – you lend some money, but it was all – it was full of nonsense make believe and fraud and it was a way to get a green card that was low priced. So the President said rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we’re going to end the EB-5 program. We’re going to replace it with the Trump gold card, which is really a green card gold. Howard Lutnick: So, they’ll be able to pay $5 million, to the US government. They’ll have to go through vetting, of course, we’re going to make sure they’re wonderful world class global citizens. They can come to America, the President can give them a green card and they can invest in America and we can use that money to reduce our deficit. Howard Lutnick: Why do we give out lotteries of green cards? Why do we give out EB-5 for green cards? The President of the United States understands that the right answer is why don’t we eliminate the deficit of the United States of America instead. Donald Trump: The gold card, the gold card – well millions, but the gold card will bring in with it people that create jobs, very high level people. I think companies will pay to get people in. For instance, you – today graduate from the Wharton School of Finance or Harvard or Stanford or – or any college, and nobody knows if you can even go to work for a company. Donald Trump: So, Apple and all these companies that want to get people to be working for them will be able to buy a card. And for the people that are number one in their class at top schools, I see that as one of the things. But generally speaking, it’ll be people with money and people that create jobs and they won’t have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States, which they’re not paying right now. Donald Trump: They’re not citizens. But they’ll have to pay, if they create jobs in the United States, they’ll pay full taxes like everybody else. So, you’re getting big taxpayers, big job producers and we’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good. Donald Trump: As an example, a million cards would be worth $5 trillion, $5 trillion. Howard Lutnick: Wow! Donald Trump: And if you sell 10 million of the cards, that’s a total of $50 trillion. Well, we have 35 trillion in debt. That would be nice. So we’ll see, but it could be great. Maybe it will be fantastic. We have it all worked out from the legal standpoint. It’s totally legal to do. It hasn’t been done before. It’s been done in many different forms. Donald Trump: We give them away. Why should we give them away? We shouldn’t give away. And I think it’s something very exciting. I think it’s potentially just something that we’re all very excited about. So it’s a gold card. It’s somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication. It’s a road to citizenship for people. Donald Trump: And essentially, people of wealth or people of great talent where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in, meaning companies will pay for people to get in and to have long-term status in the country. And I think it’s something we’re very, very happy about. You have anything to say about that? Howard Lutnick: Well, many other countries, by the way, do this, including of course your 51st state does that. Question: And the money is earmarked for deficit reduction? Donald Trump: It may be earmarked for deficit, but it actually could be more money than that. I mean, if you did 10 million, you’d have $ 15 trillion left over, but generally, it’s going to be paid down debt. Yes. Question: Do you need Congress for this? Do you think you need them to pass a law? Donald Trump: No, we don’t need Congress, no, because we’re not doing citizenship. We’re doing the card. Question: I see. Donald Trump: It’s a path to citizenship, a very strong path to citizenship, but we’re not doing the citizenship. For that, I’d have to get Congress. Question: And would all countries be eligible for this gold card? Donald Trump: It depends. The countries, largely – the people will be vetted very carefully. Question: Mr. President, in Ukraine, would you provide military support for Ukraine in the future under a peace agreement? Donald Trump: Say it again, louder. Question: Would you provide military support for Ukraine in the future as part of a peace agreement? Donald Trump: You mean like security? Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: Well, people are going to do it. I think Europe will largely be responsible for that. European countries will be responsible. Question: But Macron asked for a US backup – Donald Trump: Well, we’ll see. I mean, right now we’re just in the process of negotiating. We’ve pretty much negotiated our deal on Rare Earth and various other things. We’ll be looking at that security. You’re talking about general security for Ukraine later on. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. There are a lot of people that want to do it. And I spoke with Russia about it, they didn’t seem to have a problem with it. So I think they understand. Donald Trump: They’re not going back in. Once we do this, they’re not going back in. Question: [Inaudible] aircraft? Would the US provide, for instance, air defense? Donald Trump: Well, I just told you, right now, we’re not providing anything. You know, it’s about Europe too. Europe put in $100 billion, and we put in $350 billion. It’s not a fair thing. We would normally say and I say it now anyway, but we want equalization. They should put up actually more money than us because they’re right there. Donald Trump: We have an ocean in between. But we’ve had very good talks with Russia. We’ve had very good talks with Ukraine, and we think it maybe will come to an end and we’ll stop killing young people all over the battlefield and elsewhere. Question: On Europe, so do you plan to maintain heavy military presence in Europe in the long-term, like tens of thousands of troops – Donald Trump: We’ll be involved. Yeah, yeah, we’ll be involved in Europe. We’re involved in Europe now. Europe is our friend. They take advantage of us on trade. We don’t like that. What the EU does, we don’t like that. But we’ll solve that the old-fashioned way. We’ll give them the same reciprocal numbers. We’re talking about a reciprocal tax, you know that. Donald Trump: And if they charge us, we charge them. Right now, they charge us much, much more than we charge them and they have non-monetary taxes also in tariffs and we’re going to change that. It’s all changing. It’s all changing. We’re not going to be the people that we were. We had people in this office sitting right at this desk or another model of this desk, because as you know, the other desk is right now being refurbished. Question: Is Steve Witkoff delaying his trip to the Middle East and – Donald Trump: No, no, not that I know of. No. Steve and the Middle East has been great. Saudi Arabia has treated us really well. They really have. And I think Qatar has treated us very well too. They want to get that whole mess ended in the Middle East. We don’t even talk about that anymore. You guys haven’t asked one question about the Middle East, but the Middle East seems to be doing relatively well. Question: May I ask about the Middle East? Sir, about the Middle East. For months, even before you were elected in November, you’ve spoken about your desire to free all of those hostages that have been held by Hamas since October the 7th, a year and a half ago. And just a few weeks ago, you gave an ultimatum. You said if they’re not all released by noon on February the 15th, there would be hell to pay. Question: Is Hamas thumbing their nose at you, Mr. President? Donald Trump: No, I think the opposite. So as you know, they weren’t going to release any more hostages and I said, there’s going to be hell to pay and then they agreed that they were going to release the hostages that they had agreed to release, plus an extra one. And so that you could say that was a big difference, but I said it from that point, it’s up to Bibi Netanyahu and Israel. Donald Trump: I may have taken a different stance, but they did release. They went back to releasing the hostages. But if you remember, they said we weren’t going to release any. They’ve totally ended it. And I said, well, they’re not going to release any, there’ll be hell to pay. But the rest is really up to him. I may have done it differently than him. Donald Trump: It’s not my decision, it’s his decision, but they did release all of those hostages so – Question: Mr. President, when you spoke to Vladimir Putin, did he raise or did you discuss at all the possibility of a minerals deal on the Ukrainian land that Russia now controls, striking a deal with Russia? Donald Trump: I didn’t discuss that, no. I’d like to buy minerals on Russian land too, if we can, the Rare Earth. They have very good Rare Earth also. They both do. I would say that, and oil and gas. Look, it’s a great thing. If we sell this, it’s great for Russia too, because we can do deals there. They have very valuable land that isn’t utilized. Donald Trump: So something like that could take place. Yeah. Question: Have you put lifting sanctions against Russia on the table as – Donald Trump: No, we haven’t lifted any sanctions on anybody. Question: Is it on the table as part of any negotiation? Donald Trump: I guess it will be at some point, but right now – Note: [Audio gap] Question: – oligarch be eligible for a gold card? Donald Trump: Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It’s possible. They’re not quite as wealthy as they used to be. They’re not as wealthy as they used to be, but I think they can afford $5 million. No, a lot of people are going to want to be in this country and they’ll be able to work and provide jobs and build companies and pay taxes. Donald Trump: All of those things, it’s an incredible thing. I mean, this is the group that is the first to hear it. Nobody’s heard about it. Nobody ever thought about it. But we’ve been thinking about it very, very strongly over the last week. And I was going to announce it sometime next week. And I figured, why not? Donald Trump: We have a lot of cameras blazing right now. We might as well do it now. We’ll have Karoline announce it the next time. No, it’s a great thing. The gold card, remember the words the gold card. Somebody said, can we call it the Trump gold card? I said, if it helps, use the name Trump. I’ll give it to you for free. Question: [Inaudible] you probably just launched 10,000 stories. Do you want to elaborate a little bit more on what Russian oligarchs you know or don’t know? Donald Trump: Isn’t it interesting how many stories we do tell, and they all turn out to be true, and they all turn out to be ultimately correct. Trump was right about everything. Do you have one of those Trump was right about everything hats? I’m going to give it to this gentleman. Get me one of them. Howard Lutnick: They’re all going to be vetted. Everybody who comes in gets vetted. OK? They get vetted. So you got to – you know? Question: When does it begin? Howard Lutnick: We’re going to begin in two weeks. Donald Trump: About two weeks. The sale will start in about two weeks. Question: Mr. President, do you see a more active role for Zelenskyy now, given the status – Donald Trump: I hope so. I mean, look, I think that we want to get that country back on its feet. Right now, it’s been destroyed. Here. Give me this. Here. Give me all of them. Look. See that? Trump was right about everything. It just came in. Somebody said it. I said, this was sent in by a fan, I said, I think we should make some of them, right, but we were pretty much? Donald Trump: You want one? Question: I’ll pass on that. Donald Trump: Are you allowed to take one? Question: Probably not. Donald Trump: Because he’ll consider it. I know him well. He’s sort of a stiff. Brian, you’re not a stiff. He’s sort of a stiff guy. He’ll take other things, but not a free hat. Howard Lutnick: Always say yes to the president, always say yes to the president. Donald Trump: Would anybody like one? Question: Mr. President, an easy question perhaps for you – maybe it’s difficult. I’m going to ask you this question about the – Donald Trump: Who do you work for? Question: I work for two news organizations. Donald Trump: Who? Question: I work for two news – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Yeah, who are they? Question: I work for Gray Television, America’s second largest broadcaster, and I work for iHeartRadio. So, there you go. Let me ask you the easy or tough question, Mr. President. The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. Are they being extended an invitation? Donald Trump: They will be, we haven’t yet but we will be. I thought it was a great performance by them and absolutely they’ll be extended that invitation. Would you do that right away, by the way? We’ll do it right away. We’re going to do it sometime today and they deserve to be down here. And we hope to see them. We have a lot to do. We just had the great hockey team, as you know, Florida, come here. Donald Trump: I have many of the great athletes come that win things. Question: What’s the main obstacle holding up this PGA tour, LIV Golf? Donald Trump: Well, they have to get together. You know, they’ve had a lot of discussions back and forth. They both are meaning well, and a deal will ultimately happen. I think it will happen pretty quickly. It would be nice to see the golfers, the best golfers be able to play against each other. Question: What’s your role been in this whole – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Just to help expedite it. Tiger was here, Adam Scott was here, Jay Monahan was here the other day – just to really help expedite it. We had Yasir here from Saudi Arabia. A great guy. These are all great people, and they want to work it out. So, if I can help them work it out. I don’t get anything out of it. If I can help them work it out – I just think golf – it’s very much of an individual sport and you want to see the best players playing against each other, not playing in two different locations, right? Question: What’s going to be more challenging, a PGA/LIV deal or a Russia-Ukraine deal? Donald Trump: I think the PGA deal is much more complicated [Laughter]. Question: Sir, may I ask a Middle East question, if I may? What’s your take on what’s happening in the West Bank and allowed Israel to – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, it’s some movement up there that a lot of people are concerned about. And there’s been a lot of Israeli movement up there for a reason, all of a sudden maybe they’re not feeling so good about that. So, that would be terrible; I hope that doesn’t happen. But there is movement up there that nobody knew about, right? Donald Trump: You know that, right? Question: Yeah, and when you say – are you concerned about it as well? Donald Trump: I’m concerned about everything. I want the world to be peaceful. You know, when I left here, we had no war, we had defeated ISIS in less than four weeks. In fact, I took the general that defeated ISIS and I put him in charge of the whole ball game because that’s what we want. We want winners Razin Caine, you know? Donald Trump: Raising – when I heard that name, I said I like that name, that’s the kind of general I like. So, we’ll see, but he was great. He’s a great soldier, not a politician, a soldier, a real soldier. You know that, Brian, this guy was the real – Question: I’ve heard that story a million times. Donald Trump: Yeah, this guy is the real deal. Question: He is. Donald Trump: And I think he’s going to do a great job. But think of it, we had no wars, we had no problems. We had no inflation; we had no problems. And then all of a sudden you have October 7th, in Israel, which was horrible. And then you see what happened with Ukraine would have never – Russia would have never gone in if the election weren’t rigged, it was a rigged election. Donald Trump: The 2020 election was rigged, and we got out of it and you see what happened. You see what happened to our country inflation, Afghanistan, that horrible withdrawal from Afghanistan. I think when Russia saw what happened in Afghanistan, they said, wow, it’s a paper tiger. We’re not a paper tiger. We are the strongest military force in the world. Donald Trump: And by the way, Pete Hegseth is doing a great job. But we didn’t have wars, we didn’t have inflation, we had a strong border. We had everything going good, and then Biden got in and he’s, my opinion, the worst president in the history of our country. I think Jimmy Carter was a very happy man when he passed away two weeks ago. Question: What are you expecting at the cabinet meeting tomorrow? Donald Trump: It’s going to be a cabinet meeting and I’ll preside – unlike Biden, I’ll preside over my own cabinet meeting [Laughter]. Question: Mr. President, how would you compare – how would you compare your cabinet in your second term to your cabinet that you had in your first term? Donald Trump: Well, I had some great people my second term, I think this is deeper. I think it’s better because it’s deeper. I had some people that I didn’t really like too much in my cabinet, but I didn’t know Washington that much. I was a New York person. I knew New York intimately, but I had to rely on people. I had great people. Donald Trump: Look, we got the biggest tax cuts in history. I rebuilt the military. I mean we did so much. We did unbelievable, even Right to Try. Somebody was saying today they were saved by Right to Try. We did right to try medically. We did transparency medically, that was a big thing, but Biden canceled that one. He didn’t cancel Right to Try, which is interesting. Donald Trump: He didn’t cancel Space Force; he was going to cancel Space Force. Space Force is turning out to be invaluable, amazing. We created Space Force. But think of it, we rebuilt our entire military and now we’re going to have to patch it up a little bit again because of what’s happened. Now, this was a grossly incompetent administration. Donald Trump: The only thing they were good at was cheating in elections and the weaponization of government. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-26
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. And we’ve put together a great cabinet and we’ve had tremendous success. We’ve been given a lot of credit for having a very successful first month and we want to make that many months and years, actually. But we’re going to have many good months and we’re going to have many good years, I hope, and solve a lot of problems. Donald Trump: We’re doing very well with Russia-Ukraine. President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday. That’s now confirmed and we’re going to be signing an agreement which will be a very big agreement. And I want to thank Howard and Scott for the job you guys did in putting it together, really did an amazing job. Donald Trump: And that’ll be on rare earth and other things. And as you know, we’re in for probably $350 billion. The Europe is in for $1 billion – $100 billion, and that’s a big difference. So we’re in for probably three times as much, and yet it’s very important to everybody, but Europe is very close. We have a big ocean separating us. So it’s very important for Europe. Donald Trump: And they hopefully will step up and do maybe more than they’re doing and maybe a lot more. The previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we’ve been able to make a deal where we’re going to get our money back and we’re going to get a lot of money in the future. And I think that’s appropriate because we have taxpayers that are – shouldn’t be footing the bill and they shouldn’t be footing the bill at more than the Europeans are paying. Donald Trump: So it’s all been worked out. We’re happy about it. And I think that, very importantly, we’re going to be able to make a deal. Most importantly, by far, we’re going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine to stop killing people. They’ll stop killing young Russian soldiers and young Ukrainian soldiers and other people, in addition, in the towns and cities. Donald Trump: And we will consider that a very important thing and a big accomplishment because it was going nowhere until this administration came in. They hadn’t spoken to President Putin in two years. And so we’ll – we’ll keep you advised. Before we begin the cabinet. I’d like to have Scott and a couple of people say a few things, but most importantly – where are you? Scott Turner: Right here, sir. Donald Trump: This is a gentleman who’s going places, the head of HUD, and he’s going to say – you all know him and you’re going to say grace and then we’ll have our meeting, right? Thank you very much. Scott Turner: Thank you, Mr. President. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this awesome privilege, father, to be in your presence. God, thank you that you’ve allowed us to see this day – the Bible says that your mercies are new every morning and, Father God, we give you the glory and the honor. Thank you, God, for President Trump, father, for appointing us. Father God, thank you for anointing us to do this job. Scott Turner: Father, we pray you will give the president, the vice president wisdom, Father God, as they lead. Father, I pray for all of my colleagues that are here around the table and in this room. Lord God, we pray that we would lead with a righteous clarity. Father God, as we serve the people of this country and every prospective agency, every job that we have, Father, we would humble ourselves before you and we would lead in the manner that you’ve called cause us to lead and to serve. Scott Turner: Father, the Bible says that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Well, Father, we today honor you. And in your rightful place, Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity to restore faith in this country and be a blessing to the people of America. And Lord God, today in our meeting, we pray that you will be glorified in our conversation in Jesus name. Scott Turner: Amen. Donald Trump: Scott, that was a very good job you did. You’ve done that before, haven’t you? Wow. So Scott Turner is a terrific young guy. He’s heading up HUD and he’s going to make us all very proud, right? Scott Turner: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Great job. In just over one month, illegal border crossings have plummeted by numbers that nobody’s actually ever seen before. It’s much more than 100 percent. And we’ve unleashed American energy at levels that will soon be reported, but we think we’re going to get it going very quickly. Donald Trump: We have incredible people on the energy front. I think we have really great people on every front. I’ll let you know if they’re not good, but I think they really are. And we’re fighting every day to get the prices down. The inflation is stopping slowly, but part of the reason it’s stopping is because of high interest rates and other problems that we inherited. Donald Trump: But we have to get the prices down, not the inflation down. The prices of eggs and various other things. Eggs are a disaster. The Secretary of Agriculture is going to be showing you a chart that’s actually mind boggling what’s happened, how low they were with us and how high they are now. But I think we can do something about it, Madam Secretary, and I think you’re going to do a fantastic job in that position. Donald Trump: One of the most important initiatives is DOGE, and we have cut billions and billions and billions of dollars. We’re looking to get it maybe to $1 trillion. If we can do that, we’re going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets, believe it or not, something you haven’t heard in many, many years, decades actually. Donald Trump: And it’s a big – whether it’s this year or next year, I think we’ll be very close to balancing budgets. And the DOGE is very important and Elon is here to give you a summary of what’s happening. Some of the things they found, some of the horrible things, they found some of the theft and fraud, and we call it waste and abuse, but a lot of fraud. Donald Trump: And probably some fraud that we’re not going to be able to prove is fraud, but when you hear the names and the places where this money is going, it’s – it’s a disgrace. But we’ve requested that a lot of people we want to make sure that the people are working. So letters were sent out. And I think everyone at this table is very much behind it. And if they – if they aren’t, I’d want them to speak up, but they’re very much behind it. Letters were sent out to people just to find out if the people exist. Donald Trump: Do they work? Who do they work for? Where are they? Where have they been working? Have they been working for other companies or other entities at all or being paid by the government? So they have two jobs, but they’re supposed to have one. And the letter asks some simple questions like what have you done lately? Donald Trump: And if they can answer that – because I can. I can tell you everything I’ve done for the last long period of time, a lot more than a week. And in many cases, we haven’t gotten responses. Usually, that means that maybe that person doesn’t exist or that person doesn’t want to say they’re working for another company while being paid by the United States government. Donald Trump: So there’s a lot of interesting things. It’s very unique, but we have a very unique situation because we have a lot of people that were scamming our country. We have a lot of dishonest people. We have a lot of people that took advantage of a lot of different situations and we’re not going to let that happen. Donald Trump: So I’m going to ask if it’s possible to have Elon get up first and talk about DOGE because it seems to be of great interest to everyone. I will say that there is a large group of people in this country that have such admiration for what we’re doing. I got elected with a tremendous vote winning every swing state, winning the popular vote, winning the counties by thousands of counties. Donald Trump: I think it was 2800 to 500. 2800 counties to 500 counties. Think of that. And so we have a mandate to do this and this is part of the reason I got elected. I got elected based on taxes and based on many things in the border, but also based on balancing budgets and getting our country back into shape and this is a big part of it. So Elon, if you could get up and explain where you are, how you’re doing and how much we’re cutting and it’s an honor to have you. Donald Trump: He’s been a tremendously successful guy. He’s – he’s really working so hard and he’s got businesses to run. And in many ways, they say how do you do this? And you know, it’s – he’s sacrificing a lot and getting a lot of praise, I’ll tell you, but he’s also getting hit. And we would expect that and that’s the way it works. Donald Trump: So I’d like to have Elon Musk, please, say a few words. Thank you. Elon Musk: Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I actually just call myself a humble tech support here because this is actually, as crazy as it sounds, that – that is almost a literal description of the work that the DOGE team is doing is helping fix the government computer systems. Many of these systems are extremely old. Elon Musk: They don’t communicate. There are a lot of mistakes in the systems. The software doesn’t work. The – so we are actually tech support. It’s – it’s ironic, but it’s true. The overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit. We simply cannot sustain as a country a $2 trillion deficit. Elon Musk: The interest rates – just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department’s spending. We spent a lot on the Defense Department, but we’re spending like over $1 trillion on interest. If this continues, the country will go – become de facto bankrupt. It’s not an optional thing; it is an essential thing, that’s the reason I’m here and taking a lot of flak and getting a lot of death threats, by the way, I can like stack them up, you know. Elon Musk: But if we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt. That’s why it has to be done. And I’m confident at this point, knock on wood – knock on my wooden head, he’s a lot of wood up there – that we can actually find $1 trillion in savings, that would be roughly 15 percent of the $7 trillion budget. And obviously that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room. Elon Musk: And I’d like to thank everyone for your support. Thank you very much. This can only be done with your support. So, this is – it’s really – DOGE is a support function for the president and for the agencies and departments to help achieve those savings, and to effectively find 15 percent in reduction in fraud and waste. Elon Musk: And we bring the receipts. Some people say like, well, is this real? Just go to doge.gov, line item by line item, we specify each item. And I should say we also will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect, but when we make a mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly. So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola, Ebola prevention. Elon Musk: I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restored the Ebola prevention immediately and there was no interruption. But we do need to move quickly if we’re to achieve a $1 trillion deficit reduction in financial year 2026. It requires saving $4 billion per day every day from now through the end of September. Elon Musk: But we can do it and we will do it. Thank you. Donald Trump: Would you have any questions of Elon while we’re on the subject of DOGE, because we’ll finish off with that? And if you would have any questions, please ask – you could ask me or Elon. Go ahead, please. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Musk. I just wanted to ask you though, President Trump put out a Truth Social today saying that everybody in the cabinet was happy with you. I just wondered if that – if you had heard otherwise and if you had heard anything about members of the cabinet who weren’t happy with the way things were going? Question: And if so, what are you doing to address those – any dissatisfaction? Elon Musk: To the best – Donald Trump: Let the cabinet speak just for a second [Laughter]. Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we’ll throw him out of here [Laughter]. Is anybody unhappy? They are. They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he’s doing this, and some disagree a little bit. But I will tell you, for the most part, I think everyone is not only happy, they’re thrilled. Donald Trump: So, go ahead, Elon. Elon Musk: President Trump has put together, I think, the best cabinet ever, literally. So – and I do not give false praise. This is an incredible group of people. I don’t think such a talented team has actually ever been assembled. I think it’s literally the best cabinet that the country has ever had, and I think the company [ph] should be incredibly appreciative of the people in this room. Question: Please, Mr. Musk – Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Yeah, go ahead. Question: Mr. President, thank you. Mr. Musk, are there – about half of the government employees so far appear to have responded to your request for what they’ve been doing over the past week. Is there a timeline in place for next moves for people being fired? And when can the American people expect to see results from that? Elon Musk: Yes, well, to be clear, like the – I think that email perhaps was misinterpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse [Laughter]? Do you have a pulse and two neurons [Laughter]? So, if you have a pulse and two neurons, you can reply to an email. This is, I think, not a high bar is what I’m saying. Elon Musk: This should be – anyone could accomplish this. But what we are trying to get to the bottom of is we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can’t respond. And some people who are not real people, like they’re literally fictional individuals that are collecting paychecks – well, somebody is collecting paychecks on a fictional individual. Elon Musk: So, we’re just literally trying to figure out are these people real, are they alive and can they write an email, which I think is a reasonable expectation for – the American public would have at least that expectation of someone in the public sector. Question: Mr. Musk, roughly – Note: [Crosstalk] Elon Musk: This is not – it’s not a high bar, guys, come on. Question: Roughly a million employees have responded so far to this email. Does that mean that the remaining 1 million or so federal employees now risk being terminated? And is it your understanding and expectation, when you post a directive on X, that the cabinet secretaries will follow that order? Because several agencies have instructed employees that this is voluntary or not to respond. Elon Musk: Yeah, well, I mean, so I guess it was like last week the president encouraged me via Truth Social and also by a phone call to be more aggressive. And I was like OK, yes, sir, Mr. President, we will indeed do that. The president is the commander in chief, I do what the president asks, so. And I said, can we send out an email to everyone just saying what did you get done last week? Elon Musk: The president said yes, so we did that. And we got a partial response. We’re going to send another email. But our goal is not to be capricious or unfair. It’s – we want to give people every opportunity to send an email, and the email could simply be what I’m working on is too sensitive or classified to describe. Elon Musk: Like literally that would be sufficient. I think this is just common sense. Question: And what is your target number, for how many workers/employees you’re looking to cut total? Elon Musk: We wish to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well. But if the job is not essential or they’re not doing the job well, they obviously should not be on the public payroll. Question: Mr. Musk – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I’d like to add – wait a minute, wait, wait, I’d like to add that those million people that haven’t responded though, Elon, they are on the bubble. You know, I wouldn’t say that we’re thrilled about it. You know they haven’t responded. Now maybe they don’t exist. Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist. Donald Trump: Don’t forget, we just got here. This group just got here. But those people are on the bubble, as they say. Maybe they’re going to be gone, maybe they’re not around, maybe they have other jobs, maybe they moved and they’re not where they’re supposed to be. A lot of things could have happened. I wouldn’t say that Biden ran a very tight administration. Donald Trump: They spent money like nobody’s ever spent money before – wasted money, the green new scam, all of the different things they spent money on. And you’ve seen that. You’ve seen that with some of the things that I read at speeches. I read them and people can’t believe when I read them. $20 million here, $30 million here for a little educational course on something, circumcision, right, circumcision, $20 million to inform the people of such and such a country on other things and other things other than that. Donald Trump: So, yeah, those people are – right now we’re trying to find out who those people are that haven’t responded. Now there’ll be some agencies, like Marco has people within state that are right now doing very classified, very confidential work. And we understand that. We’ve talked and we’re being a little more surgical. Donald Trump: And Marco is doing a lot of things himself, he’s – and some of the secretaries, we’re going to be going to them. We’re going to be talking about it today. We’re going to ask them to do their own DOGE. In other words, they’ll look in their group and who – I spoke with Lee Zeldin, and he thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental. Donald Trump: And we’re going to speed up the process too at the same time. He had a lot of people that weren’t doing their job. They were just obstructionists. And a lot of people that didn’t exist I guess led to you found a lot of empty spots that the people weren’t there. They didn’t exist. And I think education is going to be one of those. Donald Trump: You go around Washington you see all these buildings for the Department of Education. We want to move education back to the states where it belongs. Iowa should have education; Indiana should run their own education. You’re going to see education go way up. Right now, we’re ranked at the very bottom of the list. Donald Trump: But we’re at the top of the list and one thing, the cost per pupil. We spend more money per pupil than any other country in the world and yet it’s Denmark and Norway, Sweden. And I hate to say this, and you know we’re going to get along very well with China, but it’s a competitor. They’re at the top of the list. Donald Trump: They’re among the top 10 usually and they’re a very big country. So, we can’t use that as an excuse, right, because we’re a very big country too, but we’re – we were ranked last time – under Biden we were ranked 40 out of 40. They do the 40, certain nations that they’ve done for a long time. It seems to be 40 for whatever reason. Donald Trump: And we were number 40. A year ago, we were 38, then we were 39. We hit 40. And so we’re last in that and we’re first in cost per pupil. So I would say that’s unacceptable. Lawrence, do you have something? Go ahead. Question: Mr. President, I know you like competition and I know it’s early, so which department are you most impressed with? And then [Laughter] – That’s the first one. And then, which department have you received the most resistance from? Donald Trump: Well, I think both of those questions are a little bit – well, you’re a pretty controversial guy. [Laughter] And look, it’s very early. Right now, I think I’m impressed with everybody. So far, everybody. If I wasn’t in the first month – and some of them just got here, they just got approved two days ago, right, but I think I’m very impressed with everybody. Donald Trump: So far, I’m very happy with all of the choices. I think that Elon has done incredibly with some groups and some groups are much easier than others. It is true. State is a, you know, very difficult situation. We’re right now negotiating very successfully, I think, with Russia and with Ukraine and we have a lot of countries involved and we have to be a little bit careful what we do and who we’re terminating. Donald Trump: But Marco is doing that very – I think he’s going to be very precise. It’s going to be – we’re cutting down government. We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to. We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job. We have a lot of people that don’t exist. You look at Social Security as an example. Donald Trump: I mean, you have so many people in Social Security where, if you believe it, they’re 200 years old. And what we’re doing is finding out our checks going out for that and there’s somebody’s cashing those checks, who’s maybe 35 years old, OK? So there’s a lot of dishonesty, there’s a lot of fraud. But I think at this moment, I’ll take Elon off the spot. Donald Trump: I think that he’s impressed. He said it very well, better than I can say it, that he’s impressed with the people in this room, very impressed, and I am too. And it’s too early to say, but I think everybody’s on board. They all know we want to balance the budget. We want to have a balanced budget within a reasonably short period of time, meaning maybe by next year or the year after, but maybe – maybe even sooner than that. Question: Mr. President, your number one issue was the border. We just got new information that the doxing of federal agents, of putting their personal information out there, these activists, and they’re disrupting the operation. So you’ve got [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: – Well, we have activists. That’s – there a lot of those – Question: – So what are you going to do about the activists – Donald Trump: – Yeah, a lot of those activists are acting illegally and we’ll give that to our attorney general and she’ll take a look at that very strongly. But we also having tremendous support from Border Patrol, from ICE. The ICE agents have been unbelievable. Border Patrol, their leadership at Border Patrol has been incredible. Donald Trump: And they’re working very well. And as you know, and I saw you reporting it this morning, actually, we set records on the least number of illegal aliens coming in, migrants coming into our country that we had – that we’ve had in more than 50 years. And we did this all within a period of weeks because we took over a mess. Donald Trump: The world was pouring in. And remember they were coming in from jails and prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums and they were gang members and drug dealers. Anybody wanted to come in, they came – and from not just South America from all over the world. So it’s amazing what they’ve done. And Christie and and Tom Homan, the job they’ve done has been absolutely amazing. Donald Trump: We set records for – and we want people to come into our country, by the way, but they want to come in – they have to come in legally. I want that to be really understood. We want people in our country, but they have to come in legally. Question: Can I follow on that, Mr. President? About the – the Trump gold card idea which you unveiled yesterday – Donald Trump: – Yeah, I hope you liked it. Question: I await more information. But the question is, does this reflect a view on your part that the American immigration system has never been properly monetized as you feel it should be? Donald Trump: Well, not so much monetized. It hasn’t been properly run. I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the number one student at a school. A person comes from India, China, Japan, lots of different places and they go to Harvard, the Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale, they go to all great schools and they graduate number one in their class and they’re made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country. Donald Trump: I want to be able to have that person stay in the country. These companies can go and buy a gold card and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt. We’re going to – we’re going to pay down a lot of debt with that. And I think the gold card is going to be used by – not only for that, they’ll be used by companies. Donald Trump: I mean, I could see Apple – I’ve spoken with Tim Cook. And by the way, he’s going to make a $500 billion investment in the country – in the country, only because of the results of the election. And I think because of tariffs. He’s going to want to be in the country because of tariffs because if you’re in the country, there is no tariff. Donald Trump: If you’re out of the country, you’ve got to pay tariffs and that’s going to be a great investment, I think, that he’s making. I know it’s going to be a great investment. But we have to be able to get people in the country and we want people that are productive people. And I will tell you the people that can pay $5 million, they’re going to create jobs, they’re going to spend a lot of money on jobs. Donald Trump: They’re going to have to pay taxes on that, too. So they’re going to be hiring people. They’re going to be bringing people in and companies in. And I don’t know, maybe it will sell like crazy. I happen to think it’s going to sell like crazy. It’s a bargain. But we’ll know fairly soon. I think Howard and Scott, a few of you really are responsible for it. But Howard, if you want to discuss that for a couple of minutes, I think I’d like to have you. Donald Trump: I think it’s going to be a very successful program. This is commerce. Howard Lutnick: So the EB-5 Program, which has been around for many years, had investment of $1 million into projects in America, and those projects were often suspect. They didn’t really work out. There wasn’t any oversight of it. And so for $1 million investment, you got a visa and then you came into the country and ended up with a green card. Howard Lutnick: So it was poorly overseen, poorly executed, then you had our border open where millions of people came through. So the idea is we will have a proper business, we will modify the EB-5 agreement. Christie and I are working on it together. For $5 million, they’ll get a license from the Department of Commerce. Howard Lutnick: Then they’ll make a proper investment on the EB-5, right. And we think Scott and I will design the EB-5 investment model because Scott and I are the best people together to do that. So this is joint – this is the exactly the Trump administration. We all work together, we work it out to be the best. And if we sell, just remember, 200,000, there’s a line for EB-5 of 250,000 right now, 200,000 of these gold green cards is $1 trillion to pay down our debt. Howard Lutnick: And that’s why the president is doing it because we are going to balance this budget and we are going to pay off the debt under President Trump. Question: And to qualify, do you have to promise and make commitments to create a certain number of jobs here in the US? Donald Trump: No. No. Because not all these people are going to be job builders, they’ll be successful people or they’ll be people that were hired from colleges like – sort of like paying an athlete a bonus. I mean, Apple or one of the companies will go out and they’ll – they’ll spend five, they’ll buy five of them and they’re going to get five people. Donald Trump: Look, I’ve had the complaint where – I’ve had the complaint from a lot of companies where they go out to hire people and they can’t hire them out of colleges. And you know what they do? They go back to India or they go back to the country where they came and they open up a company and they they become billionaires. Donald Trump: They become – and they’re employing thousands and thousands – there are a lot of examples. There are some really big examples where they were forced out of the country. Our – they graduated top of their class at a great school and they weren’t able to stay. This is all the time you hear it and the biggest complaint I get from companies other than overregulation, which we took care of, but we’re going to have to take care of it here because a lot of that was put back on by Biden, but the biggest complaint is the fact that they can’t have any longevity with people. Donald Trump: This way, they have pretty much unlimited longevity. Also with the 5 million, you know, that’s a path to citizenship. So that’s going to be – it’s sort of a green card plus and it’s a path to citizenship. We’re going to call it the gold card. And I think it’s going to be very treasured. I think it’s going to do very well and we’re going to start selling hopefully in about two weeks. Donald Trump: Now, just so you understand, if we sell a million, right, a million, that’s $5 trillion, $5 trillion. Howard was using a different number. But that’s $5 trillion. If we sell 10 million, which is possible, 10 million highly productive people coming in or people that we’re going to make productive, they’ll be young, but they’re talented, like a talented athlete, that’s $50 trillion. Donald Trump: That means our debt is totally paid off and we have $15 trillion above that. And now I don’t know that we’re going to sell that many. Maybe we won’t sell many at all. But – but I think we’re going to sell a lot because I think there’s – there really is a thirst. No other country can do this because people don’t want to go to other countries. Donald Trump: They want to come here. Everybody wants to come here, especially since November 5th. Question: Mr. President, how can – Unidentified: All these people will be vetted, OK, will be vetted. Question: Mr. President, on Ukraine, can you talk a little bit about what type of security guarantees you’re willing to make? Donald Trump: Well, I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that because it’s in – we’re talking about Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well. And as you know, we’ll be making a – we’ll be really partnering with Ukraine in terms of rare earth. Donald Trump: We very much need rare earth; they have great rare earth. We’ll be working with Secretary Burgum and with Chris, you’ll be working on that together. And we’re going to be able to have tremendous – I mean, this gives us – because we don’t have that much of it here. We have some, but we don’t have that much and we need a lot more to really propel us to the next level of – to lead in every way. Donald Trump: We’re leading right now with AI. We’re leading with everything right now, but we have to – we need resources. We have to double our electric capacity; we have to do many things. We have to really triple, if you think of it, the electric capacity from what we have right now, if you can believe it so. So, I’d just say this. Donald Trump: So, the deal we’re making gets us – it brings us great wealth, we get back the money that we spent, and we hope that we’re going to be able to settle this up. We want to settle it. We want to stop – I’ll tell you what, I’m doing it for two reasons, but the number one reason by far is to watch all these people being killed. Donald Trump: I see pictures every week from – I assume satellite pictures mostly, but there’s some pictures on site of thousands of soldiers that are being killed. They’re being decimated because equipment today, military equipment is so powerful and so devastating. And number one, I want to see people stop. And they’re not from here, they’re from primarily two other countries. Donald Trump: And then by the way, let’s talk about the Middle East. We’ve got to solve that problem too, and that’s come a long way. We’re doing very well in that also. A lot of things are happening on that. But I’m watching soldiers being killed, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers being killed. My number one thing is to get that stopped. Donald Trump: My number two thing is I don’t want to have to pay any more money, because we’ve – Biden has spent $350 billion without any chance of getting it back. Now we’re going to be getting all of that money back plus a lot more. And we provided a great thing. I mean, we provided something very important and we’ll be working with Ukraine. Donald Trump: And because we’ll be taking that – we’re going to be taking what we’re entitled to take. Now, they spent $350 billion, and Europe spent $100 billion. Now does anybody really think that’s fair? But then we find out a little while ago, not so long ago, a few months ago I found out that the money they spent, they get back. Donald Trump: But the money we spent, we don’t get back. I said, well, we’re going to get it back and we’ll be able to make a deal. And again, President Zelenskyy is coming to sign the deal and it’s a great thing. It’s a great deal for Ukraine too because they get us over there and we’re going to be working over there. Donald Trump: We’ll be on the land and in that way there’s sort of automatic security because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there. And so, we’ll be there in that way. But Europe will be watching it very closely. I know that UK has said, and France has said, that they want to put – they volunteered to put so-called peacekeepers on the site and I think that’s a good thing. Question: Mr. President, you have been very clear – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the cost of eggs, and we’ve seen consumer confidence this week have a sharp drop from last month, the biggest dip in I believe three years. Why is that your assessment? Why is that the case? And is there anything –? Donald Trump: Well, I think that consumer confidence – if you look at confidence in the nation, it had the biggest increase in the history of the chart. It went up 42 points in a period of like days after the election, since the election. So, since the election, the confidence in our nation, including Right Track/Wrong Track, the first time it’s ever happened where we were on the right track because this country has been on the wrong track for a long time. Donald Trump: So, the confidence in business, confidence in the country has reached an all-time high. We have never reached levels like we are right now. OK. Question: Mr. President, you’ve been very clear in saying that as long as you’re president, Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump: That’s true. Question: Is it also your policy that as long as you’re president, China will never take Taiwan by force? Donald Trump: I never comment on that. I don’t comment on anything because I don’t want to ever put myself in that position. And if I said it, I certainly wouldn’t be saying it to you; I’d be saying it to other people [Laughter], maybe people around this table and very specific people around this table. So, I don’t want to put myself in that position. Donald Trump: But I can tell you what – I have a great relationship with President Xi. I’ve had a great relationship with him. We want them to come in and invest. I see so many things saying that we don’t want China in this country. That’s not right. We want them to invest in the United States. That’s good, that’s a lot of money coming in and we’ll invest in China. Donald Trump: We’ll do things with China. The relationship we’ll have with China will be a very good one. I see all of these phony reports that we don’t want their money, we don’t want anything to do with them. That’s wrong. We’re going to have a good relationship with China. But they won’t be able to take advantage of us. What they did to Biden was – he didn’t know what was happening. Donald Trump: He didn’t know what he was doing. The administration didn’t know what they were doing. It was very sad to watch. But we’re going to have a good relationship with China and Russia and Ukraine and the Middle East. We’re doing things that – look, when I left, we had no wars. We had defeated ISIS totally. We had no inflation. Donald Trump: We didn’t have the Afghanistan withdrawal, the worst withdrawal anybody’s ever seen. I think that’s one of the reasons that President Putin looked at that, he said, wow, these guys are a paper tiger, look at it. We’re no paper tiger. Don’t forget, we got rid of ISIS in three weeks. People said it would take five years. Donald Trump: We did it because, when I came in, I let them do what they had to do. And the man that headed that operation is now going to be your chairman, right, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Yes, sir. And raising Cain, I liked him right from the beginning as soon as I heard his name, I said, that’s my guy. OK, any other questions? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – decreases in crossings at the border to continue the pause on tariffs against Mexico and Canada? And if that – Donald Trump: No, no, I’m not stopping the tariffs, no. Millions of people have died because of the fentanyl that comes over the border. Question: [Inaudible] 90 percent drop in border crossings though, that’s not compared to about a year ago? Donald Trump: Yeah, they’ve been good, but that’s also due to us, mostly due to us. I mean it’s very hard, it’s right now very hard to come through the border, but the – look, the damage has been done. We’ve lost millions of people due to fentanyl. It comes mostly from China, but it comes through Mexico, and it comes through Canada. Donald Trump: And I have to tell you that on April 2nd – I was going to do it on April 1st, but I’m a little bit superstitious. So, I made it April 2nd, the tariffs go on – not all of them, but a lot of them. And I think you’re going to see something that’s going to be amazing. We’ve been taken advantage of as a country for a long period of time. Donald Trump: We’ve been tariffed but we didn’t tariff. Now I did when I was here, I tariffed – we took in $700 billion from China, $700 billion. Not one president in the history of our country took in $0.10 from China. At the same time, China respected us. Now, when COVID came in, that was a different deal. I used to call it the China virus, I guess I could call it the China virus again, but you know, it’s an accurate term, but I won’t do that out of respect to China. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – immigration enforcement? Donald Trump: Say it again, what? Question: On Gaza, I just wondered if there’s any progress towards a second phase of the ceasefire –? Donald Trump: Well, I’m very disappointed when I see four – four bodies came in today. These are young people, young people don’t die, OK? Young people don’t die. These are young people. Four bodies came in today. They think they’re doing us a favor by sending us bodies. So, look, that’s – a decision has to be made by Israel, by Bibi, but Israel has to make that decision. Donald Trump: We got a lot of hostages back, but it’s very sad what happened to those people. I mean, you had a young lady with her hand practically blown off. You know why it blew up? Because she put up her hand to try and stop a bullet that was coming her way, and it hit her hand and blew off her fingers, big part of her hand. Donald Trump: This is a vicious group of people and Israel is going to have to decide what they’re doing. Phase one is going to be ending – think of it, today they sent in four bodies – bodies. And I will say one thing though, I’ve spoken to a lot of the parents and a lot of the people involved. They want those bodies almost as much and maybe even just as much as they wanted their son or their daughter. Donald Trump: Amazing, please sir, please. My son is dead, but they have his body, please can you get it for us? It’s the biggest thing. It’s incredible the level they want the bodies of these people, they’re dead, they’re dead. And when I saw the ones that came in two weeks ago, they looked like they just got out of a concentration camp. Donald Trump: Then the following week, a group came in and they weren’t as bad, in as bad a shape. But Israel is going to have to make a decision. You’re right, phase one and now phase two has started, and today we got some very, very – we knew they were dead, by the way. We knew they were going to be bodies as opposed to people that were living. Donald Trump: But it’s a very sad situation. At some point, somebody’s going to say we’ve got to do something about this. Question: Mr. President, you were just talking about Afghanistan – the bots withdraw. Have all the generals or command staff that were involved with the withdrawal been fired or relieved of duty? Donald Trump: Well, that’s a great idea as far as – I’m not going to tell this man what to do. But I will say that if I had his place, I’d fire every single one of them, Pete. Pete, that’s a very good question. Pete Hegseth: Well, it’s a question we’ve thought a lot about. We’re doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan and plan to have full accountability. It’s one of the first things we announced at the Defense Department for that reason, sir. Certainly, General Razin Caine, who’s on his way in was not a part of that, instead was a part of leading the effort against ISIS by untying the hands of war fighters and finishing the job properly and then bringing our troops home. Pete Hegseth: So we’re taking a very different view, obviously, than the previous administration and there will be full accountability. Donald Trump: I don’t see big promotions in that group. [Laughter] And I think – I think they’re going to be largely gone. I know the man on my left. I think they’re going to be largely gone. That was a horrible display. And you know, I’ve dealt with the parents and the family of the 13 that were killed, but you know nobody ever talks about the 40 that were so badly hurt with the arms and the legs and the face and the whole thing, the missing arms and legs. Donald Trump: It was so terrible the way that it was handled and it should have been gone through Bagram. We have a big base with big fences and nobody can get in and you have, you know, hundreds of acres instead of a little local airport where the whole place went crazy. That was so badly handled. And I would think that most of those people are going to be gone. Question: Are we going to take Bagram back? Donald Trump: So I’ll tell you what – what has bothered me very much, very, very much. We give billions of dollars to Afghanistan. Nobody knows that. Nobody knew that. Did you know we give billions of dollars to Afghanistan? And yet, we left behind all of that equipment, which wouldn’t have happened. You know, we were getting out under me. I’m the one that got it down to 5000 people we were going to get out, but we were going to keep Bagram, not because of Afghanistan but because of China. Donald Trump: Because it’s exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles. So we’re going to keep Bagram. We were going to keep a small force on Bagram. We’re going to have Bagram Air Base, one of the biggest air bases in the world. One of the biggest runways, one of the most powerful runways in the sense that it was very heavy concrete and steel. Donald Trump: You could carry about anything – you could land anything on those runways. We gave it up and you know who’s occupying it right now? China. China. Biden gave it up. So we’re going to keep that and we’re going to have a withdrawal and we’re going to take our equipment. We’re going to do it properly, we’re going to do it very – we’re going to keep the equipment. Donald Trump: Well, they ran out. It was – what happened – there was – in fact, you know, in all fairness to Putin when he saw that he said, well, this is our time to go and go into Ukraine, I guess, because it was – the timing seemed to be about right. But we send them billions of dollars in aid, which nobody knows. Donald Trump: If they – if the American public knew that, they know it now. And if we’re doing that, I think they should give our equipment back. And I told Pete to study that. But we left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind. Brand new trucks. You see them display it every year on their little roadway someplace where they have a road and they drive their, you know, waving the flag and talking about America. Donald Trump: Beautiful equipment that’s all, I mean, the top of the line stuff, brand new stuff. Now it’s getting older. But you know what? We’re going to pay them. I think we should get a lot of that equipment back. You know that Afghanistan is one of the biggest sellers of military equipment in the world. You know why? Donald Trump: They’re selling the equipment that we left. We’re first. They were second or third. Can you believe it? They’re selling 777,000 rifles, 70,000 armor plated, many of them were armor plated trucks and vehicles. 70,000. If you think of a used car lot, the biggest one in the country, if I would say JD, if somebody had 500 cars that would be a lot. Donald Trump: This is 70,000 vehicles we had there and we left it for them. I think we should get it back. Question: Mr. President, tTe spending bill that passed last night aims to cut $2 trillion. Donald Trump: Right. Question: Can you guarantee that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security will not be touched? Donald Trump: Yeah, I mean I have said it so many times, you shouldn’t be asking me that question. OK. This will not be read my lips. It won’t be read my lips anymore. We’re not going to touch it. Now, we are going to look for fraud. I’m sure you’re OK with that, like people that shouldn’t be on, people that are illegal aliens and others, criminals in many cases. Donald Trump: And that’s with Social Security. We have a lot of people. You see that immediately when you see people that are 200 years old that are being sent checks for Social Security, some of them are actually being sent checks. So we’re tracing that down. And I have a feeling that Pam is going to do a very good job with that. Donald Trump: But you have a lot of fraud. But no, I’m not – we’re not doing anything on that. Question: Mr. President, part of your mission – – Mr. President, given the litigation – – Sir, part of your mission has been, thank you. I’m sorry, part of your mission has been to restore executive control over the executive branch. Is it your view of your authority that you have the power to call up any one or all of the people seated at this table and to issue orders that they’re bound to follow? Donald Trump: Oh, yeah. They’ll follow the orders. Yes, they will. Question: No exceptions? Donald Trump: No exceptions. Well, let’s see. Let me think, oh, yeah. Yeah, she’ll have an exception. [Laughter] Of course, no exceptions. You know that. Question: Mr. President, can you clarify the Canada-Mexico tariffs? You had put that 30 day pause. You just referred to – Donald Trump: – 25 percent. Question: 25 percent. When does it go into effect? Donald Trump: April 2nd. Question: April 2nd for Canada-Mexico. Donald Trump: Correct, and for – and for everything. Howard Lutnick: Well, we have the – the fentanyl related, it’s a pause. If they can prove to the president they’ve done an excellent job, that’s what they first do in 30 days – Question: – Have you guys seen any changes – Howard Lutnick: – But then the overall is April 2nd. So the big transaction is April 2nd. But the fentanyl related things, they’re working hard on the border. At the end of that 30 days, they have to prove to the president that they’ve satisfied him to that regard. If they have – Donald Trump: – It’s going to be hard – Howard Lutnick: – We’re going to give them a pause or he won’t. Donald Trump: It’s going to be hard to satisfy. Howard Lutnick: It’s up to him to say. Donald Trump: We lose 300,000 people a year to fentanyl. Not 100, not 95, not 60 like you read, you know, you’ve been reading it for years. We lost, in my opinion over the last couple of years, on average maybe close to 300,000 people dead. And the families are ruined. You know, when they lose a daughter, when they lose a son, the families are never the same. Donald Trump: You’re never going to be the same. So you’re talking about a million people. But when the daughters die, I see it, daughters die and the sons die because of fentanyl. And in some cases, I don’t even know they’re taking it. They – they’re buying something else and it’s laced with fentanyl and they end up dying. Donald Trump: And I’ve known many people who have lost children to fentanyl and for other reasons. But to fentanyl, it’s such a big killer and those people are never the same people. I mean, I’ve seen people that for the rest of their lives, they’re not the same people. They’re so different. It’s not even believable. Dynamic people, happy people that are – they die a miserable death, and that’s because of the crap that comes in through China and through Mexico and through Canada. Donald Trump: It comes – a lot of it comes through Canada. The Canada – look, we support Canada $200 billion a year in subsidies, one way or the other. We let them make millions of cars. We let them send us lumber. We don’t need their lumber. We’re going to free up our lumber. Lee’s going to do that, head of environmental. Donald Trump: We’re going to free up our lumber. We have the best lumber there is. We don’t need their lumber. What do we need their lumber for? When you look at the – the – we subsidize them $200 billion a year. Without us, Canada can’t make it. You know, Canada relies on us 95 percent. We rely on them 4 percent. Big difference. Donald Trump: And I say Canada should be our 51st state. There’s no tariffs, no nothing. And I say that, we give them military protection. They have a very small military. They spend very little money on military. On NATO, they’re just about last in terms of payment because they say why should we spend on military? That’s a tremendous question. Donald Trump: Most nations can’t afford to even think about it. Why should we spend on military? The United States protects us. And I would say that’s largely true. We protect Canada, but it’s not fair. It’s not fair that they’re not paying their way. And if they had to pay their way, they couldn’t exist. When I spoke to, let’s call the Prime Minister rather than the governor, but when I spoke to him, I said why are we giving you $200 billion a year? Donald Trump: He was unable to answer the question. I said why are we letting you make millions of cars and send them in? He was unable to answer the question. Justin Trudeau, nice guy. I think he’s a very good guy. I call him Governor Trudeau. He should be governor because the fact is that if we don’t give them cars – we don’t have to give them cars. Donald Trump: The tariffs will make it impossible for them to sell cars into the United States. The tariffs will make it impossible for them to sell lumber or anything else into the United States. And all I’m asking to do is break even or lose a little bit, but not lose $200 billion. And we love Canada. I love Canada. Donald Trump: I love the people of Canada and – but honestly it’s not fair for us to be supporting Canada. And if we don’t support them, they don’t subsist as a – as a nation, OK? Question: Mr. President, on the EU tariffs – Mr. President, have you had made a decision on what level you seek on repairs in the European Union? Donald Trump: We have made a decision. We’ll be announcing it very soon, and it’ll be 25 percent, generally speaking. And that’ll be on cars and all other things. And European Union is a different case than Canada. A different kind of case. They’ve really taken advantage of us in a different way. They don’t accept our cars. Donald Trump: They don’t accept, essentially, our farm products. They use all sorts of reasons why not and we accept everything of them and we have about a $300 billion deficit with the European Union. Now, I love the countries of Europe. I guess I’m from there at some point a long time ago, right? But indirectly. But pretty directly too, I guess, but I love the countries of Europe. Donald Trump: I love all countries, frankly, all different – but the European Union’s been – it was formed in order to screw the United States. I mean, look, let’s be honest, the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it and they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president. Question: What will happen if these countries or the EU retaliate? Donald Trump: They can’t. I mean, they can try, but they can’t. Question: China did. They imposed tariffs, sir, that went into effect. China’s retaliatory tariffs – Donald Trump: – That’s right. That’s right, but – Question: – On the 10th of February. Has there been any [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: – That’s right. That’s right. No, they can do it and they can try, but the numbers can never equal what ours, because we can go off. We are the pot of gold. We’re the one that everybody wants and they can retaliate, but it cannot be a successful retaliation because we just go cold turkey. We don’t buy anymore. Donald Trump: And if that happens, we win. Question: Are you talking to Eric Prince about privatizing – privatizing deportations? Donald Trump: No. No, I haven’t. Question: Mr. President, you’re in litigation with CBS News. Is this a case that you’d like to see go to trial or are you open – Donald Trump: – With who? Question: CBS. The – Donald Trump: – CBS? Question: Yes. Donald Trump: Well, CBS did something that was amazing. Kamala was unable to answer a question properly and they took the question that they asked and they inserted an answer. They gave her an answer. This was two days before the election. Right before – the Sunday night before the election and they wrote out a – they put her words from another question that was asked about a half an hour later and they put that into the question. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever even heard of it before. Nobody’s ever heard of anything like this before, but they then did it, they say, on numerous occasions. And the FCC is looking at it very strongly and everybody’s looking at it. And – but nobody’s ever seen anything. Think of it. They took her answers and they changed them. Donald Trump: And I don’t mean they changed a word or two or they cut off a half a sentence or they cut off a couple of words. I mean, I’ve had that happen too, but that you just say, you know, then they say, well, we want brevity, you know, we wanted to do it by the time. They took out her answer and they inserted an entirely different answer that made her sound competent. Donald Trump: And they did this and nobody’s ever – I thought I’ve heard of everything when it comes to that stuff. No, I’ve never heard of it. Nobody’s ever seen it. So we sued and we are in discussions of settlement. Question: What would a number be like – what’s a number that you would think – Donald Trump: – I think it’s a lot. [Laughter] I mean, it’s – look. It could have – it probably did affect the election. I mean, we won by a lot. As I said, too big to rig, but it probably did affect the election. You know, probably could have won by more, but I could have lost the election because of that. It’s we have to – we have to get to honest elections, we have to go back to paper ballots. Donald Trump: We have to go back to voter ID, one day election, ideally, or short term. Not these 48 day and 61 day elections where boxes are put in a room and, oh, let’s move the boxes because we’re putting in a new air conditioning system. Then you see the boxes move and then you say, well, where are all the boxes? You know, what happened to the boxes that never came back? Donald Trump: No, our elections are extremely dishonest. We’re the only country in the world that has mail in voting and all of these different things that we put in. Nobody – no other country in the world has it. You know, France went to – they had some of the things that we had and they went to same day voting all paper. Donald Trump: And you know, paper is very sophisticated now. It’s a very sophisticated – it’s a very sophisticated form of voting right now. It’s a very safe form of voting. You know, the other things for the governors – I wish the governors would do it because the paper ballots will cost 9 percent of the machines and they’re 100 percent. Donald Trump: You know, they’re – I don’t – nothing’s foolproof, but they’re as close as you get. So we’ll see what happens, but on the 60 Minute thing, nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Question: Would you link the FCC action to the litigation [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: – I don’t think it’s linked, but probably the lawyers look at it, you know, because I know it’s going along. FCC is headed by a very competent person and you have some very competent people on the board. And so I think they’re looking at it very seriously. Question: So of all the deals that you’ve done in your life, all the people you’ve sat across from and negotiated with, is President Putin distinct in any way? Donald Trump: He’s a very smart guy. He’s a very cunning person, but I’ve dealt with some people that – I’ve dealt with some really bad people. But I will tell you as far as this is concerned, we’ve – you have to understand, he was – he had no intention, in my opinion, of settling this war. I think he wanted the whole thing. Donald Trump: When I got elected, we spoke and I think we’re going to have a deal. I can’t guarantee that. You know, a deal is a deal. Lots of crazy things happen in deals, right? But I think we’re going to have a deal if I didn’t get elected, I believe he would have just continued to go through Ukraine. And over a period of time, a lot of people, a lot of people would have been killed, would have lasted for a period of time. Donald Trump: And the reason that Ukraine, and I give – I have great respect for the Ukraine as fighters, they have great fighters, but without our equipment that war would have been over like people said in a very short period of time. Question: Is there a time – Donald Trump: And if you remember, I gave the javelins and the javelins are the things that knocked out those tanks right at the beginning of the war. They said that – that Obama at the time gave sheets and Trump gave javelins. Well, I was the one that did that. But I want to see it come to an end. Question: Will he have to make concessions, President Putin? Donald Trump: Yeah, he will. He will. He’s going to have to. And – and I think – I believe that because we got elected, that war will come to an end. And I also believe if we didn’t get elected, if this administration didn’t win the election by a lot, that that war would go on for a long time and he would want to take the whole thing. Question: What was your – Donald Trump: – The big – the big question I had is, does he want to take the whole thing? But the reason – and the Ukrainians are good fighters I have to say, but without the equipment, without our equipment, we have the best equipment in the world. We have the best military equipment in the world. Without our equipment, that would have been over very quickly. Question: What concessions would you like to see? What concessions would you like to see? Donald Trump: Oh, I don’t want to tell you right now, but I can tell you that NATO, you can forget about. That’s been – I think that’s probably the reason the whole thing started. And I think, J.D., we can say that. What – do you have a statement on that? You’ve been very much involved. They gave him the beauty. J.D. Vance: They gave me the hardest question, sir. I mean, look, as the president said, we’re not going to do the negotiation in public with the American media. He’s going to do it in private with the President of – of Russia, with the President of Ukraine, and with other leaders. And I think that’s how this has to go. I think the – I just want to push back against some of the criticism I’ve seen of the administration on this because every single time the president engages in diplomacy, you guys preemptively accuse him of conceding to Russia. J.D. Vance: He hasn’t conceded anything to anyone. He’s doing the job of a diplomat and he is of course the diplomat in chief, as the President of United States. Question: On the gold cards, sir, can you talk a little bit more about the vetting process? Donald Trump: He’ll go through a process. The process is being worked out right now and we’re going to be – we’re going to be very careful. Question: Will there be restrictions on, for instance, can Chinese nationals, Iranian nationals – Donald Trump: – No, we’re not going to restrict – we’re probably not going to be restricting too much in – in terms of countries, but maybe in terms of individuals. We want to make sure we have people that love our country and are capable of loving the country. Question: Is there a process – there is a measles outbreak in Texas at the moment in which a child is reported to have died. Do you have concerns about that? And have you asked Secretary Kennedy to look into that? Donald Trump: Well, why don’t we – Bobby, do you want to speak on that? Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Well, we are following the measles epidemic every day. I think there’s 124 people who have contracted measles at this point, mainly in Gaines County, Texas. Mainly, we’re told, in the Mennonite community. There are two people who have died. But we are watching it and there are about 20 people hospitalized mainly for quarantine. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: We’re watching it. We put out a post on it yesterday and we’re going to continue to follow it. Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year, there were 16. So it’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year. Question: You sound a little under the weather yourself. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: I just – I have a permanently bad throat. Question: Mr. President, would you – would you send US peacekeepers to – to support this European peace? Would you do any sort of US – Donald Trump: – No, we’re going to support Europe, yeah. Question: And how would – Donald Trump: We’re very friendly with Europe. We have a great relationship with Europe. I mean, you could ask – you could talk about France, you could talk about any of them. I mean, we have a great relationship with Europe. Question: But how will we – how will the United States do that? Would there be – Donald Trump: Well, how – I mean you’re asking me a question, what are we doing in – ? Let’s worry – I hope we have that problem where we can worry about peacekeeping. We’ve got to get there first. But I hope we have the problem of worrying about peacekeeping that will be the easiest problem I think, J.D., that we’ve ever had. J.D. Vance: Well, said, sir [Laughter]. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – go to jail presumably. Donald Trump: We’ll do it at the time, but we’ll – peacekeeping is very easy. It’s making the deal that’s very tough. And again, nobody was speaking to Russia at all and probably 1.5 million soldiers have been killed, close to 1.5 million soldiers, not to mention a tremendous – I will tell you the thing with that horrible war that should have never started – would have never started if I were president. Donald Trump: And it didn’t start for four years, and it was not even thought about starting. But the thing with that war is that you’re highly underestimating the number of people that have been killed. Far more people have been killed in that war than you talk about. You like to talk about numbers like a million people. Donald Trump: Well, they had much more than a million soldiers killed, but you have a lot of cities that have been knocked to the ground. They’re demolition sites, literally demolition sites. Every single building is knocked to the ground and a lot of people were killed in those buildings. And you’ll hear a report, two people were minorly injured or just injured a little bit. Donald Trump: No, no people were killed by the thousands. And there are a lot more people killed in that war than the media wants to talk about, because Biden did a horrible, horrible job. He should have prevented that war. He could have prevented that war. Putin would have never gone in. I’ll tell you one thing, he would have never gone in; that war would never have taken place if I were president. Question: What people are trying to understand, Mr. President, is how would the United States – what would you be willing to do to support this European peacekeeping effort? Would there be – ? Donald Trump: Again, you’re asking me the same question? How many times do you have to answer? You’re talking about after we make peace? Let me make peace first. Once we make peace, I’ll give you all the answers you want, but how many times can you ask the same question? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – is loosening of sanctions – Donald Trump: Yeah, go ahead, behind. Question: Is loosening of sanctions on Russia a potential option as part of – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Not now, no, no, we have sanctions on Russia. No, I want to see if we make a deal first. But I think we will – I’ve had very good conversations with President Putin. I’ve had very good conversations with President Zelenskyy. And until four weeks ago nobody had conversations with anybody. It wasn’t even a consideration. Donald Trump: Nobody thought you could make peace, I think you can. Question: But if Mr. Putin gets to keep his – the land that was claimed by force, if the Russians get to keep the territory that they claimed by force, doesn’t that send a dangerous message, let’s say, to China – ? Donald Trump: OK, you try and take it away, right? [Laughter] We’re going to do the best we can. We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides. But for Ukraine, we’re going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much back as possible. We want to get as much back as possible. Question: Mr. President, just to bring this – . Donald Trump: We’ll cut it out after maybe this question. Go ahead. Question: To bring this full circle – . Donald Trump: Unless it’s a bad question and then we’ll get [Inaudible]. You always like to finish on a good one. J.D. Vance: Sir, they want you to negotiate with them instead of President Putin [Laughter]. Donald Trump: I know. They want to continue to talk about the peacekeepers. You have a lot of confidence in us because you assume there’s going to be peace. You know it’s possible it doesn’t work out, there is a possibility. But I hope it does for the sake of humanity because, if you look at the pictures that I’ve looked at, you don’t want to look at them. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Question: I had a question back on these cuts to the federal workforce. You mentioned you’re interested in doing another round of this email. When would you like to see that? What would be the deadline – ? Donald Trump: I’m not – I think Elon wants to and I think it’s a good idea because those people – as I said before, they’re on the bubble. You’ve got a lot of people that have not responded. So, we’re trying to figure out do they exist? Who are they? And it’s possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired. Donald Trump: And if that happened, that’s OK because that’s what we’re trying to do this. This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run. I think we had the worst president in the history of our country. He just left office. I think he’s a disgrace, what he’s done to our country by allowing millions of people to come into our country like that. Donald Trump: And all of the other things, the inflation which he caused because of energy and stupid spending. To spend hundreds of millions, trillions and trillions of dollars on the green new scam, a total scam. I have the best energy people, the best environmental people in the world around this table and they can’t even believe he got away with it. And then in leaving office to send $20 billion here and $20 million there and $10 million and $5 million and they couldn’t spend the money fast enough. Donald Trump: And let’s get it out before Trump gets in, let’s just get it out to anybody. This is a disgrace to our nation, and you don’t write the fair thing. But look, you know the good news, the people see it and that’s why we won the election by so much. Thank you very much, everybody. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-26
Wayne Gretzky is a fantastic guy! They call him, “The Great One,” and he is. He could run for any political office in Canada, and win. Wayne is my friend, and he wants to make me happy, and is therefore somewhat “low key” about Canada remaining a separate Country, rather than becoming a cherished and beautiful 51st State, paying much Lower Taxes, a Free and Powerful Military, NO TARIFFS, and having a Booming Economy. Wayne and Janet, his wonderful wife, love Canada, and they should only support Canada, and whatever else makes the Canadian People, and Governor Justin Trudeau, happy. He’s the Greatest Canadian of them all, and I am therefore making him a “free agent,” because I don’t want anyone in Canada to say anything bad about him. He supports Canada the way it is, as he should, even though it’s not nearly as good as it could be as part of the Greatest and Most Powerful Country in the World, the Good Ole’ U.S.A.!
Date: 2025-02-27
Note: [The Spectator released an interview conducted with Donald Trump by Ben Domenech on their website, in advance of the article in their April, 2025 edition. The transcript states at the top the interview was edited, but does not indicate what was edited. The following is presented with that caveat. The transcript was cross-checked for accuracy against the audio and lightly edited to correct transcription errors. Interview and audio courtesy and copyright The Spectator. Link: https://cqrc.al/the-spectator-20250227] Ben Domenech: The change that you’ve done this time in terms of your approach, the speed is all anything – that is the only thing people this time can talk about. Donald Trump: They can’t believe it. Ben Domenech: They can’t believe it. You have put the fear of God into bureaucrats and Eurocrats so quickly. Donald Trump: Yeah. Ben Domenech: And I just wonder, what is it that you learned from the last time around that maybe factored into how rapidly you started moving when you got back in? Donald Trump: So, the last time, first of all, I had never done it before. And then, all of a sudden, I’m standing in the White House, and they say, “Congratulations. You’re president.” Right? But I didn’t know people in Washington. It was a big factor. So, I had to rely on people, and I got many good recommendations, but I got some that I wouldn’t have ever used again if I had known. Donald Trump: So, I really got to know people, really, at a high level and under pressure. So, I always felt that if I could get back, I would have some great people, and you see the kind of people – they’re really good. Ben Domenech: Well, the interesting thing about those people included in that, thank you so much, is last time around, the talk was about Trump’s generals. This time around, from Mike Waltz to J.D. to Tulsi to Pete, they’re all people who were making decisions on the battlefield, not in the boardroom. Donald Trump: That’s right. Ben Domenech: What factored into that generational shift in terms of the experience of the Iraq war and the like? Donald Trump: Yeah. It’s very interesting. So, I was able to get people that were great. Like, I’d see Pete. I’d be interviewed by him. And what he wanted to talk about was military. In fact, whenever he called me, it was always to get somebody that was in trouble because he was too aggressive militarily out of a jail. Donald Trump: You know, I got numerous soldiers out of jails because they did what they were trained to do. The liberals within the military put them in jails. They teach him to be a soldier. They teach him to kill bad people, and when they kill bad people, they want to put them in jail for 30 years, OK? And Pete was really into that. Donald Trump: I always thought of him for that. I did. But I mean, honestly, Ben, it was just the fact that I’ve been here for four years under great pressure. But one of the big things is that if you think about it, when I was first elected, I had two jobs: to run the country and to survive. And it was vicious what they were doing. Ben Domenech: Well, I mean, that survival, that path back is, you know – and I said this on election night. I think it’s the most incredible story in American political history. And I don’t think that there are a lot of people who disagree with me on that. One lesson, though, is about the nature of how big that fight is. And I wondered if you had some historical perspective – Donald Trump: That fight was big. I mean, they were vicious, and they were cheaters. Ben Domenech: You know, in 1960, Richard Nixon knew the election was stolen from him, and he made the decision to walk away. And then obviously, after Watergate, facing impeachment, etc., he chooses to walk away again. Is one of the lessons of history that you’ve got to just keep fighting, that you’ve got to keep fighting through this? Donald Trump: You’ve got to keep fighting. So, Richard Nixon was a different kind of a guy, and he was a tough cookie, and he was very smart. People don’t realize how smart he was. But he made one bad decision. He didn’t fight. I spoke to his family. They say he regretted that until the day he died. He didn’t fight. Ben Domenech: I don’t think anybody’s been surrounded by as many enemies as you other than him, perhaps. Donald Trump: Yeah. He had a lot. I might have had more. Ben Domenech: You might have had more. Donald Trump: I actually might have had more. Don’t forget, I went through two impeachments and probably 80 indictments, if you think, you know, with all the different charges. Ben Domenech: Well, and trying to ruin you afterwards was something we had never seen before in terms of the American political system. Donald Trump: Yeah. I went through even civil cases. I still go through them, you know, where a woman I never – I have no idea who this woman is. And judges that were so crooked, people that valued a home in Florida at $18 million when it’s worth – Ben Domenech: That was perhaps the most ridiculous. Donald Trump: Yeah, perhaps. Ben Domenech: There were a lot of ridiculous ones. Donald Trump: Perhaps 100 times that amount. So many things. But I did. I went through a lot, but I tried not to – I just put my head down and just did it. Ben Domenech: Well, your toughness when you were in office is one of the reasons that we didn’t see the Ukraine war happen. You sent the Javelins to the Ukrainians. Donald Trump: It would have never happened. Ben Domenech: It never would have happened. I think without the weakness in Afghanistan, you know, we would not have seen Putin so – Donald Trump: I think it was the day that – well, once I was out – he would have never done it. I used to talk to him about it. I got along with him very well. I knew him very well. I used to tell him, “You can’t do that. You’re not going to do that.” But, you know, you mentioned something that a lot of people forgot about. Donald Trump: So, when those tanks came in, it was over for Ukraine. And then they got stuck in the mud. They got stuck, actually. They couldn’t get out. And if you remember, there’s a statement: Obama gave them sheets, and Trump gave them Javelins. But I gave them the Javelins, and they used those Javelins. Ben Domenech: They did, and the Ukrainians thank you for it. Donald Trump: And that changed the entire scope of the war because – I was just talking about it today with the head of NATO. He said those tanks were going as fast as they could go right into Kyiv. You know, they were only 70 miles – 79 miles out, 79. And they got sucked. And when they had those Javelins, man, it was – and it really changed the whole course of the war. Ben Domenech: I think the question on the minds of a lot of Americans and a lot of Ukrainians, a lot of other people is, how can the shape of this deal that needs to be made, first to stop the fighting and then to stop war, be something where, even when someone who’s not as tough as you is sitting behind this desk someday, the Russians don’t just roll back westward again? Donald Trump: It’s very interesting. That whole war is so sad. The sad part of that war is it would have never happened. I mean, I tell you, as sure as you’re sitting there, zero chance. I used to talk to Putin about it. “You can’t do it, can’t do it.” And he and I had good understandings together. He’s a tough guy. He’s a smart guy. Donald Trump: Very smart. Very interesting. But he’s a tough cookie. And there was no chance it could have happened. You’re right about Afghanistan. But of course, Afghanistan wouldn’t have happened either. It showed that he thought we were a paper tiger maybe for the first time ever. He was concerned with us, and then he thought we were a paper tiger. Donald Trump: It looked so bad. It was such an embarrassment, I think the most embarrassing, you know, period of time in the history of our country, actually. And you had a president that couldn’t explain anything. He couldn’t talk to anybody. And it was a disaster, the whole thing. That was a disaster. How about leaving them billions of dollars’ worth of equipment? Donald Trump: Do you know they’re the second or third most – biggest seller of arms in the world right now? Because they’re selling all the stuff that we gave them, brand-new, 777,000 rifles, 70,000 trucks, many of them armor-plated. Now, think of that. I don’t know how they could have brought so much stuff there when you think of it, right? Donald Trump: Seventy-thousand trucks. Think of a used car lot. If you had 300 cars, it would be a massive company. But with all of that being said, the hardest part for me is to think that all of these kids are dying. This week, they’re going to lose 2,000 guys. Now, they’re Ukrainian. They’re Russian. Ukrainian and Russian. Donald Trump: But you hate to see that. You know, it’s human beings, right? And it’s such a bad war, and it’s such a vicious war. It’s really a bad one. You know, it’s a drone war. It’s a whole new form of warfare that’s taking place. It’s actually terrible and sort of amazing. People are studying it. You know, the Koreans went in because they wanted to learn. Donald Trump: They learned the hard way. This was not good. They have suffered tremendous casualties. Ben Domenech: Is the answer that the Europeans just need to step up? Donald Trump: Well, they have to step up, but they also have to get equipment. They have to spend more money. They don’t have – Ben Domenech: Are you willing to give them a friends-and-family deal if they start buying it from us? Donald Trump: Well, you mean for here? Ben Domenech: For hardening themselves up to the degree that they – Donald Trump: Well, they’re going to have to. Look, we – you know, they give a lot of older equipment, things that they’re not using anymore. We’re giving them brand-new stuff. The bad part about the Biden thing is that Europe put up approximately $100 billion, and they get their money back. We have three times that amount, and we didn’t get anything back. Donald Trump: Now, tomorrow, President Zelenskyy is coming. We’re going to sign a rare earth deal because they have among the best rare earth in the world. You’ve heard that. And we’ll, you know, we’ll get our money back plus, and I feel better about it. But the biggest tragedy is the death. You know, the death is so bad. Donald Trump: I hate the money aspect of it, but I hate to see – this week, they have over 2,000 casualties. This is in a week. They give me reports every week. Ben Domenech: In terms of the British Royal Navy, I don’t know if you know this, the entire personnel – keep in mind, Royal Navy ruled the seas. You know, they ran the Empire. The entire British Navy force today could not fill the Naval Academy Stadium at Annapolis, the entire personnel. I mean, that’s how far behind they are. Ben Domenech: Their ships are old. Their equipment has not been kept up. And it’s a real problem. So, how do we get that to change? Donald Trump: It is old. They all have old. You know, it just came up today. They wanted some ships in that war, and the Europeans have very old ships, ships that don’t work, ships that are not functioning at all. They really don’t have too much of a Navy situation. Probably, the best is U.K., but, you know, it’s in need of help. Donald Trump: He just left, you know. Ben Domenech: Yes, the new prime minister. What did you think of him? Donald Trump: He’s very – I mean, I have to say – well, he was very nice. You know, we had a very good meeting. Ben Domenech: He’s a little different than Boris. Donald Trump: He’s different. Different type, yeah. Did you watch it? Did you see it? Ben Domenech: Yes, I did. Donald Trump: What did you think? What was your impression? Ben Domenech: Well, I agreed with your assessment that his voice is quite impressive. Donald Trump: It’s good. No, right? I said, “That’s a beautiful voice. Beautiful.” The whole thing, you know, highly – Ben Domenech: But the problem is that he runs – and your vice president obviously eloquently pointed this out in Munich. He runs a nation now that is removing the security elements on Apple phones so that they can – Donald Trump: Yeah. We told them, “You can’t do this.” Ben Domenech: Yeah. Tulsi, I saw – Donald Trump: We actually told them. That’s incredible. That’s something, you know, that you hear about with China. Ben Domenech: They put people in jail in Britain for praying in their own homes, silently. Donald Trump: Yeah. But you were having that with Biden, too, if you think. And it’s not Biden. It was the people that surrounded this desk. No, actually, this desk is a different desk. Ben Domenech: Yes, it’s a different desk. I was going to – Donald Trump: The other one comes back. It just was in need of a little refurbishment. So, anyway – so did you see this? You’ve been – how often have you been in this office? Ben Domenech: So, I was in this office with every president, except for Biden. In fact, I got an interview with somebody. That’s how old I am in terms of politics. Donald Trump: So, you started when? Ben Domenech: Bill Clinton era. Donald Trump: That’s not old. Ben Domenech: Well, it’s older than your vice president. Donald Trump: Yeah. Well, that’s true. He’s doing a good job if you take a look at this. He had like two pictures up, and he couldn’t tell you who they were. And now, you look. And, you know, we took them out of the vaults. We have incredible vaults of things. They have 3,900 paintings. Ben Domenech: Do they inspire you, or do they intimidate, in a way, just to see all the different – Donald Trump: Well, it’s great. I mean, look, George Washington back there and Thomas Jefferson. They’re great. I even have an FDR up there. A lot of people say, “Why do you have FDR?” I said, “Well, he was a serious president, whether you agree with him or not.” Ben Domenech: Yeah, absolutely. Donald Trump: He was definitely serious, right? Ben Domenech: A hundred percent. Donald Trump: And so, it’s good. Ben Domenech: The Starmer interactions, I’m just curious if there was anything that came out of them that you feel particularly positive about in terms of – Donald Trump: I thought he was – I will say, you know, I know where he comes from, from a political standpoint, right? I was surprised we got along very well. I mean, it was actually – we had a lunch that ended up being longer than we thought. That’s always a good sign, you know, longer in the sense that we got along. Donald Trump: I thought he was very good. I met him twice before. You know, he came to see me twice before, but this time was the best. And I think we got along very well. And you want to keep that relationship with them. But you’re right. Their policies are changing. You know, I have a lot of property over there as a real estate person. Donald Trump: I own Turnberry, which is a big deal, and I own in Aberdeen, and I own in Ireland, a great thing on the ocean, beautiful thing, beautiful club and a hotel. And they’re doing well. You know, the reason the country is doing well from that standpoint is because the dollar is forcing people to leave the country. Donald Trump: You know, our dollar valuation is forcing people to leave the country. Ben Domenech: He clearly made a decision early on that he needed to get to know you. But that’s not been the attitude of some of these other left-center politicians. Chrystia Freeland up in Canada was doing a debate. She’s trying to lead the Liberal Party up there now into this election. And she said that there needs to be a nuclear alliance with other European nations and Japan against the United States because you’re predatory. Donald Trump: She’s terrible. I’ll tell you what. I know her very well. Ben Domenech: I’m sorry. Donald Trump: I know. No, I know her very well. She’s absolutely terrible for the country. She’s incompetent in many respects and can only cause ill will for Canada. In fact, Governor Trudeau understood that. I call him Gov. Governor Trudeau understood that. And he actually fired her because of a meeting he had with me. I said, “She is so bad.” She’s bad for the country. Donald Trump: You know, if she were talented – I know people that are sort of bad people, but they do a good job running a country. Who’s going to get the nomination, do you think? Ben Domenech: I don’t know. After that debate, they all seemed – she was the nuttiest, but they all seemed pretty nutty to me. Donald Trump: She’s a whack. Ben Domenech: The Conservatives obviously have taken a hit in the polls since some of the comments that you’ve made that the Liberals have leaned into. Do you think that they’re still going to be able to pull it out up there? Donald Trump: Well, I think his biggest problem is he’s not a MAGA guy, you know? I mean, he’s really not. He’s not a Trump guy at all. Ben Domenech: He’s more of a throwback Republican. Donald Trump: He’s different. Making a big mistake. They all make that mistake. You know, they think they’re going to be the tough guy, and they’re going to knock out Trump, and they end up getting the hell beat out of them. So, I don’t know. I mean, I can’t tell you Pierre. I just don’t know. I don’t like what he’s saying about me. He’s just not positive about me. And we’ve done a great job. Donald Trump: We got elected when, I would say, the odds were pretty much against – I always felt – you know, it’s very interesting. People say the greatest comeback in political history, like you said, and I don’t even view it as a comeback. The election of 2020 was rigged. It was a rigged election, totally rigged election. Donald Trump: And I don’t forget that either. Totally rigged. But this one was much bigger. I will say, a lot of people say that historically, this is so much bigger than if I had done it the more traditional way. Ben Domenech: You know, a lot of people who played a significant role in that election, particularly on the tech side of things, have come around to support you. How much do you – Donald Trump: Unbelievable. Yeah. I had dinner with Jeff Bezos last night. Ben Domenech: How much do you trust someone like Jeff Bezos or one of these billionaires to be truly in that – Donald Trump: Who do I trust? I mean, who do you trust? Do you trust anybody? These are very smart guys. And I always say to them – we have dinners together, usually started by them. I’m so busy with all of this between China, Russia, Ukraine. I’ve got more things happening. But I always love to just sort of look at them and say, “Hi. Where do you come from?” “I came from Hawaii to have dinner.” That was good. Donald Trump: I said, “Would you have been here if I lost?” You know, I was – “Would you have been here if I lost it?” They never answer that question. Actually, they just sort of shy away from it. Ben Domenech: If you trust him – do you trust him? He just paid a lot of money for James Bond. Do you trust him to make him great again? Donald Trump: Who paid a lot of money? Did he? Ben Domenech: Jeff Bezos – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Oh, did he buy the James Bond series? Ben Domenech: Yes. He bought the rest of the franchise. He bought it away from the Broccoli family, so he has total control. He’s asking Twitter, he’s asking X what they want in the next James Bond. Donald Trump: That’s interesting. Well, James Bond – did he pay a lot? Ben Domenech: Yes. Undisclosed, but rumors of a billion. Donald Trump: Yeah. So, it’s a lot. I like him. I tell you what, I like these guys, but I have to – so when you ask about the difference, so the first time, these guys were bitter enemies. I never even understood it. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know Zuckerberg. I didn’t know Jeff. I didn’t – when you look at the inauguration, it was a who’s who of every single one of them, every single guy who was there, but every single person was here. Ben Domenech: Their priorities, though, and the kind of populist priorities of your voters don’t necessarily align on everything. Donald Trump: Probably. Ben Domenech: So, are you going to have to tell them no on some of the things that they’re going to ask of you? Donald Trump: Sure. I just do what’s right. You know, I have a lot of money. I don’t need money. I don’t need anything. One of the things we’re doing over here is very interesting. I’m a very good developer. I do it really good. You can ask a lot of people. I mean, I did it really well for a long time, and they’ve always needed a ballroom here. Donald Trump: It’s big. You know, it’s complicated because of the architectural structures and the architectural heritage of the White House. And one of the things I’m going to do – and it was sort of interesting. “Who gets to approve it?” “You do, sir.” I said, “I do?” Normally, I have to go to zoning. You know, I go through the zoning, and I’ve always been a king of zoning. Donald Trump: I get whatever, but I do good work. So, one of the things I’m going to do is build a beautiful, magnificent ballroom at the White House, beautiful ballroom. They always wanted to have a – hey, get me the picture – there’s a picture of a ballroom that I have. You show. And it keeps my real estate juices flowing. Donald Trump: But it’ll be beautiful. But they’ve always wanted a ballroom. You know, they only have the East Room, which is really very small. Ben Domenech: You know, one thing that’s been interesting, I’m just looking at this picture of the Gulf, you’ve had some very positive, I think, reaction to the things you’ve been saying about Panama. Do you think that more people should be looking – from America, more businesses should be looking to invest in Panama versus perhaps Mexico or something like that? Donald Trump: Well, I had a very bad experience in Panama. I built a building there with a group, and it was a beautiful building. It’s the tallest building in South America. And the government – this was probably 13 years ago. The government was very difficult. And the building was successful. I made a lot of money on it, but basically – Aide: Mar-a-Lago ballroom? Donald Trump: Yeah. Look at this. So, it’ll be something like that inside. Ben Domenech: Well, that’ll be quite the place. Donald Trump: That’s what they’re – they’re looking for that so badly for years. You know, they put tents up on the lawn. You can’t really – Ben Domenech: Yeah. I know, I know. I’ve seen them do it before. Donald Trump: And a tent is not good. Ben Domenech: Especially with fancy people in high heels trying to walk across the grass. Aide: Yeah. Plastic. Donald Trump: And soft plastic. Ben Domenech: She knows exactly what I’m talking about. Aide: Yes. Donald Trump: And soft plastic. Well, I’ll go – another one. Let me give you then as long as – so, you’ve been here many times. You see the grass outside, right? Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: So, we’re going to make that into a stone surface because you can’t have it – yesterday, we had a lot of press here because of – for the obvious, right? Ben Domenech: It just turns into mud. Donald Trump: They can’t stand on it. So, we’re doing a beautiful – it’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to look – I think it’s actually going to look better. But some people would like to leave it. But the problem is you can’t. We had the press here yesterday. Do you see the women there? They’re going crazy. The grass was wet. Donald Trump: Their heels are going right through the grass, like four inches deep. It was – so we’re going to make that into a beautiful – Ben Domenech: Can I ask you a question about the press? There’s an anchor named Jake Tapper you may have heard of. Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Ben Domenech: I recall an interaction that he had with your daughter-in-law about Joe Biden’s mental decline, where he accused her of mocking his stutter. And now, he’s announced just the other day that he has a new book on the whole thing. Donald Trump: Bad timing. Ben Domenech: Is it wrong for him to profit from a conspiracy that he was basically part of? Donald Trump: Yeah. I thought that interchange – because I saw it yesterday. I thought – you know, she’s an amazing person. She’s very smart, very – I actually put her in charge of the RNC along with Michael Whatley. And she’s really – and nobody complained about nepotism. You know, she’s such a smart person and got the job done, finished it up. And she said, “Dad, now I want to go back home.” You know, didn’t want to stay and have fun. Donald Trump: She could have been a senator very easily in North Carolina if she wanted that. In fact, Ted Budd, who’s doing a great job, but he said, “I’m not running if she runs.” Nobody could have beaten her. She’s amazing. But I watched that interchange, and I thought her attitude was so cool. You know, the attitude of just amazement that a man could do this and he could say – well, he’s lost tremendous credibility, but everybody has. Ben Domenech: Yeah. I mean, Margaret Brennan the other day, interacting with Secretary Rubio, saying that the Holocaust was caused by free speech. I mean, what do you think when you see something like that? Donald Trump: Margaret Brennan. I call it Deface the Nation. Margaret Brennan is like anybody on the street that you could take and say, “Go in and ask a few questions.” That was so bad. Ben Domenech: It’s embarrassing. Donald Trump: I don’t get it. How do you hire some of these people? Ben Domenech: Well, it’s also embarrassing how quickly – I mean, you saw the “60 Minutes” reaction to what the vice president was saying about German censorship. They do this whole thing defending German censorship. If you’re someone like me in media, it feels like they’re just leaning into the idea that if they ever get the reins of power again, they’re just going to censor Americans again. Ben Domenech: They’re just going to propagandize like they have. How do you prevent something like that? Donald Trump: Well, first, Jake and then “60 Minutes” because I got to tell you about “60 Minutes.” It was amazing. But how anybody could have said that he’s at the top of his game – and let me tell you, if you’re not at the top of your game – and I know people that are much older than him that are at the top of their game. Donald Trump: I know people that are older than him that I’ve known for a long time, and they’re sharper at 88 than they were when they were 58. But he’s not. And, you know, I know all of his opponents, the heads of every country. I’ve gotten to know all of them very well. They’re all at the top of their game. And you can’t have that. Donald Trump: That’s why we’re in this war. That’s why Afghanistan happened, which, as you said, led to a lot of problems beyond even Afghanistan, including the deaths and all of the horrible – you know, we had 42 soldiers without legs or arms, the face was – nobody ever talks about them. And we had the 13 that died. Donald Trump: How a legitimate journalist can try and stick up for that. And I watched him, and he looked so stupid, you know. Ben Domenech: Well, a lot of people definitely did. Donald Trump: The only thing I can say about him is he did the debate, and he was very, very fair. And so was Dana. Or is Dana, as you would call her. So was Dana. Ben Domenech: But they both also looked a bit surprised by what they were seeing play out in front of them. Donald Trump: Yeah. But they were still – I was very surprised because, you know, I took that debate knowing it was CNN and knowing I had two very, very hostile anchors. I think you’re great, too. I love watching you. I love watching you on television. Ben Domenech: I appreciate it. Donald Trump: You have some good guys you work with, too. Ben Domenech: I do. One more – Donald Trump: Yeah. It’s so hard to believe that these guys could keep their credibility. So, let me ask you. So, we go to the debate, and I walk in, and I sort of look – he wasn’t looking good. But then he had a lot of white, very white, too white, you know. If he did better in the debate, would he have been changed or not? Donald Trump: If he was normal in the debate, would it have changed, or was the debate – he blames the debate for the reason he had to get out. Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: That was – it was just too bad. Ben Domenech: Yeah. Well, I think that’s one of the reasons why he actually looked pretty happy when you met him after the election. Donald Trump: But I asked him. You know, I went to the White House a few months before this all happened. I guess I had one and not just the one sit-down before. But I went there, and he asked for a meeting. And I went, and we talked for a little while. And at first, I couldn’t – you couldn’t – he talked so low. And then he started getting more – and I asked him. Donald Trump: I said, “So, who do you blame?” Because he was very angry. You know, he was a very angry guy, actually. And he said, “I blame Barack.” And I never think of him as Barack. You know, you always hear Obama. You say – you have to think about that for a second. And he said, “And I also blame Nancy Pelosi.” I said, “What about the vice president?” He said, “No, I don’t blame her,” which was interesting. Donald Trump: He didn’t blame her. He blamed – he told me he blamed those two people. Ben Domenech: And yet they’re still in charge of that party, it seems like. You know, you took a party that was, you know, really floundering and had just done the autopsy a couple of years earlier, and you turned it around. I know that they’re not going to listen to whatever advice you give them, but what advice would you give Democrats about what they should be doing? Donald Trump: Well, I actually gave the Republicans advice the other day. Don’t keep harping on all these incredible things that we have. Just save it for the election, you know, because you don’t want them to change. [Audio gap] a lot of people talked about inflation or the economy. I put the open border as the No. 1 issue. Ben Domenech: Well, let’s talk about that for a minute. You have – obviously, your State Department at your direction has now named – done something that I and a lot of others believe needed to happen a long time ago, which was name these major cartel groups as foreign terror organizations. Donald Trump: Correct. Which they are. Ben Domenech: That obviously triggers a bunch of things in terms of going after their assets, etc. Donald Trump: Right. Ben Domenech: Are you going to hold to account a lot of these corrupt politicians who profited from that human trafficking, from pouring fentanyl in? Donald Trump: They did. Ben Domenech: Including leading Mexican [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, certainly, I would recommend that they be looked at. You know, certainly, it’s going to be up to Pam Bondi, who’s excellent at what she does. But there’s been so much – Ben Domenech: Would you consider kinetic action in Mexico? Donald Trump: There is – well, I’d rather not tell you that because somehow – Ben Domenech: Yeah. [Inaudible] I have to ask anyway. Donald Trump: I’d love to tell you. You know, it’s so interesting. Sometimes, you’ll be asked, like, a question like that, and you want to give an answer because you don’t want to have somebody walk out and say – but if you give the answer, it’s a disaster. If you give a truthful answer – Ben Domenech: It always reminds me of the SNL sketch where the guy says, in the Gulf War, “Where are your tanks? And can I go see them?” Donald Trump: That’s right. Exactly. We have a lot of that. Ben Domenech: By the way, Shane Gillis is hosting SNL this weekend. Are you a fan? You met him at the Super Bowl, I think. Donald Trump: Yeah. Ben Domenech: Are you a fan? Donald Trump: Well, he’s a very good – I mean, on our side, right? Ben Domenech: He definitely – yes. I profiled him when he was at his lowest point, when he had just gotten fired from SNL. I profiled him when he was playing to a club of, like, fifty people in Maryland. Donald Trump: Is Shane Gillis doing very well now? Ben Domenech: I think he’s the best. He’s one of the top comics in the – Donald Trump: And he’s been on our side? Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: And I like him, and I like everybody that’s on my side. You know, I’m just old-fashioned in that way. I like those people. And we have a lot of people. We have more people than anybody understands. You know, this whole MAGA movement is – Ben Domenech: Well, you changed things culturally. Everybody is talking – everybody talks about the vibe shift. But it’s very clearly a difference, a change. And that’s not just people motivated by what you’re doing politically, like my wife, like the MAHA moms. Donald Trump: Right, right. Ben Domenech: You know, it’s also people culturally who feel they finally say things. I remember when – my father’s Puerto Rican, when Tony went out there and gave that joke, that silly joke, and people were saying for the next 48 hours, that was like the end. I was like, “I’m not offended by that joke. I wanted you to get cleaned up, too.” Anyway. Ben Domenech: No. It just – Donald Trump: See, the sad part about that was it turned out to be nothing, and I didn’t think it was going to be much, but they made such a big deal. That was just – Ben Domenech: They were desperate at that point. Donald Trump: They were desperate. But they took that joke. But the big thing was that I could have sold out Madison Square Garden 10 times. You were there? Ben Domenech: No, I was not at that one. But I was at many of your other events. Donald Trump: But you saw. You know, I had a picture. I have to show you. I had a picture that – of a stadium that I did two weeks before in Milwaukee. And I said, “Look at this.” But we’ve had 107,000, 111,000. In Butler, we had 100,000 for the second time, 55,000 when you got – I get that throbbing feeling. Wait, let me get this. Donald Trump: I mean, this is the average crowd. Did you see this? I just look at pictures of throwing away some stuff. Of course, I have to be careful about throwing anything away. They want to put you in prison. You know, if you write a note and you don’t like it because it looks bad or something, and if you rip it up, throw it away, Jack Smith will want to put you in prison. Donald Trump: And by the way, he didn’t end up so good. Ben Domenech: No. Well, we had a little experience with him in Virginia with Bob McDonnell, too. That didn’t end up too good. Donald Trump: He destroyed that guy. Ben Domenech: He destroyed him. Donald Trump: And Bob McDonnell, were you friendly with him? Ben Domenech: Yes, very much so. Donald Trump: He’s a high-quality guy. The wife is – Ben Domenech: Yeah. But not the wife. Donald Trump: She was a mess. How he stayed with her – Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: I assume he eventually left, right? Ben Domenech: Yeah. I think that they are now split. Note: [Three asterisks in the published transcript indicate there is an edit at this point in the interview.] Donald Trump: Look at this. Look at that picture. I mean, that’s serious, right? Ben Domenech: That’s phenomenal. Wow. Donald Trump: That was just – that’s a routine crowd. Look at this. This was in New Jersey. I just see these pictures. Ben Domenech: Well, see, I think this is part of that vibe shift that I mentioned. Donald Trump: Look at this. Ben Domenech: You know, one thing in particular – Donald Trump: Look at the crowd. That’s not – Ben Domenech: One thing in particular, though, that I think sticks out to me on this is that not all of those people, I think, they agree with the vast majority of what you’re doing, but they also came to you through different avenues this time. The podcast election, I mean, it was just amazing to see it play out. And I remember people saying at the beginning, you know, “Is this risky?” But, I just – I think that it’s what – Donald Trump: You mean it was risky doing them. Ben Domenech: Risky doing so many of them because – Donald Trump: You know, it was interesting. They were all good. Ben Domenech: Not all the politicians can do that. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t. Well, she didn’t do it. Ben Domenech: All the comms staff on Capitol Hill were like, you know, “What is he doing going on all these things?” Donald Trump: Because I was leading. Ben Domenech: And I was like, you need to know who these guys are because they’ve replaced the old media. They’ve replaced the legacy media, and they have bigger followings. CNN is background, OK? When people tune into these, they are listening to them. They’re watching them on YouTube, on their own TVs. I watch Barstool Sports content every week on my television, you know. Donald Trump: Is that a hot one now? Is that a – Ben Domenech: Yes. I mean – Donald Trump: It’s doing well. Ben Domenech: Yeah. It’s done very well. Donald Trump: He’s been good to me, I think. Ben Domenech: Dave Portnoy? Yeah. Donald Trump: Say hello to him. He’s been great. Ben Domenech: Yeah. But the question I have about that is – Donald Trump: By the way, Joe Rogan. So, I do Joe Rogan. And it was three hours and 15 minutes, and it caused a little problem because, you know, I was doing a thing in Michigan. I started speaking at 12 in the evening, and not a person left. It would have been a room just like that. Not a person left. And I explained, “Hey, I just did Joe Rogan. Donald Trump: You know, we got to win this thing.” So, we actually told them, “I’m doing Joe Rogan. Can you wait?” Nobody left. There was unbelievable spirit. But my son, who’s just 18, Barron, he goes, “Dad, you got to do this one and that one.” And he’s telling me names. Ben Domenech: Well, clearly, it worked. Donald Trump: It worked. Ben Domenech: But also, you know – Donald Trump: But TikTok worked, too. Ben Domenech: Also, I want to ask you, there is a new podcaster out there, Gavin Newsom, who has decided that he’s going to launch. Do you think he’ll be a good podcaster? Or do you think California would be better off if he did that full-time? Donald Trump: I don’t know. Is he doing a podcast as governor? Ben Domenech: Yes. Donald Trump: I don’t know what to tell you on that. I mean, you never know. Ben Domenech: Would you go on? Donald Trump: Sure. Look, so I did Joe Rogan, and I never even thought about not doing it. She wouldn’t do it. And, you know, I got 250 million people for Joe Rogan. You saw that. That was his biggest ever by far. And he was a great – Ben Domenech: I’ve been listening to him for years. Donald Trump: He was great. Ben Domenech: It depends on the guest, but – Donald Trump: Yeah. He was a great guy. Ben Domenech: You hear a lot about the Comanche if you listen regularly enough. Donald Trump: You know, I guess he was a Democrat. I don’t think he is anymore. But, you know, two words I mention, common sense, a lot lately. And I never heard those words used politically. I hope I brought them into the forefront, but it’s really about common sense. You don’t want open borders. You don’t want prisons emptied out into your country. Donald Trump: You don’t want insane asylums dropped. Remember, I used to mention the name Hannibal Lecter a lot, and the press would say, “Why would he mention? That’s a fictitious…” The people know why. They don’t want him in the country. Ben Domenech: So, I have to ask the question on my wife’s behalf because, like I said, she is a MAHA mom. She is very happy that RFK is in the position that he is, but she also is angry about the fact that Joe pardoned so many people, including Dr. Fauci, on the way out. Donald Trump: Yeah. Ben Domenech: And she wants there to be accountability, culpability, people being held to account for the bad decisions that they made, the bad advice they gave. And that, you know, extends – I mean, it extends all the way to China, really, you know, in terms of the ramifications of what they unleashed. But what can be done to hold these people accountable, make sure that they don’t get away with this? Ben Domenech: There’s so many governments, including around the world, that reopened their schools before we did, that figured this stuff out before we did. You know, we were way behind because of all of these people, and that has a permanent effect. It scarred a generation of kids who had to stay home. I mean, I know some of those kids who have development disorders now, you know, who are basically non-verbal. Ben Domenech: How can the policy – Donald Trump: Yeah. And a lot of this because they were so far behind even educationally. So, it’s very interesting. You know, the federalist system is like you let the governor decide. I let all the governors decide. You know, I had governors that kept them open 100 percent of the time. South Carolina did. Tennessee did. Donald Trump: We had a lot of them. South Dakota, she did a good job. The Democrats were the ones that did it, and they kept it going very long, long after I was gone. I mean, I was gone long, and everything was closed, and it was ridiculous. But I had many that were open that were Republicans. Some of the Republicans did a good job. Donald Trump: I don’t think any of the Democrats did a good job. They all kept it closed. Ben Domenech: Yeah. Well, and they paid the price for it, I think, in this election. I think that they – Donald Trump: I think they did. They paid it here. Ben Domenech: Yeah. Note: [Three asterisks in the published transcript indicate there is an edit at this point in the interview.] Donald Trump: I love this cover, Ben. Ben Domenech: Yeah. I was going to ask you to sign it for me at the end. Donald Trump: You want me to what? Ben Domenech: I was going to ask you to sign it for me at the end. Donald Trump: Oh, I will do it. Yes. Can I have one for my wife? Ben Domenech: Yes, absolutely. Donald Trump: I’d love that. Yeah. Ben Domenech: So, who actually left the cocaine in the White House? Donald Trump: Who what? Ben Domenech: Who left the cocaine in the White House? Donald Trump: Well, either Joe or Hunter. Could be Joe, too, OK? So, that was such a terrible thing because, you know, those bins are very loaded up with – they’re not clean, and they have hundreds and even thousands of fingerprints. And when they went to look at it, it was absolutely stone-cold, wiped dry. You know that, right? Ben Domenech: See? Well, because, I mean, I was briefly, you know, a Bush speechwriter and staff person. And so, I knew exactly what they were talking about. And I was like, “Those things are filthy.” Donald Trump: They’re filthy. And there were fingerprints. I mean, if you went to one, maybe we’re cleaner, but if you went to one at any time, you would see hundreds. Everybody in there would leave a fingerprint. When they went in, that thing was wiped out with the strongest form of alcohol. Ben Domenech: That’s hilarious. Well, not hilarious. Sad. Donald Trump: By the way – and I have to tell you, I think I’m going to look into that because it was – bad stuff happened there. Note: [Three asterisks in the published transcript indicate there is an edit at this point in the interview.] Ben Domenech: You know, one of the things that came out – you know, has obviously come out is the prework that was done via the Aspen Institute and the intel community to basically cue up, “Hey, there’s going to be something that comes out late, and it’s going to be related to probably Hunter and, you know, money from overseas, and it’s going to be a Russian op.” And some of the funding for that, of course – Donald Trump: They’re sick. Ben Domenech: Has been found via DOGE. Thank you for letting DOGE out. Donald Trump: By the way, how good is that? Did you see where Stacey Abrams got $2 billion? Can you imagine? Ben Domenech: Oh, gosh. Look, I’ve lived in this area, around the swamp, for almost two decades. And like I said, the fear that is among the bureaucratic class right now of being exposed for how little work they do. Donald Trump: But you didn’t know it was this crooked. Ben Domenech: Oh, no. I mean – Donald Trump: How about the newly formed corporation, Environmental Protection? Lee Zeldin. $20 billion put in, $20 billion. And people don’t know. People don’t know what that is. They think it’s $20,000. They don’t know. You can’t explain $20 billion. That’s massive money. That’s – $20 billion was put in, and they think it could be $60 billion. Donald Trump: The numbers are staggering. Ben Domenech: The funny thing about government and when people start talking about taxpayer money being wasted is they always talk about it in percentages. They always say, “Oh, it’s only 1 percent.” One percent is a lot of money, OK? And it’s a lot more than 1 percent. And if you add it up and add it up and add it up – Donald Trump: They think it’s going to be close to $1 trillion, right? And that’s pretty good stuff. You know, when you – Ben Domenech: Was it more important for you to use that to balance the budget than to do other things? Donald Trump: Well, I think a big sleeper is going to be this gold card, you know. It’s an idea I had. I think this could be a very big sleeper. Do you know, if you sell, let’s say, a million at 5 million, that’s $5 trillion? The budget’s almost going to be balanced. You know, it’s not going to be that far short. It’s going to make $5 trillion. Donald Trump: That’s part of – you know, that’s part of the – Ben Domenech: How do you ensure that that’s something that doesn’t get exploited by the wrong people? Donald Trump: Well, it’s so simple. You know, the other stuff, the different programs, you put money in, and you can build a building, and you get a mortgage and this and that, oh, yeah, yeah, you can imagine what’s going on. I think we’re going to terminate the program. They say it’s just so terrible. This is very simple. Donald Trump: Five million, and you have a path to citizenship. You essentially get a green card plus. It’s a green card plus. It’s a gold card. And you have a plan. If we did a million, it’s a lot. Now, if we did 10 million, that’s $50 trillion, 10 million. You know, if that thing exploded, you had people that would pay that. Donald Trump: I have people all the time begging me to help them get into the country. Some of them are very wealthy people. They’d pay that in two minutes. Ben Domenech: Are you surprised by how quickly your policy impacted – I’ve known Bill Melugin for a long time. I’ve been to Eagle Pass many times. Are you surprised by how quickly your policies impacted the border? It just completely shut down in the space of weeks. Donald Trump: You mean in a couple of weeks? No, because I did it before, but now there was more focus, a little bit more focus on it. But I did it before. Remember the chart that I turned on the right? Can you get me that chart? I mean, you’ve seen it a thousand times. Ben Domenech: Yeah. I’ve seen it. Donald Trump: That’s my all-time favorite chart. No, if I didn’t turn right, that’s it. There was nobody over there. They had 55,000 people here. I’m not looking to the right. I looked to the right because the chart was coming down off a crane or something. But it was a good chart. Show it. Ben Domenech: There we go. Donald Trump: So, the arrow on the bottom, that was my last week in office. You saw the – Ben Domenech: She’s printing something for me. I’m so honored. Donald Trump: They do. These two do a good job. Look at that one back there. She’s done a great job. Ben Domenech: No, I just knew her – Donald Trump: By the way, she’s – how do you like the job that our new superstar is doing? What do you think? Ben Domenech: Oh, I think she’s fantastic, I think. Well, look, I’ve been around. The first press secretary that I met was Tony Snow because he ran the White House Bible study, actually, when I was here. Donald Trump: Did he die, or is he still – Ben Domenech: Yes. He passed away. Donald Trump: He died. Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: And he was pretty good, right? Ben Domenech: He was quite good. But he also – he was very nice, but he was very firm with people. He was very – and what I like about you is you never really seem to get as angry when you’re doing it. It’s almost like you enjoy it. It’s an enjoyable combat. Aide: Yes. Donald Trump: I think she loves it. Aide: I do. Ben Domenech: And that’s, I think, really important because not everybody – some people, they just get angry. You know, I still make fun of Sean Spicer for getting angry at me on the phone once when I was warning him that having John Harwood moderate a debate – all of you remember that one all the way back in 2015. Donald Trump: Was he the worst, John? Was John Harwood – Ben Domenech: I was – we got into a yelling match because I was saying, “Sean, he’s going to ruin this debate.” And then the first question he asks you is, “Are you a comic book villain?” Donald Trump: Right. That’s right. Remember that? Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: He was so bad. It actually was good for me, you know. Ben Domenech: Yeah. No, it worked out. It worked out. Donald Trump: It worked out good. But he was a bad guy. He was almost like a counterspy. I think she’s going to be amazing. So far, she’s – Ben Domenech: Happy warriors are the best workers to the press because they get frustrated with you. Note: [Three asterisks in the published transcript indicate there is an edit at this point in the interview.] Donald Trump: But look at that. So, if you look at that arrow, that’s when I left. Look what happened after I left, like a rocket. But you have to say it’s impressive what they’ve done. The border is essentially closed. Ben Domenech: Remain is obviously not a long-term solution. It was an immediate kind of solution in your first term. What do you view as the long-term solution to make sure that Mexico handles this problem? Donald Trump: I would rather not tell you that. You know why. Ben Domenech: OK. Donald Trump: Because you know what the only solution is. Note: [Three asterisks in the published transcript indicate there is an edit at this point in the interview.] Ben Domenech: So, one last question. The Philadelphia Eagles, you said you were going to invite them. Donald Trump: They’re invited. Ben Domenech: That’s part of the vibe shift I was talking about. So, fans of the NFL right now, I don’t know if you’re familiar with this because you watch the game, but there’s been this whole debate about the main play that they run, the Tush Push. Donald Trump: Oh, yeah. Right. Ben Domenech: Are you familiar with this? Donald Trump: Right. Ben Domenech: Yes. So, they’re debating whether they should ban it or not. One side says, “Ban it. It’s an almost unstoppable play.” The other side says, “So, you got to stop it.” Which side are you on? Donald Trump: Yeah. I wouldn’t ban it. But what I would ban is this horrible kickoff rule, this new kickoff rule. That is so bad. Ben Domenech: Yeah. It’s a weird rule. Donald Trump: It is so bad. Ben Domenech: It looks weird. Donald Trump: First of all, it’s the opposite of football. Second of all, it’s actually more dangerous because you’re actually going into each other without any defense or anything. It’s much more dangerous. It is so terrible. You know, in football, when the ball moves, you’re supposed to be moving. This ball is up in the air, and they’re all saying – it is so horrible to watch that. Donald Trump: And I told that to Roger Goodell. Ben Domenech: I know you’re such a huge fan. I love – I collect old USFL stuff. Donald Trump: Oh, that’s great. Ben Domenech: And I’m just curious, do you think the game is better now than it ever has been, or is there something you’d change? Donald Trump: Well, look, they got big ratings in the Super Bowl, right? It was – it should have – it was not a good game, but it was – well, it was a good game if you like football. Ben Domenech: I was there in Philadelphia as a Washington fan for the NFC Championship, and that game was actually more [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: Unbelievable. And how good is the quarterback, right? Boy. When you can draft a young quarterback, it’s like gold. You take a guy who’s great in college, and he turns out to be no good. I mean – and then you’ll take somebody like, in San Francisco, that kid. Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: He was the last draft choice. He wasn’t Brady. He was six runs back. He was literally the last guy in the draft and – Ben Domenech: Mr. Irrelevant becomes – Donald Trump: He moves the ball, right? You know, it’s one of those things. They’re coming here. What I’m doing – Philadelphia is coming here. And Kansas City, when they won the Super Bowl during COVID, you couldn’t have them here. Virtually, you couldn’t have it. It was too bad. And I said, “You know what? I should really invite them for that.” And I told them. Donald Trump: They want to come. By the way, they really want to come. Aide: Yes, sir. They do. Donald Trump: You know who came? The kicker came today. He’s a Trump fan. He’s a nice guy. Great kicker. And he came. But we said – he said, “Yeah, we missed it because of the COVID.” I said, “Well, let’s do it.” So, we’re going to have Philadelphia. When is Philadelphia coming? Aide: I believe next month, the end of April. Donald Trump: If you want to come, come. Are you a fan? Are you a Philadelphia fan? Ben Domenech: No, I am a Washington fan, but I – Aide: You can still come. Donald Trump: So, how good is the Washington quarterback? Ben Domenech: Jayden Daniels is incredible. I hope that one of the things you can build here while you’re here in the next four years is even if – whatever it takes, I mean, if it takes giving D.C. back to Maryland, you know, to get rid of Bowser or something like that. But the fact that they could maybe play at RFK again with this quarterback in my lifetime, I mean – Donald Trump: So, locationally, you love not the stadium. You would rip down the stadium. Ben Domenech: Rip down the stadium, build a new stadium. Donald Trump: But you love that location? Ben Domenech: I think that location – Donald Trump: It’s so beautiful when you’re driving up. Ben Domenech: It is beautiful, but it needs so much investment. But it could be as good as what is around Navy Yard and Nats Park and everything that we see over there. Donald Trump: The site is great. Ben Domenech: The site is great, but it needs a lot of work. Donald Trump: Does that have train service? Ben Domenech: Near it? Yes, yes. Donald Trump: It has trains? Ben Domenech: Yeah, the Metro. Donald Trump: What I love is you’re driving up, and it’s – you know, it splits the road. Ben Domenech: Yeah, it’s beautiful. Donald Trump: OK. Now, you’re not talking about keeping the stadium. Ben Domenech: No, get rid of the stadium. Build another stadium. Donald Trump: You’re talking about – in other words, you’d like to have it built in Washington. Ben Domenech: I would like it to be built on that site. Donald Trump: So, should I take over the government of D.C.? Ben Domenech: If that’s the outcome, not only would I be in favor of it, but virtually every Washington fan would be in favor of it. Donald Trump: And most people that live in Washington. Ben Domenech: Oh, yeah. Oh, they want the investment. They want – Donald Trump: It’s so sad. Ben Domenech: It’s a pathetic fact that it’s not there. Donald Trump: Well, we’re trying to do it. We’re trying to do it. We’re looking at doing it. Ben Domenech: Josh Harris, the owner, really wants to do it. Donald Trump: It’s so bad. He’s a nice guy, by the way, the owner. I met him. You know, I went to a game. He is – that kid was really good. Ben Domenech: Oh, yeah. Donald Trump: Wasn’t he second in draft pick? Ben Domenech: He was. Donald Trump: And who was first? Ben Domenech: So, the first draft pick, Caleb Williams, is in Chicago. But the reason that he wasn’t good was not his fault. It’s that he had a terrible coach and a terrible offense. Donald Trump: But do you think he’s got – could he be as good as Daniels? Ben Domenech: I don’t think so. I think Daniels is a generational talent. Donald Trump: He was just a natural, man, the way he flicks. Ben Domenech: He’s so calm. It’s like he was built for this. And part of this, too, keep in mind is, because of COVID, these guys, and the same with the quarterback out in Denver, Bo Nix, they got extra years. Donald Trump: So, how good is Nix? Ben Domenech: Nix is very good. Donald Trump: Isn’t he like 25 or 26? Ben Domenech: Yeah. Donald Trump: That was unusual. Ben Domenech: So, it’s very unusual. But the point is they got like five seasons of starting, you know, and that made a huge difference. Donald Trump: Will Nix be – is Nix as good as Daniels? Ben Domenech: No, I don’t think so, not physically as – Donald Trump: Almost. Nobody is, right? The guy from Texas, how about him? He might be better. Ben Domenech: We’ll have to see. Donald Trump: You know what I mean. Ben Domenech: Yeah. No, we’ll have to see. Donald Trump: How about you gave him up for the No. 1 guy in Alabama who’s very little and who is not making it? Ben Domenech: Yeah. No, I don’t think so. Donald Trump: They took him second, Sprague or whatever his name is. It’s interesting. Ben Domenech: Arch Manning, the thing about Arch Manning is people will be disappointed on any pass when he doesn’t throw a touchdown. Donald Trump: How good is he? I was talking about Texas in the NFL, the quarterback. Ben Domenech: You mean C.J. Stroud in Houston? Donald Trump: Stroud. How good is he? Ben Domenech: Well, he had an excellent first season, but then the second season, he took a step back. Donald Trump: So, would you take Daniels then over him? Ben Domenech: I would because – in part because Daniels is just – he can do everything in terms of the physical capability of movement. And the other thing is this was not a very good team. Donald Trump: So, what about the owner? He sells the team. He did great. He got $6 billion. And, you know, he’s always been nice to me. He always supported me. Ben Domenech: Yeah, the whole movie thing. Donald Trump: Yeah, he did fine. He did – look, he made a lot of money with the team, OK? So, that’s good. But the team didn’t work. But he sells the team, and they end up with Daniels as a quarterback. Would he have had Daniels as the quarterback? Probably. Ben Domenech: Certainly would have. Donald Trump: Did his guys make the pick? Ben Domenech: No. There was a whole new crew of general [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: So, it might not have been Daniels. Ben Domenech: So, he might not have done that. He might have botched that. Donald Trump: No, because all those years, he fought like – I mean, he tried so hard. Ben Domenech: We had a brief glimpse of it with RG3, and I was at the game where his knee was – Donald Trump: Who was great until he got hit about 15 times. Ben Domenech: Yeah. But he was nowhere near as skilled as this guy in terms of throwing the ball. Donald Trump: Really? And is this guy tall? Ben Domenech: Yes, but he’s very lean. One of the reasons he went second is because he’s very skinny. And the other quarterback who went before him, Caleb Williams, is more built like a normal – Donald Trump: So, you’re a real fan, huh? That’s great. Ben Domenech: Oh, yeah. Well, some of my earliest memories are – my earliest memory is actually the Reagan Challenger speech. Donald Trump: And you’d like to see the stadium built here. Ben Domenech: I would, 100 percent. Donald Trump: All right. Good. Because, you know, the D.C. takeover, right? We’re working on that, right? Aide: We got to clean up the city. Ben Domenech: Yeah. We have to. Donald Trump: The mayor, the tents – Ben Domenech: You can’t do it without cleaning up the city. Donald Trump: And it was great 10 years ago, right? Ben Domenech: Yeah, it really was. Donald Trump: It was good during my administration. But the crime – look, these are incompetent people, like her. How about the guy in Chicago? Ben Domenech: Oh, my gosh. Seven percent of – Donald Trump: He’s worse than the one from before. Ben Domenech: He was at 7 percent. Donald Trump: Right? Now, he’s at 4 percent. They had some – and yet he’ll beat some people. Do you understand that? Can you believe it? Ben Domenech: Corruption. Donald Trump: He’ll beat some people. So, you’d like to see that? Maybe we’ll do that. Ben Domenech: Yeah. OK. Donald Trump: I mean, I’m pretty busy. Ben Domenech: Yeah. You got some other things on your plate. Note: [Three asterisks in the published transcript indicate there is an edit at this point in the interview.] Donald Trump: One little difference is they wanted to come, mostly. Many of them really wanted to come. But a couple of teams that canceled would have never canceled now. Ben Domenech: Yeah. No, I don’t think anybody would have canceled. Donald Trump: But when I heard, like, San Francisco basketball team, Curry, I heard a little rumor like they’re going to take a vote. When I heard “take a vote,” that means no good. So, I said, “You don’t have to take a vote because you’re no longer invited. Do not come under any circumstance.” And it was cool. People said, “That’s the coolest thing.” They never got to take a vote because I could see the writing on the wall. Donald Trump: Now, it’s much different. It’s much different. I think it’s – all those guys are in love with Trump, and they all hated Trump. They would go through fire to destroy me. Now, it doesn’t mean – will they – you know, you say, “Will they be loyal?” Who knows? But when I was a winner at the beginning, you know, then – that was a big win. Donald Trump: They didn’t come with me when I was winning. Now, they’re at levels – nobody’s ever seen a dais like that, you know, the inauguration. Zuckerberg, this one, this one, that one, Microsoft, everybody, which is pretty cool.
Date: 2025-02-27
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, great honor. Today it’s my privilege to welcome the prime minister of a very special place, the United Kingdom, to the White House. Prime Minister Starmer, you’ve been terrific in our discussions. You’re a very tough negotiator, however. I’m not sure I like that, but that’s okay [Laughter]. Very, very special person. Donald Trump: The prime minister and I have gotten off to an outstanding start. The US and UK have a special relationship, very special, really like no other, passed down through the centuries. And we’re going to keep it that way. We’re going to keep it very strong as it is. Very importantly, I was just notified by letter from King Charles that he’s extended, through the prime minister, a historic second state visit to the United Kingdom. Donald Trump: And that’s a great honor because it’s never happened before. One person has never been extended that honor, and I really do call it an honor. But it’s not for me, it’s for our country, it’s respect for our country. So, I just want to thank you, and I want to thank King Charles, thank you very much. And we accept. Donald Trump: I don’t know if the media is going to follow us, I have a feeling they might [Laughter]. Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it. I’m pleased to say that the bust of one of the prime minister’s greatest predecessors, Winston Churchill, is now back in the rightful place in the Oval Office and we’re very proud of it. Our meeting today and the various breakout sessions we had were tremendously productive. Donald Trump: Most importantly, I provided the prime minister with an update on our efforts to end the bloody and horrible war in Ukraine with Russia, which would never have happened if I were president. That was not going to happen, I promise you that. After three years of hellacious conflict, approximately 1 million Ukrainians and Russians have been senselessly killed. Donald Trump: But the number I believe is much higher than that. Countless schools, hospitals, towns and beautiful ancient churches have been absolutely obliterated. To begin the process of ending this spiral of death, I had historic back-to-back calls with President Putin, very successful calls, I might add. And President Zelenskyy and my team also spoke with the secretary general of NATO and numerous occasions. Donald Trump: And we’re working very hard to get that war brought to an end. I think we’ve made a lot of progress, and I think it’s moving along pretty rapidly. And I want to thank all of the people that are here that have been working on it. And we’ll let you know what happens, it’ll either be fairly soon or it won’t be at all. Donald Trump: In addition, this week I met with President Macron of France, as you know, and held talks with members of the G7. Tomorrow the progress toward peace will continue when President Zelenskyy visits the White House. He’ll be here tomorrow in the early part of the day, and we’ll be signing an historic agreement that will make the United States a major partner in developing Ukraine’s minerals and rare earths and oil and gases. Donald Trump: And we have a great understanding. I think it’s going to be great for Ukraine. We’re going to be at the site, and we’ll be – we’ll be digging, we’ll be dig, dig, digging. Dig we must. A big utility in New York, Con Edison, they used to have a sign, Dig We Must, and we will be digging. But much of the European aid to Ukraine has been sent in the form of loans for which they expect to be paid back. Donald Trump: And we didn’t have that honor under the Biden administration. He sent money or just sent money after money after money and never had any knowledge of ever seeing it back, maybe $300 billion to $350 billion. But under the breakthrough agreement, very unusual, which everyone said was difficult to get, but it’s really very good for Ukraine and very good for us. The American taxpayers will now effectively be reimbursed for the money and hundreds of billions of dollars poured in to helping Ukraine defend itself, which by and of itself is a very worthy thing to do. We’ve paid far more than any other country and, with most of our support, it’s been paid in military, the finest weapons anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: This includes vast amounts of military hardware, ammunition and various other things that we now have to start rebuilding our own stockpiles. Additionally, the Minerals Agreement will provide the basis for a more sustainable future relationship between the United States and Ukraine and thus stimulate the long-term prosperity that will help the Ukrainians rebuild their country, it’s been demolished, and the ruined infrastructure. Donald Trump: The infrastructure, as you know, is in very bad shape. In just over one month our administration has already achieve more progress toward peace than years in the other administration, where they did nothing toward peace. They didn’t understand what was happening. Our approach is basically common sense, as I said. Donald Trump: So many of the things that we do are based on common sense. If you want peace, you have to talk, both sides. As I discussed with Prime Minister Starmer, the next step we’re making is toward a very achievable ceasefire. We hope that that can happen quickly because thousands of young people, in this case, we’re not talking about Americans, we’re talking about Ukrainians and Russians are being killed every week, thousands. Donald Trump: And it’s a rough battlefield. It’s a flat piece of land and the bullet only stops when it hits somebody. And this week, I saw the reports and I don’t even want to say what they are, but thousands of people, young people, young, vibrant, people died and we want to stop that, senseless, should it never happened. Donald Trump: This will lay the groundwork for a long-term peace agreement that will return stability to Eastern Europe and hopefully ensure that such a terrible war will never happen on European soil or for that matter, anywhere again. It’s a horrible thing that’s going on. The disaster in Ukraine shows exactly why it’s so important for the United Kingdom and other NATO partners to make large investments in their defense capabilities. Donald Trump: In many cases, four percent or five percent of GDP would be appropriate. I know that they’re raising it. I just read an article, a great article about the work you’re doing in the UK as to the military. You’re raising it quite a bit, which is a great thing to do for your country. It’s a great thing to do. It’s sad that we need that, but probably need that. Donald Trump: So congratulations on that. I know you got it through. After years of chronic underfunding, there’s an urgent need to catch up for some countries and I want to thank the prime minister once again for traveling here today. Working together, I believe that we’ll once again demonstrate the power of our country’s unique friendship. Donald Trump: This is indeed a unique friendship. It’s been many years and I think it’s only gotten stronger and we will make sure that it stays that way. We’re going to have a great trade agreement. One way or the other, we’re going to end up with a very good trade agreement for both countries and we’re working on that as we speak. Donald Trump: I think we’ll have the confines. I think we’ll have something maybe even in terms of possibilities agreed to very shortly. JD’s working on it, our vice president. And Scott, and I’m just looking at this old friend, Mike. You’re going to work on it. Everyone’s going to work on it. We’ll see if we can do something pretty quickly, but we’re going to make some great trade agreements with the UK and with the prime minister and it will happen very quickly. Donald Trump: So I just want to thank you again, and please thank King Charles for the invite and I look forward to your giving our acceptance on behalf of the United States of America. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Keir Starmer: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for your leadership. This has been a very good and very productive visit. And with your family roots in Scotland and your close bond with His Majesty, the King, it’s good to know that the United Kingdom has a true friend in the Oval Office. Keir Starmer: And it was so good to see the bust of Winston Churchill back in its rightful place just a moment ago. But look, in a moment of real danger around the world, this relationship matters more than ever. We remain each other’s first partner in defense, ready to come to the other’s aid to counter threats wherever and whenever they may arise. Keir Starmer: No two militaries are more intertwined than ours. No two countries have done more together to keep people safe. And in a few weeks, we mark VE Day, the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe. Britain and America fought side by side to make that happen. One of the greatest moments in our history. We stand side by side still today. Keir Starmer: And we’re focused now on bringing an enduring end to the barbaric war in Ukraine. Mr. President, I welcome your deep and personal commitment to bring peace and to stop the killing. You’ve created a moment of tremendous opportunity to reach a historic peace deal, a deal that I think would be celebrated in Ukraine and around the world. Keir Starmer: That is the prize, but we have to get it right. There’s a famous slogan in the United Kingdom from after the Second World War, that is that we have to win the peace, and that’s what we must do now because it can’t be peace that rewards the aggressor or that gives encouragement to regimes like Iran. We agree history must be on the side of the peacemaker, not the invader. Keir Starmer: So the stakes, they couldn’t be higher and we’re determined to work together to deliver a good deal. We’ve discussed a plan today to reach a peace that is tough and fair, that Ukraine will help shape, that’s backed by strength to stop Putin coming back for more. I’m working closely with other European leaders on this and I’m clear that the UK is ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal, working together with our allies, because that is the only way that peace will last. Keir Starmer: Mr. President, in this new era, you’re also right that Europe must step up. And let me tell you now, I see the growing threats we face and so the UK is all in. This year, we’ll be giving more military aid to Ukraine than ever. And just this week, I’ve set out how we’re shouldering more of the security burden. Keir Starmer: We are already one of the biggest spenders in NATO and now we’re going much further, delivering Britain’s biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War. This isn’t just talk, it’s action, rebalancing the transatlantic alliance, making us all stronger and standing up for our shared values and shared security, as Britain always has. Keir Starmer: Mr. President, it’s no secret that we’re from different political traditions, but there’s a lot that we have in common and we believe it’s not taking part that counts. What counts is winning. If you don’t win, you don’t deliver, and we’re determined to deliver for the working people of Britain and America, who want and deserve to see their lives improve. Keir Starmer: So we’re both in a hurry to get things done and that’s what the UK and US do when we work together. We win and we get things done. So we’ll do what it takes to keep our people safe. We’ll also work together to deliver some big economic wins that can benefit us both. We have a $1.5 trillion invested in each other’s economies, creating over $2.5 million jobs across both economies. Keir Starmer: Our trading relationship is not just strong, it’s fair, balanced and reciprocal. We’re leaders together in so many areas, ranked one and two in the world as investment destinations, one and two for universities, one and two for Nobel Prizes, one and two in golf as well, by the way, and we’re the only two western countries with trillion-dollar tech sectors, leaders in AI. And look, we take a similar approach on this issue. Keir Starmer: Instead of overregulating these new technologies, we’re seizing the opportunities that they offer. So we’ve decided today to go further to begin work on a new economic deal with advanced technology at its core. Look, our two nations together shaped the great technological innovations of the last century. Keir Starmer: We have a chance now to do the same for the 21st century. I mean, artificial intelligence could cure cancer. That could be a moonshot for our age and that’s how we’ll keep delivering for our people. There are so many opportunities to keep our nation strong and fulfill the promise of greatness that has always defined this relationship. Keir Starmer: Finally, to underline the importance of this bond, it was my privilege and honor to bring a letter with me today from His Majesty, the King, not only sending his best wishes but also inviting the president and the first lady to make a state visit to the United Kingdom, an unprecedented second state visit. Keir Starmer: This has never happened before. It’s so incredible. It will be historic and I’m delighted that I can go back to His Majesty, the King, and tell him that President Trump has accepted the invitation, so thank you. Our teams will now work together to set a date and we look forward to welcoming you in the United Kingdom. Keir Starmer: Thank you once again. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. What a beautiful accent. I would have been president 20 years ago if I had that accent. Donald Trump: Thank you. [Inaudible]. Thank you. We’ll take a couple of questions. OK. Let’s see here. Go ahead, please. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Earlier today, you told me that you believe that foreign countries pay tariffs, but Americans who are concerned about higher prices believe, as most people do, that they’re paid by consumers and importers when they import things into this country. Can you explain how you came to this belief that foreign governments are paying tariffs? Question: And for the prime minister, did you discuss with President Trump, his repeated statements of desire to annex Canada? And has the king expressed any concern over the president’s apparent desire to remove one of his realms from his control? Donald Trump: So I’ll go ahead, the first part. The tariffs are necessary because we’ve been treated very unfairly by many, many countries, including our friends, friend and foe. But we’ve been treated very unfairly in trade, at levels that nobody’s really ever seen before. And especially under the Biden administration, they really took advantage of the United States. Donald Trump: I put massive tariffs on China during my four years. We had the best economy in the history of our country, probably the best economy, maybe the best economy in the history of the world. And I used tariffs to even things up. And in particular with China, we took in hundreds of billions of dollars and we had no inflation. Donald Trump: And it’s a myth, it’s a myth that’s put out there by foreign countries that really don’t like paying tariffs and especially to even up. So we’ve been treated badly by a lot. We’re using tariffs, and I find and you just have to look at the numbers, but I find that it’s not about inflation, it’s about fairness. Donald Trump: And the inflation for us has not existed and I don’t think it’s going to exist. We’re going to bring our car industry back. We’re going to bring our chips back. We’re going to bring so many things back to our country, including pharmaceuticals and drugs. And the thing that’s going to get us there is tariffs. Donald Trump: And I say often it’s my favorite word in the dictionary, but I always preface it by saying now, because I got into a lot of trouble with the fake news, where they say that’s not good. So I say, God, love, family, wife, they’re all my favorite words but tariff is about number four or five on the list. But I will tell you it’s going to make our country rich and it’s going to stop us from being a laughing stock all over the world. Donald Trump: Because we have been taken advantage of like no country has ever been taken advantage of. Thank you very much. And do you want to answer? Keir Starmer: Look, we had a really good discussion, a productive discussion, a good discussion as a result of which our teams are now going to be working together on an economic deal. Our team is going to be working together on security in Ukraine. You mentioned Canada. I think you’re trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist. Keir Starmer: We’re the closest of nations and we had very good discussions today, but we didn’t discuss Canada. Donald Trump: That’s enough. Thank you. Please. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yes. Thank you. Question: Hi. Natasha Clark from NBC. Donald Trump: Hi. Question: Mr. President, you’ve said you’re working on a new trade deal with Britain, which we of course welcome. President Obama once said Britain was at the back of the queue for that trade deal. Where are we now? When do you think we’re going to see that? And Prime Minister the BBC today admitted serious flaws over the recent Gaza coverage, suggestions of payments made to people linked to Hamas. Question: Does the BBC still have your trust? Thank you. Donald Trump: Well, they didn’t do well with President Obama. He never got a lot of things done and he didn’t get a trade deal done that was of any importance or magnitude. We’ve had great discussions on trade and I think we’re going to have a deal done rather quickly, as quickly as it can be done. We’re going to have something I think rather quickly. Donald Trump: We expect to do that. OK? Please. Keir Starmer: On the BBC, look, I’ve been concerned about the program in question. The secretary of state had a meeting with the BBC, I think it was yesterday. It could have been the day before. Thank you. Donald Trump: Jeff, go ahead. Question: Thank you, sir. Pardon me. Mr. President, do you support article five of the NATO treaty? And are you concerned that it might be triggered if European peacekeeping forces end up in Ukraine? Donald Trump: I support it. I don’t think we’re going to have any reason for it. I think we’re going to have a very successful peace and I think it’s going to be a long-lasting peace and I think it’s going to happen hopefully quickly. If it doesn’t happen quickly. It may not happen at all and we want it for two reasons. Donald Trump: Number one, I want to see on a humane basis, I want to see soldiers stop getting shot because largely it’s soldiers now. Towns have been obliterated, but it’s largely that and I don’t want to pay billions and billions and billions of dollars, nor does the prime minister or anybody else on a senseless war that should have never happened. Donald Trump: And we’re going to get it taken care of, but I think it’s going to be a piece that’s going to be long lasting. Do you have a question for the prime minister? Question: Thank you. Mr. Prime Minister, you were asking the president today about a backstop for Europe. If the peacekeeping force ends up in Ukraine, did you feel like you got a satisfying answer for yourself and for Europe? And Mr. President, if you want to comment on that as well, please do. Keir Starmer: I thought we had a very productive discussion. Obviously, as the president says, the deal has to come first. But yes, our teams are going to be talking about how we make sure that deal sticks, is lasting and enforced. So our teams will be talking about that. Donald Trump: OK. Please, blue. Question: Mr. President, some experts think it could take more than a decade to mine the precious minerals from Ukraine. How much should the US expect to receive and when do you expect to see that come to fruition? Donald Trump: Well, we’re never going to know that answer, but by our being in Ukraine and doing the exploration and also the digging and taking the rare earth, which we need in our country very badly, we’ll be doing a substantial amount of work, probably about at least what we have in there and we hope to be able to do that. Donald Trump: You never know when it comes to that. You dig and maybe things aren’t there like you think they’re there, but we’ll be spending a lot of time there. It’ll be great for Ukraine. It’s like a huge economic development project. So it’ll be good for both countries. OK? Please. Question: Prime Minister- excuse me. Prime Minister, you’ve talked about putting British soldiers boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event that President Trump succeeds with his peace deal, but can you do that without a firm assurance that America will have our back in the form of some kind of security guarantee were Putin to breach that agreement? Question: And Mr. President, tomorrow, you’re seeing President Zelenskyy to sign this deal on minerals and energy that could be hugely important to the United States. Will you take the opportunity to apologize to him for calling him a dictator while praising Vladimir Putin who is a dictator? Keir Starmer: Well, Robert, let me start by saying, I’ve been really clear today and previously that I think that European countries, including the United Kingdom, need to step up in our own defense and security. We’ve been doing that in recent days. You saw the announcement we made on spending just the other day. In addition to that, I’ve made it clear that the United Kingdom will play its full part in ensuring that if there’s a deal and that we hope there is a deal in Ukraine, that that is a lasting deal that sticks. Keir Starmer: And we’re obviously working with other European countries on that, France and NATO in particular, but I think I’m hosting 18 countries on Sunday to further our discussions. You heard from the president this morning that as historically has always been the case, we have each other’s backs. And today we’ve been talking about the deal, how that will be a lasting deal. Keir Starmer: And coming out of this, our teams will now be talking in detail about that. Donald Trump: And I think we’re going to have a very good meeting tomorrow, 11:00, and I think we’re going to have a very good meeting tomorrow morning. We’re going to get along really well. OK? We have a lot of respect. I have a lot of respect for him. We’ve given him a lot of equipment and a lot of money, but they have fought very bravely. Donald Trump: No matter how you figure it. They have really fought. Somebody has to use that equipment and they have been very brave in that sense. Yeah, please, go ahead. Question: Thank you, sir. The Gaza ceasefire deal is nearing an end this Saturday and there’s been some worry that phase two might never get there. Do you believe that phase two of the ceasefire in Gaza will come to fruition? And have you spoken to Netanyahu about it? And for the prime minister, this peacekeeping deal has been pushed forward by the UK and France as well. Question: Have you been in discussions with any other European countries to join this initiative and are you expecting Commonwealth countries to also join the effort? Thank you. Donald Trump: So we’re working very hard on the Middle East and Gaza and all of the problems and it’s been going on for years and years and centuries and centuries. Donald Trump: It’s a tough neighborhood, but it could be a very beautiful neighborhood. And I think we’re going to come up with some pretty good solutions. But phase one is almost complete. We’ve had some people that have been very seriously injured, very seriously hurt both physically and mentally. They’ve come out of there very, very – and some of them in very, very bad shape. Donald Trump: It’s shocking. Many young people – young people aren’t in bad shape. Young people are strong, healthy. They don’t die. People have come out dead, young people and old people. It’s a rough situation, but I think we’re going to make it much better. And I think that we’ve had a huge impact on that since we’ve been in just the four weeks. Donald Trump: I think we’ve had a huge impact on Gaza, the Middle East, and we have some pretty good talks going on concerning lots of other people that are going to make it better. So, we’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows, but we’ll see what happens. But I think we’ve had a very positive impact. Prime minister? Keir Starmer: Yeah, on the question of the European countries, yes, I’ve spoken to a number of countries, particularly in the last few weeks. We had a meeting in Paris last week. I’ve got a meeting on Sunday with 18 countries to further our discussions. Obviously, we’ve been talking quite intensely to our French colleagues and to NATO, but to other countries as well. Keir Starmer: Because as I say, I think it’s important for European countries, including the United Kingdom, to step up and do more in the defense and security of Europe and our continent and the United Kingdom. And we’ll do so. Question: [Inaudible] Keir Starmer: Well. We’re talking to a number of other countries. Donald Trump: Thank you. Yes, in the red, please. Pink, red, flaming red. Go ahead. Question: Okay, thank you, Mr. President. A question on Ukraine. Number one is, if you’re not considering the security guarantees, are you open to other forms of, for example, intelligence cooperation with Ukraine? And Mr. Prime Minister, President Trump has proposed a plan for Gaza. Does this fit into the two-state solution that the UK held for a long time? Question: Do you see it fit into your general Middle Eastern strategy? Thank you so much. Donald Trump: Yeah, thank you very much. We’re open to many things, but before I even think about that, that’s almost pleasant to think about because that would mean that peace has been arrived at. We have to arrive at that peace, and you went three and a half years with an administration that never even really had a meeting. Donald Trump: They didn’t have a meeting on peace and there was no prospect of peace. I think frankly Russia wanted to go through the whole long deal. I don’t think they do anymore. I don’t think they do. We had a very big impact on that whole situation. But I don’t like talking about phase two until I get phase one. Phase one is they have to make peace, and we have to get Russia to agree. Donald Trump: We have to get Ukraine to agree, and I think we will – I think we’ve come a long way. I believe we’re going to get it done. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t think so. And I think it will be very important, very historic and we’re going to save a lot of a lot of lives. Keir Starmer: On the question of Gaza, the last few weeks of the ceasefire have been very impactful. And for me there are two images that I remember more than any other. The first is Emily Demari, who is British, being reunited with her mother. You may remember she had her fingers missing after what she endured. That was an incredible moment. Keir Starmer: I had spent a lot of time with her mother, whilst she was held captive, and her mother went through absolute torture. The other image was thousands of Palestinians marching through rubble, trying to return to their communities and their homes. So, we have to do everything we can to ensure that the ceasefire continues so that more hostages can be returned so that aid can be brought in that’s desperately needed. Keir Starmer: And we need to allow Palestinians to return and to rebuild their lives. And we must all support them in doing that. And yes, I believe that the two-state solution is ultimately the only way for a lasting peace in the region. Donald Trump: And think of that, she came home with her fingers and part of her hand blown off. Keir Starmer: It’s terrible. Donald Trump: How bad does it get? And we had others that came home in much, much worse shape than that. It’s a terrible situation. Please, yes. Question: Thank you. Mr. President, did our prime minister persuade you not to put tariffs on the UK? And if I may, prime minister, do you think that Vladimir Putin is a man who will keep his word? Thanks. Donald Trump: He tried [Laughter]. He was working hard, I’ll tell you that. He earned whatever the hell they pay him over there. But he tried. We – I think there’s a very good chance that in the case of these two great friendly countries, I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs wouldn’t be necessary. Donald Trump: We’ll see, but he’s – he earned – whatever they pay him he earned today. He was working hard at lunch. And I’m very receptive to it. I think we – in all fairness, in all seriousness, I think we have a very good chance at arriving at a very good deal. JD and Scott and Howard, all the people are working on it, and I think we have a good chance at arriving at a deal that could be terrific, really terrific for both countries. Donald Trump: OK? Thank you. Keir Starmer: On the second part of the question, I think my views on Putin are pretty well rehearsed and pretty well known. And my concern is that if there’s a deal, and I hope there is a deal, that it must be a lasting deal, that it’s not a temporary measure. And that is why I think it’s really important that Putin knows that this deal, a historic deal which I very much hope comes about, is there – is there and it’s a lasting deal and that we’re able to deal with any inclination he has to go again or go further. Donald Trump: I think we’ll have two deals, I think we’ll have a deal on ending the war and I think we’re going to end up with a great trade deal with you. And it’s an honor to be with you and I want to thank everybody very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-27
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to have Prime Minister Starmer in the Oval Office. It’s a very special place and he’s a special man. And the United Kingdom is a wonderful – this is a wonderful country that I know very well. I’m there a lot, and I’ll be going there and we expect to see each other in the near future. Donald Trump: We’ll be announcing it. But we’re going to be discussing many things today. We’ll be discussing Russia, Ukraine. We’ll be discussing trade and lots of other items. And I think we can say that we’re going to be getting along on every one of them. Donald Trump: We’ve had a tremendous relationship. And frankly, the Prime Minister and I have met twice before and we get along very famously, as you would say. And I look forward to it very much. We look forward to the day and the meeting. We’ll be having a luncheon after this and then another work session and I believe we’re going to have a press conference at the end. Donald Trump: So I look forward to it. And Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much. Thank you. Keir Starmer: Thank you, Mr. President. Can I say thank you for your hospitality, for your leadership? We have met a number of times. We’ve talked a number of times and we have had a very constructive conversation. I’m sure we will today. And of course, our countries have been bound together for a very long time now. The closest alliance, I think, of any two countries when it comes to prosperity and security. Keir Starmer: And I know that together we will strengthen that even further. And on issues like Ukraine, thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal and we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that it’s a deal that goes down as a historic deal that nobody breaches. Keir Starmer: And we’ll work with you to make sure that that absolutely happens. And it is my pleasure to bring from His Majesty, the King, a letter. He sends his best wishes and his regards, of course. But he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you. So can I present the letter from the King to you? Donald Trump: Yes. Thank you very much. Am I supposed to read it right now? Keir Starmer: Yeah, please do. Donald Trump: I will do that. Keir Starmer: I’ve got to tell him what your reaction is, so I need to know. I need to know. Donald Trump: He is a great gentleman, a great, great gentleman. Oh, that’s – wow. Well, that is really nice. I must make sure his signature is on that. Otherwise, it’s not quite as meaningful. It is. It is and that’s quite a signature. Isn’t it beautiful? He’s a beautiful man, a wonderful man and we appreciate – I’ve known him, gotten to know him very well, actually, first term and now second term. Donald Trump: Perhaps you’d like to say what that very important paragraph. Yeah. So this is a letter from His Majesty the King. It’s an invitation for a second state visit. This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented and I think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us. So this is a very special letter. Donald Trump: I think the last state visit was a tremendous success. It was. Keir Starmer: His Majesty, the King, wants to make this even better than that. So this is truly historic, an unprecedented second visit. Donald Trump: That’s a great, great honor. Keir Starmer: Because he wants to talk that through with you. Donald Trump: And that says at Windsor. That’s really something. Keir Starmer: Yes. Yes. What I haven’t got yet is your answer. Donald Trump: The answer. Keir Starmer: I do need to – Donald Trump: The answer is yes. On behalf of our wonderful First Lady, Melania and myself, the answer is yes. And we look forward to being there and honoring the King and honoring, really, your country. Your country is a fantastic country and it’ll be our honor to be there. Thank you very much. Keir Starmer: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. I shall happily take that back to His Majesty. Donald Trump: That’s beautiful. Keir Starmer: Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. I’m going to keep that one. Keir Starmer: You’re going to keep that one. Question: President Trump, Andrew and Tristan Tate landed in Florida today on a private jet after being released from custody in Romania. They are accused rapists, human traffickers, not thought of as good people in many circles. Did your administration pressure the Romanian government to release them? And if so, why? Donald Trump: I know nothing about that. I don’t know. You’re saying he’s on a plane right now? Question: He’s back. They’re already back. Donald Trump: Yeah, I just know nothing about it. We’ll check it out. We’ll let you know. Keir Starmer: Obviously, this involves – there’s an English element here, so obviously it’s important that justice is done and human trafficking is obviously, to my mind, a security risk. And so we’ll catch up with the story in due course. Donald Trump: You’re aware of – are you aware of – I didn’t know anything about it. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, veterans make up 30 percent of the federal workforce. Are you tracking how many veterans have been fired so far? Donald Trump: Yes, we are. Question: Do you want DOGE [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: And we take good care of our veterans and we’re watching that very carefully and we hope it’s going to be a smaller number as possible. But we are having great success in slimming down our government. It’s been really very successful and some took pay outs and buyouts and others took other things and some people, we’re finding out don’t even exist. Donald Trump: We’re finding that we have a lot of people that don’t exist, that people thought that did. We will be making a statement on that. But we’re taking care of our veterans. We love our veterans. We’re going to take good care of them. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Donald Trump: OK. Please. Question: Mr. President, could you be persuaded as part of a peace settlement in Ukraine to provide air cover, a backstop security position to the contributions that Europe might make as well? Donald Trump: Well, so President Zelenskyy is coming to see me on Friday, Friday morning, and we’re going to be signing really a very important agreement for both sides because it’s really going to get us into that country. We’ll be working there. We’ll have a lot of people working there. And so in that sense, it’s very good. Donald Trump: It’s a backstop, you could say. I don’t think anybody’s going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers and having to do with rare earths and other things, which we need for our country. And we appreciate it very much. And I look forward to seeing him. We’ll be talking about it and we’ll also be talking about that today with the Prime Minister. Keir Starmer: Yeah. I mean, as you know, we’ve already indicated that we’ll play our full part in making sure that any deal, if there is one. And I hope there is and I think this is a historic moment, to make sure it’s a lasting deal and we’re about to have a discussion about how we can make that work. Donald Trump: But I have to say this, as I said yesterday, you’re talking about a peacekeeping force. We have to make a deal first. Right now, we don’t have a deal. We have Russia. We have Ukraine. I think we’re very well advanced. I think Russia has been acting very well. We have Representative Steve Witkoff and Scott and Marco and JD. We’re all involved, every one of us and a lot more, but I think we’re very well advanced on a deal. Donald Trump: But we have not made a deal yet, so I don’t like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal. I like to get things done. I don’t want to give it the bad luck sign. We don’t want to do that. But we’ve had very good talks with Russia and we’ve had very good talks as you know, with Ukraine. Yes, sir. Question: Mr. President, does this Prime Minister have to choose a closer relationship with the EU as he is seeking and a good trade relationship with you? Which one would you go for? Donald Trump: Well, I think we have just a great relationship. We actually had a good relationship before. We’ve met a couple of times and I’m very impressed with him and very impressed with his wife. I must say, she’s a beautiful, great woman. Keir Starmer: I second that. Donald Trump: I said, you’re very lucky. He’s very lucky. And no, we’ve had a very good relationship. Question: Are you worried about Britain potentially undoing some of the benefits of Brexit by seeking a closer tie with the EU, who you said was set up to screw the United States? Donald Trump: No, I don’t worry about that. I thought, frankly, what they did was the right thing at the time and I think that’ll probably prove out over the centuries. You have a long time to go, but I think I predicted that it was going to happen and it did happen and it’ll work itself out. I think it’s already worked itself out. Question: Mr. President? Can I ask on Chagos, Mr. President? Keir Starmer has signed a deal to give away the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Will you approve that deal? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to have some discussions about that very soon. And I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well. They’re talking about a very long-term powerful lease, a very strong lease, about 140 years actually. That’s a long time and I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country. Yeah. Donald Trump: I think it sounded – it’s a little bit early. We have to be given the details, but it doesn’t sound bad. Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, you obviously can do business with our Prime Minister Keir Starmer. You said yesterday that the EU was constructed to screw the US when it comes to trade. What can our Prime Minister say to you to persuade you not to impose tariffs on the United Kingdom? Donald Trump: Yeah. Did I use the word that you said, that bad word? Question: I think so. I’m sorry to repeat. Donald Trump: Well, I think that the EU – yeah, I’ve had problems with the EU because – and we’re not talking about – we happen to have a great relationship with you but we did have and we do have problems with the EU because they’ve tariffed us. They do it in the form of a VAT tax, which is about 20 percent and many other taxes. Donald Trump: They sue our companies. They sued Apple, got $16 billion or $17 billion, which was, I think, totally ridiculous decision and they’re suing Google for a lot of money. They’re suing a lot of other companies, and we don’t like the way they’re treating our people now. We don’t like the way they’re treating our companies. Donald Trump: They sell us cars. We don’t sell them cars. They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our much of our agriculture. And we have a deficit with them of about $350 million. Donald Trump: So, I wouldn’t say it’s been such a great relationship personally, but other people did because it’s politically correct to say that it’s been good. But it hasn’t been good and we’re going to change that and we are going to have reciprocal tariffs. We’re not going to have tariffs, we’re gonna have reciprocal – whatever they charge us, we’re going to charge them, which for many years foolishly – I would have done that. Donald Trump: But then all of a sudden, we had COVID and we had other things to think about. So, it took me a little while to get that on and we – but we had – in my first four years, we had the greatest economy in the history of I think the world, but certainly in the history of our country, I think we’re going to have that Again. Donald Trump: But the EU was very, very tough on us from the standpoint of trade. Then you could take it a step further and go into NATO. And that was a very tough situation for us. I mean that’s been a very tough situation because we were paying a disproportionate share, and it wasn’t good. So, as you know, they paid hundreds of millions of dollars after I got involved and they evened it out a little bit, but not very much. Donald Trump: And then if you look at the war, we’re in for $300 billion plus and they’re in for $100 billion, they get their money back and now we’ll get our money back also. But under Biden, you wouldn’t have done that. Biden did a terrible job, I have to say. I hate to say that about somebody that sat here just before me, but he did a terrible, terrible job. Donald Trump: That war should have never happened, the war between Russia and Ukraine. Frankly October 7th should have never happened. Israel, that should have never happened. What happened there should have never. Inflation should have never happened. Afghanistan should have never happened the way they got out – not getting out but the way they got out. Donald Trump: So – But I can say that as far as we’re here for a different reason, we’re talking about a very different place, and this is someplace that I – I have investments there. I have – I own Turnberry, I own Aberdeen, and I own a great place called Doonbeg in Ireland. So, I have a great warm spot for your country. Keir Starmer: And our trade obviously is fair and balanced, and in fact you’ve got a bit of a surplus. So, we’re in a different position there. And obviously, we’ve contributed hugely in relation to Ukraine and taken together with Europe about 50 percent all in. Donald Trump: It’ll work out, it’ll work out. It’s going to work out. Question: On a personal level, Mr. President. So, does that mean there won’t be any sanctions on the UK then? Donald Trump: Well, I have to take a look. I mean, we’re going to have a good discussion today and we have some very talented people on the other side, and we have some people that probably aren’t as talented to them, but they’re pretty good, Marco, what do you think [Laughter]? Our people are pretty good and, no, we’re going to have a good discussion and we’ll be talking about that. Question: Mr. President, Mr. Starmer – the prime minister has said that he believes that Vladimir Putin would be at risk of invading Ukraine again without a sufficient backstop. Do you think that Vladimir Putin would be likely to invade again in the event of a peace deal? Donald Trump: No, I don’t think so. I think when we have a deal, it’s going to be the deal. I don’t think if – if I didn’t win the election, I don’t think we’d be even talking to Putin right now or anybody else. I think it would just – I don’t know if you’re looking at the stats, but thousands of people are being killed a week, soldiers mostly because the towns have been destroyed, but thousands of soldiers. Donald Trump: This was a very bad week, by the way, I get the stats. Keir Starmer: Terrible numbers. Donald Trump: And you’re talking about human life. Number one, I want to see that, and it doesn’t involve American soldiers, but it’s Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. And I can think – I think I’m speaking for both. Keir Starmer: Yeah, yeah, nobody wants to see that. Donald Trump: Number one, we want to see that stop. And number two, I want to stop paying the kind of money that we’re talking about. You know, we’re helping and we’re helping NATO, but we’re helping a lot, more than anybody else by far and I want that to stop also. Jeff, go ahead. Question: Thank you, sir. You talked about trade tariffs this morning on your social media site. Donald Trump: I did. Question: Just a question about China. 10 percent tariffs have already been implemented on China. Are you planning to do an – . Donald Trump: There’s an additional 10 above the 10. Question: This will be an additional 10 above. And is there – from the talks with Canada and Mexico so far, are you not seeing the progress that you wanted in order to extend – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I don’t see it at all, no, not on drugs. We’ve done a great job. If you look at Tom Homan, he’s been incredible, and Kristi, they’ve done a great job in terms of the border. But the drugs continue to pour into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of people. We’re losing substantially more than 100,000 people. Donald Trump: I mean dead, they’re dead, the families are destroyed after that happens. So, it’s not just that, that’s the ultimate, but the families are absolutely destroyed. The drugs come in through Mexico. They come – a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them come from China and that’s why we did that. It’s 10 plus 10 in case – was there confusion on that? Question: There was, sir, yeah. Donald Trump: OK, 10 plus 10, it’s a second 10. And I think you’ll – I think you’re going to see – eventually you’re going to see drugs stopping because the country should not be allowing those drugs to come into the United States of America. And we’re not going to allow it to happen. So, that goes on, on the 4th of March. Donald Trump: And then on the 2nd of April, we have reciprocal tariffs, that’s reciprocal where we charge countries what they’re charging us. And nobody should have a problem with that. We have reciprocal – it’s reciprocity. It’s something that I think everybody I’ve spoken to said that’s fair. And it is – if somebody charges us 25 percent, we charge them 25 percent. Donald Trump: If somebody charges us 10 percent or 15 percent or 30 percent or 70 percent, we charge them an exact like amount. And it’s pretty simple but it’s reciprocal tariffs. Because the United States has been taken advantage of by many, many different countries, including our friends, friend and foe. And in many cases, our friends took bigger advantage of – when you talk about the EU, we’re talking about the EU. The EU has been really very bad to us in terms of trade. Donald Trump: And I’m a different kind of a president. I can’t let that happen. Thank you. Please, ma’am, go ahead. Question: Mr. President, what would you be willing to do if Vladimir Putin did not stick to the terms of any deal on Ukraine? Donald Trump: If he did not what? Question: If he did not stick to the terms of any deal on Ukraine, because he has a history of not sticking to his word when it comes to international agreements. Donald Trump: I think he’ll keep his word. I think he’s – I’ve spoken to him. I’ve known him for a long time now. We had to go through the Russian hoax together. That was not a good thing. It’s not fair. That was a rigged deal and had nothing to do with Russia. It was a rigged deal with inside the country and they had to put up with that too. Donald Trump: They put up with a lot. It wasn’t just us. They had to put up with it with a phony story that was made up. I’ve known him for a long time now and I think he will – I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word. I don’t think he’ll be back – when we make a deal, I think the deal is going to hold. Now they’re going to have security, you’re going to have security, you’re going to have soldiers. Donald Trump: I know France wants to be there. The president has said he wants to have soldiers there. I don’t think we’re going to even be necessary, but I don’t think there’ll be any problem with keeping the deal with the security. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Did you want to say something? Keir Starmer: No, I was just going to say, I mean, the deal if we get it is going to be hugely important. I don’t think it would have happened if the space hadn’t been created for it by yourself. But if there’s a deal in, we’ve got to make sure it’s a deal that lasts, that is not temporary but lasts. And that’s why we need to make sure that it’s secure and we’ve lent in and said we’ll play our part. Keir Starmer: But we’ve talked and we will talk about how we work with yourself, Mr. President, to ensure that this deal is something which is not violated because it’s very important that if there is a deal, we keep it. Donald Trump: And that will be – and I think I can say that will be the easy part. That’s the part we look forward to, because putting security there, that’s the part we all look forward to. That’s easy. The difficult part is getting the deal made. So – but I think we’ve come a long way. Did you have something? He’s got such a nice face [Laughter]. No, he’s smiling but watch, he’ll ask a total killer question [Laughter]. Keir Starmer: Those who have known him a long time. Donald Trump: Yeah, they’re the ones that get you. No, he looks like a nice guy. Question: On a personal level, Mr. President, what do you get on most – what’s your common ground with Sir Keir Starmer, because you’re both from different political backgrounds? Donald Trump: It’s true, I think I can say this because we’ve known each other now really for a little while. This is not our first meeting, as you know. He loves his country and so do I. That’s our common theme. He loves his country, and I love our country, and we also have two countries that have gotten along for the longest period of time. Donald Trump: Number one ally on each side. And we have good – France and Australia. We have a lot of good ones, but we’ve had a long-time relationship, a long time, hundreds of years. And we like each other, frankly, and we like each other’s country, and we love our country, and I think that’s our common thread. Thank you. Question: Mr. President, on tariffs, you just said with China – . Donald Trump: Who are you with? Question: I’m with the Independent. Donald Trump: Oh, that’s good. Question: On tariffs you just said with China – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Yeah, thank you. We charged them. We charged them as in we charged China, but the tariffs are paid eventually by American importers and consumers. Donald Trump: No, they’re not – no, I think they’re paid for by the country. But look, we can get into that. I had – I put a lot of tariffs on in my first term and we made tremendous amounts of progress because of those tariffs. China paid us hundreds of billions of dollars, billions. We never had – because they took advantage. Donald Trump: And President Xi is a friend of mine, but he knows he knows better than anybody he took advantage of our country. Donald Trump: He took advantage of presidents that didn’t know what they were doing and they expect them – they actually expect them – the smart countries expect them from me because they know me and they know our country, but they got away with murder for decades. And we just can’t let that happen anymore. Behind you, please. Question: That’s very kind, Mr. President. It sounds as though one of you completely trusts President Putin and one of you doesn’t trust him an inch. Have I got that right? And why do you trust him? Donald Trump: Look, it’s trust and verify. Let’s call it that, and I think we both can be that way. You have to verify because you never know what’s going to happen. I know a lot of people that you would say no chance that they would ever deceive you and they’re the worst people in the world. I know others that you would guarantee they would deceive you and you know what, they are 100 percent honorable, so you never know what you’re getting. Donald Trump: No, I have confidence that if we make a deal, it’s going to hold. Question: Mr. President? On fentanyl, Mr. President, less than one percent of all fentanyl that comes into the US is apprehended at the Canadian border. So why use fentanyl as a reason for – Donald Trump: Because they should be apprehending much more. They’re only apprehending one percent. You’re right about that. It’s a little more than that, but they should be apprehending much more because a lot comes through Canada. And as Mexico gets stronger in terms of the border, it goes up to Canada and a lot of drugs are coming in through Canada. Donald Trump: We can’t have that. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Donald Trump: Yeah, go ahead, please, in the back. Question: Is there anything you can say tomorrow to President Zelenskyy to reassure him that his country’s war hasn’t been in vain and its sovereignty is not going to be threatened by any deal with Russia? Donald Trump: Well, he’s coming. Perhaps he’s already on his way, and we’re going to be signing the deal together, probably in front of the media and we’re going to be having a good conversation. No, we want to work with him, President Zelenskyy, as you said before. We want to work with him and we will work with him. I think the president and I actually have had a very good relationship. Donald Trump: It maybe got a little bit testy because we wanted to have a little bit of what the European nations had. They get their money back by giving money. We don’t get the money back. Biden made a deal. He put in $350 billion and I thought it was a very unfair situation. Keir Starmer: We’re not getting all of ours. I mean, quite a bit of ours was gifted. It was given. There were some loans, but mainly it was gifted, actually. Question: Mr. President, the Europeans want Ukraine to be part of NATO as part of this deal. Are you willing to budge on that at all or is it a firm – Donald Trump: Well, I could be very nice and say, oh, well, we’ll work to it. Look, it’s not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen. That’s what started this whole thing. Biden said that and all of a sudden, the guns started. That was one of the primary reasons it started. And this was long before President Putin. Donald Trump: They never said it was an impossibility. So we can say, oh, gee, well, we’ll try, but that’s something that’s just not going to happen. And then the other question you ask is about the land. Will you get your land back? Well, they fought long and hard on the land. And you and I will be discussing that, and we’re going to certainly try and get as much as we can back. Donald Trump: But on the NATO, that’s not going to happen. Yeah, please? Question: Mr. President, you talked about having common ground with Keir Starmer, but there are things you disagree on as well. You described Zelenskyy as a dictator. He describes President Putin as a dictator. Do you see that as a problem? Donald Trump: The relationship between President Zelenskyy and President Putin is not a good one. You’ve noticed, right? It’s not a good one. It’s not a good relationship and we’re going to have to try and work something out. Sometimes that happens. I get along with both. I have a very good relationship with President Putin. Donald Trump: I think I have a very good relationship with President Zelenskyy and now we’re doing the deal and we’re going to be in there. We’re going to be actually in there, digging our hearts out and hopefully, we need the rare earth and we have some here, but we don’t have enough. Our economy is very strong and we need a lot of things that in some cases we don’t have here. Donald Trump: So I think we’re going to have a very good relationship, but the relationship between them is not the best. Question: Mr. President, do you think that Mr. Zelenskyy is a dictator? Donald Trump: Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that. Next question. Yeah, please. Go ahead. Question: Yeah. [Inaudible] Financial Times. Can you see any situation where US forces could be deployed as a backstop in a peacekeeping operation in direct confrontation with Russian forces? Donald Trump: Well, there is a backstop thing. First, you’re going to have European countries because they’re right there. We’re very far away. We have an ocean between us. But we want to make sure it works. So I don’t know when you say backstop, you mean a backstop psychologically or militarily or what, but we are a backstop because we’ll be over there. Donald Trump: We’ll be working in the country. That’s a great thing economically for them. Because when you talk about economic development, we’re going to have a lot of people over there. So we’ll be working in the country. So I just don’t think you’re going to have a problem. I think when we have an agreement, you can say whatever you want about security, who’s going to do it and all, and that’s going to be a very pleasant conversation. Donald Trump: The hard conversation is will we have an agreement, and I think the answer is yes. I think Russia will agree and I think that I really believe Ukraine will agree also. Question: Just to follow up on that, if British troops are in Ukraine keeping the peace and getting attacked by Russia, will you come to their aid? Donald Trump: If the British people are in Ukraine and they get attacked – Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I’ve always found about the British, they don’t need much help. They can take care of themselves very well. You know what? No, it sounds like it’s evasive, but it’s not evasive. The British have been incredible soldiers, incredible military and they can take care of themselves. But if they need help, I’ll always be with the British. Donald Trump: OK? I’ll always be with them, but they don’t need help. You look at their career, you have done very well over the years, haven’t you? Kier Starmer: We have. I’m very proud of our country, but we’ve also always been there backing each other up between our two countries. That is why this is the greatest alliance for prosperity and security, I think the world has ever seen. Whenever necessary, we’ve absolutely backed each other up and that’s – Donald Trump: Could you take on Russia by yourselves? All right. One or two more. Yes, ma’am. Question: In his remarks at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Vance condemned free speech violations in the UK, particularly, could you respond? What is your message? Donald Trump: I have an idea. We have the man right here. Come on. Let’s go, J.D.. We’re putting you on stage. J.D. Vance: Great. Yeah, look, I said what I said, which is that we do have, of course, a special relationship with our friends in the UK and also with some of our European allies. But we also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British, of course what the British do in their own country is up to them, but also affect American technology companies and by extension, American citizens, so that is something that we’ll talk about today at lunch. J.D. Vance: Thank you. Kier Starmer: We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom and it will last for a very, very long time. Question: [Inaudible] Kier Starmer: Well, no, I mean, I certainly we wouldn’t want to reach across US citizens and we don’t, and that’s absolutely right. But in relation to free speech in the UK, I’m very proud of our history there. Question: Will you be discussing AUKUS, with the Australian and the Brits, will you be discussing AUKUS, Prime Minister, sir? Donald Trump: What does that mean? Question: AUKUS, the Australia US Defense Alliance. Donald Trump: Yeah, we’ll be discussing that. We’ve had another great relationship and you have too with Australia. Kier Starmer: Yeah, yeah. Donald Trump: We’ve had a very good relationship with Australia. Please. Question: Mr. President, while we have the vice president here, are you both disappointed that the AFD didn’t come first in the German elections, given your previous support for them? Donald Trump: No, whatever happens with Germany – look, the relationship has been very strong with Germany, but we’ll have to see what happens. They have a lot of things going on right now. We’ll have to see. No, I’m not disappointed about anything. If anything, you would say that the group that we would be most opposed to lost but we got along with them also. Donald Trump: We have a very good relationship with all groups in Germany. Question: Blackwater CEO Erik Prince was on our channel News Nation. He was talking about his proposal to use private forces to assist in deportations. Have you read that proposal and do you support it? Donald Trump: No, I haven’t seen it. I don’t think it’s necessary. Our people are doing a phenomenal job. I wouldn’t be opposed to it necessarily, but I’d go to our military people and I’d go to Tom Homan and Kristi. I’d go to the various and ask. But I don’t see it as being – we’re doing unbelievably and getting people out, getting criminals out, people that should have never been here, that the Biden administration with their stupid open borders should have never allowed. Donald Trump: They came in from prisons and jails and mental institutions, and gang members and drug dealers coming into our country like this. We’re getting them out and we’re doing really well. I mean, the level of effectiveness has been incredible. Everybody is talking about it. How about one more. You’ve asked. Question: Mr. President, one on the Middle East. Donald Trump: Go ahead. You look so nice. Question: Thank you. Donald Trump: Here we go. [Inaudible] Question: Mr. President, are there areas specifically of Ukraine that you’re talking about in giving back, specifically Crimea, have you gotten to those details yet on such an agreement? Donald Trump: Well, you mean the areas that were taken? Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: There are a lot of areas that were taken. Yeah. We’ve talked about it. A lot of the sea lion has been taken and we’ll be talking about that and we’re going to see if we can get it back or get a lot of it back for Ukraine, if that’s possible. We’ll be seeing about that. OK? Thank you very much, everybody. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Date: 2025-02-27
Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels. A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China. More than 100,000 people died last year due to the distribution of these dangerous and highly addictive POISONS. Millions of people have died over the last two decades. The families of the victims are devastated and, in many instances, virtually destroyed. We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled. China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date. The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Date: 2025-03-03
Donald Trump: Hello, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. This is a very big day for a lot of reasons, but this gentleman is a very unique man. This I think I can say in the world of chips certainly, but in the world, pretty much of business, nobody’s done what he’s done. Very – for those of you that are into that world, you would say, wow, he’s a legend. Donald Trump: But he is a legend and it’s an honor to be with you. Very great honor. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Welcoming from TSMC, which is the biggest there is at a level that you can’t even calculate, frankly. CC Wei to the White House for a very historic announcement. This is a tremendous thing for our country and hopefully for his company. Donald Trump: We’re also pleased to be joined by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and White House AI and the crypto czar, David Sacks, another two very highly respected people. It’s great to have you guys involved. And David, thank you very much for coming on. David is sort of the king of intellect in that world. We have some good people. Donald Trump: Today, Taiwan Semiconductor is announcing that they will be investing at least $100 billion in new capital in the United States over the next short period of time to build state of the art semiconductor manufacturing facilities. I think mostly it’s going to be in Arizona, which is what I understand, which is a great state. Donald Trump: I like it because I won it, but I won most of them actually. But I did. We won it and we won it big. The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America and it will be a big percentage of the chips made by his company. But as you know, they’re based mostly in Taiwan and they’re far and away the biggest. Donald Trump: There’s nobody even close. This $100 billion in new investment will go into building five cutting edge fabrication facilities in the great state that we just discussed, Arizona, and will create thousands of jobs, many thousands of jobs and high paying jobs. In total, today’s announcement brings Taiwan Semiconductor investments to about $165 billion they’ve started already among the largest new foreign direct investments in the United States. Donald Trump: Apple, as you know, made a big announcement last week, $500 billion, and we have some others that have announced. We have many that want to announce. But I don’t have time to do all of these announcements, I tell you, but for you, I’m doing the announcement. C.C. Wei: Thank you. Donald Trump: This will create hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity and boost America’s dominance in artificial intelligence and beyond. Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy. And really without the semiconductors, there is no economy – powering everything from AI to automobiles to advanced manufacturing, and we must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories with American skill and American labor and that’s exactly what we’re doing. Donald Trump: As you know, Taiwan pretty much has a monopoly on that market, and I think pretty much is not a term that’s even appropriate; they do have a monopoly. And this is a tremendous move by the most powerful company in the world. It’s a matter of economic security. It’s also a matter of national security for us. And at the same time Mr. Wei will be able to diversify and have a tremendous presence in another place and a very safe place. Donald Trump: And I want to thank Taiwan Semiconductor for doing the announcement and I’d like to ask Mr. Wei to say a few words if he might. And I’d also like to ask Howard and David, you can say a couple of words, but maybe you should go first because right now he’s the most important man in the room. I’m sorry, fellas. Donald Trump: Please. Thank you very much. Great honor. Thank you. C.C. Wei: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m a little bit nervous, so I have to pull out my piece of paper. Mr. President, Secretary Lutnick, and David, I didn’t know that’s your title. But OK. First, I want to say thank you to Mr. President to give me this opportunity to announce our big project in the US. TSMC is the world’s largest chip manufacturing founded by Dr. Morris Chen in 1987. It’s now at the forefront of semiconductor technology supporting AI advancement and industry growth. Donald Trump: In fact, I would like to wind back the time that in 2020 we had to thank President Trump’s vision and his support. So, TSMC started the journey of establishing the advanced chip manufacturing in Arizona. And now, let me proudly say now the vision becomes reality. In Phoenix, Arizona with 3,000 employees, we are producing the most advanced chip made on US soil with the success of our first fab. Donald Trump: So, we are now very happy to announce we are going to invest an additional US$100 billion in addition to our current US$65 billion investment in Arizona. We are going to build three more new fabs after we promised the three fabs already and another two very advanced packaging fab and most important R&D center also in Arizona. Donald Trump: For this all the investment, $165 billion, is going to create thousands of high paid jobs, as president just announced. And we are most important, actually we are going to produce many AI chips. We are going to produce many chips to support AI progress and to support the smartphones progress. And again, with that, I want to thank President Trump again for his support. Donald Trump: In addition, I also want to thank my customers in the US such as Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom, they all support TSMC’s manufacturing in the US. Without their support, we probably cannot make it through. So again, I want to thank them. Also, I’d like to thank the TSMC employees; without their efforts we just cannot make it today. Donald Trump: That’s all I want to say and thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. That’s great. Thank you very much. Howard, please. David. Howard Lutnick: Sure, thank you. Thank you. So, I’m thrilled to be here today because President Trump has made it a fundamental objective to bring semiconductor chip manufacturing home to America. Under the Biden administration, TSMC received a $6 billion grant and that encouraged them to build $65 billion. So, America gave TSMC 10 percent of the money to build here. Howard Lutnick: And now you’re seeing the power of Donald Trump’s presidency because TSMC, the greatest manufacturer of chips in the world, is coming to America with a $100 billion investment. And of course, that is backed by the fact that they can come here because they can avoid paying tariffs. So, the idea is, come to America, build greatness in America, build for the American customers, the Apple, Nvidia, that whole list that Chairman Wei gave in order to bring production to America. Howard Lutnick: So, we’re really, really excited. This continues the most incredible path you’ve ever seen in these first weeks and months of the Trump administration of incredible manufacturing coming to America. The keys that the president has called out are coming here. They’re coming here in huge size because they want to be in the greatest market in the world and they want to avoid the tariffs that if they’re not here, they’d have to suffer. Howard Lutnick: So, I want to congratulate CC Wei for bringing in this incredible $100 billion our investment, but it’s on the shoulders of our President, Donald Trump, which is why he’s coming. So thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. David? David Sacks: Thank you, sir. Well, the products that TSMC makes are literally the most important products in the world. I mean, these advanced chips power everything. They power AI. They power your phone. They power your cars. And without them, the whole modern economy would stop, but they’re not made in the United States. David Sacks: So, for TSMC to move here is a huge, huge development and we owe that to President Trump’s leadership on the economy, and Secretary Lutnick as well. And CC, thank you for coming here. Thank you. Yeah. Donald Trump: Thank you, David. So thank you very much. A big percentage of chips with this investment will be made now, a big percentage worldwide. We had very little, almost none. We used to have a lot with Intel, but we had very little and we’ll be at close to 40 percent of the market with this transaction and a couple of others that we’re doing. Donald Trump: That’s a tremendous leap, like a leap that nobody would have really said was possible. So I just want to thank you all for being here. If you want a couple of questions, ideally on this subject. Yes. Question: [Inaudible] jobs it will create. You said thousands. Donald Trump: Yeah. You’re probably talking about 20,000, 25,000 jobs, but it’ll get bigger and bigger with time. Knowing this gentleman, it’ll get bigger and bigger. There’ll be no stopping him. Question: Mr. President, what – Donald Trump: Yeah. Brian, go ahead. Question: In addition to the jobs, you talked about national security and that’s one thing I think a lot of Americans at home don’t understand. Explain the national security aspect of this. Donald Trump: Well without the chips and semiconductors, nothing runs today. You can’t buy a car without them. You can’t get a radio, a television, you can’t get anything. And we thought it was very important, obviously business-wise, but we thought even in terms of national security, to have this large percentage of the chips, semiconductors and other things that they make, the most important product. Donald Trump: And not a product that you can really copy. It takes years and years. On the needle of a pin is total genius. I mean, they can put things – I mean, something the size of the needle, the point of a pin, they put information that is just not even believable. So if you would see this, it’s just really something. Donald Trump: Yes, Brian? Question: One aspect to that. Honda announced they’re coming to Indiana because of the tariffs. Donald Trump: That’s right. Question: Once again, bring in additional jobs and manufacturing. You want to comment on that as well? Donald Trump: Well, Honda is coming and I told you about Apple, that they’re going to be starting to build massively here, $500 billion. And we have many other companies, it’s going to be announced, but we had many that have already announced and no, it’s going to be great. It’s looking really strong. I don’t think this country has ever seen anything like we’re seeing right now. Donald Trump: Now, the tariffs, as you know, will start a week earlier than the reciprocal, which is going to be on a couple of weeks earlier. Reciprocal starts, reciprocal tariffs start on April 2nd. And I wanted to make it April 1st, but I didn’t want to go April Fool’s Day because that cost me – that cost a lot of money, but that one day, so we’re going April 2nd. But very importantly, tomorrow, tariffs, 25 percent on Canada and 25 percent on Mexico. Donald Trump: And that will start, so they’re going to have to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things, in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs. In other words, you build – and this is exactly what Mr. Wei is doing, by building here. Otherwise, they’ll build – if they did them in Taiwan to send them here, they’ll have 25 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent or whatever the number may be someday. Donald Trump: It’ll go only up. But by doing it here, he has no tariffs, so he’s way ahead of the game. And I would just say this to people in Canada or Mexico, if they’re going to build car plants, the people that are doing them are much better off building here because we have the market, we’re the market where they sell the most, and so I think it’s going to be very exciting, very exciting for the automobile companies. Donald Trump: Very exciting for – I can think of any – as an example, North Carolina, they had the great – I used to go there to buy furniture for hotels and it’s been wiped out. That business all went to other countries and now it’s all going to come back into North Carolina, the furniture manufacturing business. Please. Question: Is the Ukraine minerals deal now dead or can it be revived? What’s your – Donald Trump: Well, I’ll let you know. We’re making a speech, you probably heard about it, tomorrow night. So, I’ll let you know tomorrow night. But no, I don’t think so. I think it’s – look, it’s a great deal for us because Biden, very, very foolishly, stupidly, frankly, gave $300 billion and $350 billion more accurately, to a country to fight and to try and do things. Donald Trump: And you know what happened, we get nothing. We get nothing, just gave it. We could have rebuilt our entire US Navy with $350 billion. Think of it, $350 billion, we could have rebuilt our US Navy. So, he gave it away as fast as the money could be gone. And what we’re doing is getting that all back and a lot more than that. Donald Trump: And we need, it’s very important for this business that we’re talking about here with chips and semiconductors and everything else, we need rare earths. And the deal we have is we have the finest rare earths that you can – Question: Mr. President, what do you need to see from President Zelenskyy to restart these negotiations? Donald Trump: Well, I just think he should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin. We’ve given them much more than Europe and Europe should have given more than us because as you know, that’s right there. That’s the border. This country really was like the fence on the border. Donald Trump: It was very important to Europe. And I’m not knocking Europe. I’m saying they were a lot smarter than Joe Biden because Joe Biden didn’t have a clue. He just gave money hand over fist, and they should have been able to equalize with us. In other words, if we gave a dollar, they should have given. Well, we gave $350 billion, they probably gave $100. But on top of it all, they get their money back because they are doing it in the form of a loan and it’s a secured loan. Donald Trump: So when I saw that, which I’ve known about for a little while, I said, it’s time for us to be smart. At the same time, it’s great for them because they get us in the country taking the rare earth, which is going to fuel this big engine. And especially the engine that we’ve, in a very short time, created and we get something and we’re there, we have a presence there. Donald Trump: With all of that being said, I want one thing to happen. I want all of those young people to stop being killed. They’re being killed by the thousands every single week. Last week, 2,700 were killed, 2,700 young, in this case, just about all young boys from Ukraine and from Russia. And that’s not young people from the United States, but it’s on a human basis. Donald Trump: I want to see it stop. The money is one thing, but the death. And they’re losing thousands of soldiers a week and that’s not including the people that get killed every time a town goes down or a missile goes into a town. And I want to see it stop. Yes. Question: Are you considering canceling military aid to Ukraine? And can we get a reaction to what the [Inaudible] has said, that your administration is bringing US worldview in alignment with Moscow’s? Donald Trump: So this is a deal that should have never happened. This is a deal that would have never happened, and it didn’t happen for four years. It didn’t happen. It was never even close to happening. If I were president, would not have happened, and October 7th would have happened would not have happened and Israel, and inflation wouldn’t have happened. Donald Trump: And Afghanistan, disastrous, the way they withdrew. Not the fact that they withdrew, but the way they withdrew, would have never happened. And we would have had Bagram right now instead of China having it. It was one hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons. We would have kept Bagram, one of the biggest air bases in the world. Donald Trump: All of these things happened and it’s a shame, but it is what it is and now we’re here. I want to see it end fast. I don’t want to see this go on for years and years. Now, President Zelenskyy supposedly made a statement today in AP, I’m not a big fan of AP, so maybe it was an incorrect statement. But he said, he thinks the war’s going to go on for a long time and he better not be right about that. Donald Trump: That’s all I’m saying. Question: [Inaudible] this project, could this minimize the impact to the US with chips should China decide to isolate Taiwan or China decide to take Taiwan? Donald Trump: Well, it’s a very interesting point. It’s a great question, actually, but this would certainly, I can’t say minimize. That would be a catastrophic event, obviously, but it will at least give us a position where we have in this very, very important business, we would have a very big part of it in the United States. Donald Trump: So, it would have a big impact if something should happen with Taiwan. Question: And Russia sanctions, are you looking at relieving Russian sanctions if there is a peace deal? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to make deals with everybody to get this war – including Europe and European nations. And they’ve acted very well. You know, they’re good people. I know, most of them are friends of mine. They’re heads of state, they’re heads of the various countries, prime ministers from the different – I got four prime ministers – four prime ministers and five presidents called me over the last two days and they want to work it out. Donald Trump: They want to get it worked out. And I think they’re also – they’re talking money, but the money is less important than the deaths. Donald Trump: We’re talking thousands of young people a week, and people would say, why do I care about Ukraine young people? Why do I care about – ? And not all young, but they’re pretty young. You know, Ukraine is running a little bit low and they’re getting older, they’re recruiting older people. It’s a very, very sad thing that’s happening over there and we want to get it finished. Donald Trump: We want to stop the death. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: On the tariffs, is there any room left for Canada and Mexico to make a deal before midnight? And should we expect those Chinese tariffs, the extra 10 percent, to take effect tomorrow? Donald Trump: No room left for Mexico or for Canada? No. The tariffs, they’re all set, they go into effect tomorrow. Question: Mr. President, just to follow up on my colleague’s question – Donald Trump: And just so you understand – vast amounts of fentanyl have poured into our country from Mexico. And as you know, also from China where it goes to Mexico and goes to Canada. And China also had an additional 10, so it’s 10 plus 10. And it comes in from Canada and it comes in from Mexico. And that’s a very important thing to say. Donald Trump: Yeah, please go ahead. Question: Have you decided if you’re going to suspend military aid to Ukraine, have you made that decision? Donald Trump: Well, I haven’t even talked about that right now. I mean, right now we’ll see what happens. A lot of things are happening right now as we speak, I mean literally as we speak. I could give you an answer and go back to my office, the beautiful Oval Office. I could go back into the Oval Office and find out that the answer is obsolete. Donald Trump: It’s like his business. It’s obsolete. You come up with a new chip and it’s obsolete about two minutes later, right? But that’s what’s good about his business. That’s why he’s the only one that’s successful in it. But – Question: Just to follow up my colleague’s question from Russia, saying that your foreign policy is largely in line with their vision. Should that be concerning to Americans? Donald Trump: Said what? Question: Should that be concerning to Americans? Donald Trump: Read the statement. Question: That Russia – Russia says that your administration’s foreign policy is, quote, largely in line with their vision. Donald Trump: Well, I’ll tell you what, I think it takes two to tango and you’re going to have to make a deal with Russia. And you’re going to have to make a deal with Ukraine. You’re going to have to have the assent and you’re going to have to have the consent from the European nations because I think that’s important, and from us. I think everybody has to get into a room so to speak and we have to make a deal. Donald Trump: And the deal can be made very fast. It should not be that hard a deal to make. It could be made very fast. Now maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal. Donald Trump: I believe certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal. They’ve suffered more than anybody else. We talk about suffering, they’ve suffered. But if you think about it, under President Bush, they got Georgia, right? Russia got Georgia. Under President Obama, they got a nice big submarine base, a nice big chunk of land where they have their submarines. Donald Trump: You know that, right? Crimea. Under President Trump, they got nothing. And under President Joe Biden, they tried to get the whole thing. They tried to get the whole big, big Ukraine, the whole thing. If I didn’t get in here, they would have gotten the whole thing. So, I can only say you can go back to Bush, you can go back to Obama and go back to Biden. Donald Trump: They took a lot. The only one they didn’t get, you know what I gave them? I gave them anti-tank missiles, that’s what I gave them. I gave them sanctions on Russia – on Russia. I gave them javelins, you know the javelins? You know when they took out all those tanks, you know, the tanks were heading to Kiev by the hundreds, and they were unstoppable. Donald Trump: And I gave them javelins. So, you know, I really – Putin is the one that will tell you this has not been so good for them. The fact is that I just want fairness, I want fairness. But think of it, I gave Russia nothing except grief. I gave them nothing, I gave him sanctions and javelins, that’s what I gave them. Donald Trump: Obama gave them sheets and you heard that statement before, it’s a very famous – Trump gave them javelins and Obama gave them sheets and then they say how close I am to Russia. Let me tell you, we have to make a deal because there are a lot of people being killed that shouldn’t be killed. But remember, Trump gave them nothing and the other presidents gave them a lot. Donald Trump: They gave them everything. Question: On trade, you met with president – Argentine President Javier Milei at CPAC. He wants to sign a free trade agreement with the United States. Is that something that you would consider even with Argentina or any other – Donald Trump: I’ll consider anything. And Argentina, I think he’s great by the way. I think he’s a great leader. He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a fantastic job, brought it back from oblivion. Yeah, well, look at things. We’re looking at the UK with things. It doesn’t have to be tariffs. But tariffs are easy, they’re fast, they’re efficient and they bring fairness. Donald Trump: For instance, when people kill their dollar, their equivalent of the dollar, whatever, whether it’s the yuan – or the yen in Japan or the yuan in China, when they drop them down, that gives us – that puts us at a very unfair disadvantage. So, all I have to do is say, Howard, we’re going to have to raise the tariffs a little bit, because I’ve called President Xi, I’ve called the leaders of Japan to say you can’t continue to reduce and break down your currency. Donald Trump: You can’t do it because it’s unfair to us. It’s very hard for us to make tractors, Caterpillar, here when Japan, China and other places are killing their currency, meaning driving it down. So, all of these things add up and the way you solve it very easily is with tariffs. Because when they do that, instead of having to make phone calls every day like I used to do with certain leaders, President Xi a little bit, a lot of phone calls talking about the fact that they’re lowering their yuan, they’re lowering it down. Donald Trump: And that makes it very, very hard for us. So, this way I just say look let them do that and we make up for it with the tariffs. But – Question: [Inaudible] with Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, about – Donald Trump: Yeah, sure I will. I have a lot of respect for her. I have a lot of respect for her. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, when that statement takes effect it’ll be 20 percent on China now. How high are you willing to go against China? Donald Trump: Well, I can’t say. It depends on what they do with their currency. It depends on what they do in terms of a retaliation with some kind of an economic retaliation, which I don’t think they’re going to retaliate too much. Hey, look, the United States has been taken advantage of for 40 years. The United States has been a laughingstock for years and years. Donald Trump: That’s why this gentleman has built in Taiwan instead of building here, it would have been better if he built here. If we had a president that knew what they were doing, and we had a lot of them very bad on trade. Look, I’m a huge fan of Ronald Reagan, but he was bad on trade, very bad on trade. He allowed a lot of people, a lot of businesses to be taken. Donald Trump: So, I say that with due respect because he was so great on other things, but he was bad on trade. We are setting records right now, records like nobody has ever seen before. When you have companies like this coming in and almost 40 percent of their company in one signature is going to be devoted to what he does, which is one of the most important businesses in the world. Donald Trump: That’s an unbelievable thing, when Apple now is going to start building all of their plants here all because of what we’ve done in terms of – it’s not because he likes me or they like me, they don’t probably like me at all. I don’t know. I think he likes me a little bit at least. But you know what, it’s the incentive we created or the negative incentive. Donald Trump: I mean, it’s going to be very costly for people to take advantage of this country. They can’t come in and steal our money and steal our jobs and take our factories and take our businesses and expect not to be punished and they’re being punished by tariffs. It’s a very powerful weapon that politicians haven’t used because they were either dishonest, stupid or paid off in some other form and now we’re using them. Question: Have you spoken with President Xi about this – this term? Donald Trump: I don’t want to tell you that. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Question: [Inaudible] Andrew Cuomo running for New York City mayor? Will people who don’t respond to the emails be fired?
Date: 2025-03-04
Question: Tom, a couple of quick questions. Tom Homan: I’ve got time for two questions. Question: Just have one second. Mr. Holman, I was on the enforcement operations early this morning in Virginia. Just a question for you, when ICE encounters undocumented families, do you separate children from their parents? Tom Homan: No, there’s no plans to separate families. Matter of fact, I’ve noticed recently there’s news articles saying Tom Homan is suggesting family detention again, family residential centers, and I am. Family residential centers are the opposite of family separation, why are we even talking about family residential centers? Tom Homan: Because this administration, President Trump, wants to make sure these children aren’t victims of trafficking. He wants to make sure this family is really a family. This is about saving children and protecting children. Let’s talk about DNA testing, getting back to enforcing the law, at the same time protecting children which the last administration didn’t do. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the president asked Congress to – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – microphone, please. How much money will the president ask Congress today for immigration? Tom Homan: I’m not aware of that number. All I know, we need the money to continue doing what we’re doing. We need money for more beds, we need money for more flights, we need money to keep concentrating on the worst of the worst. We’re – you know, ICE is already in the hole and we need Congress to step up and give us the funding we need so President Trump can keep his promise to the American people. Tom Homan: President Trump – look, border numbers are down 97 percent. That’s the most secure border we’ve ever had because this president’s bold actions, right? He was a game changer. ICE arrests, I looked this morning, they’re just below 30,000, more than twice as many as Biden did in his administration. We’re hitting on all cylinders, but we need more money to do more, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to keep President Trump’s promise to address to the worst of the worst criminals in this country. Tom Homan: I’ll say it once again, if you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table. So, sanctuary cities want to keep locking us out of jails. They force us into the neighborhood to find a bad guy. When we find the bad guy, many times they’re with others, others who aren’t a criminal priority but are in the country illegally, they’re coming too, because ICE is going to enforce the law. Tom Homan: We’re not going to turn our back on someone illegally in the United States. ICE is going to enforce the laws enacted by the members of Congress and signed by president. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: What happens to the kids in that scenario? Sir, the tariffs – last question. The tariffs imposed by the US on Mexico and Canada, the tariffs that the US is imposing today. How confident are you that those tariffs will reduce the flow of illegal narcotics and the flow of illegal immigration into the US? Tom Homan: I’m very confident in the president’s plan. I think the president is doing exactly what he should be doing. Again, look at the success he’s had. We had border numbers down 90 percent in three weeks. Things this president is going to do in the next four to six months, I mean, I agree with the president’s policies on this. Tom Homan: I think he’s a game changer. I think for the once in the history of this nation, we’ll finally have operational control of the southern border because we got a president sitting in the Oval Office that’s going to make sure we do that. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: On Fort Bliss – on Fort Bliss, Mr. Homan.
Date: 2025-03-04
Donald Trump: Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, the first Lady of the United States, members of the United States congress, thank you very much. And to my fellow citizens, America is back. [Applause, audience chants “USA”] Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the Golden Age of America. Donald Trump: From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations – accomplished in four years or eight years and we are just getting started. [Applause] Thank you. Donald Trump: I returned to this chamber tonight to report that America’s momentum is back, our spirit is back, our pride is back, our confidence is back and the American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before. The American dream is unstoppable and our country is on the verge of a comeback, the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again. Donald Trump: There’s never been anything like it. The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades. We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes. [Applause] We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country. [Audience boos; Audience chants “USA”] And won counties in our country, 2,700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for republican. Donald Trump: Now for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. In fact, it’s an astonishing record, 27-point swing, the most ever. [Applause] Likewise, small business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded, a 41-point jump. Mike Johnson: Mr. President. Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions. That’s your warning. Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum and the chair is prepared to direct the sergeant at arms to restore order to the joint session. [Applause] Mr. Green, take your seat. Mike Johnson: Take your seat, sir. Al Green: [Inaudible] Mike Johnson: Take your seat. Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the sergeant at arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber. [Applause] Note: [The sergeant-at-arms escorts Al Green from the chambers] Mike Johnson: Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House. Mr. President, you can continue. Donald Trump: Thank you. Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions, a record to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land. The people elected me to do the job and I’m doing it. [Applause] In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency, it’s our presidency, is the most successful in the history of our nation by many. [Applause] And what makes it even more impressive is that, do you know who number two is, George Washington. Donald Trump: How about that? How about that? I don’t know about that list, but we’ll take it. Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border and I deployed the US military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country. And what a job they’ve done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded, ever. Donald Trump: They heard my words and they chose not to come, much easier that way. In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month and virtually all of them including murderers, drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums were released into our country. Donald Trump: Who would want to do that? This is my fifth such speech to congress, and once again, I look at the democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud, nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded and these people sitting right here, will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. Donald Trump: They won’t do it, no matter what. Five, five times I’ve been up here. It’s very sad and it just shouldn’t be this way. So democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America. For the good of our nation, let’s work together and let’s truly make America great again. [Applause] Every day, my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs to bring a future that America deserves and we’re doing it. This is a time for big dreams and bold action. Donald Trump: Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations and a freeze on all foreign aid. [Applause] I terminated the ridiculous green new scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris climate accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars. That other countries were not paying. [Applause] I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization. [Applause] And I also withdrew from the anti-American UN Human Rights Council. [Applause] We ended all of Biden’s environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. Donald Trump: And importantly, we ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction. [Applause] To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for everyone new regulation, ten old regulations must be eliminated. Just like I did in my very successful first term. [Applause] And in that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations. Donald Trump: Like no other president had done before, we ordered all federal workers to return to the office. They will either show up for work in person or be removed from their job. [Applause] And we have ended weaponized government where as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me. [Laughter] How did that work out? Donald Trump: Not too good, not too good. [Applause] And I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It’s back. [Applause] And two days ago, I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America. [Applause] I renamed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. [Applause] And likewise, I renamed, for a great president, William McKinley, Mount McKinley again. [Applause] Beautiful Alaska. Donald Trump: We level Alaska. [Applause] We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. [Applause] And our country will be woke no longer. [Applause] We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender. Donald Trump: Very important. [Applause] You should be hired based on merit. And the Supreme Court in a brave and very powerful decision has allowed us to do so. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools. And I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. [Applause] I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports. [Applause] Three years ago, Payton McNabb, was an all-star high school athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports. Donald Trump: But when her girls volleyball match was invaded by a male. He smashed the ball so hard in Payton’s face causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career. It was a shot like she’s never seen before. She’s never seen anything like it. Payton is here tonight in the gallery. Donald Trump: And Payton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls team, or they will lose all federal funding. [Applause] And if you really want to see numbers, just take a look at what happened in the women’s boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming or cycling where a male recently finished a long distance race, five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours. Donald Trump: Broke the record by five hours. It’s demeaning for women and it’s very bad for our country. We’re not going to put up with it any longer. [Applause] What I have just described is only a small fraction of the common sense revolution that is now, because of us, sweeping the entire world. Common sense has become a common theme and we will never go back. Donald Trump: Never, ever going to let that happen. [Applause] Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. [Audience member calls out “yes” repeatedly.] Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans. Donald Trump: They’ve never had anything like it. We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country, they’re not sure. As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again. [Applause] Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. Donald Trump: The egg price is out of control and we’re working hard to get it back down. Secretary, do a good job on that. You inherited a total mess from the previous administration. Do a good job. [Applause] A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent, slowed pipeline construction to a halt and closed more than 100 power plants. Donald Trump: We are opening up many of those power plants right now. [Applause] And frankly, we have never seen anything like it. That’s why on my first day in office I declared a national energy emergency. [Applause] As you’ve heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on earth and by far. Donald Trump: And now, I fully authorize the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it. It’s called drill, baby, drill. [Applause] My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska, among the largest in the world where Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each. Donald Trump: There’s never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It’s all set to go. The permitting is gotten. And later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA. [Applause] To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but we’ll be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars. [Applause] And to that end, I have created the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Donald Trump: Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you, Elon. He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side appreciates it, I believe. [Applause] They just don’t want to admit that. Donald Trump: Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified. $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens. $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America, $60 million. $8 million for making mice transgender. Donald Trump: This is real. $32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova. $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East. It’s a program, $20 million for a program. $1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee, headed up, and we know she’s involved. Donald Trump: Just at the Last moment, the money was passed over, by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her? A $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring. $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia. $14 million for social cohesion in Mali. $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City. Donald Trump: He’s a real estate developer. He’s done very well. $ 250,000 to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia. $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well with learning. Donald Trump: I don’t know what we’re doing. Should use it ourselves. And $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education, the most ever paid, nothing even like it. Under the Trump administration, all of these scams and there are far worse, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them. They’re so bad. Donald Trump: Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people headed up by Elon, and we appreciate it. We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud. [Applause] And we’ve taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things, taken back a lot of that money. Donald Trump: We got it just in time. This is just the beginning. The Government Accountability Office, a federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation and we are working very hard to stop it. We’re going to. We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security numbers from people aged 100 to 109 years old. [Booing] It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. Donald Trump: I know some people that are rather elderly but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129, 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them. And we’re searching right now. In fact, Pam, good luck. Good luck. You’re going to find it. But a lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid and nobody does – and it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country. 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159. And over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old. Donald Trump: We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby. [Applause] Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229. One person between the age of 240 and 249. And one person is listed at 360 years of age, more than 100 years, more than 100 years older than our country. [Laughter] But we’re going to find out where that money’s going and it’s not going to be pretty. Donald Trump: By slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft, we can find we will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors and put more money in the pockets of American families. [Applause] And today, interest rates took a beautiful drop, big beautiful drop. Donald Trump: It’s about time. And in the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years, balance the federal budget. We’re going to balance it. [Applause] With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the Gold Card, which goes on sale very, very soon. For $5 million, we will allow the most successful job creating people from all over the world to buy a path to US citizenship. Donald Trump: It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated. [Laughter] And these people will have to pay tax in our country. They won’t have to pay tax from where they came. The money that they’ve made, you wouldn’t want to do that, but they have to pay tax, create jobs. They’ll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country instead of having them be – being forced out. Donald Trump: Number one, at the top school as an example, being forced out and not being allowed to stay and create tremendous numbers of jobs and great success for a company out there. So while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers and child predators, who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people, the Democrats, the Biden administration, the open border insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country, we will now bring in brilliant hardworking job creating people. Donald Trump: They’re going to pay a lot of money. And we’re going to reduce our debt with that money. [Applause] Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change. For nearly 100 years, the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits and held back America’s potential in every possible way. Donald Trump: The nation founded by pioneers and risk takers, now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt. Approvals that should take ten days to get instead take ten years, 15 years and even 20 years before you’re rejected. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work. Donald Trump: My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy. And we will restore true democracy to America again. [Applause] And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately. [Applause] Because we are draining the swamp. It’s very simple. And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over. [Applause] And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody. Donald Trump: They’re in there. They’re waiting for you to vote. And I’m sure that the people on my right, I don’t mean the Republican right, but my right, right here, I’m sure you’re going to vote for those tax cuts. Because otherwise, I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office. So I’m doing you a big favor by telling you that. [Applause] But I know this group is going to be voting for the tax cuts. [Applause] Thank you. Donald Trump: It’s a very, very big part of our plan. We had tremendous success in our first term with it. A very big part of our plan. We’re seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board. And to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation, I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors. [Applause] Thank you. Donald Trump: Good luck. [Applause] And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America. [Applause] And by the way, we’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made like I’ve never seen. Donald Trump: That’s a combination of the election win and tariffs. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? [Laughter] That along with our other policies will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom. It’s going to boom. I spoke to the majors today, all three, the top people. And they’re so excited. In fact, already numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America. Donald Trump: With Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana, one of the largest anywhere in the world. [Applause] And this has taken place since our great victory on November 5th, a date which will hopefully go down as one of the most important in the history of our country. [Applause] In addition, as part of our tax cuts, we want to cut taxes on domestic production and all manufacturing. Donald Trump: And just as we did before, we will provide 100 percent expensing. It will be retroactive to January 20th, 2025. And it was one of the main reasons why our tax cuts were so successful in our first term, giving us the most successful economy in the history of our country. First term. We had a great first term. [Applause] If you don’t make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff. Donald Trump: And in some cases, a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades. And now, it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada, have you heard of them, and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. Donald Trump: It’s very unfair. India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 percent. China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that, four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea, but that’s what happens. Donald Trump: This is happening by friend and foe. This system is not fair to the United States and never was. And so on April 2nd, I wanted to make it April 1st, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fool’s Day. [Laughter] That’s what – that’s not – just one day was – cost us a lot of money. [Laughter] But we’re going to do it in April. Donald Trump: I’m a very superstitious person. April 2nd, reciprocal tariffs kick in. And whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal back and forth. [Applause] Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. [Applause] If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. Donald Trump: There’s a lot of that too. They don’t even allow us in their market. We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China and I did it with others. And the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it because there was so much money, they can do anything about it. We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on earth. Donald Trump: And we will not let that happen any longer. [Applause] Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they have allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens. Donald Trump: And many very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. They are, in fact, receiving subsidies of hundreds of billions of dollars. We pay subsidies to Canada and to Mexico of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the United States will not be doing that any longer. Donald Trump: We’re not going to do it any longer. [Applause] Thanks to our America-First policies we’re putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks. The combination of the election and our economic policies that people of SoftBank, one of the most brilliant anywhere in the world, announced a $200 billion investment. Donald Trump: Open AI and Oracle, Larry Ellison, announced $500 billion investment, which they wouldn’t have done if Kamala had won. Apple announced $500 billion investment. Tim Cook called me. He said, I cannot spend it fast enough. It’s going to be much higher than that, I believe. They’ll be building their plants here instead of in China. Donald Trump: And just yesterday, Taiwan Semiconductor, the biggest in the world, most powerful in the world, has a tremendous amount, 97 percent of the market, announced a $165 billion investment to build the most powerful chips on Earth right here in the USA. [Applause] And we’re not giving them any money. Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. Donald Trump: We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn’t mean a thing. They take our money and they don’t spend it. We’re giving them no money. All that was important to them was they didn’t want to pay the tariffs, so they came in their building and many other companies are coming. We don’t have to give them money. Donald Trump: We just want to protect our businesses and our people. And they will come because they won’t have to pay tariffs if they build in America. So it’s very amazing. You should get rid of the CHIP Act and whatever’s left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to. Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer. Donald Trump: I love the farmer. Who will now be selling into our home market, the USA, because nobody is going to be able to compete with you because those goods that come in from other countries and companies, they’re really, really in a bad position in so many different ways. They’re uninspected. They may be very dirty and disgusting and they come in and they pour in and they heard our American farmers. Donald Trump: The tariffs will go on agricultural products coming into America. And our farmers starting on April 2nd, it may be a little bit of an adjustment period. We had that before when I made the deal with China, $50 billion of purchases and I said just bear with me and they did, they did. Probably have to bear with me again and this will be even better. Donald Trump: That was great. The problem with it was that Biden didn’t enforce it, he didn’t enforce it, $50 billion of purchases. And we were doing great, but Biden did not enforce it and it hurt our farmers, but our farmers are going to have a field day right now. So to our farmers, have a lot of fun. I love you too. Donald Trump: I love you too. It’s all going to happen. And I have also imposed a 25 percent tariff on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber and steel, because if we don’t have as an example, steel, and lots of other things, we don’t have a military and frankly, we just won’t have a country very long. Here today is a proud American steelworker, fantastic person from Decatur, Alabama. Donald Trump: Jeff Dennard has been working at the same steel plant for 27 years at a job that has allowed him to serve as the captain of his local volunteer fire department, raised seven children with his beautiful wife Nicole and over the years, provide a loving home for more than 40 foster children. So great, Jeff. [Applause] Thank you, Jeff. Donald Trump: Thank you, Jeff. Stories like Jeff’s remind us that tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs. They’re about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again and it’s happening and it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. Donald Trump: It won’t be much. No, you’re not. Oh. And look and look where Biden took us, very low, the lowest we’ve ever been. Jeff, I want to thank you very much. And I also want to recognize another person who has devoted herself to foster care community. She worked so hard on it, a very loving person, our magnificent first lady of the United States. Donald Trump: Melania’s work has yielded incredible results helping prepare our nation’s future leaders as they enter the workforce. Our first lady is joined by two impressive young women, very impressive, Haley Ferguson, who benefited from the first lady’s Fostering the Future initiative and is poised to complete her education and become a teacher. Donald Trump: And Elliston Berry, who became a victim of an illicit deepfake image produced by a peer. With Ellison’s help, the Senate just passed the Take It Down Act and this is so important. Thank you very much, John. John Thune. Thank you. Stand up, John. [Applause] Thank you, John. Thank you all very much. Thank you and thank you to John Thune and the Senate. Donald Trump: Great job. To criminalize the publication of such images online is terrible, terrible thing. And once it passes the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law. Thank you. And I’m going to use that bill for myself too, if you don’t mind, because nobody gets treated worse than I do online, nobody. [Laughter] That’s great. Donald Trump: Thank you very much to the Senate. Thank you. But if we truly care about protecting America’s children, no step is more crucial than securing America’s borders. Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States. Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world. Donald Trump: Because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies, they are now strongly embedded in our country, but we are getting them out and getting them out fast. And I want to thank Tom Homan and Kristi, I want to thank you and Paul of Border Patrol. I want to thank you. What a job they’ve all done, everybody, border patrol, ICE, all law enforcement in general is incredible. Donald Trump: We have to take care of our law enforcement. We have to. [Applause] Last year, a brilliant 22-year-old nursing student named Laken Riley, the best in her class, admired by everybody, went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized and horrifically murdered. Donald Trump: Laken was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden’s open southern border and then set loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration. It was indeed a failed administration. He had then been arrested and released in a democrat-run sanctuary city, a disaster, before ending the life of this beautiful, young angel. Donald Trump: With us this evening are Laken’s beloved mother, Allison and her sister Lauren. [Applause] Last year, I told Laken’s grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That’s why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th President mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. It’s a very strong, powerful act. [Applause] It’s called the Laken Riley Act. Donald Trump: So Allison and Lauren, America will never ever forget our beautiful Laken Hope Riley. [Applause] Thank you very much. Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history. And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded. Donald Trump: Thank you. [Applause] The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president. [Applause] Thank you. Joe Biden didn’t just open our borders, he flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals and communities throughout the country. Donald Trump: Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio buckled under the weight of the migrant, occupation and corruption like nobody’s ever seen before. Beautiful towns destroyed. Now just as I promised in my inaugural address, we are achieving the great liberation of America. [Applause] But there still is much work to be done. Donald Trump: Here tonight is a woman I have gotten to know Alexis Nungaray from Houston, wonderful woman. Last June, Alexis’ 12 year old daughter, her precious Jocelyn, walked to a nearby convenience store. She was kidnaped, tied up, assaulted for two hours under a bridge, and horrifically murdered. Arrested and charged with this heinous crime are two illegal alien monsters from Venezuela released into America by the last administration through their ridiculous open border. Donald Trump: The death of this beautiful 12 year old girl and the agony of her mother and family touched our entire nation greatly. Alexis, I promised that we would always remember your daughter, your magnificent daughter. And earlier tonight, I signed an order keeping my word to you. One thing I have learned about Joselyn is that she loved animals so much. Donald Trump: She loved nature. Across Galveston Bay from where Joselyn lived in Houston, you will find a magnificent National Wildlife Refuge. A pristine, peaceful 34,000 acre sanctuary for all of God’s creatures on the edge of The Gulf of America. Alexis, moments ago, I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter Jocelyn. Donald Trump: So Mr. Vice President, if you would, may I have the order? Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much. All three savages charged with Jocelyn and Laken’s murders were members of the Venezuelan prison gang, the toughest gang, they say, in the world known as Tren de Aragua. Two weeks ago, I officially designated this gang along with MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. [Applause] They are now officially in the same category as ISIS. Donald Trump: And that’s not good for them. [Laughter] Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the US by the Biden administration. But now, every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country. Or if they’re too dangerous put in jails standing trial in this country. Because we don’t want them to come back ever. Donald Trump: With us this evening, is a warrior on the front lines of that battle, Border Patrol Agent Roberto Ortiz, a great guy. [Applause] In January, Roberto and another agent were patrolling by the Rio Grande near an area known as Cartel Island, doesn’t sound too nice to me, when heavily armed gunmen started shooting at them. Donald Trump: Roberto saw that his partner was totally exposed, at great danger, and he leapt into action, returning fire and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safety just – and just barely. I have some of the prints of that event and it was not good. Agent Ortiz, we salute you for your great courage and for your line of fire that you took and for the bravery that you showed. Donald Trump: We honor you, and we will always honor you. Thank you, Roberto, very much. [Applause] Thank you, Roberto. And I actually got to know him on my many calls to the border. He’s a great, great gentleman. The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control. Donald Trump: They have total control over a whole nation posing a grave threat to our national security. The cartels are waging war on America and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing. [Applause] Five nights ago, Mexican authorities, because of our tariff policies being imposed on them, think of this, handed over to us 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country. Donald Trump: That has never happened before. They want to make us happy. First time ever. [Applause] But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done. And they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA. They’re going to stop it. I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than current record holder President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate man, but someone who believed very strongly in borders. Donald Trump: Americans expect congress to send me this funding without delay so I can sign it into law. So Mr. Speaker, John Thune, both of you, I hope you’re going to be able to do that. Mr. Speaker, thank you. Mr. leader, thank you. Thank you very much and let’s get it to me. I’ll sign it so fast you won’t even believe it. [Applause] Thank you. Donald Trump: And as we reclaim our sovereignty, we must also bring back law and order to our cities and towns. [Applause] In recent years, our justice system has been turned upside down by radical left lunatics. Many jurisdictions virtually ceased enforcing the law against dangerous, repeat offenders, while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like me. My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law starting at the FBI and the DOJ. Donald Trump: Pam, good luck. Kash, wherever you may be, good luck. Good luck. Pam Bondi. Good luck. So important. Is going to do a great job. Kash, thank you. Thank you, Kash. They have already started very strong. They’re going to do a fantastic job. You’re going to be very proud of them. We’re also, once again giving our police officers the support, protection and respect they so dearly deserve. Donald Trump: They have to get it. They have such a hard, dangerous job, but we’re going to make it less dangerous. The problem is the bad guys don’t respect the law, but they’re starting to respect it and they soon will respect it. This also includes our great fire departments throughout the country. Our firemen and women are unbelievable people and I will never forget them. Donald Trump: And besides that, they voted for me in record numbers, so I have no choice. [Applause] One year ago this month, 31-year-old New York police officer, Jonathan Diller, unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer, was gunned down at a traffic stop on Long Island. I went to his funeral. The vicious criminal charged with his murder had 21 prior arrests, and they were rough arrests too. Donald Trump: He was a real bad one. The thug in the seat next to him had 14 prior arrests and went by the name of killer. He was killer. He killed other people, they say a lot of them. I attended Officer Diller’s service and when I met his wife and one-year old son, Ryan, it was very inspirational, actually. His widow’s name is Stephanie and she is here tonight. Donald Trump: Stephanie, thank you very much, Stephanie. Thank you very much. Stephanie, we’re going to make sure that Ryan knows his dad was a true hero, New York’s finest, and we’re going to get these cold-blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets and we’re going to do it fast. Got to stop it. They get out with 28 arrests. Donald Trump: They push people into subway trains. They hit people over the head, back of the head with baseball bats. We got to get them out of here. I have already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer, and tonight I’m asking congress to pass that policy into permanent law. [Applause] I’m also asking for a new crime bill, getting tough on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America’s police officers, so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed. Donald Trump: They don’t want to be killed. We’re not going to let them be killed. Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police. His name is D.J. Daniel. He is 13 years old and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer. [Applause] But in 2018, D.J. was diagnosed with brain cancer. Donald Trump: The doctors gave him five months at most to live. That was more than six years ago. Since that time, D.J. and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true and D.J. has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer, actually a number of times. The police love him, the police departments love him. Donald Trump: And tonight, D.J., we’re going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service Director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service. [Applause, audience chants “D.J.”] Thank you, D.J. D.J.’s doctors believe his cancer likely came from a chemical he was exposed to when he was younger. Donald Trump: Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40 percent. Reversing this trend is one of the top priorities for our new presidential commission to make America healthy again, chaired by our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. [Applause] With the name Kennedy, you would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering. Donald Trump: How quickly they forget. Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, 1 in 10,000 children had autism, 1 in 10,000. And now it’s 1 in 36. There’s something wrong. 1 in 36, think of that. Donald Trump: So we’re going to find out what it is and there’s nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you. You have the best, to figure out what is going on. OK, Bobby, good luck. It’s a very important job. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Go get ’em. Thank you. My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. Donald Trump: A few years ago, January Littlejohn, and her husband, discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13 year old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns. They them pronouns, actually. Donald Trump: All without telling January, who is here tonight, and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse. January, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Stories like this are why shortly after taking office, I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology. [Applause] I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. [Applause] And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. Donald Trump: This is a big lie. [Applause] And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you. [Applause] Because we’re getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military. And it’s already out. And it’s out of our society. We don’t want it. Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. Donald Trump: It’s gone. It’s gone. And we feel so much better for it. Don’t we? Don’t we feel better? [Applause] Our service members won’t be activists and ideologues, they will be fighters and warriors. They will fight for our country. And Pete, Congratulations, Secretary of Defense. Congratulations. [Applause] And he’s not big into the woke movement. Donald Trump: I can tell you. I know him well. [Laughter] I am pleased to report that in January the US Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years. And that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services. What a difference. [Applause] And you know, it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite. Donald Trump: We couldn’t recruit anywhere. We couldn’t recruit. Now we’re having the best results just about that we’ve ever had. What a tremendous turnaround. It’s really a beautiful thing to see. People love our country again. It’s very simple. They love our country. And they love being in our military again. So it’s a great thing. Donald Trump: And thank you very much. Great job. Thank you. [Applause] We’re joined tonight by a young man Jason Hartley, who knows the weight of that call of duty. Jason’s father grandfather and great grandfather all wore the uniform. Jason tragically lost his dad who was also a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy when he was just a boy. Donald Trump: And now he wants to carry on the family legacy of service. Jason is a senior in high school, a six letter varsity athlete, a really good athlete, they say, a brilliant student with a 4.46, that’s good, GPA. [Laughter] And his greatest dream is to attend the US Military Academy at West Point. [Applause] And Jason, that’s a very big deal getting in. That’s a hard one to get into. Donald Trump: But, I’m pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. [Applause] You will soon be joining the Corps of Cadets. [Applause] Thank you, Jason. You’re going to be on the long gray line, Jason. As commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I’m asking Congress to fund a state of the art Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland, all made in the USA. [Applause] And Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn’t there, not even close. Donald Trump: But now we have the technology. It’s incredible actually. And other places that they have it, Israel has it other places have it and the United States should have it too, right? Tim, right? They should have it too, so I want to thank you. But it’s a very, very important – this is a very dangerous world. We should have it. We want to be protected. Donald Trump: And we’re going to protect our citizens like never before. To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding. [Applause] And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America where it belongs. Donald Trump: We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact. To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal. And we’ve already started doing it. [Applause] Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals. Donald Trump: The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others, but others could use it. But it was built at tremendous cost of American blood and treasure. [Applause] 38,000 workers died building the Panama Canal. They died of malaria. They died of snake bites and mosquitoes. Not a nice place to work. Donald Trump: They paid them very highly to go there knowing there was a 25 percent chance that they would die. The most expensive project also that was ever built in our country’s history, if you bring it up to modern day costs. It was given away by the Carter administration for $1. But that agreement has been violated very severely. Donald Trump: We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back. [Applause] And we have Marco Rubio in charge. Good luck, Marco. [Laughter] [Applause] Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong. [Laughter] No, Marco has been amazing and he’s going to do a great job. Think of it. He got 100 votes. [Applause] You know, he was approved with actually 99, but the 100th was this gentleman and I feel very certain, so let’s assume he got 100 votes. Donald Trump: And I’m either very, very happy about that or I’m very concerned about it. Donald Trump: But he’s already proven – I mean, he’s a great gentleman. He’s respected by everybody. And we appreciate your voting for Marco. He’s going to do a fantastic job. Thank you. Thank you. He’s doing a great job. [Applause] Great job. And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future. Donald Trump: And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America. We need Greenland for national security and even international security. And we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it really for international world security, and I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it. [Booing] We will keep you safe. Donald Trump: We will make you rich and together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before. It’s a very small population, but very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security. America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism. Donald Trump: Three and a half years ago, ISIS terrorists killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing during the disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan. Not that they were withdrawing, it was the way they withdrew. Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Donald Trump: Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity and he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice. [Applause] And I want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster. This was a very momentous day for those 13 families, who I actually got to know very well, most of them, whose children were murdered and the many people that were so badly – over 42 people so badly injured on that fateful day in Afghanistan. Donald Trump: What a horrible day. Such incompetence was shown that when Putin saw what happened, I guess he said, wow, maybe this is my chance. That’s how bad it was. It should have never happened. Grossly incompetent people. I spoke to many of the parents and loved ones and they’re all in our hearts tonight. Just spoke to him on the phone. Donald Trump: We had a big call. Every one of them called and everybody was on the line and they did nothing but cry with happiness. They were very happy, as happy as you can be under those circumstances. Their child, brother, sister, son, daughter, was killed for no reason whatsoever. In the Middle East, we’re bringing back our hostages from Gaza. Donald Trump: In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations, the Abraham Accords. [Applause] And now we’re going to build on that foundation to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region. A lot of things are happening in the Middle East. People have been talking about that so much lately with everything going on with Ukraine and Russia, but a lot of things are happening in the Middle East. Donald Trump: It’s a rough neighborhood actually. I’m also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict, with no end in sight. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense, with no security, with no anything. [Applause] Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Donald Trump: Yeah. Yeah. You would say – Pocahontas says yes. [Booing] 2,000 people are being killed every single week, more than that. They’re Russian young people. They’re Ukrainian young people. They’re not Americans, but I want it to stop. Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine, by far. Donald Trump: Think of that. They’ve spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending, and we’ve spent perhaps $350 billion. Like taking candy from a baby. That’s what happened. And they’ve spent $100 billion dollars. What a difference that is. And we have an ocean separating us and they don’t. But we’re getting along very well with them and lots of good things are happening. Donald Trump: Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent, by billions and billions of dollars. It’s hard to believe that they wouldn’t have stopped it and said at some point, come on, let’s equalize, you’ve got to be equal to us, but that didn’t happen. Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. Donald Trump: The letter reads, Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians, he said. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Donald Trump: Regarding the Agreement on Minerals and Security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you. I appreciate that he sent this letter, just got it a little while ago. Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Donald Trump: Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Wouldn’t that be beautiful? [Applause] Wouldn’t that be beautiful? It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end the senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides. Nearly four years ago, amid rising tensions, a history teacher named Mark Fogel was detained in Russia and sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony, rough stuff. Donald Trump: The previous administration barely lifted a finger to help him. They knew he was innocent, but they had no idea where to begin. But last summer, I promised his 95-year-old mother, Malphine, that we would bring her boy safely back home. After 22 days in office, I did just that and they are here tonight. [Applause] To Mark and his great mom, we are delighted to have you safe and sound and with us. As fate would have it, Mark Fogel was born in a small, rural town in Butler, Pennsylvania. Donald Trump: Have you heard of it? Where his mother has lived for the past 78 years. I just happened to go there last July 13th for a rally. That was not pleasant. [Laughter] And that is where I met his beautiful mom right before I walked onto that stage. Donald Trump: And I told her I would not forget what she said about her son and I never did – did I? I never forgot, did I? I never forgot. Less than ten minutes later, at that same rally, gunfire rang out and a sick and deranged assassin unloaded eight bullets from his sniper’s perch into a crowd of many thousands of people. Donald Trump: My life was saved by a fraction of an inch, but some were not so lucky. Corey Comperatore was a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father and above all, a protector. Donald Trump: Two others, very fine people, were also seriously hit. But thankfully, with the help of two great country doctors, we thought they were gone, and they were saved. So those doctors had great talent. We’re joined by Corey’s wife Helen, who was his high school sweetheart and their two beloved daughters, Allison, and Kaylee. [Applause] Thank you to Helen, Allison and Kaylee. Donald Trump: Corey is looking down on his three beautiful ladies right now and he is cheering you on. He loves you. He is cheering you on. Corey was taken from us much too soon, but his destiny was to leave us all with a shining example of the selfless devotion of a true American patriot. It was love like Corey’s that built our country. Donald Trump: And its love like Corey’s that is going to make our country more majestic than ever before. I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason. I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: From the patriots of Lexington and Concord to the heroes of Gettysburg and Normandy from the warriors who crossed the Delaware to the trailblazers who climbed the Rockies and from the legends who soared at Kitty Hawk to the astronauts who touched the moon, Americans have always been the people who defied all odds, transcended all dangers, made the most extraordinary sacrifices and did whatever it took to defend our children, our country and our freedom. Donald Trump: And as we have seen in this chamber tonight, that same strength, faith, love and spirit is still alive and thriving in the hearts of the American people. Despite the best efforts of those who would try to censor us, silence us, break us, destroy us, Americans are today, a proud, free, sovereign and independent nation that will always be free. Donald Trump: And we will fight for it till death. We will never let anything happen to our beloved country. Because we are a country of doers, dreamers fighters and survivors. Our ancestors crossed a vast ocean, strode into the unknown wilderness and carved their fortunes from the rock and soil of a perilous and very dangerous frontier. Donald Trump: They chased our destiny across a boundless continent. They built the railroads, laid the highways and graced the world with American marvels like the Empire State Building, the mighty Hoover Dam and the towering Golden Gate Bridge. They lit the world with electricity, broke free of the force of gravity, fired up the engines of American industry, vanquished the communist, fascist and Marxists all over the world. Donald Trump: And gave us countless modern wonders sculpted out of iron, glass and steel. We stand on the shoulders of these pioneers who won and built the modern age. These workers who poured their sweat into the skylines of our cities. These warriors who shed their blood on fields of battle and gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. Donald Trump: Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty. And it is our turn to take America’s destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country. This will be our greatest era. With God’s help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher. Donald Trump: And we are going to forge the freest most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this earth. We are going to create the highest quality of life, build the safest and wealthiest and healthiest and most vital communities anywhere in the world. We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science. Donald Trump: And we are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond. [Applause] And through it all, we are going to rediscover the unstoppable power of the American Spirit. And we are going to renew unlimited promise of the American Dream. Donald Trump: Every single day, we will stand up and we will fight, fight, fight for the country, our citizens believe in and for the country our people deserve. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause, audience chants “Fight”] My fellow Americans, get ready for an incredible future because the Golden Age of America has only just begun. It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before. Donald Trump: Thank you. God bless you and God bless America. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys.
Date: 2025-03-04
Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!
Date: 2025-03-04
Canada doesn’t allow American Banks to do business in Canada, but their banks flood the American Market. Oh, that seems fair to me, doesn’t it?
Date: 2025-03-05
Karoline Leavitt: Hello, everybody. Question: Hello. Karoline Leavitt: How are we? I apologize for my tardiness. It’s quite the newsy day and I was with the president talking about that news, so I look forward to taking your questions on it. But first I want to talk about President Trump’s historic and incredible speech last night. The American people and the entire world watched President Trump powerfully lay out how he is renewing the American dream in a record breaking joint address to Congress, and Americans loved what they heard. Karoline Leavitt: According to a CBS YouGov survey, an overwhelming 76 percent of those watching approved of President Trump’s speech last night. The president spoke about how he’s taken more than 400 executive actions on his key promises. The expectations were high, and President Trump is exceeding them. According to brand new polling from the Daily Mail, President Trump has never been more popular, as his approval ratings are reaching historic highs. Karoline Leavitt: More Americans believe America is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. Everyday Americans love this president because he tells it like it is no matter what, and he did that last night. President Trump level set with the American people on the economy and exposed how badly Joe Biden screwed it up by causing the worst inflation crisis in four decades. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump was honest about where we are while making clear that help is on the way. As the president declared last night, he will make America affordable again. Last night you also saw who motivates the president to work so hard, everyday Americans who President Trump shined a spotlight on last night in his speech, from Marc Fogel, who President Trump was finally able to reunite with his family and his beautiful 95 year old mother after being detained in Russia, to Payton McNabb, whose heart wrenching story motivated President Trump to end men in women’s sports, and to Allison and Lauren Phillips, the mother and – and sister of Laken Riley, who President Trump honored by signing the Laken Riley Act to ensure her name will live on forever. Karoline Leavitt: In other amazing and surprise moments, President Trump honored the life of Jocelyn Nungaray, who was brutally murdered by illegal alien gang members. He ensured Jocelyn will never be forgotten by renaming a National Wildlife Refuge in her home state of Texas to honor her life. And in one of the greatest surprise moments of the night, DJ Daniel, an incredible 13 year old boy who is beating brain cancer, saw his dreams fulfilled by President Trump when he was made an honorary Secret Service Agent. Karoline Leavitt: And finally after nearly four years, President Trump delivered justice for the families of the 13 American heroes who were killed at Abbey Gate in the Biden botched Afghanistan withdrawal, which was one of the worst humiliations in the history of our country. President Trump announced that we have detained Mohammed Sharifullah, the monster, who was responsible for that horrific attack, and he was delivered to Dulles Airfield earlier this morning. Karoline Leavitt: On his first day in office President Trump’s national security team across the federal government prioritized intelligence gathering to locate this evil individual. President Trump’s team shared intelligence with regional partners such as Pakistan, who helped identify this monster in the borderland area late last month. Karoline Leavitt: Mohammed confessed to his crimes related to Abbey Gate and other attacks in Russia and Iran as well to the Pakistanis and US law enforcement officers traveled to Pakistan over the weekend where he again confessed his crimes to the FBI. As President Trump said last night, this killer will now face the swift sword of American justice for these atrocities right here on United States soil. Karoline Leavitt: Joe Biden was responsible for this botched withdrawal and he had three years to find this evil terrorist and he didn’t even try to get the job done. But President Trump campaigned on behalf of and grew very close to the Gold Star families. He promised them accountability. And last night, he kept his promise. Karoline Leavitt: He spoke to those Gold Star families yesterday ahead of his speech in an incredibly heartwarming call to share this incredible news. And as President Trump asked in his speech last night, how could anyone possibly be opposed to any of this action that he is taking? Well, apparently the modern day Democrat Party could. Karoline Leavitt: The behavior of Democrats last night was completely disgraceful and demonstrated how severely out of touch they are with the American public. It was the most shameful moment in the history of presidential addresses in that beautiful chamber. In what was supposed to be a unifying moment for our country democrat members of Congress, instead, screamed at the President of the United States who was just overwhelmingly reelected by their constituents, walked out of the chamber, and worst of all, they disrespected the American people. Karoline Leavitt: Democrats didn’t stand to keep men out of women’s sports. They couldn’t even clap for a girl who got her head smashed in by a man on a volleyball court. Democrats didn’t stand for an innocent and beautiful child who is surviving brain cancer. They opposed eliminating taxes on tips and Social Security. They didn’t stand in favor of cutting taxes for hardworking Americans. Karoline Leavitt: They couldn’t even clap for two mothers whose daughters were killed by illegal aliens. One of the only things that could get Democrats off their feet last night was cheering for Ukraine, not for America. Last night was a very clarifying moment for our country. The Democrats exposed themselves as the party of insanity and hate, the party that wants to put America last. Karoline Leavitt: They’ve allowed their Trump Derangement Syndrome to stop them from celebrating America and our people and we will not allow them to forget that. And it’s not just the Democrat Party, the mainstream media still doesn’t get it. Last night, MSNBC’s, Nicolle, Wallace disgustingly looped in a 13 year old boy with brain cancer into an attack on the president over January 6th in CNN’s first chyron out of the speech called it divisive. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump wasn’t divisive, the Democrats were. And CNN was proven wrong by their own viewers, 69 percent of whom in a post-speech poll said they had a positive reaction to the President’s speech. It’s sad and frankly pathetic that Democrats and liberals and the legacy media continue to allow their hatred for the President to override their love for our country. Karoline Leavitt: But nevertheless, the president will continue to unify this nation through policies that are grounded in common sense and that uplift all Americans. We have an individual in our new media seat today, Margaret – Mary Margaret Olohan, who is The Daily Wire’s first ever white House correspondent. Congratulations, Mary Margaret. Karoline Leavitt: The Daily Wire was founded 10 years ago by Ben Shapiro. The Daily Wire now has over 1 million paid subscribers, a monthly network reach of 138 million, and has evolved into a leading conservative multimedia giant. They are now the fifth largest podcast network in the world and home to some of the top ranked shows. Karoline Leavitt: With that I will take your questions. And Mary Margaret, why don’t you kick us off? Question: Thank you so much, Karoline. Great to be here. Karoline Leavitt: Thanks. Question: So I have two questions, if that’s OK. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: The first on last night and the second on Maine. You talked about behavior from Democrat lawmakers, a lot of disruptions. And I just wanted to kind of go back to that. We saw Democrat lawmakers not stand for Laken Riley, for Payton McNabb, for the son of a slain police officer, for a 13 year old cancer survivor. Question: What are the optics of that nationally just in terms of not just the people who are in the room last night but across the nation? And also was President Trump expecting this type of behavior when he was crafting his speech? Karoline Leavitt: So I gave a quote to one of the media outlets in this room yesterday that Democrats are behaving like children would be the least surprising thing of the night. And unfortunately, that quote did turn out to be true. I think the president and everyone, frankly, was surprised by the Democrats refusing to stand for not the president’s policies because frankly we expected that, but for the everyday Americans who President Trump was shining a light on their stories. Karoline Leavitt: Mark Fogel, for instance, an American school teacher who was detained by the Russians, President Trump freed him. If Joe Biden had done that, they all would have been on their feet. But because of – it came from President Trump, they weren’t. So we think it’s very sad, but we’re very proud of the president today. Karoline Leavitt: And the American people are the people that this president cares about most and the reviews are in and everybody loved his speech. Question: Thank you. And then on Maine, we know that the governor of Maine has really pushed back against the president’s executive order saying that boys should not be in girls sports. I spoke with a lawmaker from Maine this morning who told me she’d been censured by state lawmakers for calling a man a man and speaking up on this. Question: What is the next move for the White House in this battle to protect the integrity of women’s sports? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. Well, the Department of Education has sued the state of Maine. As you know, there’s ongoing litigation. The president has made a commitment to ensure that states are being held accountable if they continue to allow men and women’s sports, which he believes is an egregious violation of taxpayer dollars. Karoline Leavitt: And so that fight continues and the president won’t back down. Again, this is a common sense policy, 80 percent of the American people including more than 60 percent of Democrats do not want men in women’s sports. So the president will – will stand by this commitment. Thank you. Gabe, good to see you in here. Question: Good to see you, Karoline. A couple of questions. One, can you confirm that the president held talks with the big three automakers today speaking about potentially delaying tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: I can confirm and I’m glad that you asked because the president sent me out here with a statement directly from him on this. I saw it was reported earlier today by Bloomberg News and he wanted me to share this with all of you. We spoke with the big three auto dealers. We are going to give a one month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA. Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2nd, but at the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage. Karoline Leavitt: So the three companies that he spoke to are our Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors. They requested the call. They made the ask and the president is happy to do it. It’s a one month exemption. Question: And the president just posted on social media that he had spoken with Prime Minister Trudeau who says he’s not satisfied with what the Prime Minister has said when it comes to fentanyl, but less than 1 percent, as you know, less than 1 percent of the fentanyl seized last year was in the northern border. What else does Canada need to do? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president did just put out a statement on his call with the governor, Justin Trudeau, as he calls him, of Canada. And he said that he was not pleased. As you said, he said it’s not good enough. He told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that directly, the call ended in a somewhat friendly manner, as the president said, but he’s not going to stop standing up for the American people. Karoline Leavitt: And to answer your question directly when it comes to fentanyl, for the last four years, unfortunately, our neighbors to the north and the south Canada and Mexico respectively have allowed America to be a dumping ground, not just for illegal aliens but for illegal poisonous, deadly fentanyl, which is now the number one killer of young people in this country aged 18 to 34. Through the northern border in Canada in fiscal – last fiscal year alone, there was enough fentanyl seized to kill 4.8 billion people. Karoline Leavitt: And that number is up 250 percent from 2023 the year before. So there’s been more than a 2,000 percent increase in illegal fentanyl seizure at the northern border. Why? Because Canada is allowing that fentanyl to come to the United States. The president sees these numbers. He thinks about the lives that are lost and everybody in this room, I’m sure everybody watching at home, everybody across the country knows someone in our lives who has been killed at the hands of this deadly poison. Karoline Leavitt: There needs to be repercussions for that. The president feels very strongly about it. Question: But Karoline, respectfully, it’s just 43 pounds that were found last year that’s less than a carry on – that’s less than a carry on suitcase, is that a lot of fentanyl compared to, say, Mexico? The vast majority of the fentanyl is brought in Mexico, not Canada. So, what else does Canada need to do? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I just told you. Last year alone, there was a 2,000 percent increase in illegal fentanyl. You’re asking me – Question: But it’s only for [Inaudible] Karoline Leavitt: You’re asking me for what the president’s justification is for these tariffs. It’s not up to you. You’re not the president, Gabe. And frankly, I think it’s a little bit disrespectful to the families in this country who have lost loved ones at the hands of this deadly poison. If you talk to them, and this president has, they are grateful that they finally have a president who is standing up to both Canada and Mexico and, most importantly, to China as well. Karoline Leavitt: The president added an additional 10 percent tariff on China because this deadly poison is being produced in that country. It’s being distributed through our neighbors. And there needs to be consequences for that, period. Peter? Question: Thank you, Karoline. If the US has a longstanding policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists, then why is the US now negotiating directly and for the first time ever with Hamas? Karoline Leavitt: Well, when it comes to the negotiations that you’re referring to, first of all, the special envoy who’s engaged in those negotiations does have the authority to talk to anyone. Israel was consulted on this matter. And look, dialog and talking to people around the world to do what’s in the best interest of the American people is something that the president has proven is what he believes is – is a good faith effort to do what’s right for the American people. Question: Is it just about the hostages, or are they also talking about the president’s plan to take over Gaza? Karoline Leavitt: These are ongoing talks and discussions. I am not going to detail them here. There are American lives at stake. I would defer you to the Department of State for further details, but I’m not going to get into those talks here at this podium. Question: We know that some officials here were miffed that Zelenskyy showed up last week without a suit for his meeting in the Oval Office. But Elon Musk never wears a suit. Karoline Leavitt: He did last night. Question: So, what is the dress code? Karoline Leavitt: Well, Elon Musk wore a suit last night. I’m sure you saw it. It – it – Question: Was he spooked by the Zelenskyy – Zelenskyy getting kicked out? Karoline Leavitt: No, I don’t think so. I’m just pointing out that he did wear a suit last night. And I think the president liked that very much, and he looked great. Speaking of the president, he just passed me a note while I’m standing here. He wanted me to hold this up. This is the poll that I cited, the CBS YouGov poll that shows that 76 percent of those who watched the president’s speech last night approved of his speech. Karoline Leavitt: And so, it goes to my earlier point that I made in my monologue about how incredibly sad it is that we have a modern day Democrat party who is so severely out of touch with the American public. This is a great poll. The ultimate poll, though, came on November 5th, when the president won by an overwhelming margin that he spoke about last night. Karoline Leavitt: Democrats weren’t happy to hear that either. Weija? Question: Thank you, Karoline. Back on tariffs, last night President Trump said there will be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that. Can you put a dollar figure amount on how much the average American family should expect to pay as this disturbance? And why should Americans be okay with that, when so many are already struggling to pay the bills? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all, last night the president told the truth. And he was realistic and he level set with the American people. And I think, frankly, it’s very refreshing. And everybody in this room should be very grateful that we have a president who tells the truth about the reality of the economic situation that we are in, unlike the previous president, who lied to everybody’s faces, saying inflation was transitory, saying it was under control, saying that the border was secure when none of that was true. Karoline Leavitt: So, the president is being frank and honest. And the American people elected this president to have monumental reform and change, including rebuilding our manufacturing base in this country, standing up to foreign nations who have been ripping off our country for decades, and that requires a little bit of disruption. Karoline Leavitt: That requires a lot of effort and work that this president is focused on doing. With that said, as the president said last night, his administration is whole heartedly committed, of course, to ending the inflation nightmare caused by the Biden administration. Look at the deregulation efforts. Look at the president’s push last night in his speech for Congress to pass tax cuts, to end taxes on Social Security and overtime pay for hardworking Americans, end taxes on tips. Karoline Leavitt: We need Congress to get that done because that’s going to put more money back into the pockets of the American people. And I didn’t even mention energy. Look at the president’s approach and focus on unleashing the might of our energy industry. We know that’s the number one driver of inflation. He’s been slashing back a lot of the burdensome regulation from the previous administration to unleash our energy industry here at home, which will drive down costs. Karoline Leavitt: He said he is committed to making America affordable again. He did it in his first term, and Americans can trust him to do it again. Sure. Question: But President Trump has made clear, Karoline, that he loves tariffs, but the stock market does not. How does he factor that into his decision making? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president does love tariffs. He’s said it’s one of his favorite words in the English dictionary. And he believes in tariffs because they’ll ultimately make America rich again. They’re going to raise revenue. They’re going to help us pay down our debt. Most importantly, they’re going to bring American jobs here back home. Karoline Leavitt: So, I think for folks on Wall Street who may be concerned, look at what this president did for you in his first term. Wall Street boomed. Stock market boomed. The president expects that to happen again. But most importantly, Main Street is going to boom, and that’s why the president has this whole of government economic approach, which includes tax cuts, tariffs, regulation cuts, and an energy industry that will bring down costs for American consumers. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Monica? Question: Thank you, Karoline. You mentioned not one Democrat Senator voted to protect women’s sports from males. Not one Democrat Congressman or Congresswoman stood to applaud or support protecting women’s spaces and sports at he president’s joint session to Congress last night, as you articulately mentioned in the beginning. Question: So, I’m wondering, what message is that sending to not only young women who are competing in these sports across the country, but also to the parents of these young girls? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. I think the message that Americans should take away from last night is that they have a president in the Oval Office who is committed to doing what’s right for them, especially women and girls across the country. And I think it’s very ironic, thank you for bringing up the point about women, that Democrat women were wearing pink to support our fellow females, yet they couldn’t stand, again, for a young woman who was almost killed and severely injured by a man on the volleyball court. Karoline Leavitt: They couldn’t stand for the mothers of two beautiful young women whose lives were taken tragically at the hands of illegal people. So, you can’t say you’re the party of women and then support men in women’s sports and not stand up for basic law and order and immigration reform that will protect women in this country. Karoline Leavitt: That’s what President Trump is doing. He’s the president for women. Lindsey, good to see you. Question: Thank you, Caroline. Good to see you. So, speaking of tariffs, China said yesterday that they’re ready for any kind of war with the US because of these tariffs that have been placed on them. And a Chinese spokesperson also said that the tariffs would not lead to a resolution of US concerns about fentanyl originating in China. Question: Can you speak to how the administration is planning on responding to that? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I think Secretary Hegseth has responded to that. This morning he said that America will always be prepared to defend itself, especially under the leadership of this president in the Oval Office. And that certainly remains true. Again, when it comes to tariffs, the president has been very tough on China, not just now with 20 percent and – and more with the reciprocal tariffs that will hit on April 2nd, but look at what he did in his first term. Karoline Leavitt: There were billions of dollars worth of tariffs that he implemented on China. And it’s quite telling that the previous administration did not rescind those tariffs because they realized the value that they had in not only deterring China, but also raising revenue here in the United States. Rachel? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Just a quick follow up – two quick follow ups on tariffs. The president mentioned the little disturbance during his remarks yesterday. The CEO of Target says that consumers will likely see prices go up on everything from strawberries to bananas to avocados. How long should Americans expect to pay higher prices? Question: Are we talking a week, a couple of days, a few months? Karoline Leavitt: Again, I don’t have a crystal ball. But what I can assure the American people is that this president and this administration is doing everything they can. And I would remind you and everybody else in this room that it’s because of the previous administration’s economic policies that Americans were left with record high inflation. Karoline Leavitt: Inflation throughout Joe Biden’s entire 48 months in office was at or above 3 percent. It hit record highs, as you know. And there’s a whole list of what – the Biden economic disaster this president was left to clean up. It’s been a month, but he’s working hard every single day to do just that. Question: Just one quick follow up on the carveout. Sorry to cut you off there. The US imported $43 million worth of eggs from Canada. I know you mentioned some of the exemptions when it comes to automakers. Will there be any other carveouts, including for eggs? We know prices are soaring for Americans. Karoline Leavitt: The president is open to hearing about additional exemptions. He always has open dialog, and he’ll always do, you know, what’s right – what he believes is right for the American people. But, again, as for the egg crisis in this country, the president is wholeheartedly committed to ensuring we’re increasing our egg supply and we’re also bringing down cost. Karoline Leavitt: And Secretary Rollins has been all over this issue. She comes from an agricultural background and family. That’s why she’s leading that very important department. She wrote an amazing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. She’s been all over the media talking about her plan. She has a real plan. The president endorses it. And he even, you know, gave her an off the prompter shout out last night to say, Brooke, I’m counting on you. Karoline Leavitt: It’s an important issue, and this White House is working with secretary of agriculture every single day to address this issue. Sure. Jordan? Question: Thanks, Karoline. So, what does it say that the Democrats, while they couldn’t stand for Americans or stand for victims, they stood for war and clapped for war and clapped for five more years of war. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, you know the president addressed that last night, I think, when he called out Senator Elizabeth Warren and said that, again, as I said in my opening speech, very telling that the Democrats refused to – to clap for American people and American interests and American priorities. But they did clap for the country of Ukraine, which by the way the president is working very hard to end that war. Karoline Leavitt: So Democrats should be applauding him for actually doing something about it. Question: A follow up on that if I can. You’ve spoken recently about how – what happened in the Oval Office last week gave Americans an inside look into behind the scenes discussions with Zelenskyy. Is this how he treated Joe Biden and just treated him disrespectfully and received billions of dollars? Karoline Leavitt: Well, it’s a very interesting question. I don’t know if anybody in here asked the previous – my predecessor who stood at this podium about that, but there was a report from NBC news that President Biden also got increasingly frustrated with President Zelenskyy when he was handing out blank checks and President Zelenskyy kept asking for more? Karoline Leavitt: Joe Biden was quite frustrated with that. So again, as I – as I’ve said repeatedly, Friday revealed the frustrations that this administration has had in closed door negotiations with the Ukrainians. However, President Zelenskyy did put out a statement yesterday, which we believe is a positive step forward and Secretary – National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has been talking to his Ukrainian counterparts. Karoline Leavitt: And so we’re in the midst of this and we’ll see what happens next. Caitlin. Question: Thanks, Karoline. I have two questions. One on the reprieve that is being granted to these three automakers for – for one month on the tariffs on Canada and Mexico. How did the president settle on one month? Karoline Leavitt: The reciprocal tariffs will go into effect on April 2nd and he feels strongly about that, no matter what no exemption – exemption. So that’s where the one month come from comes from. Question: So does he expect them to be able to shift production within a month? Karoline Leavitt: He told them that he – they should get on it, start investing, start moving, shift production here to the United States of America where they will pay no tariff. That’s the ultimate goal. Question: And on the conversations between the white House and the Ukrainians and the letter that President Trump revealed last night that he got from President Zelenskyy, Director Ratcliffe said today that the President has paused also intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Is that temporary or is that permanent? Karoline Leavitt: I believe what the National Security Council told me in regards to that was that they paused or they are reconsidering the – the funding for Ukraine, as you saw, the pause on the funding. As for intelligence matters, I would refer you to either the National Security Council or the CIA as well? Question: But they’re considering lifting the – or reinstating the military aid going to Ukraine, which they paused – Karoline Leavitt: – Again, it’s a pause for a review. Question: Follow up on that. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: The president read parts of the letter that he received last night from President Zelenskyy. Can you give us a sense of when President Trump now plans to sign that minerals deal after receiving that letter? Karoline Leavitt: Those talks are happening as we speak. I just saw the national security adviser. He’s working very hard on it. I believe he was going into the Oval Office to give the president an update on where this stands. But again, the president is committed to a peace deal. He wants to see this war end and I think that President Zelenskyy’s message, which he also shared on X as well, is a positive sign in the right direction. Question: The president also said that the United States was reclaiming the Panama Canal. The President of Panama this morning or at some point today said that President Trump was lying. Wanted to get your response to that. And also, curious if the president had a reason for not specifically mentioning Blackrock last night when he was praising the company that is buying canals or ports around the Panama Canal? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, I’m not sure if Panama has seen what’s going on with their own canal. But as you just mentioned, Blackrock is now interested in investing and taking over the two ends of the port, which is very important because the president was very vocal several weeks ago about the need to ensure that China is not controlling the Panama Canal. Karoline Leavitt: This is a very important place for the United States of America. We also saw that the Panama Canal lifted fees on our US naval ships that are going in and out of the canal. That’s a win for the United States of America and the president will continue to ensure that the Chinese government, the CCP cannot be infiltrated in the Western Hemisphere and certainly not in the Panama Canal, which is a very important place for our country. Karoline Leavitt: Dasha. Question: The president continues to call the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, governor of Canada. I’m curious what he means by that and if there are any plans that are moving forward with trying to make Canada, the 51st state. I have a follow up on the economy as well. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Well, the president put that in his Truth Social account – or his Truth Social post earlier today. He feels strongly that it would be very beneficial for the Canadian people to be the 51st state of the United States. They wouldn’t pay – be paying for these tariffs. They’d have much lower taxes if they were part of our great country. Question: And on the economy, you and I traveled the country during the campaign. This is an issue that so many voters decided to cast their ballots on when they voted for President Trump. He has started to have that realistic conversation with the American people, that disturbance comment last night. But I’m curious if you can be real with Americans right now as all of these factors are playing out, are things potentially going to get worse before they get better? Karoline Leavitt: Look, I’ve now been asked and answered this same question just given to me in different verbiage of three different times and I will answer it again in an effort of transparency to the American people because this is an important issue and the American people – this president understands that it is. And again that’s why in his joint address to Congress last night, he addressed this issue with a realistic and honest approach. Karoline Leavitt: He talked about what this administration is doing to unleash American energy and to make America affordable again in this administration is whole heartedly committed to doing it. And I would remind the American public that the first term record of this – of this president speaks volumes. That’s why they reelected him because they know that he can fix our broken economy. Karoline Leavitt: And its very, very broken from the previous administration. Stephen. Question: Thank you, Karoline. I’ve got two questions, one on press access, the other on fentanyl and tariffs. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: On press access, your predecessor Karine Jean-Pierre who presided over many novel press access restrictions, criticized the recent changes to the press pool made by your office. She said in an interview, “What we’re looking at is what North Korea is doing.” What’s your response to that? And can you say anything to allay concerns that unfavorable coverage will be punished in this new press pool system? Karoline Leavitt: I think that’s the same individual who said from this podium numerous times that the commander in chief was mentally and physically up for the job, which we knew was a lie. Many people in this room knew it was a lie. Many of you were admonished for asking questions about that truth. And so when it comes to truth and transparency, this administration, this White House is setting the example. Karoline Leavitt: This president is taking far more questions than his predecessor, Joe Biden, did on a daily basis. And that will continue. Question: And on fentanyl and tariffs on fentanyl produced largely in China has killed 334,000 Americans over five years according to CDC data. That’s about one in every 1000 Americans. President Trump has cited this for applying new tariffs to Canada, Mexico, and China. But in addition to China’s talk about being ready for any kind of war, they said yesterday, the Foreign Ministry said that “The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise US tariffs,” and “The US, not anyone else, is responsible for the fentanyl crisis.” So what’s the response to China that the talk of fentanyl is just an excuse for tariffs and what does that say about the resolution? Karoline Leavitt: Well, of course the country that is getting very rich off of distributing this deadly poison to American citizens is going to say that. Again, the president knows where the American people stand on this issue. Fentanyl overdoses are brought up all of us campaigning all across the country. They talked about inflation. Karoline Leavitt: They also talked about the border, the illegal immigrants that were pouring through, but also these deadly drugs. And again the president keeps in mind those families every single day when he is making these tough decisions. But it’s a necessary decision and he’s no longer going to allow the United States of America to be a dumping ground for illegal immigrants and for illegal drugs that are killing our nation’s people. Karoline Leavitt: This is the number one leading cause of death in our country and there needs to be action taken to ensure that that cannot continue. Thank you very much, guys. We’ll see you later. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Thanks, Karoline.
Date: 2025-03-05
For anyone who is interested, I also told Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada that he largely caused the problems we have with them because of his Weak Border Policies, which allowed tremendous amounts of Fentanyl, and Illegal Aliens, to pour into the United States. These Policies are responsible for the death of many people!
Date: 2025-03-05
Justin Trudeau, of Canada, called me to ask what could be done about Tariffs. I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped. He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, “That’s not good enough.” The call ended in a “somewhat” friendly manner! He was unable to tell me when the Canadian Election is taking place, which made me curious, like, what’s going on here? I then realized he is trying to use this issue to stay in power. Good luck Justin!
Date: 2025-03-06
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Today we’re delighted to be joined by Rodolphe Saade, the chairman and CEO of CMA CGM, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, probably number two in the world, probably going to be number one in the not too distant future, knowing him. They employ over 160,000 employees. Donald Trump: They have 750 major container vessels worldwide. And I’m thrilled to announce that he’s going to be investing $20 billion into the United States because of the election, the election results, which comes along with a lot of other things like great protections and other things. This massive investment will go toward building out shipping, logistics, infrastructure and terminals, which will create an estimated 10,000 new jobs in America. Donald Trump: It’s so important because it’s about shipping. You know, we lost our way. For many years, we haven’t done anything. We used to build a ship a day and now we essentially don’t build ships. We’re going to start that. And we’re going to be announcing next week or the week after a massive new program for building very large, the largest ships in the world. Donald Trump: And it’ll have to do with incentives, taxes. They’ll be coming from all over the world just like they are with cars with what we’ve done with tariffs. And we have at least seven new major car plants that are going to be starting very shortly because of what we’re doing with the tariffs, which will primarily start on April the 2nd. Much of it will. Donald Trump: Most of the tariffs go in April the 2nd. Right now, we have some temporary ones and small ones on – relatively small, although it’s a lot of money having to do with Mexico and Canada. And – but the predominant tariffs will go – they’ll be reciprocal in nature. They’ll be going on April the 2nd. So we’ll be talking about that. Donald Trump: It’ll be a big game changer for our country. Because we’ve been ripped off by every country in the world. And now whatever they charge us, they charge us 150, 200 percent. And we charge them nothing. So whatever they charge us, we’re going to charge them. And there’ll be no getting out of it. So we look forward to April 2nd. I’ve been looking forward to that date for a long time. Donald Trump: I had it as April 1st, but I didn’t want to be hit for April Fool’s Day. I’m a very superstitious person. So we made it April 2nd. It probably cost us a lot of money doing that, but it’s OK. I feel better about it. And that’ll be something very big. But I’d like to ask Rudolph if you’d say a few words, please, about what you’re going to do and also about the possibility of ship building in our country, please. Rodolphe Saadé: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Yes, indeed we are CMA CGM, one of the leaders in shipping and logistics around the world. We are very enthusiastic about this big announcement of today. We are investing $20 billion in shipping and logistics. This means the creation of 10,000 new American jobs. We’re also looking at investing in ship building of container vessels. Rodolphe Saadé: And we most probably will be making also announcement in the next coming weeks. And we would like also, Mr. President, to go for more US flag vessels. And we will go from ten that we operate today to 30 US flag ships. And hopefully, doing more in the months to come. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you, and congratulations on your great success. He’s built one of the – with his father before him, built one of the great shipping empires of the world, and that is – I never heard 750, that’s sounds like a lot to me. Doesn’t it, huh? Rodolphe Saadé: It is, Mr. President. Donald Trump: That’s a fantastic company, congratulations. Rodolphe Saadé: Thank you. Donald Trump: Really great job and an honor, a real honor to have you. Why is it that more people don’t have American flags? They don’t have – they seem to have Panamanian flags and Liberian flags. They don’t seem to have a lot of American flags. Rodolphe Saadé: But this will change, Mr. President. You will have more ships with us flag as we move forward. And you can count on us to do as much as we can. Donald Trump: That’s very good. It’s true, the other countries take advantage of us even on that. So we’re going to be changing that around. And I appreciate you coming up and even bringing it to our attention. It’s really a great thing. Thank you very much. Rodolphe Saadé: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Appreciate it. Will, could you come over? Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: We’re going to sign some executive orders. Will Scharf: Sir, your administration has made it a priority both to end lawfare and the weaponization of government and also to hold those who have engaged in lawfare accountable. One of those – one of the law firms that has been involved in that is called Perkins Coie. That’s also a law firm that has engaged in unlawful DEI practices. Will Scharf: This executive order will suspend – Donald Trump: And I’ve watched it take place. Will Scharf: This executive order will suspend security clearances and access to certain federal resources for that law firm and also launch a holistic review of unlawful DEI practices at some of the nation’s largest law firms. Donald Trump: This is an absolute honor to sign. What they’ve done is – it’s just terrible. It’s weaponization. You could say weaponization against a political opponent. And it should never be allowed to happen again. And you’re looking at about 15 different firms. Will Scharf: That or more, sir. Yes. Donald Trump: Good. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. One of the tools the left has consistently used to frustrate good government policies has been the use of injunctions and temporary restraining orders. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c) allows for an essentially a demand for an injunction bond for folks who are seeking temporary restraining orders and injunctions to post a bond before they’re allowed to proceed in court. Will Scharf: This Presidential memorandum would order the Department of Justice and its litigating components to – to seek those injunction bonds whenever someone tries to challenge our policies in court. So that when they end up losing in court, and we believe that they will end up losing in court, that they can be held financially responsible for the disruption to federal activities that their actions have caused. Donald Trump: Great. Something they’ve wanted to do a long time, right? They’ve been looking to do this for years. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: And why? They just never got it. Will Scharf: This is a rule that’s been on the books for a very long time. We’ve just – the Department of Justice has been very inconsistent in seeking these bonds. Donald Trump: From a legal standpoint, really a very big thing. Thank you. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. In order to protect American car manufacturers and American farmers, we have two modifications to the EPA tariffs that have already been announced against Canada and Mexico. This first order relates to Canada. Essentially, what it will allow for is the flow of parts and subassembly products into America to allow American car manufacturers to continue building cars. Will Scharf: It basically excludes USMCA eligible goods from existing tariffs. And also in order to – to help our farmers at this crucial time of year, we’re going to be reducing the tariff imposed on Canadian potash from 25 percent to 10 percent. So this is a modification to our tariff regime to protect American car manufacturers and American farmers. Donald Trump: It basically makes it more fair for our car manufacturers during this short term period before April 2nd. April 2nd is a little bit different. That will be much more significant. But this – during this interim period, between now and April 2nd, this makes it much more favorable for our American car manufacturers. Donald Trump: OK. Can you see that, Peter? Look. Nice to be tall, Peter, right? [Laughter] Unidentified: I see right over everybody. [Laughter] Donald Trump: You can see it. It. So nice. [Laughter] That’s why he such a gentlemen, he doesn’t have to rush. Will Scharf: OK. And this is the same just for Mexico, sir, the previous one. Donald Trump: The same thing for Mexico. So, that’s one for Canada, one for Mexico. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: They’ve been in the news lately, haven’t they? And I spoke to the president of Mexico, a wonderful woman today. And we helped them out with a problem they were having, having to do with the tariffs, short term tariffs. And we had a very good conversation. Also, we discussed drugs. And they were working much harder lately, do you notice that, on people coming in and drugs. Donald Trump: And we’ve made tremendous progress on both. Question: President Trump, what’s your thought about why the markets are so spooked? Do you think they don’t like the tariffs or do they not like the uncertainty with some of the changes that have been the carve outs? Donald Trump: Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won’t be doing as well because we’re taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago. We’ve been treated very unfairly as a country. We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries. And a lot of these are globalist in nature. Donald Trump: You know, they have – if you’re outside of the United States, you know, it’s going to be a little bit different. We just weren’t treated right. We were ripped off as a country. I’ve been saying it for a long time. And I did it to a certain extent in the first administration. But with COVID coming in, we had to focus on that toward the end. Donald Trump: But we had the greatest economy in history in the first administration. And I think we’ll do even better now. But this is something that we have to do. There will always be a little short term interruption. I don’t think it’s going to be big. But um, the countries and companies that have been ripping us aren’t particularly happy with what I’m doing. Donald Trump: But the United States will be very happy. And you know, our farmers are going to be very happy. And again, there’ll be disruption. But in the end, I said it before with China, we signed an unbelievable deal with China, $50 billion in purchases. And we’re doing great. Biting, however, when he came in, he never – they never enforced that deal, so. So that’s the only thing that basically you have globalist companies that have been ripping us off that won’t be able to rip us off any longer. Donald Trump: I think that’s what the big charge is. Question: Have you been influenced by some of these exemptions that have been announced in some of these temporary delays? Have you been influenced in those decisions because of the market reaction? Donald Trump: Well, there are no delays at all. No, nothing to do with the market. I’m not even looking at the market. Because long term, the United States will be very strong with what’s happening here. Now these are countries and companies, foreign companies that have been ripping us off, no president did anything about it until I came along. Donald Trump: And then I did a lot about it. You know, we took in, in tariffs from China $600 billion. Nobody else took in $0.10 from China. They never did. But when COVID came along, we had a focus on COVID. We did a great job. We got rid of that. We ended up handing over with a market that was higher than it was previous to COVID coming in. But this is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved USA And they’re not going to be ripping us off anymore. Donald Trump: So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market. Question: Mr. President? Will Scharf: Sir, this is a – this is a slate of nominees that’s been prepared by the Presidential Personnel Office. It includes a number of subcabinet level appointments, a number of your ambassadors that have been previously announced. And also, crucially given the administration’s concerted effort to focus on violent crime. Will Scharf: It includes a number of US attorneys in major cities that have real crime problems. Donald Trump: OK, some very good people too. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. And then, we have a number of ceremonial proclamations that Lindsey Halligan, is going to – Lindsey Halligan: Thank you. Donald Trump: Hi. Lindsey Halligan: So two very special proclamations. The first of which is a proclamation that proclaims March 2025 as Women’s History Month. In honor of all the wonderful women in your administration, all the wonderful women in America and in – in honor of everything you’ve done for women and this administration has done for women in and just what, a month and a half, so. Donald Trump: Yeah, we’ve done a lot. And women have done a lot for us, right? This is an honor. We have a wonderful woman here, Maria Bartiromo. Maria Bartiromo: Thank you so much. Donald Trump: Nice to have you, Maria. Maria Bartiromo: Thank you very much, Mr. President and thanks for all that you’re doing for women. Donald Trump: Thank you. She’s going to do an interview of me later. Maybe I shouldn’t do this interview. I should be like Biden not doing the interviews. [Laughter] That’s great. Women, we love you. [Laughter] Unidentified: We love you too, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you. Lindsey Halligan: OK. Will Scharf: Thanks, Lindsey. Lindsey Halligan: So the second one is a proclamation proclaiming March 2025 as Irish American Heritage Month in honor of – or to commemorate our amazing friendship between America and Ireland. And to, um, just honor all of the Irish Americans. And I’m a little bit biased because I’m American and Irish, but? Donald Trump: OK. Yeah, well, they’re great people. Yeah, great people. Lindsey Halligan: And St. Patrick’s Day is coming up as well. Donald Trump: And they voted for me in heavy numbers, so I like them even more. [Laughter] You have to like it. You know, you’re not supposed to, but you have to like that. All right. So for the Irish American people, proclamation. OK. Thanks. Question: Mr. President? Donald Trump: Thanks, Lindsey. Question: On the tariffs – Mr. President – Your – your envoy, Steve Witkoff, told us a little while ago that if Hamas does not release hostages that the US and Israel could take some action. What does that mean in your eyes? Is that military action? Would you join strikes with Israel? Donald Trump: Well, you going to find out. I had the honor of spending a lot of time yesterday with quite a few of the people that we got out. And I can’t believe how badly treated they were. Really badly treated they were. Stories that you wouldn’t even believe. Some of it was documented. Some of it was so bad, you couldn’t really – I don’t think you could put it on. And it’s a shame. Donald Trump: And – and they said one thing, they have 59 hostages of which many of them are killed. And they want to know if we could just continue. They said without us – look, Biden wasn’t able to get anybody out. We came along and they started releasing, but we have 59 left of which 24 are living. The rest are – are dead. Donald Trump: And we – I put out a statement. It’s sort of self-explanatory I think. But somebody’s going to have to get a lot rougher than they’re getting. It’s a shame. And those 24 that are living because they were with them just two weeks ago or three weeks ago depending on when they got out. But they said they’re in very bad shape. Question: You spoke today with your cabinet members and Elon Musk. Donald Trump: I did. Question: Um, what did you tell them in regards to Elon Musk and his authorities to carry out actions? Donald Trump: We had a great meeting. We had Elon and we had some of the representatives that – for – you know the business reps. We also had most of the cabinet members, not all of them. It doesn’t really pertain to all of them, but many of them. And I thought it was a really good meeting. It was about cutting. Because we have – everybody knows the country is way out of control in terms of the number of people. Donald Trump: We have many people that don’t work. We have many people probably that aren’t even living, that are getting checks. And we’re finding all of that out. And it’s being reported. We’re going to save hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ve already saved a lot. And parts of it are contracts that are expired that we’re paying on. Many crazy things that, you know, you can see it happening. Donald Trump: It shouldn’t happen, but you can see it happening. You see a lot of it being put out. But the other thing I think most important for today, I want the cabinet members to keep good people. I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut. I want the cabinet members to keep the good people and the people that aren’t doing a good job that are unreliable don’t show up to work, etc., those people can be cut. Donald Trump: So I had a meeting. And I said I want the cabinet members go first, keep all the people you want, everybody that you need. And it would be better if they were there for two years instead of two weeks. Because in two years they’ll know the people better. But I want them to do the best job they can. When we have good people, those – that’s precious, that’s very important. Donald Trump: And we want them to keep the good people. And so we’re going to be watching them. And Elon and the group are going to be watching them. And if they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting. Question: So – Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – is that a reflection, if you think DOGE and Elon Musk have been moving too quickly? Donald Trump: No, no, I think they’ve done an amazing job. They’ve done an amazing job. And look at what they found. I read it the other night in the speech. I mean, they found these things where billions of dollars has been poured down the drain. To things – that’s not about people, that’s about contracts where billions and billions of dollars was just thrown out the window. Donald Trump: It probably got kickbacks. I’m sure there were tremendous kickbacks for the people that authorized those contracts. But no, Elon has been really teaching everybody about the numbers that you can do. But what I want is I want the numbers, but I also want to keep the good people. We want to get rid of the people that aren’t working, that aren’t showing up and have a lot of problems. Donald Trump: And so they’re working together with you on. And I think we’re doing a really great job. We’re cutting it down. We have to for the sake of our country. We have – you can’t have that kind of fat, it’s bloat, and like nobody’s ever seen before. Where you need 20,000 and they have 120,000 people, and you just don’t need that many. Donald Trump: And it happens with companies, and it happens with governments. I guess you could go to a lot of governments and you’d see the same thing. But we’re trying to get it down. We want to be able next year if we could balance the budget, I think there’s a good chance we could balance the budget next year. We have a lot of good things happening. Donald Trump: Plus we have a lot of revenue things happening. Like today with the shipbuilding. Uh, and this gentleman behind me is going to create a lot of jobs. And you know, he’s about the biggest there is in the world. Uh, we had the biggest chip maker in the world here a few days ago. He’s going to be spending $200 billion on building plants. Donald Trump: We’re not giving them any money to build anything. You know, it’s not – that CHIPS Act is ridiculous where the Biden thing where they give billions of dollars to people that have nothing but money. They’re not going to spend that money. They’re just taking that money. We’re giving nothing. They’re coming in because of the tariffs. Donald Trump: Because they don’t want to pay the tariffs. And they’re opening up big, so. But with respect to people, I said I want to cut the people, but I want to keep the good people. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? On tariffs, sir? Can you walk us through the next steps on this? Steel and aluminum tariffs are due to kick in next week on Canada and Mexico and every other country. Donald Trump: Right. Question: Are those going to be modified as well? Donald Trump: No, those are modified. Those are happening next week. And the big one will be on April 2nd when reciprocal tariffs. So if India or China or any of the countries that really – India is a very high tariff nation. I’ll tell you what’s a high tariff nation is Canada. Canada charges US 250 percent for our milk product and other product and a tremendous tariff on lumber and things as such. Donald Trump: And yet we don’t need their lumber. We have more lumber than they do. We don’t need Canada’s lumber. So what I’m doing is I’ll be signing an executive order freeing up our forests so that we’re allowed to take down trees and make a lot of money and then re-harvest trees. Also we’re cutting fire divides. A fire divide is a 50 yard to 70 yard swath where the trees can’t – you know, it’s long enough so trees don’t burn forever until you can get them out. Donald Trump: And those trees can be sold and made a lot of money with, so. But we’ll be doing that. We don’t need trees from Canada. We don’t need cars from Canada. We don’t need energy from Canada. We don’t need anything from Canada. So where we can be self-sustaining, which is in most things. Look, we have more oil and gas than anybody. Donald Trump: Our forests are massive, massive forests. We’re just not allowed to use them because of the environmental lunatics that stopped us. So I’m going to be freeing that up very shortly so that we don’t have to go to other countries to buy lumber. Unidentified: Good. Donald Trump: You know, why should we be buying lumber from other countries, paying tariffs, paying big prices, extraordinary prices and we have lumber. We have the best lumber. Go ahead. Question: And this USMCA exemption that you’re essentially announcing today for this one month. Donald Trump: Just – it’s just a modification short term because I didn’t want to hurt the American – it would have hurt the American car companies if I did that. Question: Would you consider the same sort of exemption or pause for the auto tariffs you’re talking about next month? Donald Trump: We’re not looking at that. No. Question: You’re not – you’re not – Donald Trump: No, no, we’re not looking at that. No, no. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: TPS for the Ukrainians who live here in the US? Donald Trump: What about it? Question: Are you considering revoking the TPS status for the more than 200,000 Ukrainians who live here in the US? Donald Trump: What – what are you saying? I don’t know, – Question: Um, the Ukrainians that are here in the US. Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Question: They’re under TPS – Unidentified: Temporary protective status. Question: GPS? TPS – TPS – Unidentified: Temporary protective status. Donald Trump: Oh, I thought you said GPS. Question: TPS. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Uh, there – there were some news saying that they were going to be revoked, and they were going to be deported from the country. Are you considering that? Donald Trump: Well, we’re not looking to hurt anybody. And we’re certainly not looking to hurt them. And I’m looking at that. And there were some people that think that’s appropriate, and some people don’t. And I’ll be making a decision pretty soon. OK? Question: President Trump – Donald Trump: But we’re not – we’re not looking to hurt them. Question: President Trump – Donald Trump: Especially Ukrainians. They’ve gone through a lot. Yeah, Peter? Question: The clocks are going to spring forward on Sunday. When are you going to get rid of daylight savings time? Donald Trump: OK. Are you ready? [Laughter] So this should be the easiest one of all, but it’s a 50/50 issue. And if something’s a 50/50 issue, it’s hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don’t want to take their kids to school in the dark. Donald Trump: And it’s very much – it’s a little bit one way, but it’s very much a 50/50 issue. And it’s something I can do. But a lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way. It’s very even. And usually I find when that’s the case, what else do we have to do? Question: And I got to ask because you were talking about this in your joint address. You were talking about Butler. It’s been seven months. Why do you think we don’t know more about the guy who shot you in the ear? Donald Trump: Yeah, no, well and the second one with all of his cell phones, so. Uh, I want to find the answers. I’ve told them. In fact, today, I said I want to fight. We can no longer blame Biden for that one. Sheesh, he should have released that a long time ago. So, they are giving me a report next week sometime. And I do believe I’ll be releasing. Donald Trump: I want to release the report. A lot of people have asked that question. You had one who had three apps, two of which were foreign, supposedly, and who has the biggest white shoe law firm in Pennsylvania, even though they don’t live in necessarily a white shoe area. What’s that all about? Is Laura, you know, the law firm. Donald Trump: The other one had seven or six cell phones. And I don’t have six cell phones. And why would somebody have six cell phones? So we’re going to be releasing a report on that soon, Peter. Question: But – Mr. President? Based on what you’re saying right there, the lack of information and the data points that you just gave, does that make you think that there’s some part of – that there’s some bigger – Donald Trump: It could be. Well, it makes other people think that. It makes me think it a little bit, too. I say when you have three apps, and two of them are foreign, and you had an FBI that wouldn’t report on it, they didn’t want to say why, I would say that could be suspicious. And then on the second assassin you had, you know – And by the way, I have to tell you, Secret Service did a great job on that by spotting him. Donald Trump: But on the second one, he had six cell phones. That’s a lot of cell phones. And a couple of them had some strange markings on them. So, yeah, I want to find out. And I would be willing to release it. I mean, maybe there’s a reason that we shouldn’t, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of my skis. But yeah, I would be very willing to release that. Donald Trump: I’d like to see it. I want to see it myself. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Donald Trump: Not only you, I want to see that one myself. Question: Mr. President? May I? Donald Trump: Yes. Question: President Macron yesterday said that France was ready to offer its nuclear protection to other European countries. What do you make of it? And in this case, would the US also maintain a nuclear umbrella for European countries? Donald Trump: Well, France is also willing to put soldiers into Ukraine for safety reasons if we can get it. I will say that we’ve made a lot of progress with Ukraine and a lot of progress with Russia over the last couple of days. And it would be great to bring that to an end, so we don’t have to talk that way about nuclear. Donald Trump: It’d be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons. You know, we have Russia and us have by far the most. China will have an equal amount within four or five years. And it would be great if we could all denuclearize. Because the power of nuclear weapons. It is crazy is crazy. And you know, I was very far along a process with Russia despite the Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax, which didn’t make it easy. Donald Trump: It was a total hoax, a total rigged hoax by some bad people. But despite that, I was very close to having a program with Russia, a denuclearization. And we were going to get China. I spoke to President Xi about it. And he would have been very happy to have gone along with it, but uh, bad things happened. Donald Trump: Like an election that was rigged happened. And so, we had to come back four years later. But I would very much like to start those talks. The opposite of what you say the denuclearization would be incredible. Question: Mr. President? On the auto tariffs that you were talking about, I know yesterday you spoke with the big three. Did you tell them that no more exemptions were on the way? And what was their reaction? Donald Trump: I told them that’s it. This was a short term deal. And they came back to me yesterday and they said could we have some help on the tariffs because of the speed. And I said look, I’m going to do it, but that’s it. Don’t come back to me after the second, April 2nd. I don’t want to hear from you after April 2nd. We’re not going to be doing it anymore. Donald Trump: I want to help them. Question: What was their response? Donald Trump: They didn’t complain. But I helped them short term during this short term transition. April 2nd is going to be a very big day for America. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? My understanding is that the long standing US policy is that we do not negotiate with terrorists, so how did you come to the decision to send somebody from your team to negotiate with Hamas? Donald Trump: We are having discussions with Hamas. We are helping Israel in those discussions because we’re talking about, uh, Israeli hostages. And we’re not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We’re not giving cash. We’re not giving $6 billion like you hear other administrations give. And in fact, I got 59 hostages out and we gave nothing. Donald Trump: In 59, we gave nothing, not including what’s going on with Hamas. I mean, I consider that something where we’re helping Israel for the most part. We had a couple of hostages as you know. We got a couple of hostages out. American hostages. Question: Mr. President? And were you – Donald Trump: But certainly, Peter, you know, I do have to negotiate. There’s a difference between negotiating and – and paying. Uh, we want to get these people out. If you would have seen the people yesterday, maybe you did, I don’t know, but if you would have seen them the way they spoke about their captivity, it was unbelievable. Donald Trump: It was terrible. Question: Are you thinking about making any changes to NATO where a NATO country gets attacked, but they’re not paying enough dues, so the United States doesn’t defend them? Donald Trump: Well, I’ve said that to them. I said if you’re not going to pay, we’re not going to defend. I said that seven years ago. And because of that, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars. I said if you’re not going to pay your bills, we’re not going to defend you. And it also went for the attack. But if they got attacked, they said, well, does that mean you won’t defend us? I said, are you current or are you delinquent? Donald Trump: They said if we were delinquent, would you? I said, nope, I would not. And because of that, as you know, hundreds of billions of dollars came into net. You wouldn’t have NATO right now if I weren’t there. And your previous secretary general has said that he said he’s never seen anything like it. When I came to NATO, when I first had my first meeting, I noticed that people weren’t paying their bills at all. Donald Trump: And I said, I should wait till my second meeting. And I did. And I brought that up. And I said if you don’t pay your bills, we’re not going to participate. We’re not going to protect you. And when I said that, as soon as I said that it was amazing how the money came in. The money came in and now they have money. Donald Trump: But even now, it’s not enough, it’s really not enough. They should be paying more. Question: Mr. President, a question on the investment, sir? You’ve overseen about $2 trillion worth of domestic private sector investments come in in just about two months. This is the newest one. It comes after your announcement of a new shipbuilding office at the White House during your joint session to Congress. Question: Can you talk about why this is important, not only for national security but to continue the renaissance of domestic manufacturing? Donald Trump: Well, we have to maintain a strong country. We have to maintain, and we want to pay off debt. We have a lot of debt, but that’ll start coming off quickly when this all comes around. Look, we’ve been supporting the whole world. You mentioned NATO and you mentioned other things. We’ve been supporting the whole world. Donald Trump: When I first came in, we were paying almost 100 percent of NATO. NATO was – it was crazy. We were supporting NATO. We were paying the bills for other countries. And yet, those same countries, mostly European, you know, the European countries were ripping us off in trade. They won’t take our cars. They wouldn’t take our agricultural products. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t take anything. We were taking their cars by the millions. Mercedes and BMW and you know, your little Volkswagen, all of them. We were taking their cars. They weren’t taking it. We were taking their farm products. They weren’t taking ours. It was a total rip off. And yet, we were protecting them by giving them the money. Donald Trump: And you know, that adds up to a bad – a bad number at the end of a lot of years. And that’s what happened. And now it’s time for this country to stop being ripped off. I had that done very much in the first administration, but then we had to focus on other things at the very end with COVID. And uh, but we had the greatest economy in history. Donald Trump: We had the greatest economy in history. I think we’re going to redo it here, but even better. And I wanted to do what we’re doing now in the first term, but we had so many other things to do. We had to fix the border, which we did. We had to fix our military. We rebuilt our military. We completely rebuilt the military only to watch Biden give so much of it away to Afghanistan, if you can believe it. It’s not even believable. Donald Trump: It’s not even believable what he did. The damage that that man did or that administration did to this country is – is frankly not even believable. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: And in particular – and in particular, allowing millions and millions of people to come into our country. Many of them were murderers and – and drug dealers and gang members and people from prison for very heinous crimes. For him to allow those people into our country. And now, we’re spending tremendous amounts of time and effort. Donald Trump: Nikki and Tom Homan, who’s doing an unbelievable job, but we shouldn’t – we shouldn’t have to be spending anything on that. We had the safest border ever. Now, we have actually, as you saw, the numbers just came out where we have actually the lowest numbers in the history of our country. But we shouldn’t have had to do that. Donald Trump: What we – what we’re doing now is we’re looking for murderers. Can you believe it? We’re looking for murderers because thousands of murderers, some, some – about 50 percent killed more than one person. One killed five or seven. And we’re looking for those people right now. We shouldn’t have to be looking for them. Donald Trump: President Trump, on Peter’s question, are you going to make that policy US policy that the US wouldn’t defend NATO countries that don’t pay – Well, I think it’s common sense, right? If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them. I got into a lot of heat when I said that. Donald Trump: You said, oh, he’s violating NATO. And you know the biggest problem I have with NATO, I really, you know, I mean, I know the guys very well, they’re friends of mine, but if the United States was in trouble and we called them, we said we got a problem, France, we got a problem, a couple of others I won’t mention. Donald Trump: Do you think they’re going to come and protect us? They’re supposed to. I’m not so sure. So you know, with Japan – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – you know, with Japan we have a deal, which is a very interesting one. And I love Japan. We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us. Did you know that? That’s the way the deal reads. We have to protect Japan. Donald Trump: And by the way, they make a fortune with us economically. There’s another case. But we have to protect Japan, but under no circumstances do they have to protect us. I actually ask who makes these deals? Yeah, Peter? Question: Well, so why stay in NATO at all? Donald Trump: Um, I view NATO as potentially good, but you got to get – you got to get some good thinking in NATO. It’s very unfair what’s been happening. Until I came along, we were paying close to 100 percent of NATO. So think of it, we’re paying 100 percent of their military and they’re screwing us on trade. Question: And when Zelenskyy inevitably comes back to the White House, what do you expect from him? And do you think you’ll see him in a necktie? Donald Trump: Well, I think what’s going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal. Because I don’t think they have a choice. I also think that Russia wants to make a deal. Because in a certain different way, a different way that only I know, only I know, they have no choice either. Question: Are you still thinking of going to Saudi Arabia and meeting with Putin about this? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I can’t tell you. I’m going to Saudi Arabia. Question: Mr. President – They’ve been – Donald Trump: You know, I’ve – I’ve – Question: You know, – Donald Trump: I’ve made a deal with Saudi Arabia where because normally you’d go to UK first. And last time I went to Saudi Arabia, they put up $450 million. You know that right? You were there. We had a – we had American companies that took in $450 million. I said, well, this time they’ve gotten richer. We’ve all gotten older. Donald Trump: So I said I’ll go if you pay $1 trillion, $1 trillion to American companies, meaning the purchase over a four year period of $1 trillion. And they’ve agreed to do that. So I’m going to be going there. And I have a great relationship with them. And they’ve been very nice. But they’re going to be spending a lot of money to American companies for buying military equipment and a lot of other things. Question: So is that a trip in the near future? Donald Trump: Well, probably over the next month and a half, yeah. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President, you told us a couple of weeks ago that you were looking to speak with President Xi of China. That hasn’t happened. How come? And what are you waiting for? Donald Trump: Well, I’ve spoken to him, yeah. Question: Since – since that last phone call? Donald Trump: I don’t want to say that, but I have spoken to him. Yeah, please. Question: Yeah, Mr. President, regarding – Donald Trump: I have a great relationship with President Xi. Question: But you’ve spoken to him – Donald Trump: It was hurt because of COVID. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: That’s why I don’t call it the China virus anymore. He said, please don’t call it the China virus. Question: But – but to be clear, you’ve spoken to him since January 17th? Donald Trump: I want to say that, but I have spoken to him. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: And I speak to him a lot. Question: Regarding this executive order you signed revoking security clearances at Perkins Coie. Um, do you think there should be more steps like this to be taken against other people involved in the Russia collusion? Donald Trump: I do, but that’s going to be up ultimately to the attorney general and various other people. Question: Absolutely. Mr. President – Just as a follow up. The other night, you know, we saw Democrats behavior during your joint address to Congress. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Do you think it shows just how out of touch they are with the American people, especially given that 79 percent, according to a CBS poll approved of your – of your – Donald Trump: I love this guy. Who are you with? Question: My name is Nick Gilbertson with Breitbart News. Donald Trump: I see. I really liked your questions. Question: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Sir, regarding the executive order? Donald Trump: The answer is just – Nick, just to – and I know your name very well, good job, you do. Question: Thank you. Donald Trump: Yeah, the answer is I thought it was very embarrassing for the Democrats what happened the other night. And that’s not said for any other reason other than it’s obvious. It’s a fact. Even – even CNN fake news said that. They came out and they said it. And worse than CNN is MSNBC, which is the worst. And the good news is very few people watch them anymore. Donald Trump: They have lost such credibility. And frankly, what Nicole Wallace said, uh, I’ve never been a fan of hers, but – and she’s not very talented. But I’ll tell you what she said the other day about that young man is disgraceful. She should be forced to resign. And Rachel Maddow should be forced to resign. Nobody watches her anyway. Donald Trump: I don’t know if – it’s not possible they pay her as much money as I hear, but certainly she’s lost all credibility, both of them. But what they – what they said the other day they should be forced to resign about that young person who is – who is suffering greatly. Thank you, Nick. Question: Will you – will you extend – Mr. President – If a TikTok deal is not made on the timeline you gave, will you extend that? Will you – Donald Trump: Probably. Question: You will? OK, because – Donald Trump: Yeah, I think – look, we have a lot of interest in TikTok. Uh, and China is going to play a role. And so, hopefully, China will approve of the deal. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: But they’re going to play a role. Question: Are you closely – Donald Trump: But we have a lot – we have a lot of interest in TikTok. Question: How long would you extend it? And how close are you to it? Donald Trump: Well, we’ll see. But if I need – I know right now we have at least another month, so we don’t need an extension. But if I needed an extension, I’d probably get it extended. Yeah? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, regarding the executive order, there was talk that you might sign one winding down the education department. Donald Trump: Which – which department? Question: The education department. Are you having second thoughts on that? Donald Trump: No, no, no. Question: What’s the – Donald Trump: No, no, I want to bring the schools – I want to bring the schools back to the states. And you know, I’ve said it a hundred times, we’re ranked at the bottom of the list and yet we spend more. We’re ranked number one for – for cost per student. We’re ranked at the bottom of the list in education. And I know if I bring it back to Iowa, Indiana, Idaho, all these great states, I think I could say 40 states. Donald Trump: I want to bring it back. Ten states won’t be perfect, five states will be probably not so good. But they will be every bit as good as Norway and Denmark and Sweden and all of the states that are rated at the top. If you tell me about Indiana and some of these great states that run really well, Iowa, you tell me about those states, and if they run their own education, they’re going to do a lot better than somebody sitting in Washington, DC that couldn’t care less about the pupils out in the Midwest. Question: Mr. President – [Inaudible] sign that? And when would you sign that order? Donald Trump: Well, I want to just do it. I mean, we’re starting the process. We’re trying to get the schools back into the states. Let the states run the schools. And I’ll tell you. You’ll see something it’s going to – it’s going to blow your mind. It’ll be run so well, the school system. And I also believe in school choice. Donald Trump: But that will take care of itself. Question: A follow up to that, Mr. President? If the education department were eliminated, how would you see sort of what department – what agency would handle student loans and the other types of federal grants that – Donald Trump: That would be brought in – yeah, that would be brought in into either Treasury or Small Business Administration or Commerce. And we’ve actually had that discussion today. I don’t think the education should be handling the loans. That’s not their business. I think it will be brought into Small Business, maybe. Donald Trump: Kelly really liked it and really would like to do it. So the loans would be brought into a group where they really do that. And I think [Inaudible]. That is, by the way, the most complicated thing in moving, but it’s very simple if you do that. [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible] rejected your plan to move out more than 2 million people out of Gaza. What’s your reaction to that? And to Egypt’s plan and to this meeting that happened – Donald Trump: Out of Gaza? Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: I think that Gaza is a mess. And I think that Gaza could be good. I think it’s got to be run properly. But right now, Gaza is an absolute mess. And it has been for many, many years and decades. Yeah, Peter, did you have one more? Question: I did, yeah, they had these two Starliner astronauts stuck in space for eight months. Have you spoken to them? Donald Trump: Oh, boy. They left them alone. Biden left him up there. Question: And what do you know about that? I – Donald Trump: I know everything about it. I said we have two astronauts that are stuck in space. I have asked Elon, I said do me a favor. Can you get them out? He said yes. He is preparing to go up I think in two weeks, two and a half weeks. Question: What you know about how this went down? Because he’s saying that the Biden White House was offered some kind of SpaceX rocket to go get these guys. And they said, no. Donald Trump: That’s what I heard. I can’t tell you that, but that’s what I heard. But Biden was embarrassed by what happened. And he said leave them up there. I would have said if you’re embarrassed, you got to get them out. Elon is right now preparing a ship to go up and get them. Question: I’m sure that they will see this in space. What is your message to them? Donald Trump: We love you. And we’re coming up to get you. And you shouldn’t have been up there so long. The most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you. But this president won’t let – it happen. We’re going to get them out. We’re coming up to get you. I’ve authorized Elon. I said, can you get them out? Donald Trump: Because you know, they’ve been left up there. I hope they like each other. [Laughter] But they’ve been – maybe they’ll love each other. I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it. And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good, solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair, but – uh and you know, there’s a danger up there, too. Donald Trump: They can have some failures up there. That would be very bad. You got to get them out. So I’ve – I’ve authorized Elon a week ago, I said, you know, we have two people up there that Biden and Kamala left up there. And he knows it very well. I said, are you equipped to get him? And he said, yeah. He’s got a starship. Donald Trump: And they’re preparing it right now. And so, Elon is going to go up and get them. Should I go on that journey just to be on the ship when we stop? Question: If that’s an option, yes. Donald Trump: I should do it. Oh, that’s terrible. I thought he liked me. I thought he liked me. Question: [Inaudible] space. Donald Trump: I thought – Maria, should I do it? Question: Well, you should then – Maria Bartiromo: Stay here. Donald Trump: Maria likes me better. Question: President Trump, should then come back from space – Maria Bartiromo: Stay here. Donald Trump: Well, when they come back, I’ll greet them. How about that? [Laughter] Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: No, no, we’re going to get them out. I’ve authorized Elon Musk to go and get them. And he’s prepared to do so. Question: Mr. President, what are you making of the market sell off this week? Donald Trump: I think it’s just – Question: What’s [Inaudible] it? Donald Trump: I think it’s globalist that see how rich our country is going to be. And they don’t like it. You know, it’s a big market out there. But again, they’ve been ripping off this country for years. And now – and they’re going to do great. Everyone’s going to do great. But we can’t let this continue to happen to America. Donald Trump: Otherwise, we’re not going to have a country any longer. Thank you very much everybody. Unidentified: Thank you, press. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Great. Thank you, Nick.
Date: 2025-03-06
Believe it or not, despite the terrible job he’s done for Canada, I think that Justin Trudeau is using the Tariff problem, which he has largely caused, in order to run again for Prime Minister. So much fun to watch!
Date: 2025-03-07
Question: Kevin, couple of quick questions? Kevin Hassett: Oh, the press is here? Yes, yes. Happy job today, everybody. Question: When you get to the microphone, can you just start by telling us your perception of what the job numbers mean? Kevin Hassett: Sure. Thanks and hi. I’m Kevin Hassett, director of National Economic Council. I guess most of you know that. I see some new faces. It’s nice to be here. Yes, I thought that it was a really, really impressive jobs report that in the Biden administration, there were some strong jobs numbers that were based on government employment, especially federal government employment. Kevin Hassett: Over the last couple of years, about 25 percent of the job creation was government workers. And President Trump has made it clear that he wants to reduce spending on unproductive government workers, since we saw a reduction in federal employment of about 10,000 workers. Despite that, we had a pretty strong jobs report and the jobs report was especially strong for manufacturing. Kevin Hassett: So, we created 10,000 manufacturing jobs in February. And to compare that to the Biden administration, 111,000 manufacturing jobs were destroyed last year and 10,000 were created in February, 9000 of those were auto jobs, which are a key focus of the president. You could ask yourself, “Well, why were those jobs created here in the US?” Well, it’s because people are wary of what might happen with tariffs in the future and they’re already onshoring American production. Kevin Hassett: And it’s not just auto workers, that this is not the first report that’s going to look at this – look like this. You know, we’ve got more than $1 trillion of commitments of new factories in the U.S. because people are trying to onshore production. And this is the first of many reports that are going to look like this. Question: How would you describe the differences between Trump’s first term and now his second term? Kevin Hassett: Oh, gosh, that’s a broad question, so you have to make it more specific for me. Question: I mean – Kevin Hassett: I’m in a different office. Question: The economic numbers though, I mean his approach to the economy and how he wants it to succeed – Kevin Hassett: Sure. Question: – what is he doing differently this term? Kevin Hassett: Well – well, don’t forget that it’s the – the first month of President Trump’s term and most of the policies that are in place are policies that he inherited from the Biden administration, like the phased out taxes and so on, the massive swarm of new regulations under the Biden administration. And so, there are a lot of things that President Trump’s policies haven’t really been able to change yet. Kevin Hassett: But the things that he – the actions that he has taken in the first few weeks are quite visible in the jobs report. So, for example, he’s taken an action to reduce federal government employment and we saw that in the jobs report. So, that’s something that you could definitely attribute it to President Trump’s policies. Kevin Hassett: He’s made it so that we’re a more attractive place to onshore production, especially manufacturing. And we saw manufacturing jobs go up 10,000 after dropping 111,000 last year. And so, you would definitely feel like that’s fair to attribute to him as well. But there are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that have to be put together, especially on cutting government spending so that we don’t have runaway inflation increasing, energy production and having the tax cuts passed. Question: How much time do – how much of the DOGE cuts impact the jobs report? Kevin Hassett: I think that the DOGE – the DOGE cuts wouldn’t have shown up in at the jobs report very much yet. One of the things about these jobs reports, remember is that they survey them in one week and then call that the data for the month and the survey week was kind of the beginning of February. And so, I don’t think that we would see much of these cuts in that report. Kevin Hassett: And I think that you’ll see bigger reductions in federal government employment in the next report. Question: On tariffs, China has signaled it’s open to talking. Is that something the administration is willing to do? Kevin Hassett: Right. Yes, the president is always willing to talk. I think that the – what’s going on right now, right, is that we’ve got a drug war. The president is adamant that we reduce fentanyl deaths in the US. We’ve made an enormous – enormous amount of progress with Canada and with Mexico. Some people have said, “Oh, geez, you know, it looks like you know – you’re – there’s some disorder because you’re changing the parameters.” But that’s what negotiations are that you say, “Hey, if you do this, if you do that, then I’ll move the parameters because we’ll show that we’re making progress.” And so, the Canadians and the Mexicans have made a lot of progress and that’s why we revised the tariff schedules along the way because this is a drug war. Kevin Hassett: The – the Chinese have not and that’s why the tariff on the Chinese production has gone up. Question: What do you say to businesses who say they cannot plan with the current uncertainty? And then farmers worried about losing market share since, you know, China’s announced those retaliatory tariffs on soybeans, corn, other products? Kevin Hassett: I – I don’t think that there’s going to be a heck of a lot of uncertainty. I think that the fentanyl war, we’re going to make a huge amount of progress on and that will be resolved hopefully by April. And then on April 1st or April 2nd, we’ll announce what our reciprocal tariffs are and at that point uncertainty will be mostly resolved. Question: Can I ask you about the steel and aluminum tariffs? Kevin Hassett: I’ll – I’ll go this way and then I’ll come that way, I promise. Yes. Question: Just while we’re on tariffs – Kevin Hassett: OK, yes. Question: – if I could ask about the steel and aluminum tariffs. Those are already signed into law for March 12th, next Wednesday. Obviously, a big friction point with Canada and Mexico in the first term. Have that – has that come up in conversations with those countries? Do you expect retaliation and what might that look like next week? Kevin Hassett: I’m not sure about retaliation, but one of the things that we’ve seen is that when there’s a war, that steel production is really key for national defense as is aluminum. And I like to think back that people think that the reason that the US was able to help the allies win the Second World War was US production, right? Kevin Hassett: That’s what we always learned in high school. Then you could ask yourself, “Well, what were we producing that helped us with the war?” And it was steel products. And so, President Trump thinks it’s a national security matter that we have a strong vibrant steel industry and he’s pursuing policies to do that. Kevin Hassett: And he wants the steel industry to be in the – in the US. And – and so, you know, I think that one of the problems that – that he sees in Canada for example, is that there are a lot of foreign steel producers that come into Canada and then ship into the US and undermine the US steel industry, and he’s working on getting that resolved with them. Question: Would he consider any exemptions for those tariffs? Kevin Hassett: I – I – he really doesn’t like the word exemption. If I walk in and offer an exemption, then I’ll probably get kicked out of the office. We’ll see how it goes though. Maybe there’ll be some, I doubt it. Yes, over here? Yes? Question: The president just posted on Truth Social, he’s strongly considering big sanctions on Russian banking. Maybe also tariffs to drive them to the negotiating table for a cease fire and peace agreement. What levers haven’t been pulled yet and what companies could be in the crosshairs? Give us some details on what he’s looking at. Kevin Hassett: The – President Trump is adamant that we need to get everybody to the table and we could do that with carrots and we could do that with sticks. And he’s talking to everybody and he’s got, you know, a whole litany of potential proposals that he could throw their way to get them to the table. But the bottom line is the president wants to stop the carnage. Kevin Hassett: He wants to save lives and he wants to end the war. And he’s doing everything he can to – to talk people into going to the table and trying to do that. And exactly, you know, how they do it with carrots or sticks is something that’s a work in progress. And it’s, you know, Marco Rubio and the president are working on that every day. Question: Do you have any names of companies that might be impacted? Because we know – Kevin Hassett: No, I don’t – I don’t have – Question: – so like, what’s left? Kevin Hassett: Oh, I mean, there are a heck of a lot of things that are – that are left for sure, but – but – but let’s – let’s see how it goes. Question: Kevin on tariffs, the president has spoken about short-term pain. He’s spoken about disruptions, interruptions. What are we talking about? How long is that short-term pain that American consumers should prepare for as it relates to these tariffs? Kevin Hassett: What I – Question: Could you face the camera, sorry? Kevin Hassett: Oh, I’m sorry, yes, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t realize that – yes. What – what I’m most interested in right now, what I’ve been seeing is the short-term gain. So, we’ve got more manufacturing jobs. We’ve got revenue coming in from tariffs. We’ve got interest rates going down quite a bit, saving each basis point about $1 billion for taxpayers. Kevin Hassett: And I know that there’s some uncertainty, but in the end, if we make it so that it’s really attractive to produce things in the US, then all the value of production of the US that moves here is a positive for the economy. And so, I – I don’t really think that – I mean, sure there’s going to be some uncertainty, especially between now and April before the reciprocal tariffs are – are finalized. Kevin Hassett: But after that then you know, it – it should be just gain. It’s going to be a golden age because what we’re doing is we’re moving towards a world where domestic production in the US is the most attractive place to produce on earth. And so, if you’re thinking about, “Where do I want to invest my money? Do I want to be at a place that’s a really attractive place to invest? Kevin Hassett: And would I – would I rather have policies that make America more and more attractive a year from now? Or would you like to keep the Biden policies? What would the world look like if we had the Biden policies compared to that?” And there’s just no way that you could get anything other than a big positive out of, you know, deregulation, incentives for onshore production and lower tax rates. Question: When he says short-term pain, the way I read that is prices going up. You know, for Americans going to the supermarket, they’ll notice an increase in prices or filling up their gas tank. Is that the way you read it when the president says that? Kevin Hassett: I – yes, I’m not sure. I’d – I’d have to talk to him about what – what he means, but the bottom line is most of the stuff that people produce or consume in the US is produced in the US and wouldn’t be affected by this. And so, we’ve got a big tax cut coming. Question: Even produce, now? Kevin Hassett: Excuse me? Question: There’s so much produce that comes from Mexico. You say most [Inaudible]. Kevin Hassett: Yes, I mean there – yes. Question: There’s a significant percentage. You disagree with me that there’s a significant percentage of produce coming from Mexico? Kevin Hassett: No there – there are – there are some things that are coming in as well, but – but on the other hand, you know, that if you don’t spend – here’s a way to think about it. Question: Don’t buy vegetables? Kevin Hassett: If – no, if you don’t spend $2 trillion on wasteful government spending, sending billions and billions of dollars to the Green New Scam, to accounts that we don’t know even know where they are, but they’re – they’re accounts that have US dollars that are paid for by US taxpayers, that creates this massive inflation. Kevin Hassett: If we – if we reduce inflation at the aggregate level by stopping the $2 trillion a year of deficit spending, then that’s going to be way more impactful on the price of groceries than a tariff here or there. And so – so, I think that it’s really easy to get lost on the – oh the minutia of the tariff without looking at the macroeconomic effects. Kevin Hassett: Why did we have 20-something percent inflation, not counting interest rates in the Biden administration? You know, it – it wasn’t because of a change in their tariff policy. It was because of the most reckless government spending that we’ve seen since the 1970s. And we’re – we’re fixing that. That’s what DOGE is doing. Kevin Hassett: We’re fixing that and that should reduce inflation and help people at the grocery store. Question: Can I ask – Kevin Hassett: Yes, sure. Question: – one more question? You mentioned you think it’ll show up in next month’s jobs report or maybe the one after that. Do you anticipate then that there could be some weakness in future jobs reports? Maybe a short term adjustment on that realm? Kevin Hassett: No, I don’t think so. I – I think this jobs report is about what the baseline should be right now. Question: But on federal, do you see – Kevin Hassett: But for federal, they’ll be more – more down and there’ll be more increases in manufacturing and so on. I think I have one last question [Inaudible]. Question: You talk about the Green New Scam and money going out, but obviously that was an initiative, a policy that never went through, wasn’t passed by Congress. What do you mean when you refer to the Green New Scam? Kevin Hassett: Well, go look at the stuff that Lee Zeldin has been talking about, about the billions and billions of dollars that have been put into nonprofits that were started right before President Trump came into office. And you know, I don’t think that it’s in any way a disputable that deficit spending skyrocketed under President Biden. Kevin Hassett: If you think about it, the – the COVID spending which was there because of an emergency, became the new baseline and then created runaway inflation. And finally, I want to go back to the interest rate point I made that – that when you go buy a car that that if the monthly interest rate is higher, then the car payment is way higher, but that doesn’t show up in the inflation number. Kevin Hassett: And so, if you adjust for what inflation is, if you account for the cost of borrowing money to buy a car or borrowing money to buy a house, that inflation is perhaps off by – by a factor of two. So, you wonder why Americans are so upset about inflation and Biden inflation, it’s because of the high interest rates that happened because they printed money. Kevin Hassett: And that’s – and that’s what I’m talking about. Question: Sir, if I can then follow up? Early on when we talked about – you were saying to John about how we’re getting revenue from the tariffs. Can you help Americans better understand how that works, that we’re getting revenue from tariffs? Because the way it’s often explained to us is well, the consumers ultimately pay that. Question: It’s the companies that are taking in these goods that have to pay that money. So, it’s not going to Treasury. How is – how are Americans seeing revenue from tariffs? Kevin Hassett: Sure, sure, let’s – let’s think through the economics of it that – so let’s – let’s look at China. So, what happens is if you put a tax on something and it’s inelastically supplied, then the person who supplies it is the one who pays the tax. And so, if you have an apple tree and it’s got 100 apples and you got to go to market and you got to sell your hundred apples, then you’re going to sell the 100 apples no matter what. Kevin Hassett: You’re not going to adjust anything. And so, the most inelastic thing in the global economy is Chinese supply. So, if you put a tariff on Chinese supply, then the Chinese are going to bear it. The only way they wouldn’t bear it is that they moved capital out of the country, but they can’t move capital out of the country. Kevin Hassett: They have capital controls. So, the most inelastic thing in the world is Chinese supply. If we put a tariff on China, the Chinese pay it, not US consumers. And by the way, how do they produce the stuff? They produce the stuff with electricity that’s fired with coal. So, it subsets. It’s like a carbon tax, as well. Kevin Hassett: And so – so everybody who talks about the tariff hitting consumers just hasn’t done basic Econ 101. Question: So, to the Americans, because we’ve been seeing interviews, at least just flipping channels on TV where there are businesses around America saying we have to raise our prices because things are coming to us. They’re passing on those prices to consumers. So, we’re – are they mistaken? What are we missing there? Kevin Hassett: Well – well – Question: Why are Americans paying more? Kevin Hassett: Oh, well, President Biden just wasted, you know, last year $2 trillion on excess deficit spending and we haven’t passed the reconciliation bill that cuts spending yet. And so, of course the memory of the Biden policies which are still in place is going to be visible in the inflation data until we get the policy changed. Question: So, to be clear. When they say it’s because of the new tariffs, that’s why they’re raising the prices that – I just get confused because they keep telling us. What are – what are we missing? Kevin Hassett: Well, I don’t know who you’re talking to, but – but – but the point is that – that do – do you dispute that having runaway deficit spending impacts inflation and that those inflation impacts are large? I don’t think you would dispute that. Question: Wait, but you just said that China would pay these tariffs, but it’s American businesses importing goods that – that remit the money to the government, right? Kevin Hassett: No, no, it’s – it’s Chinese production that bears the – the tax. It’s simple. Yes, they do. It’s simple taxes, it is. Question: They aren’t handing the money over to the US is what I’m saying. They aren’t directly [Inaudible]. Kevin Hassett: In – in the end, the – let’s go through a simple example that I used to mow lawns and I’d get money and I’d go buy candy bars at the grocery store. And let’s say I was – it was a quarter, but let’s use a dollar. Question: Sure. Kevin Hassett: So, if I put a dollar down to buy a candy bar and then all of a sudden Massachusetts says ten cent tax, then if I go and buy my candy bar, if it costs $1.10, then I paid the $0.10. If the candy bar is a dollar, then the store gets $0.90 and they paid the $0.10 tax. And so, tax incidences like what happens to the price when Kevin buys the candy bar? Kevin Hassett: Is it less than a dollar or is it more than a dollar? And what I’m saying is that the – the store paying $0.90 and paying $0.10 tax that that circumstance is something that economists well understand and it matches exactly the characteristics of the Chinese economy. So, the Chinese are going to pair that – pay that tax. Question: Do tariffs ever raise the prices for consumers? Kevin Hassett: Sure, if you have like really elastically supplied stuff and really inelastically demanded stuff, then they would raise the price for consumers for sure. And so – so the – if you have no substitute and you have to get that one thing and – and, yes, then it could for sure. Well, thank you guys so much. Kevin Hassett: It’s great to have you. Question: See you guys Let me keep going, OK?
Date: 2025-03-07
Donald Trump: We’ll talk about that. Hello, everybody. So before we begin, we’re going to talk about how good some of these numbers are – be way ahead of schedule, especially as respect to manufacturing and manufacturing jobs. It’s taking hold, and we’ve only been here a few weeks. But it’s really – it’s going to be something. Donald Trump: I don’t know if the rest of the world likes it, but people in the US like it, that I can tell you. Uh, if I might, could – Will, could you talk about the student loan situation, please? Will Scharf: Sure. So later this afternoon, we’re going to have prepared for your signature an executive order dealing with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. This is a program that’s designed to expedite the – basically the conclusion of payments on student loans for people who have taken out federally backed student loans. Will Scharf: The problem, though, is that a lot of these people work for – for NGO organizations, for nonprofit organizations that engage in illegal or what we would consider to be improper activities supporting, for example, illegal immigration or foreign terrorist organizations or otherwise law-breaking activities. Will Scharf: So this executive order will direct your Department of Education and Department of the Treasury to basically bring about modifications to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program in order to ensure that people who are engaged in these sorts of activities can’t benefit from a program that’s really not intended to support those sorts of things. Donald Trump: And what are the consequences if they are not good? Will Scharf: The consequences would be that wouldn’t get forgiveness of their student loans as they would be eligible for if they were working for the government or a normal nonprofit that’s not violating the law. Donald Trump: All right. Any questions on that? Anybody have any questions? So we’ll talk about the manufacturing turnaround and it’s been very early, but it’s pretty significant. The numbers were much better, as you know, than projected by the media. And a little surprising actually how strong, how fast, because many companies that are moving into our country. Donald Trump: As you probably know, it’s a statistic that everyone talks about, but nobody seems to have done much about. Since the beginning of NAFTA, there’s been 90,000 plants and factories closed in this country. Think of that, 90,000 plants and factories have been closed in this country. Many of them have been car manufacturing plants, and that’s a terrible statistic and we’ll be turning that around. Donald Trump: You’re going to see it already. We already have numerous that are being built or starting to be built and numerous that were being built in other countries and they stopped and they’re coming here now because of the tariffs, and that’s a big deal. That’s what you want to hear. During the last year, the Biden administration saw a loss of more than 110,000 manufacturing jobs or 9,000 manufacturing jobs every single month. Donald Trump: It averaged about 9,000 a month, 110,000 manufacturing jobs. During the first full month in office, we’ve not only stopped that manufacturing collapse, but we’ve begun to rapidly reverse it and get major gains. We created 10,000 manufacturing jobs in February alone. That hasn’t happened in a long time. And these aren’t government jobs, which actually we cut. Donald Trump: These are private sector manufacturing jobs. So we gained all of those jobs, thousand jobs and we’ve barely started yet, that’s a very unusual number, people were surprised by it. I’m even a little surprised. On auto jobs, we created almost 9,000 new jobs in the auto production field, and the reason for that is largely they think things are happening, so they’re already geared up. In some cases, they had rooms in their plants, or they had empty plants that they were able to put into use quickly because they see – because of the tariffs, they don’t want to be dealing with other places, and they don’t want to go back and forth and around and through the borders and across Mexico border and Canada border and all. Donald Trump: They want to have the jobs in one location. And they’ve had space. And if they had space, they were able to create the jobs almost immediately. In some cases, they’ll be building plants to take care of those jobs. So, we created 9,000 new jobs already in the auto production, auto parts manufacturing. So, we want the auto parts ideally, and I think from a simplicity standpoint too, to be built and made in the United States. Donald Trump: It’s in a single month, that all took place in a single month, 9,000 new auto jobs. You haven’t heard that in a long time. After autoworkers lost more than 27,000 auto jobs in the final year of Biden – these are also high paying jobs. These are very prime jobs. The ISM Manufacturing Survey and the S&P Manufacturing Survey have also confirmed that our administration is presiding over a brand-new domestic manufacturing boom after major collapse under Biden, it was a collapse. Donald Trump: All he did was keep adding new government jobs which are not the jobs you want. We’re trying to shrink government and grow the private sector. That’s what we’ve been doing. Under the final two years of Biden, one in every four jobs created in America was a government job. That’s a tremendous percentage. But under the first full month of President Trump, which we haven’t even gotten started yet, an incredible 93 percent of all job gains were in the private sector. Donald Trump: So, that statistic just came out. Big gains for native born Americans. For the first time in 15 months, the job gains for native born Americans, for American people, people born in America exceeded job gains for migrant and foreign born workers. This is the first time that’s happened in more than 15 months. Donald Trump: Employment for native born workers went up by 284,000 while foreign born workers went down by 87,000. Now you’ve heard the same stat where foreign workers were taking up all the jobs or almost all the jobs, in some cases literally all of the jobs. And now it’s 284,000 native born jobs here. People born in our country, 284,000, while foreign born workers went down by 87,000. First time that’s happened in a long time. Donald Trump: So, these are incredible numbers and they’re there very early. I mean, we’re here for five weeks, but we have been talking about it since the big win in November, November 5th. So, a lot of these people – they listen to us speak and they say, well, I’m going to gear up. And they’re gearing up. And so, they’ve been gearing up, they’ve had a little time. Donald Trump: It’s not just five weeks; it’s five weeks plus a few months and they are – they put it into effect pretty quickly. They have confidence that I’m – what I’m saying is going to happen. So, with that, I’d like to ask a highly respected gentleman, Kevin Hassett, he’s been with us for a long time, and he’s been right about a lot. Donald Trump: We had the greatest economy in history in the first term and Kevin was a big part of it. So, Kevin, could you maybe give it a little description, please? Kevin Hassett: Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Trump. I think that the three things that you emphasized during the campaign is that you wanted to create domestic high paying manufacturing jobs, that you wanted to end wasteful government spending and reduce the unproductive government workers and, in fact, unleash them into the private economy where they could be more productive and to create jobs for Americans. Kevin Hassett: A lot of people said that if you deported illegals that employment would go down because no one – no Americans would take those jobs. And if you look 280,000 American born folks were hired, manufacturing jobs are going up. And this is just out of the expectation of your future policies really, sir. It’s in April when your reciprocal Trade Act is expected to happen. Kevin Hassett: The tax cuts haven’t passed yet, and so people are clearly expecting the golden age. And if you want to forecast the future numbers, everybody, just keep in mind that President Trump has already gotten us $1.7 trillion in commitments of new factories and those haven’t even happened yet, those aren’t even in the numbers. Kevin Hassett: And so, I expect that this is going to be a glimpse of a golden age to come, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. One other thing – in Canada, we find that they’re charging us over 200 percent for dairy products. You know about that. And when I left, we had that well taken care of, but under Biden they just kept raising it – very difficult to deal with the Canadian Representatives, 250 percent for dairy products, tariff. Donald Trump: So, where do you hear that? You don’t hear that. They have a tremendously high tariff, give you the exact numbers in a little while coming out, on lumber. So, they sell us lumber, they have a tremendous tariff. They make it impossible for us to sell lumber or dairy products into Canada, but our numbers are a tiny fraction of that, almost non-existent. Donald Trump: And what we’re doing is freeing up our forests from the environmental nonsense that they put on them where you can’t cut down a tree, and we have to cut down trees in order to build the firewalls. And those trees are sold. But we’re going to – we’re freeing it up on an emergency basis because Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products. 250 percent, nobody ever talks about that 250 percent tariff, which is taking advantage of our farmers. Donald Trump: So, that’s not going to happen anymore. We’re going to be – they’ll be met with the exact same tariff unless they drop it. And that’s what reciprocal means, and we may do it as early as today or we’ll wait till Monday or Tuesday. But that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to charge the same thing. It’s not fair, it never has been fair, and they’ve treated our farmers badly. Donald Trump: Look, our country has been ripped off by everybody – that stops now. I had it stopped in my first term and we’re going to really stop it now because this is – this has been very unfair. Our country, from an economic standpoint and financial standpoint and a trade standpoint has been absolutely ripped off by almost every country in the world, Canada, Mexico and then you just go right down the line. Donald Trump: India charges us massive tariffs, massive. You can’t even sell anything into India. It’s almost restrictive – it is restrictive. We do very little business inside. They’ve agreed – by the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody’s finally exposing them for what they’ve done. And same thing with China, same thing with a lot of other countries. Donald Trump: And the EU has been a terrible abuser of this country. I mean, the EU was formulated in order to take advantage of the United States, and they have taken it, but they’re not taking advantage when I’m in charge. So, sometimes you’ll hear some negative things, it’s always from outside countries. America will be very strong. Donald Trump: And if I’m a foreign country, they’re going to do fine, but they can’t do like they used to do because we’re going to bring back our business into this country. We need it from a job standpoint. We need it from even just a psychological standpoint. Think of it, 90,000 factories are gone since the beginning of NAFTA. So, we’re not going to have that and we’re going to see and build it back. Donald Trump: Now we have – we’ve already had five major automobile companies, first time you’ve heard this in a long time, since my first term actually, where we were really rocking and rolling. And then Biden came in and he stopped everything. Such a stupid thing to do, not even a believable thing. But we have many auto plants now coming in. We have big chip plants. Donald Trump: We have the best – the biggest chip company in the world, most powerful – probably one of the most powerful companies in the world, wouldn’t you say, Kevin? And he’s coming in and they’re building one of the largest chip plants in the world. That’ll be done in Arizona, mostly in Arizona. And that’ll give us a big percentage – at one plant, will give us a big percentage of the chip market, something we have very little of. We used to have Intel and Intel was run by a man named Andy Grove. Donald Trump: And Andy Grove was a tough, smart guy. I used to read about him when I was a young man, and he did an incredible job. He really dominated the chip business and then he died. And I guess they had a series of people that didn’t know what the hell they were doing, and we gradually lost the chip business and now it’s almost exclusively in Taiwan. Donald Trump: They stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit. I blame the people that were sitting in this seat because they allowed it to happen. We could have protected that so easily. But – so, we had the chip business and now it’s all in Taiwan, almost exclusively, a little bit in South Korea, but mostly in Taiwan. Donald Trump: And it’s very important. Everything you do, everything you touch is now about chips. The brake of a car, cars have chips all over the place. I was reading an article the other day where they talk about the brakes of a car are loaded up with chips. Donald Trump: Who would think that a brake has a chip in it, but it’s all about chips. So that was a big thing and they’ll be investing hundreds of billions of dollars in this country and we’ll be taking back a big, big portion of that industry. We have others coming in too, but a lot of car manufacturers are coming in and they’re coming in fast. Donald Trump: And one of the reasons you see these numbers, and again, Kevin said it and I said it a little bit, but the fact that they know I won the election. So after I was president elect, they assumed that I was going to do what I said because I do what I say. And so these numbers really reflect a lot of things that took place since November 5th, right? Donald Trump: So Kevin, thank you very much. Great job. Any questions? Question: Mr. President, how concerned are you that the large-scale federal government layoffs will weaken the labor market? How concerned are you about that? Donald Trump: The large-scale fentanyl what? Question: The federal government layoffs will impact the labor market, will weaken the labor market. Donald Trump: Oh. No, I think the labor market is going to be fantastic, but it’s going to have high paying manufacturing jobs as opposed to government jobs. We had too many people in government. You can’t just do that. We had many, many – too many. This is for 40 years. This isn’t just now. This built up and got worse and worse and they just hire more and more people. Donald Trump: You look at Department of Education, it seems like so many buildings I ride by, it says, Department of Education. They’re all over the place and we don’t even want it. We want the education to be given by the states. It’ll be much better. It’ll move us to the top of the list from the bottom of the list and actually save us money, but it’s too important to even talk about – it’ll save us a lot of money, but we don’t want that. Donald Trump: We want education to be given. So you go to Iowa and Indiana and Idaho and all these places, they’re so well run. They’re going to be producing education that will be the equivalent of like, Denmark is one and Norway, Sweden. Actually, China is one of the better in terms of education. And so we can’t blame size anymore. Donald Trump: China has 1.4 billion people, but they’re very high on their list. The one thing we’re doing well on, we’re number one on the list is cost per pupil. We spend more money than any other country in the world by far. So I jokingly say the one thing we do well on is the cost. We spend more money and yet we’re toward the bottom of the list. Donald Trump: Yeah? Question: Mr. President, I want to ask you, the joint address, millions of Americans watched your joint address earlier this week. Were you warned that there could be a little disturbance that Americans could feel as a function of these tariffs? How much disturbance are you willing to accept in the near term as a function of that? Question: And to set expectations, how long should Americans expect things to cost a bit more? Donald Trump: Well so far, Peter, there hasn’t been very much because these numbers are coming out where we’re here for just a little over four weeks and these are fantastic numbers. I was watching some of the reports this morning. They were surprised. There could be some disturbance, a little bit of disturbance. I solved a little bit of that because I have respect for our auto companies and I gave them a little bit of a one-month reprieve because it was unfair, although I’m sure they’ll take advantage of it. I see they’re driving a lot of cars into the US to try and avoid the tariffs and taking advantage of it a little bit. Donald Trump: But they called me, they asked me, they said, could they have a little bit of help? And I decided, they’re American companies, USMCA, and I let them have that. But this really kicks in the reciprocal, as you know, kicks in on, let’s see, I guess the second. And I wanted it to be the first so badly, just didn’t want to be on April Fool’s Day, so I made it the second. Donald Trump: That’s going to cost a lot of money. That one day is going to cost a lot of money, but that’s OK. But I don’t see it. I don’t see anything. I see good reports. I think we’re going to have good numbers from the beginning. Now, globalists won’t love this because this brings jobs back to America. So if they’re coming back to America, maybe you’ll lose some in other parts of the world, but the other parts of the world have done very well, and they’ll continue to do very well. Donald Trump: But I think the United States is going to be doing record business. We’ll bring a lot of those 90,000 factories that have been lost over the last number of years. It’s hard to believe, 90,000. Think of what 90,000 is, 90,000 plants and factories are gone. We’re going to bring back many of those plants and factories. Question: One day the tariffs are on, the next day they’re off right now. The markets, as you know well, prefer stability. Are you done going forward with the pauses and the carve outs? Is that it for those? Donald Trump: There will always be changes and adjustments and you can’t just – I could have, for instance, told the American car companies. No, I’m not going to give you anything. And then you wouldn’t have had to say, well, they’re getting a little extra. It’s just a little bit of a one-month reprieve. They’re very happy about what’s happening. Donald Trump: They won’t have to go across borders and you see the zig zag and you have a fender made in Canada, you have something else made in Mexico. We don’t want that. We want it made here. But there’ll always be some modifications. I mean, if you have a wall in front of you, sometimes you have to go around the wall instead of through it. But I think very little, I think very little. Donald Trump: On occasion, if we can do something, we want to help companies. We want to help companies create jobs. So I could have left that and you wouldn’t have had a minor change. Instead, I was asked by the real majors, the big majors, if they could do this and I said, yeah, I’ll do it. I want you to produce a lot of jobs. Donald Trump: And numerous of the people, actually all of the people I spoke to have already been – they’re very much on the way to already doing it. That’s why you have auto jobs increase and the man, I don’t know him, Sean Fain, I don’t know him. And I did great, as you know, with the autoworkers, with the Teamsters, with unions. Donald Trump: I did fantastically well, best numbers ever by a Republican, and I have a lot of respect for those people. But Shawn Fain, who I don’t know but wasn’t a supporter, although the autoworkers were big supporters, I watched him last night and he said, Donald Trump is absolutely right on tariffs. He said, what he’s doing on tariffs is an incredible thing and it’s about time somebody had the guts to do it because we’re going to save auto manufacturing. Donald Trump: And I said to people when I was campaigning, you’re going to have so many auto jobs, you’re not going to believe what’s going to happen. We’re going to load up Michigan. I won the state of Michigan, as you know. And part of the reason I won it was I got a lot of auto workers that voted for me, Detroit, etc. Donald Trump: But I think people are going to be very surprised. Yes? Question: Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned in your remarks chips manufacturing, how a significant percentage is now in Taiwan. You also mentioned it in your address to congress and you called on congress to overturn the CHIPS Act, which had bipartisan support in the last congress. Why would you like to see this particular law overturn, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Because it’s hundreds of billions of dollars and it’s just a waste of money. Now, some people have already taken the money and used it. Actually, it’s very hard to qualify because they go by race, they go by gender, they go by all sorts of things. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. You won’t be able to find those people. Donald Trump: So I don’t even think anybody can qualify. They have so many different categories in order to qualify. You have to have so many of a certain race, a certain gender, a certain this, a certain and I don’t think they can qualify. But if they take the money, they better qualify because they’ll be watching them. Donald Trump: But it’s a tremendous waste of money. I didn’t give the greatest chip company in the world, one of the greatest companies, I didn’t give them $0.10. They came here because of tariffs, because they didn’t want to pay the tariffs. And they also came here because they like the results of the election, because they know that I’m very pro-business and pro-jobs. Donald Trump: I mean, I’m pro-business not for business sake, I’m pro-business because of jobs because business is producing the jobs. OK. Question: On Russia, if I may. President Putin is bombing Ukraine. Do you still believe him when he tells you that he wants peace? Donald Trump: I believe him. I believe him. I think we’re doing very well with Russia. But right now, they’re bombing the hell out of Ukraine. And Ukraine, I’m finding it more difficult frankly, to deal with Ukraine and they don’t have the cards. They don’t have the cards. As you know, we’re meeting in Saudi Arabia sometime next week, early. Donald Trump: And we’re talking. I find that in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia, which is surprising because they have all the cards. I mean, and they’re bombing the hell out of them right now. And I put a statement in, a very strong statement, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. Donald Trump: We’re trying to help them and Ukraine has to get on the ball and get a job done. Michael, could you come up here? I see Michael back there. Good. I’m glad. He’s traveling all over the world. I just saw him come in the door. Could you uh give it a little definition of what’s going on, please? Michael Waltz: Sure. Well, the president has been crystal clear and he’s been clear to all sides, the fighting has to stop. Both sides need to get to the table. We had a good engagement. Both leaders have said only President Trump could do so and only he has been able to do so. We had an initial engagement with the Russians. Michael Waltz: The Ukrainians had a great opportunity to bind our economies together through that mineral deal. Unfortunately, that didn’t go so well, but we think we’re going to get things back on track. Secretary Rubio, myself and Ukrainian delegation will be meeting in Saudi Arabia next week to get these talks back on track, get a ceasefire in place and drive peace home, under President Trump’s leadership. Question: Mr. President, you put out a – Donald Trump: I think both parties want to settle. I think if I wasn’t president this war would have had no chance of settlement, zero chance, but I think we’re going to get it settled and stopped. We’ve got to stop. They’re losing on average 2,000 soldiers a week; that’s a lot of soldiers. Do you agree, Peter? Question: It’s a lot of soldiers on both sides, I agree. Do you, Mr. President, think that Vladimir Putin is taking advantage of the US pause right now on intelligence and military aid to Ukraine? Donald Trump: No, I actually think he’s doing what anybody else would do. I think he wants to get it stopped and settled. And I think he’s hitting him harder than he’s been hitting them. And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended. And I think Ukraine wants to get it ended but I don’t see – it’s crazy. Donald Trump: They’re taking tremendous punishment. I don’t quite get it, but I suspect, Michael, he probably wants to get it ended. Michael Waltz: He does, Mr. President. The Russians are taking incredible losses on the front. Donald Trump: They both are. Michael Waltz: As the president has said, this is a meat grinder of people, of material, of national treasure. And no one else has any solutions except to let this war continue forever. But I’ll add, the president has had multiple conversations and a visit from President Macron of France, Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom. Michael Waltz: We have the NATO secretary general coming next week. We have this meeting with the Ukrainians, we’ve had it with the Russians, all of this in the President’s first month in his leadership. We will engage in the shuttle diplomacy, and we will continue to use his leadership and what leverage we have to get both sides to the peace table. Michael Waltz: It’s not going to be easy, but President Trump – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: This war should have never happened. It would have never happened if I were president, but it did happen. So, a lot of other things shouldn’t have happened too. We shouldn’t have 21 million people pouring into our country through open borders, many of whom are criminals – very bad criminals, including murderers, thousands of murderers. Donald Trump: Many killed, far more than one person and they’re roaming our streets. But Tom Homan and Kristi Noem are doing an incredible job and we’re getting them out of here and we’ll get them out, we’ll get them all out. But all these things shouldn’t have happened. We shouldn’t have inflation; we shouldn’t have had this horrible inflation where the prices have gone up. Look at eggs. Donald Trump: So, we’re doing – we’re doing a good job. We’re doing a good job. Question: Mr. President, in regards to the pause on military assistance to Ukraine. You put out on your social media post today that Russia is pounding Ukraine. Donald Trump: That’s right. Question: Why not provide Ukraine with air defenses? And what happens, Mr. President, when Ukraine runs out of Patriot missile batteries? Donald Trump: Good question. Because I have to know that they want to settle. I don’t know that they want to settle. If they don’t want to settle, we’re out of there because we want them to settle. And I’m doing it to stop death, more important than anything else. Secondarily, way down the line is the money, so we’re in for $350 billion and Europe is in for $100 billion. Donald Trump: They should be in for the same or more than us. And you know, I watched over the last week or so what’s going on in Europe. This thing could end up in World War III if we don’t get it settled. This could really end up in a World War III. We’ve got to get it settled. Question: Sir, on Iran, how confident are you that the Iranians will negotiate with you? And is Israel on board with this outrage? Yeah, I saw the hostages the other day. They came in, people that were not young, some young and some older, much older, and they gave – it was hard for them to do it actually. They gave statements as to what happened. Question: I was asking what happened, how was it? I said, did you see anybody in there that was kind like out of the hundreds of people that you were seeing, Hamas, did some of them wink at you and say don’t worry you’re going to be OK, or give you a piece of bread or – no. I said were there any people that were like kind? Question: I was shocked, the answer was nobody. There was nobody, just the opposite. They’d be slapped and punched. One man broke his ribs; he couldn’t breathe for a month. It was brutal. I was so surprised. Did you think there’d be a couple of people that would be kind – that would say you’re going to be OK. But they had none of that. Question: It’s pretty amazing. Brian. He’s a kind person. Well, according to – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Although not to – not to Zelenskyy, he wasn’t, but to Trump, he’s been good. Go ahead, Brian. Question: Nice tie by the way. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. I like yours too. Question: Two questions, one on peace. Why don’t you think any other European countries are offering a peace deal? It seems like no one’s come to the table for peace except for you. Donald Trump: Yeah, it’s a very good question. Sometimes questions aren’t answerable. They’re in a very unusual position. They don’t know how to end the war. I think I do know how to end the war. Despite the Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax, I’ve always had a good relationship with Putin. And he wants to end the war. He wants to end it, and I think he’s going to be more generous than he has to be and that’s pretty good. Donald Trump: That means a lot of good things because, frankly, you could have made a great deal if you – if this war never started, you could have made a great deal. I don’t know that anything would have had to be given up. This was not a war that was going to start, Brian. And it didn’t start for four years. Somebody said, well, how do we know that? Donald Trump: Well, for four years, it didn’t start. I used to speak to Vladimir about it. I used to speak to him about it at length. It was the apple of his eye. But there was no way he was going in. And he knew there were going to be consequences. But it did start – I mean think of think of what happened, inflation, you have the war with Ukraine and Russia that wouldn’t have happened, October 7th, would have never happened. Donald Trump: Israel, they had no money; Iran had no money. Iran was stone cold broke and now they have a lot of money, but – and that’s going to be the next thing you’ll be talking about is Iran. What’s going to happen with Iran. And there’ll be some interesting days ahead, that’s all I can tell you. We’re down to final strokes with Iran. Donald Trump: That’s going to be an interesting time, and we’ll see what happens. But we’re down to the final moments. We’re at final moments, you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. I think that I would have had a deal within one month after the rigged election of 2020. They were all set to make a deal. And then when I lost, they saw this person, who’s a stupid person, very stupid person. Donald Trump: And they said, let’s not make a deal. And they were right, he took the sanctions off, they became rich under Biden. They went from having no money to having $300 billion all in a short period – it’s oil. Oil builds up fast. It’s a nice living if you have a nice oil well. And they do, they have a lot of nice oil wells, right. Donald Trump: So, anyway, it’s going to be a big thing. It’s an interesting time in the history of the world, but we have a situation with Iran that something’s going to happen very soon. Very, very soon. You’ll be talking about that pretty soon, I guess. And hopefully we can have a peace deal. I’m not speaking out of strength or weakness. Donald Trump: I’m just saying I’d rather see a peace deal than the other. But the other will solve the problem. Question: Mr. President, your allies are calling on you to pardon Derek Chauvin. Are you considering pardoning Derek Chauvin? Donald Trump: No, I haven’t even heard about it. No. Question: Mr. President, on piece – . Donald Trump: I haven’t heard that. Question: In the first term, you may recall, I broke the news that you were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and the reason for that was the work that you led on the Abraham Accords. I spoke yesterday with the member of Parliament, the Norwegian Parliament, that nominated you, and he said what the Nobel Committee is looking for from you, Mr. President, is security guarantees for Ukraine. Question: Is that a possibility, Mr. President? Donald Trump: So, before I even think about that, I want to settle the war, get it finished. Because if I’m not here, nobody’s going to settle it. And President Macron has said that. And every president – everybody has said that; the prime ministers and presidents were pushing very hard. That’s all I’m thinking about now. Donald Trump: As far as the question about security later, that’s the easy part. The hard part is getting it settled. We’ve got to get them – we’re losing 2,000 human beings every week, more than that actually, 2,000 nice young – although they’re getting older because they’re drafting much older now. In the case of one country, much older because a lot of the young people have been killed. Donald Trump: It’s very sad and I’d like to see if I could stop that. And I’d like to also see if we could stop making these massive payments from the United States. I mean, Biden gave away money like it was water with no anything – got nothing for it. Europe did it in the form of a loan. They get their money back, we don’t. So, that’s how we came up with the rare earth deal. Donald Trump: But we started behind the eight ball. He could have gone to Europe, he could have said come on, you’ve got to put up money with us, you’ve got to put up money with us, but he never did that. They just kept handing money out because he was grossly incompetent. All right, thank you very much everybody. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, guys.
Date: 2025-03-07
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. We’re going to be establishing a task force, a very important task force, White House, and that’s on the FIFA World Cup of 2026, which as you know is a big event. It’s going to be the biggest event I think, and Gianni, I think you’re going to say a few words. Everybody knows this man on the right. Donald Trump: He’s sort of the king of soccer, I guess, in a certain way. And he was the one that was able to give it to us and we’re going to do a fantastic job and making you at home. So, I very much appreciate it. First time it’s ever been in this part of the world and it’s an honor. Thank you very much, Gianni. Gianni Infantino: Thank you. Thank you, president. Thank you, president. Well, it is a great achievement to bring the World Cup next year, the FIFA World Cup in 2026 here in the United States together with Mexico and Canada. And this summer actually we have a new competition, The FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 from the 14th of June to the 13th of July only in the United States of America. 11 cities, 12 stadiums, the best players in the world, the best teams in the world. Gianni Infantino: America will welcome the world. There will be millions of people coming, Mr. President, millions of people. The economic impact is U.S.$40 billion between now and next year. We will create 200,000 jobs for these two World Cups. And more than that, we will give joy and happiness to the entire world and this is priceless definitely. Gianni Infantino: So, thank you, Mr. President, for setting up this task force because it is important that everyone that comes to America feels safe, feels welcome. And that’s why it’s important that the government puts together this White House task force chaired by the president himself. It shows the importance of the FIFA World Cups, I should say, because there are many, many topics to deal with of course and we want everyone who comes to America and who goes to watch one of these games. Gianni Infantino: We have 10 million tickets for sale. It’s like three Super Bowls every day for one month, that everyone that goes feels safe, feels happy and feels that we are doing something special. So, we are here to create and to make the best show on the planet ever and we’ll do it together, Mr. President. Donald Trump: That’s great. I love what he said, like three Super Bowls a day for a month. That’s what it is. Gianni Infantino: That’s what it is. Donald Trump: That’s really amazing when you think of it. I’ve never heard that expressed. That’s a lot. You know, when we made this, it was made during my term – my first term. And it was so sad because I said, can you imagine, I’m not going to be president and that’s too bad. And then what happened is they rigged the election, and I became president. Donald Trump: So, that was a good thing. That was a good thing. That was quite a quite an achievement for both of us. So, I’ll be president during the World Cup – and during the Olympics, which we were very instrumental in getting. And then of course we have our 250th birthday too. And of that I wasn’t instrumental; that just happened to fall on the same time. Donald Trump: So, we have the three – those three big events, you don’t get very much bigger than that, the Olympics, the World Cup and number 250. And it’s a great honor, but I appreciate your selecting us and we were selected a long time ago, though, during the term – during my first term. And it’s an honor to be with you, Gianni. Donald Trump: Been my friend for a long time. Gianni Infantino: Absolutely. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: He’s a great gentleman. Ok, I’ll sign this and that makes it official, right. Gianni Infantino: That makes it official, yes. Then we have to start working. Question: Can you talk a little bit about the halftime show that you anticipate for the championship? Will it be like the Super Bowl halftime show or better? Gianni Infantino: Well, you know, the Super Bowl has around 100 million viewers or 150 million viewers. The World Cup final has 2 billion viewers. So, we have to make it 20 times better and 20 times bigger than the Super Bowl [Laughter]. Donald Trump: I think it will be better. I think I think it will be better. Question: Any idea of the economic impact of this in all these cities around the country? It’s got to be huge. Gianni Infantino: Yeah, it’s huge. It’s around $40 billion in only the United States, U.S.$40 billion. The economic impact, 200,000 jobs created. It’s – so per city you can divide by 11 and you know a little bit what each city gets more or less – some cities get more, others get less. But we’ll have 10 million tourists coming, some with tickets, others without tickets who just want to be here during these World Cups. Donald Trump: What team is favored now if there’s such a thing? I mean, do they have a team like so many of these great famous teams, what team seems to be favored? Gianni Infantino: Well, on the club one, which takes place this year, of course; Real Madrid; Manchester City; Bayern Munich, the Germans; Paris Saint-Germain, the French – the big ones are always there. And these clubs are multinationals. They have players from all countries. Donald Trump: They always seem to be there, those great teams. Gianni Infantino: They are always there. They are always there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then next year, Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Spain. Donald Trump: It’s going to be great. Gianni Infantino: It will be Great. Donald Trump: Any questions for Gianni? Question: U.S.? Gianni Infantino: U.S., U.S., U.S. is coming up. U.S. is coming – watch the U.S., some very, very good players playing in Europe, but we need to bring them back here to play here. Donald Trump: So, can the U.S. win? Gianni Infantino: The U.S. can win, yes, with the public behind they play – no, they play in some of the top teams. Donald Trump: He knows what to say. He knows. Gianni Infantino: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they play in some of the top teams. Donald Trump: So, there’s a shot, right? Gianni Infantino: Yeah, there is a shot, absolutely, yes. Donald Trump: That’s great. Well, we’ll hold that up for you guys. Brian, did you have another question? Question: I was just going to say this continues your pursuit to bring America back in every aspect, the economy, world peace, sports now, which is awesome. I would appreciate a little bit of the Olympics, I know you talked about that before. Maybe a little. Donald Trump: I’m just very happy to have done it. I mean, I didn’t think this was going to happen. I said I’ll be sitting there, but not as president. So, I was very honored. Actually, Gianni reminded me, he called me up very early on and he said you’re going to be president during this whole thing after we won. So, it’s a great honor for our country to have it actually, it’s a big deal. Donald Trump: It’s – I don’t know which is bigger, the Olympics or the World Cup. What is the story on that? Can I ask you that question? Gianni Infantino: The World Cup is much, much, much bigger than the Olympics, [Laughter] come on. And it’s in the whole country, yeah, the Olympics – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: We’ve got them both. Question: It’s a long way off Mr. President, but do you foresee yourself attending some matches or a match? Donald Trump: Oh, yeah, sure. I would like to – I’d like to go to certainly more than one. We’ll be making the rounds. It’s a period of a month, and it’s really top of the line. It’s one of the great events, maybe one of the great events of anywhere in the world. Question: Mr. President, since you last spoke about it yesterday, some details have come out about your cabinet meeting with Elon Musk and some clashes potentially between Secretary Rubio and Secretary – Donald Trump: No clash. I was there. You’re just a troublemaker. And you’re not supposed to be asking that question because we’re talking about the World Cup. Elon gets along great with Marco, and they’re both doing a fantastic job. There is no clash. Question: But, Mr. President, bottom line – Donald Trump: Who are you with? Who are you with? Question: NBC. Donald Trump: Oh, no wonder. That’s enough. NBC – Question: Mr. President, who has more authority, Elon Musk or your cabinet secretaries? Donald Trump: Any other questions about the World Cup? Gianni Infantino: Can we unveil the trophy maybe? Donald Trump: I’d love to do that. Gianni Infantino: Because this is something special. So, today is 100 days to go for the new competition that we created together, the FIFA Club World Cup, the best clubs in the world with the best players in the world. So, we can show this is a unique trophy. This is the trophy, but it’s not finished because it’s unlike any other trophy. Gianni Infantino: There is a key. Donald Trump: Oh, wow! Gianni Infantino: There is no other sports trophy like that. Donald Trump: Well, that is good – whoa. Gianni Infantino: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Donald Trump: Oh, you got to be kidding. Gianni Infantino: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Donald Trump: Wow! Gianni Infantino: Wait, wait, wait. Donald Trump: Wow, that’s what was – [Applause] – thank you. Gianni Infantino: And that’s the trophy. Donald Trump: That is something, huh? Question: We got a win now, Mr. President. Gianni Infantino: This is – so, this is a good one. Donald Trump: That’s beautiful. Gianni Infantino: And Miami and Seattle Sounders play – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I’ve never seen anything like that. Gianni Infantino: It is a special – it’s a trophy of the future. Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Gianni Infantino: It represents the past, the future, everything, the present. Donald Trump: And this will be at the White House for a little while, so if anybody needs a picture or anything, you can take it. But this is – Gianni Infantino: If you like it, Mr. President, it can stay here. Just on the 13th of July, you should take it with me. Donald Trump: Let’s leave it here. Gianni Infantino: To the stadium to give it to the winners. They can take a picture then we’ll bring it back here after the picture, eh? Donald Trump: Let’s do that. We’ll leave it here. We’ll have it in the White House quite a bit. Gianni Infantino: Excellent. Donald Trump: It travels a little bit also, but I appreciate it, that’s good. And no, this can definitely stay, right [Laughter]? Anyway. Thank you, Gianni, very much. Congratulations. Gianni Infantino: Thank you, sir. Question: Just on the cabinet meeting, you said Musk will play an advisory role. DOGE will play – Donald Trump: We’re talking about FIFA. Thank you very much. About the World Cup, Mr. President, you’re having – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – and they’re both great guys. And by the way, they both get along fantastically well. Marco has done unbelievably as Secretary of State and Elon is a very unique guy who’s done a fantastic job. Question: Do you think he needs to be reined in, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Enough. Enough. It’s FIFA. Is this a FIFA question? Question: How do you see the World Cup playing out with the tensions you have with Canada and Mexico? Donald Trump: Oh, I think it’s going to make it more exciting. Tension is a good thing. Question: Even for the World Cup? Donald Trump: Yeah, I think so. I think it makes it much more exciting. Aide: Sir, the entire committee is here for FIFA with Gianni. Donald Trump: Oh, please come up. Aide: Would you like them to come up and take a picture? Donald Trump: Please. Gianni, do you want – get them up. That’s great. Question: Mr. President, what type of enhanced security do you anticipate having for all of these big events that are happening over the course of the next – Donald Trump: I’ll let Kristi answer that question. Kristi Noem: I’ll answer one question. Donald Trump: Security. Kristi Noem: The security for this event will be run by the Department of Homeland Security. So, we are signing today this document that will say that we will form task forces and partnerships. We’ll have incident command centers in these 11 cities that will partner all the agencies and departments at the federal. We’ll have some worldwide partners as well as long as – Note: [Crosstalk] Kristi Noem: – yes, it’ll be under our umbrella, and we’ll help facilitate that. But also working with our local law enforcement is incredibly powerful. So, streamlining those communications, it will be a wonderful event, and everybody will be safe and fun. Donald Trump: We better be, right? Kristi Noem: Yeah, it will be. And this is the official ball with your name. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, that’s nice. I would give it to Kristi except it has my name on it. Aide: We have another one for you over there. Gianni Infantino: Of course, of course. Donald Trump: That’s beautiful. Thank you very much. Is that going to be the ball? Gianni Infantino: That’s the official ball for this – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: This will be what – it will look like the ball when they play? Gianni Infantino: Yes, when they play. Donald Trump: Wow, that’s great. Gianni Infantino: Yes, nobody played yet – has played yet with that ball. Donald Trump: That’s great. Thank you very much, everybody. Gianni, thank you very much.
Date: 2025-03-08
Canada is cheating the United States Farmers on USMCA. In 2024, Canada retained Tariffs on various U.S. Goods, particularly in protected sectors like Dairy that are operated under a supply management system. Some examples of Canadian Tariffs on U.S. Dairy outside of the limited quota include: Milk: Up to 243%Butter: Up to 298%Cheese: Up to 245%These sky high Tariffs are part of Canada’s unfair, long-standing policy to shield domestic producers from foreign competition, especially in Agriculture. Our Great U.S. Dairy Farmers deserve fair treatment from Canada. Enjoy it while you can!
Date: 2025-03-09
Note: [Maria Bartiromo recorded a sit-down interview with Donald Trump at the White House on March 6, 2025. The full interview, with some breaks, aired on March 9, 2025. The following transcript was provided by Fox News and has been cross-checked and confirmed. Transcript and video courtesy and copyright Fox News and Sunday Morning Futures.] Maria Bartiromo: President Trump welcomed us to the Roosevelt Room in the White House and took a moment to look ahead to the impact on America. Donald Trump: We have had a great almost six weeks now. And I hope we can continue to go like that. We’re at a very rapid pace. We have to make up for a lot of lost time. And the country was very poorly run for four years. You know better than anybody. Nobody covered it better than you, frankly. It’s an honor to be with so many great people. Donald Trump: We have really great people working with us. Maria Bartiromo: You said America is back. Momentum is back. Our pride and spirit are back and we’re just getting started. Donald Trump: Right. Maria Bartiromo: What do you specifically want America to look like in four years, when you’re done? Donald Trump: Well, I want a dynamic country, where the private enterprise carries the day, not the government. And I want a strong country militarily. We need that nowadays. You can see that probably better than ever before. So I rebuilt our military. A lot of it was given away to Afghanistan. But it was a lot, but a very small portion, in all fairness, but when you think about the billions and billions of dollars that was just handed over. Donald Trump: But I rebuilt it. We’re going to be rebuilding it again, because we need that. We always need that. But we’re doing a series of incentives, tax incentives and other things. The tax bill, I think, is going to be very important. Democrats will fight us all the way. One thing I learned the other night, again, I could say, because I – it’s my fifth such speech. Donald Trump: And at the beginning, I said – I didn’t know it was going to be as pertinent as it turned out to be – that, no matter what I do, this group of people in front of us – I could come up with a cure to the worst disease that the world has ever seen. I gave other examples. I said, no matter what I do, they’re going to sit there angry, insolent. Donald Trump: You just see it. I mean, you see it. You can feel it. No matter what I say, no matter what I do, no matter who it is, they won’t stand, they won’t applaud, they won’t clap. They will just sit there with sour faces. And that’s what they did. And it was interesting. I said I wonder if I should put this in, but it worked out to be true. Donald Trump: And I think by putting it in, I showed that it was true. And it’s sad, because we’re doing great things in this country. This country’s really got a chance to be pretty quickly great again. I think – I think the country’s got a big light over it right now. And I have been told this by even other foreign leaders. Donald Trump: We had Modi. We had everywhere. We had from France to India to about 12 that want to come in. They all want to be here. Every one of them wants to be here. We had the prime minister of the United Kingdom who was here, and he couldn’t believe. He said the difference in terms of the feeling about the United States is very different. Donald Trump: It feels that we’re back, we’re respected again. We are respected again. And, in a way, we’re back. And it’s only been a few weeks. Maria Bartiromo: And you spoke to the president of Mexico today. Donald Trump: I did. Maria Bartiromo: I want to talk about tariffs. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: Because, even as you’re seeing this optimism and excitement, there’s some nervousness over your tariffs. Markets have been selling off. They’re not sure how to view it. Why did you roll back or put a pause into some of the tariffs until April 2? Donald Trump: Because I wanted to help Mexico, and Canada, to a certain extent. We’re a big, big country. And they do a lot of their business with us, whereas, in our case, it’s much less significant. We do very little with Canada by comparison. And I wanted to help the American carmakers until April 2. April 2, it becomes all reciprocal. Donald Trump: What they charge us, we charge them. It’s a big deal, but what they charge us, we charge them. But this is short-term. And I felt that, for the good of the American carmakers and the MCA, you know what – the USMCA, what – that’s Mexico, Canada. I thought it would be a fair thing to do. And so I gave them a little bit of a break for this short period of time. Maria Bartiromo: But I asked you about this before, and I know you told me when I asked you. I said, you did use MCA. You put this together. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: And yet then you come back and you change it up with these tariffs, and you said to me at that time, I did it because I can. I put an amendment in there, and I said, in six years, I can change it. But I think CEOs want to see predictability. They say, look, I have to speak with shareholders. I have got to make plans for CapEx spending. Maria Bartiromo: I can’t if it’s 20 percent one day and then it’s off for a month and it’s 25 percent. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: So can you give us a sense of whether or not we are going to get clarity for the business community? Donald Trump: Well, I think so. But the tariffs could go up as time goes by, and they may go up. And I don’t know if it’s predictability. I think – Maria Bartiromo: So that’s not clarity. Donald Trump: No, I think that they say that. You know, it sounds good to say. But, for years, the globalists, the big globalists have been ripping off the United States. They have been taking money away from the United States. And all we’re doing is getting some of it back. And we’re going to treat our country fairly. Donald Trump: This country has been ripped off from every nation in the world, every company outside in the world. We have been ripped off at levels never seen before. And all we’re going to do is get it back. We’re going to get a lot of it back. We’re not going to let people take advantage of us anymore. You know, we’re the United States. Donald Trump: I believe that, if Kamala had won, meaning that whole ideology, Kamala and Biden and Obama, that whole group of people, if they had won, I don’t think we would have had a country any longer. I think this was the most – somebody said it the other day, the most consequential election in 129 years. If they would have won, I don’t think we would have had a country. Donald Trump: Not only did we win. We won every swing state. I remember I was watching your show just before the election. You were talking about, I think he’s going to win four or five. We won all seven. And we won the popular vote by millions of votes. We won the number of counties by 2,500 to 500, 2,750 to 500. And it’s amazing. Donald Trump: The map is all red. Yes. Maria Bartiromo: Which is why I was surprised at the Democrats’ behavior the other night, because you delivered among the most diverse, expanded audience, Republicans, Democrats, independents. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: So does – is it just the Democrat leadership that does not see that? Donald Trump: There’s something wrong with them. There’s just something – I can’t even believe it. They lost an election in a landslide. They were talking about men playing in women’s sports. When I looked the other night, I made a speech. The Republicans were going wild, and the Democrats were having their little signs up, their little signs, their little tiny signs. Donald Trump: And I said, it’s unbelievable. They don’t get it. They don’t get it now. And I think they’re going to end up being a minor party if they keep going like this, because people don’t want to hear about these stupid ideas that they have, transgender for everybody. And, again, the men in women’s sports, what is that, a 90-to-10 deal? Donald Trump: I don’t even know who the 10 would be. But they’re – and they’re fighting for it. And I try and say to myself, because you always like to understand where your opponent is, whether it’s in business or anything else, is there something I don’t understand? But we don’t understand it. You look at their theories on tax, all my life, I have watched politicians. Donald Trump: I have always liked it. I have watched it. I have participated, but from the standpoint of a donor. But I participated. And all my life, I have watched politicians. We will cut your taxes. We will cut your taxes. These people say, we’re going to raise your taxes. This is the only time. It’s never said. I have never heard it. They say it even if they don’t mean it. We will cut your taxes. Donald Trump: These people say that we’re going to give you the biggest tax increase you have ever had. And that’s what they’re running on. And I tell Republicans, take that night, because that was a great night. You got record ratings. You saw that, the highest rated speech, like, ever of its kind. Take that night and run your midterms on it and show us, I’m talking about some young child with cancer with some young, beautiful girl like Laken Riley, who was killed, and they don’t get up. And they don’t salute the mother, who’s there devastated, Nungaray. Donald Trump: They don’t get up, and they don’t salute the mother whose child was devastated, I mean, brutally killed. The young boy with cancer that wants to be a cop, and they don’t get up and salute that child. They not only don’t get up. They’re angry. And the only thing that happened that was interesting really about it was that, when I mentioned Ukraine and people being killed, they started clapping. Donald Trump: And that clap was led by Pocahontas. Maria Bartiromo: I saw what you said. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: And I want to ask you about Ukraine and the blowup the other day with Zelenskyy. Let me stay on the economy for a moment, because there are rising worries about a slowdown. You have got the Atlanta Federal Reserve saying we’re going to have a contraction in the first quarter. Look, I know that you inherited a mess, and you said that the other night. Donald Trump: I have only been here for – Maria Bartiromo: But are you expecting a recession this year? Donald Trump: I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of – it takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I don’t – I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great. Donald Trump: It’s going to be great ultimately for the farmer. Don’t forget I made the deal with China on farmers where they had to buy $50 billion worth of product, $50 billion, from 15 to 50. And it was great. Maria Bartiromo: Did they follow up and do it? Donald Trump: They did it when I was president. What happened is, when Biden was president, they didn’t buy any longer. Maria Bartiromo: It stopped. Donald Trump: Yes, because there was nobody to call him. I used to call President Xi. I said, you got to do me a favor. You got to live up to that agreement. And he was great. He did. Maria Bartiromo: Before you came into the Oval Office the first time, you were a very successful businessman, very successful real estate executive. And a lot of people said, oh, this is the business president. This is it. He’s watching the stock market. He knows all about – he doesn’t want the market to go down. And now we have got tariffs, and the market has been going down. Donald Trump: Well, not much, I mean, in all fairness, not much. Maria Bartiromo: You said, look, we’re going to have a disruption, but we’re OK with that. Is that what you meant? The stock market going down was the disruption? Donald Trump: There will be a little disruption. Maria Bartiromo: What other disruption were you alluding to? Donald Trump: Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We have a quarter. We go by quarters. Maria Bartiromo: That’s true. Donald Trump: And you can’t go by that. You have to do what’s right. What we’re doing is, we’re building a tremendous foundation for the future, tremendous foundation. Everything’s been taken away. We don’t make ships anymore. We don’t – you just saw one of the biggest shipbuilders in the world, one of the biggest shipping people in the whole world. Maria Bartiromo: In the Oval Office with you. Donald Trump: In the Oval Office. He’s announcing a $20 billion investment in the United States, which he would have never done except for this. But look at this. Honda, Toyota, they’re all coming in. You take a look at what’s happening. The chipmaker, the greatest chipmaker, Mr. Wei, the biggest in the world, by far, is going to spend $200 billion on making a massive plant to make chips. Maria Bartiromo: So that’s your message, build it here? Donald Trump: Build it here, there’s no tariff. Maria Bartiromo: Yes. The public companies want to make sure that we have clarity. After April 2, when those reciprocal tariffs go in, is that it? Are you going to change anything after that? Will we have clarity? Donald Trump: You will have a lot, but we may go up with some tariffs. It depends. We may go up. I don’t think we will go down, but we may go up. And – but you’re going to have – they have plenty of clarity. They just use it. That’s like almost a sound bite. They always say that: We want clarity. Look, our country’s been ripped off for many decades, for many, many decades, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore. Maria Bartiromo: On the tariffs, what are the automakers going to do for a month? I mean, you say you wanted to help American automakers. Donald Trump: Yes, I did. Maria Bartiromo: You spoke with the three. Donald Trump: It’s a transition period. Maria Bartiromo: OK. Donald Trump: And it’s a transition into April. And, after that, I’m not doing this. I mean, I told them, I said, look, I’m going to do it this one time, but, after that, I’m not doing it. They called me and they wanted help doing this little transition period, and I gave it to them. Note: [Commercial Break] Maria Bartiromo: Let me go back to what happened in the Oval Office the other day. I call it a smackdown of Zelenskyy. It looked really rough. But, then again, at the end of the day, you may have your deal back. So was that all the art of the deal, or what specifically ticked you off? Donald Trump: Well, he was able to – it was like taking candy from a baby, what he did. He’s a smart guy. And he’s a tough guy. And he took money out of this country under Biden like candy from a baby, it was so easy, with that same attitude. And I just don’t think he’s grateful. We gave him, in my opinion, $350 billion. Donald Trump: Europe is in for $100 billion. We gave him $350 billion. And he’s talking about the fact that they have fought and they have – there’s a bravery, because somebody has to use the weapons. But without those weapons – don’t forget, I was the one that gave him the Javelins that was able to knock down all the types. Donald Trump: Obama gave nothing. Look, if I were president, that would have never happened. You wouldn’t have had Russia going into Ukraine. You wouldn’t have had – the whole situation with Hamas and October 7 would have never happened, because Iran was broke. They had no money. They weren’t giving it to Hamas or Hezbollah or anybody else. Donald Trump: You would have never had the worst evacuation anyone’s ever seen, which is Afghanistan, which was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country. And you know what else you wouldn’t have had? You wouldn’t have had inflation. We had record-setting inflation under Biden. It was a killer. Maria Bartiromo: You may get it again. Donald Trump: And it’s one of the reasons I won the election. Maria Bartiromo: But you may get it again with these tariffs, right? Donald Trump: You may get it. Maria Bartiromo: I mean, one CEO said to me: “My input costs have already started to go up.” Donald Trump: Well – Maria Bartiromo: I’m going to have to raise prices. Donald Trump: In the meantime, guess what? Interest rates are down for the last three, four days at good levels. I mean, when you add interest rates, you’re talking about it’s gone down. We have been – I have been saying, let’s get interest rates down. Nobody ever gets rich when the interest rates are high, because people can’t borrow money. Donald Trump: Interest rates are going down. You know what else is going down? What have I been trying to get down? Maria Bartiromo: Oil. Donald Trump: Energy. Energy is going down. I would love to see energy go down. Energy is really what caused it. They screwed up my energy. I had the most energy, and they screwed it up. Then they went back to it. It was going through the roof. They went back to some drilling. But it was gone. It was hopeless. It was lost. Donald Trump: But energy has gone down and interest rates have gone out – over the last week. That’s a big thing. I love that. Maria Bartiromo: Do you expect Zelenskyy to come back? Do you expect to do that rare earth minerals deal? Donald Trump: Yes, I think so. I think it’ll happen. Maria Bartiromo: Are you sure there’s the content that you think there is there? Because some people were questioning if in fact there is the titanium and the lithium, all those battery, the rare earth minerals. Do you think it is rich with those things? Donald Trump: Well, I do. I do. I mean, I have had it checked. I have had it checked. Note: [Crosstalk] Maria Bartiromo: OK. Donald Trump: It’s very valuable. But, with all that being said, Biden should have never put up $350 billion. He should have equalized with Europe. All he had to do is say, you have got to stay even with us. They’re in for 100. We’re in for 350. How does that – and we have an ocean in between us, right? We’re not in the danger that they are. Donald Trump: They are in much greater danger, if you call it danger. He should have never done that. The other thing with Europe that bothers me? They have given Russia more money by far for buying their oil than they put into Ukraine. So they’re paying all this money to Russia. And we’re in there for $350 billion. Biden should have never done that. Maria Bartiromo: I spoke with the president of Poland the other day. President Duda has great respect for you. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: And I said to him, what if the U.S. walks away and stays away? Here’s what he said. Note: [Begin video clip] Maria Bartiromo: [Video Clip] Without the United States, do you believe that Europe is capable of offering meaningful security to Ukraine? Andrzej Duda: [Video Clip] [Via Translator] I would like to believe it, but experience to date shows that this has not been the case. The entire history so far of the last three years of the war shows that, without American support, Ukraine will not survive. Note: [End video clip] Maria Bartiromo: Are you comfortable with that, the fact that you walked away and Ukraine may not survive? Donald Trump: Well, it may not survive anyway. But we have some weaknesses with Russia. You know, it takes two. Look, it was not going to happen, that war, and it happened. So now we’re stuck with this mess. Think of what he stuck me with, open borders, where we have 21 million people came into our country, many of whom should not be here. Donald Trump: Many are criminals. Many, many are criminals, many murderers, murderers, drug dealers, drug lords. We got that. We have the whole mess with Israel on October 7. We have all of the ramifications from the worst and dumbest withdrawal in history. Maria Bartiromo: Both Ukraine and Israel were both attacked by aggressors. Is America treating both countries similarly? Are they treating the aggressors similarly? Donald Trump: I think so. Look, they’re very – Maria Bartiromo: Are you favoring one or the other? Donald Trump: They’re very different places, OK, very, very different. You’re talking about different levels of power. You’re talking about different parts of the world. The Middle East has been under attack forever. It’s been – you look. When wasn’t it under attack? And then we came along and did the Abraham Accords, which was unheard of. Maria Bartiromo: Have you been as tough on Russia as you have been on Hamas? I mean, what do you want to say to critics? Donald Trump: Well, I have been much tougher, because I haven’t done to Hamas. That’s been Israel that has to do to Hamas. But Israel does tell me what’s going on. I think I have been very tough to Russia, tougher than anybody’s ever been to Russia, if you think about it. First of all, we had the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, which was a very bad thing. Donald Trump: Could have led to a war. And that was started by Schiff and all these lowlifes. Maria Bartiromo: I know. Donald Trump: They’re total lowlifes. And it was a fake deal, the 51 intelligence agencies. It was – I took all their passes away. They can’t participate anymore. These guys know it came from Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell, which came from his bathroom and/or his bedroom, OK? Not a pretty sight. But this was a Hunter Biden thing. Donald Trump: They said it was from Russia. No, I have been very tough. Remember this. I’m the one that stopped the Russian pipeline, Nord Stream 2. I stopped it. Biden came in and he approved it. I’m the one that put sanctions on Russia. I’m the one that gave the Javelins against Russia. No, I have been very tough. But I got along well with Putin. Donald Trump: And because I got along well, oh, they say, oh, he’s so – nobody’s ever been – Putin would be the first to say it. Nobody’s been tougher than Trump. And Biden hasn’t been tough. Biden’s done nothing. He was a weak, pathetic man. Maria Bartiromo: So is there anything else you want to say to the critics who say you chose a side in the Ukraine-Russia story, and that’s Russia? Because you called Zelenskyy a dictator and you had the fight. Donald Trump: Nobody has been tougher on Russia than Donald Trump, nobody. And they know that. They know that. Just look at the things I just told you. The pipeline, I stopped it. The biggest job they have ever done was the pipeline, Nord Stream 2. Nobody ever heard of it until I came along. They were building it happily. Donald Trump: They were going to supply Germany and everybody else all over Europe. And what did I do? I stopped it. The biggest economic job they have ever had, I stopped it. Biden got in. On the second day, he approved it. He said, let it go forward. It was totally stopped. Just that one thing alone tells you everything. Donald Trump: No, I was tough. At the same time, I got along with Putin. I got along with Kim Jong-un. I got along with President Xi. But nobody was tougher, like, on China than I was. Maria Bartiromo: And then there are reports now that Russia says it will help the United States negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran. What kind of a deal with Iran do you want to do? You said they cannot have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump: Yes. Well, there are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal, because I’m not looking to hurt Iran. They’re great people. I know so many Iranians from this country. Maria Bartiromo: Well, not the leadership. Donald Trump: No, not their leadership. Maria Bartiromo: The people. Donald Trump: No, they’re very evil people. No, but the people of Iran are great people. But they had a tough regime, and they’d meet and they’d be shot in the streets. I mean, it was a tough deal. But I would rather negotiate a deal. I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily. Donald Trump: But the time is happening now. The time is coming up. Something’s going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran – and I have written him a letter saying, I hope you’re going to negotiate, because, if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them. Maria Bartiromo: You wrote a letter to the – Khamenei, the leader? Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: When did you send the letter? Donald Trump: Yesterday. Maria Bartiromo: And you said, you better negotiate or we want you to negotiate? Donald Trump: No, I didn’t say, you better. Maria Bartiromo: OK. Donald Trump: I said, I hope you’re going to negotiate, because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran. And I think they want to get that letter. The other alternative is, we have to do something, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. Maria Bartiromo: You said you wanted to do the Golden Dome. You have got a lot of ideas for America. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: But then, earlier, you said you wanted to cut a trillion dollars in defense spending, right? Donald Trump: I didn’t say I was going to – Maria Bartiromo: You’re not going to – Donald Trump: I never said – Maria Bartiromo: So, I mean, which is it? Are you cutting defense spending or are you building us up? Donald Trump: I said I was going – I never said defense spending. Maria Bartiromo: OK, because I think you were talking about denuclearization. Donald Trump: Correct. Maria Bartiromo: And that’s where the cutting of the spending came in. Donald Trump: Correct. Oh, OK. I never said cut. No, it – not in these days. I’d love to cut defense spending, but not now, because you have China,. You have Russia. You have a lot of problems out there. Maria Bartiromo: Yes, I’m glad to hear you say that, yes. Donald Trump: No. Maria Bartiromo: In fact, it’s – Donald Trump: No, what I have said is, we spend a lot of money on nuclear missiles, nuclear weapons. The level of destruction is beyond anything you can even imagine. It’s just bad that everybody has to spend all this money on something that, if it’s used, it’s probably the end of the world. Maria Bartiromo: Wow. I don’t know what to say to that. Donald Trump: No, it’s true. Maria Bartiromo: I mean – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: When I listen to the – when I listen to these climate lunatics and they talk about global warming and they say the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch in the next 300 years, and nobody ever talks about nuclear weapons or some of the other things, but the nuclear weapons in particular right now. Donald Trump: And they talk about the climate, and they talk about the dangers of the climate, but they don’t talk about the dangers of a nuclear weapon, which could happen tomorrow. They say, in 300 years – I watched Biden for years say the existential threat. He loved the term existential threat is – Maria Bartiromo: Well – Donald Trump: Our greatest existential threat is from the climate. And I said, no – Maria Bartiromo: Well – Donald Trump: – the greatest is sitting in shelves in various countries called nuclear weapons that are big monsters that can blow your heads off for miles and miles and miles. And they never mention that. Note: [Commercial Break] Maria Bartiromo: The president told me about his next conquest, the Panama Canal, after news this week that an American company, BlackRock, will acquire two ports operating around the Panama Canal from Hong Kong-based C.K. Hutchison for $23 billion. Donald Trump: China essentially had it. It was a China-based company. I’d much rather deal with BlackRock than a China-based company. And BlackRock is fine. I knew they were doing that. I was totally OK with it. Maria Bartiromo: And when you go through the Panama Canal, give us a sense of how China has dominated. Donald Trump: It makes it easier. You got to understand, Jimmy Carter, the Carter administration gave the Panama Canal for $1, gave the Panama Canal to Panama for no reason. They had a little demonstration of a few people. And he did give it. It’s the most expensive thing we have ever built in the history of our country, relatively, in other words, if you bring it up in today’s dollars. Donald Trump: And we lost 38,000 people to the mosquito and to snakes. Snakes are vicious. They had a very vicious snake. If you got bit, you were in big trouble – Maria Bartiromo: Wow. Donald Trump: – but mostly to mosquitoes, malaria. And we built this incredible thing, the eighth wonder of the world, right? You know, it connects two oceans, and one ocean is substantially higher than the other. Nobody knows that. That’s why you have the locks, and the most incredible thing. And it’s – it does great. Donald Trump: And we shouldn’t have given it. We should have never given it. But we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama. And now Panama has gone out and essentially given it, ceded it to China. And until they ripped all the signs down about a week ago, when they saw that I was serious about this, most of the signs were written in Chinese. Donald Trump: They were all Chinese all over the place. That wasn’t the deal. We’re taking the Panama Canal back. Maria Bartiromo: So you’re coming up – the Congress is doing this reconciliation package. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: When you look at where the spending is, 76 percent of the spending going to the mandatory programs, don’t you have to really cut into those mandatory programs in order to really make a dent? You say you’re going to balance the budget. Donald Trump: Yes, you don’t have to – Maria Bartiromo: I mean, you can’t balance the budget just by DOGE cuts, right? Donald Trump: We’re going to have growth like you have never seen before. Maria Bartiromo: Oh, that’s true. Yes, you said that. Donald Trump: We have – we’re going to have growth. I’m not going to touch Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. Now, we’re going to get fraud out of there. You see where I talk about it all the time? We have people 250 years old and all, tremendous fraud. But that has nothing to do with that. We’re going to get the fraud out, and everybody wants us to get the fraud out, and, therefore, you will make it better. Donald Trump: But we’re going to have tremendous growth. When you look at all of the car companies that are now coming into the United States – and they have been announcing, like, on a daily basis. They’re going to build their plants, and they’re going to create tremendous numbers of jobs, and so many other things. And I’m doing something else that I think is very exciting. Donald Trump: Maybe I’m wrong, a gold card. For $5 million, you buy a path to citizenship in this country. We will see. I believe that Apple and all these companies that can’t get people to come out of college and come, because they get thrown out. Think of it. You graduate number one at the Wharton School of Finance or Harvard or Stanford, and you get thrown out of their country. Donald Trump: You can’t stay more than one day. And they want to hire these people, but they can’t. They have complained to me about it. Now they can buy a gold card, and they can take – and – that gold card and make it a part of their deal to get these top students. No different than an athlete, like a bonus. Maria Bartiromo: Yes. Donald Trump: It’s a signing bonus. And you’re going to have a lot of people buy that. You’re going to have a lot of companies buying gold cards. So, for $5 million – now, it’s a lot of money when you add it up if we sell a lot of them. Maria Bartiromo: Yes. Donald Trump: If we don’t, it’s nothing ventured, nothing lost. But I think it’s going to be very successful. You can’t get a green card. A green card – this would be a green card on steroids. This would be much better than a green card. Maria Bartiromo: How do you know the Chinese are not going to take advantage of it and exploit it? Didn’t they do that with student visas? Donald Trump: They may. They may. But they don’t have to do that. They can do it in other ways. Maria Bartiromo: Look, the Democrats say that Elon Musk and DOGE are overstepping their bounds. You’re right. What Elon Musk and DOGE has been able to uncover is unbelievable. Half of us did not even realize. Donald Trump: And stop there. Maria Bartiromo: It’s – Donald Trump: Because, look – stop there. What he – you just said, what he’s done is unbelievable. Now, you could then add some, well, but what about the – he’s found hundreds of billions of dollars worth of fake contracts. And I read them, just a tiny portion of them, the other night, transgender surgery on mice, hundreds of – I mean, the money they’re spending on all of this stuff. Donald Trump: The whole thing’s a scam. And you will find ultimately that the money that they sent comes back to a lot of the people that made those deals, OK? You’re going to find that. What he’s also done is made people realize how many people should be cut, because, normally, you go in and you say, all right, cut 4 percent of your work force. Donald Trump: He said cut 50 percent, 60 percent, 70 percent. That’s a big thing. No, he’s done a great job. Maria Bartiromo: On the – Donald Trump: And he’s paying a price for it. Maria Bartiromo: He said he had death threats. Donald Trump: I mean, he didn’t need this. He’s paying a price for it, I guess. I don’t know. Maria Bartiromo: Yes. Donald Trump: He’s – he actually is a real patriot. This is something that’s really not good for him. And yet he’s doing it. But he’s opened a lot of eyes. Maria Bartiromo: On the reconciliation package and the tax extensions, you have got your New York and California lawmakers, they want the SALT deduction lifted. Donald Trump: Yes. Maria Bartiromo: It’s at a limit of $10,000. Are you going to double it? Donald Trump: I’d love to see something happen on SALT. I’m the one that made the deal. Ronald Reagan tried like – like you have no idea to get what I got. I got ANWR and I got SALT. He couldn’t get ANWR and he couldn’t get SALT. I got SALT. But nobody knew how strong it would be. I’d like to see them give back some of that. Donald Trump: Now, the reason – there are two reasons. But the reason that people don’t like it is because they don’t have it. But everybody has it because it’s a deduction. But I’d like to see a good portion of SALT be hit back. I’d like to see that. I also think it would have a big impact on the election, because I think you would have a lot of congressmen get elected that maybe wouldn’t get elected without it. Maria Bartiromo: So is it – a double is the right – is that right, to go to $20,000? Or is that.. Donald Trump: Well, they’re at 10 or so, and maybe they’re trying to get it to 20, but I think that would be very good, yes. Maria Bartiromo: Look, I think the Federal Reserve is stonewalling your DOGE efforts, OK? I heard the other day that Jay Powell is trying to lobby the White House to not fill the position of vice chairman and bank supervisor. He said, look, I will just meld that into my own role. This is a presidential pick, an appointment. Donald Trump: Sure. Yes. Maria Bartiromo: Are you going to appoint a vice chairman and bank supervisor at the Federal Reserve? Donald Trump: Well, I haven’t heard he’s trying to do that, but the answer is, yes, I will be picking somebody fairly soon. Note: [Commercial Break] Maria Bartiromo: Why do you want to go to Mars so much? And do you believe that the next war could happen in space, because that’s where the satellites are? Donald Trump: Well, I’m the creator of Space Force. This was before I knew Elon, but I thought it was very important. It’s turned out to be very important. We were getting killed by Russia and by China, and now we’re leading, really leading big in space. And I think, from a defensive standpoint, that’s true. No, there’s a lot of interest in going to Mars. Donald Trump: Is it number one on my hit list? No, it’s not really, but it is something that would be – it would be a great achievement. It would be a great thing if we could do it. Maria Bartiromo: China wants to get there first. Donald Trump: In fact, did you notice the other night, at my speech, when I said, “And we will go to Mars”? Maria Bartiromo: Yes. Donald Trump: It got one of the biggest applause of the night. I was shocked. It got one of the biggest applause of the night. So there seems to be a big interest in it. And one of the things I have to do is, I have to get those two astronauts down. It’s very important, as we discussed. I have to get them down. They’re up there for a long time. Donald Trump: And Biden didn’t want to do so. I don’t know what happened. You would think he’d want to get them down. But we will get them down. Maria Bartiromo: Mr. President, I just saw you sign executive orders for law firms. One of the law firms was Perkins Coie or – yes, that was the law firm that had the Steele dossier. Donald Trump: Yes, they had the Steele dossier. They had a lot of other things. And we have a lot of law firms that we’re going to be going after, because they were very dishonest people. They were very, very dishonest. I could go point after point after point, and it was so bad for our country. And we have a lot of law firms that we’re going after. Maria Bartiromo: Can you tell us anything about the Education Department that you’re going to dismantle? Donald Trump: We want to bring the schools back to the states, because we have the worst – literally, we have the worst Education Department and education in the world. We’re ranked at the bottom of the list, and yet we’re number one when it comes to cost per pupil. We want to not only have school choice, which is important, but we want to bring it back to the states, so the states can run the schools. Donald Trump: And they will be every bit as good as the top educational departments anywhere in the world. Maria Bartiromo: So you feel good about the states governing education issues and – Donald Trump: I do. Not all of them. Maria Bartiromo: Rather than the federal government? Donald Trump: You can go back to the states. But I can tell you, 40 states will have great – and then same ones that we have problems with everything else, they probably won’t do as well, but we will help them. Maria Bartiromo: My thanks to President Donald J. Trump for his time and for his leadership.
Date: 2025-03-11
Karoline Leavitt: How are you? Question: Great. Karoline Leavitt: Good, I’ll let my staff get settled. Uh, there’s a lot of news today, so I look forward to taking your questions. Good to see you. Um, and I have some updates for you as well. Later today, President Trump will address the business roundtable’s quarterly meeting where he will tout his pro-growth economic agenda and answer questions before more than 100 of our nation’s leading CEOs. In fact, it’s the largest attendance ever for this event because business leaders are so eager and encouraged by President Trump’s return to Washington. Karoline Leavitt: This follows President Trump’s roundtable yesterday with the technology CEO Council here at the White House, where he met with key leaders in the technology industry. And last night, President Trump also held an official swearing in ceremony in the Oval Office for Sean Curran, who is now the 28th director of the United States Secret Service. Karoline Leavitt: Sean demonstrated unbelievable bravery under gunfire in Butler, Pennsylvania this past July when an assassin tried to kill President Trump. As someone who got to know Sean personally throughout the campaign last year, I can say unequivocally that there is nobody better suited for this important role. And following the confirmation of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer last night, the Senate has now confirmed 21 of President Trump’s well-qualified cabinet level nominees far outpacing the previous administration. Karoline Leavitt: And looking ahead, tomorrow, the president will welcome the Taoiseach Micheal Martin, of Ireland for the annual White House – White House Shamrock ceremony. And Thursday, President Trump will welcome the NATO secretary general for a working meeting and lunch. On the economy. February’s jobs report was good news for America, particularly our manufacturing sector. Karoline Leavitt: The manufacturing sector gained 10,000 new jobs in just one month under President Trump. This rebound was led by the automobile sector where we saw 9000 new auto jobs created already. That is the most auto jobs added to the economy in 15 months. This was a complete turnaround from the Biden administration where we were losing an average of 9000 manufacturing jobs per month last year. Karoline Leavitt: Reuters is out with a report that a number of companies are now looking at expanding their presence or bringing their businesses into America because of President Trump’s policies. And just moments ago, before coming out here, I saw another report by Reuters revealing that Merck has opened a $1 billion facility at its North Carolina site. Karoline Leavitt: This is just the latest pharmaceutical company to boost its US manufacturing in lieu of President Trump’s tariffs. This announcement follows Eli Lilly’s plans to invest at least $27 billion to build four new manufacturing plants here in the United States. And Pfizer has also said it’s considering moving their manufacturing overseas right here to the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: As the president has said over and over again, when we purchase products made in the USA, the profits stay here, the revenue stays here and most importantly, the jobs stay here. And despite the globalist mainstream media’s attempts to worry consumers, President Trump will not repeat the trend of past American presidents who broke their promises to the American public and smiled while they stuck a knife in the back of American workers and shipped their jobs overseas. Karoline Leavitt: Our country has lost more than 5 million jobs in more than 90,000 factories due to devastating globalization over the last three decades alone. North Carolina lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs, including 60 percent of its furniture manufacturing jobs in the years following NAFTA. And in Michigan, globalist policies destroyed 250,000 jobs, including 40 percent of the auto industry. Karoline Leavitt: Which again, we know is clawing back because of President Trump’s action already. These are harrowing statistics that represent countless towns and families who have been completely destroyed. But the America last globalist era is ending under President Trump. He will no longer allow our country and our workers, our hardworking American families to be ripped off. Karoline Leavitt: On another very important issue for the president. He continues to work hard to secure the border. If you missed it yesterday, CBP launched an enhanced home mobile app with a new feature, the Intent to Depart, which offers unlawfully present aliens or those aliens whose parole has been revoked an orderly and defined process to notify the US government of their intent to depart the country. Karoline Leavitt: The CBP home app strengthens our mission to secure the border and provides illegal aliens with a straightforward way to leave now before facing much harsher consequences later. A new report from Bloomberg just found that the number of aliens trying to reach our country by traveling through the jungle to Central America dropped a whopping 99 percent last month. Karoline Leavitt: And this follows the incredible news that illegal border crossings plummeted last month as well, down 94 percent at our southern border from last February under the Biden administration. As President Trump made clear during his historic address to Congress, we must finish this job and continue to carry out the largest deportation campaign in American history. Karoline Leavitt: And that is why the president fully endorses the continuing resolution that is before Congress and was negotiated by Speaker Johnson. He is encouraging all Republicans to vote, yes, on this clean CR, which freezes funding at current levels and will prevent the Democrats from getting their long awaited government shutdown. Karoline Leavitt: Voting against this CR will hurt the American people and kill the incredible momentum that President Trump has built over the past 51 days. And lastly, before I take questions, I would like to commend The Washington Post, who I believe is in the room today. According to a new report from Axios, The Washington Post is overhauling their newsroom structure. Karoline Leavitt: It appears that the mainstream media, including the Post is finally learning that having disdain for more than half of the country who supports this president does not help you sell newspapers. It’s not a very good business model. And that’s why we have people in our new media seat. And today, we have Sagar Annette, who is the host of Breaking Points a popular political YouTube news and podcast show that has racked up nearly 1 billion views on YouTube, several hundred million podcast downloads since its launch in June 2021. He’s also a former member of the White House Correspondents Association, but is now a part of the thriving independent media. Karoline Leavitt: We’re very happy to have you with us here today. Why don’t you kick off our briefing? Thank you. Question: Really, really appreciate you having me, Karoline, a couple of questions for you, if I may. First is first on the stock market. So currently it’s the 25th anniversary today of the dot-com bubble crash. There’s a lot of concern for a lot of Americans right now about the state of the economy. President Trump has refused to rule out a recession. Question: Secretary Lutnick, however, has told us there will not be one, so can the White House just tell and assure Americans today that there’s not going to be a recession? Karoline Leavitt: Well, there’s a lot to unpack there. So, let me start by saying that first of all, when it comes to the stock market, the numbers that we see today, the numbers we saw yesterday, the numbers we’ll see tomorrow are a snapshot of a moment in time. And as President Trump has said, and I’m here to echo the remarks of this president and of this White House, we are in a period of economic transition. Karoline Leavitt: We are in a period of transition from the mess that was created under Joe Biden and the previous administration. Joe Biden left this country in an economic disaster. Several statistics to point out: the delinquency rate on credit card loans increased 63 percent under Joe Biden, hitting a near 12-year high. Karoline Leavitt: Under Joe Biden, all net job growth went to foreign born Americans. Real wages declined by 1.5 percent under Joe Biden. And as we all know, and this administration continues to combat, prices soared more than 20 percent under Joe Biden because of his reckless spending and economic policies. So, we are in a period of transition from that economic nightmare under a president who had no idea what he was doing, never held the private sector job in his life, into a golden age of American manufacturing under a businessman and a deal maker in chief in President Donald J. Trump who will be implementing, is implementing the formula that we know works. Karoline Leavitt: Look at President Trump’s results in his first term. If people are looking for certainty, they should look at the record of this president. That’s why the American people reelected him back to this office. And look at everything that President Trump has already done, and his team has already done in just 51 days. Karoline Leavitt: The massive efforts to deregulate; tax cuts, which we need congress to pass the Trump economic agenda, the Trump tax cuts, which will unleash economic growth. And the president also addressed this directly I will point out as well, when you look at what he said on Air Force One, and he said he wants the American people to have so much money in their pockets they don’t even know what to do with it. That’s the intent of this administration and we’re working very hard every day on that goal. Question: Second question on the CR. So, President Trump came out today in a primary challenge against Congressman Thomas Massie. Congressman Massie has been a supporter of DOGE, he’s been a supporter of Make America Healthy Again. What kind of message is this White House sending against a congressman who’s sticking up for principles that he’s long held in the chamber and voting against continuing resolution and spending? Karoline Leavitt: I think the president has made it very clear that he believes it’s critical for conservatives and republicans and frankly all members of congress to get behind this continuing resolution to keep the government funded. The president wants to continue the momentum that he has built over the last 51 days. In order to keep the government funded, we’ve got to keep moving with these deportations and he believes that everybody needs to get on board with this bill. Karoline Leavitt: He’s been active in this process. He’s been making calls to get this over the finish line. And we’re urging every republican, and democrats too, to do what’s right for the American public to prevent a government shutdown. Question: Just the last question here on Mahmoud Khalil. Does the administration believe that it needs to charge a green card holder with a crime to be eligible for deportation? Karoline Leavitt: Well, in fact, Secretary Rubio reserves the right to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil. And I’m glad you brought this up. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Secretary of State has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who serve or are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: And Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges. And he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege by siding with terrorists, Hamas terrorists who have killed innocent men, women and children. Karoline Leavitt: This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, fliers with the logo of Hamas. That is what the behavior and activity that this individual engaged in. And I have those fliers on my desk, they were provided to me by the Department of Homeland Security. Karoline Leavitt: I thought about bringing them into this briefing room to share with all of you, but I didn’t think it was worth the dignity of this room to bring that pro-Hamas propaganda. But that’s what this individual distributed on the campus of Columbia University. And this administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans. Karoline Leavitt: We have a zero-tolerance policy for siding with terrorists, period. Peter Doocy. Question: Thank you, Karoline. So, you said that the Dow dropping and dropping and dropping is a period of transition. You’re sure nobody here at the White House shorted the Dow. Karoline Leavitt: [Laughter] No, I don’t think so. Question: OK. But is there any concern here that it’s going to be harder to ask certain federal workers to retire if they look at their retirement accounts and they’re getting robbed every day? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I’m glad you brought up workers because that’s exactly who President Trump is looking out for with his America First trade policy and his America First economic agenda. And if you look at – there’s great indication to be optimistic about where the economy stands and the American people, investors, CEOs, small business owners, but most importantly workers, should bet on President Trump, because his tariff policies, what he envisions is reciprocity – fair trade practices where American workers are put first and are no longer ripped off by foreign countries all over this world. Question: President Trump says he’s going to buy a Tesla today. Did he buy it? And when is the last time he drove a car? Karoline Leavitt: That’s a very good question. I have heard the president remark that he misses being able to drive, that luxury of driving his own vehicle, although the beast is nice. But he is going to be viewing a Tesla that is making its way to the White House complex now I can confirm. Perhaps the press pool today will have an opportunity to witness this very exciting moment later this afternoon. Karoline Leavitt: But Tesla – a Tesla is on its way here now and we’ll see if the president likes it when he checks it out. Question: So, they’re bringing him a Tesla to look at and if he likes it, he’s just going to buy it. Karoline Leavitt: He’s intent on – he’s definitely going to buy one. But he’ll take a look at it when it gets here later this afternoon. Question: Full retail? [Laughter] Karoline Leavitt: Yes, full market price. Kelly? Question: Can we talk about Canada? What is the status of President Trump having a conversation with Mark Carney? We have seen the president use the term governor to refer to Justin Trudeau; will that moniker also go to Mr. Carney going forward? And is the decision to increase the tariffs – is that based on a specific economic metric that he looked at? Is it impulse? Question: How would you describe his reaction to Canada? Karoline Leavitt: The president has not yet spoken to Mr. Carney, not since I checked, which was just moments ago, but certainly his phone is always open to leaders who wish to speak with him. As for the tariffs, the president made his position on this quite clear with the statement that he put out. And it was a retaliatory statement due to the escalation of rhetoric that we’ve seen out of Ontario, Canada. Karoline Leavitt: The president saw the premier, Doug Ford, make an egregious and insulting comment threatening to shut down electricity for the American people, for hard working American families. He made that threat. The president saw that and has an obligation and a responsibility to respond accordingly and represent the interests of the American people. Karoline Leavitt: So, he has made the decision to add a 25 percent tariff. So, now steel and aluminum tariffs will come into effect tomorrow at the rate of 50 percent. And our steel and aluminum industries have actually applauded these tariffs because, again, they know it’s going to grow their industry here. It’s going to allow them to export more steel that is made right here in the United States with American workers. Question: Egregious and insulting are your words here, but that’s what many Canadian leaders have said about the actions President Trump has taken toward Canada. And what do you think the timeline is for speaking to Mr. Carney? Because normally the president – a sitting president speaks to a close ally very quickly when there’s new leadership. Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president is again responding to the fact that Canada has been ripping off the United States of America and hard-working Americans for decades. If you look at the rates of tariffs across the board that Canadians have been imposing on the American people and our workers here, it is egregious. In fact, I have a handy, dandy chart here that shows not just Canada, but the rate of tariffs across the board. Karoline Leavitt: If you look at Canada, since you brought it up, American cheese and butter, nearly 300 percent tariff; you look at India, 150 percent tariff on American alcohol. You think that’s helping Kentucky bourbon be exported into India? I don’t think so. 100 percent tariff on agricultural products from India. Look at Japan tariffing rice, 700 percent. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump believes in reciprocity, and it is about dang time that we have a president who actually looks out for the interests of American businesses and workers. And all he’s asking for at the end of the day are fair and balanced trade practices. And unfortunately, Canada has not been treating us very fairly at all over the past several decades. Karoline Leavitt: To the woman in the purple, because I saw you were making a face at my previous answer. So, what’s going on? [Laughter] Question: Well, actually I have a couple of questions. At the core of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses and elsewhere, is a demand to end the war in Gaza, a goal that this administration actually supports and has pursued. So, why has this not been acknowledged or highlighted even. Karoline Leavitt: Because these colleges and these protests have again put out Hamas propaganda. The fliers that have been distributed call for violence. The fliers that have been distributed have the logo of an organization that has held Americans hostage, that murdered innocent babies, that murdered men, women and children. Karoline Leavitt: They are a designated foreign terrorist organization. And we are not going to tolerate non-citizens, foreigners who come here on a visa engaging in such behavior siding with terrorists. And the Secretary of State reserves the authority to revoke the – the green card or the visa of an individual who serves as a – who – actually it says right here, reasonable grounds to believe that the alien’s presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences to the United States. Karoline Leavitt: And I think siding with Hamas makes that quite clear. Secretary Rubio exercised that authority, and we fully believe that we are going to move forward with more arrests as President Trump previewed in his statement yesterday. Question: Yeah, but the White House also – Karoline Leavitt: Ed? Question: Yeah, thanks, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead. Question: So are there conversations between the administration and the Canadians going on over this tariff? Because the Ontario Premier says the next step is to cut off electricity to the US. Karoline Leavitt: And the president put out a statement after seeing those comments. And said that it would be – there would be grave consequences imposed on Canada if they think about shutting off electricity for the United States of America and our citizens. And the president is also determined to ensure that we are depending on American electricity, not the electricity production of foreign nations, including our allies in Canada. Karoline Leavitt: As for conversations, there is continued correspondence between the president’s team, particularly Secretary Lutnick and the Canadians as well. Question: And the market reaction, how do you – how do you sell to the American people then after they’re looking at what’s happening in the markets this week and say that the tariff policy long term is something good? Karoline Leavitt: Well, just think about what the tariff policy long term will do for our country. I think many of us probably grew up in small towns. I know at least I did. And the main street in my small town looks a heck of a lot worse than it probably did decades ago before I was alive. At least my parents and grandparents tell me so. And I know many Americans feel that same way. Karoline Leavitt: What the president envisions for this country is for the United States of America to be a manufacturing superpower, where there are American factories and businesses owned by Americans producing goods that we are exporting to the rest of the world. Those revenues will stay here. It will increase wages for people here in our great country. Karoline Leavitt: It will ensure our national security. And it will boost the morale of the American people to have thriving industries again. Think about Detroit, Michigan, think about North Carolina, as I mentioned. That used to have a thriving furniture industry that no longer exists because of the globalist trade policies of previous and past administrations. Karoline Leavitt: And the American people gave the president a tremendous opportunity to restore American greatness and restore our manufacturing dominance. And he’s intent on doing just that. John? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Thanks a lot, Karoline. Two questions for you. First on the CR, you put up on the screen, the president’s message to Republicans to support this continuing resolution. Is there outreach to Democrats? Because what we’ve seen since the beginning of the fiscal year is that in order to get a continuing resolution, you need bipartisan support, and you need compromise. Karoline Leavitt: Well, right now, we are focused on House Republicans and on the House. Because that’s the first step, as you know, John. And so, the president has engaged in correspondence with House Republicans whipping votes and getting them to a yes, which I understand has been pretty successful this morning thus far. Karoline Leavitt: And so again, the president is encouraging Republicans especially. But again, as I said, all members of Congress to vote to continue funding this government so we can continue the business of the American people which elected President Trump to do. Question: And then, on financial markets, we’ve seen this decline yesterday. We see it today as well. It seems that the read on the president’s policies is one in which they do not have confidence in his trade tariffs policy. They do not have confidence in what the president said to Fox News over the weekend that he didn’t rule out the idea of a recession. Question: What is your read in terms of the decline that we’ve seen over the last week and a half in financial markets? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I think there’s actually a lot of reason to be confident. And many people do feel confident. Just look at the nearly $2 trillion in private investment that this President has secured. Look at the comments made by the CEO of Apple, one of the biggest companies in this world who said that he is bullish on the future of American innovation under the leadership of President Trump. Karoline Leavitt: Look at CEO confidence. According to the Conference Board measure of CEO confidence in Q1 2025, under the leadership of this president, it jumped to its highest level in three years from cautious optimism to confident optimism. If you, again, look at the $2 trillion in investments from some of the biggest companies in the world, look at the jobs report last Friday. Karoline Leavitt: As I also cited in my opening remarks, Fox business reported that Trump sees a manufacturing boom in first folds jobs report of his second term. Look at the auto jobs that have already poured back into America. We added 9000 new auto jobs. Those are sticky jobs. Those are good paying jobs. That’s 9000 American families who will now be able to live the American dream because of the policies of this administration. Karoline Leavitt: You also look at small business optimism. The NFIB put out a report this morning, small business optimism continues to be far higher than it ever was under the previous administration. There’s a lot of reason to be optimistic. And again, the American people, CEOs and people on Wall Street and on Main Street should bet on this president. Karoline Leavitt: He is a dealmaker. He is a businessman. And he’s doing what’s right for our country. He wants to restore wealth to the United States of America. Michael, good to see you. Question: Hey, Karoline, thank you. Two questions if I may. Will the – will the administration be providing any relief to states affected by the Ontario Power Tariff? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has made it very clear that Canada would be very wise not to shut off electricity for the American people. And we hope that that does not happen. As for what would happen, if that does take place, I’ll leave it to the president to make those decisions. Question: And does President Trump share the Justice Department’s concern over rising egg prices and possible collusion of Big Egg? [Laughter] Karoline Leavitt: Well, we definitely – we definitely do share the concerns of the American people when it comes to the price of eggs. However, good news, the average cost of a dozen eggs is actually down since Secretary Rollins and President Trump announced their plan. It’s down $ 1.85. So that’s good news on the cost of eggs. Karoline Leavitt: And as we know, under the Biden administration, egg prices went up 22 percent. This is another example of an economic mess that President Trump inherited. And the Secretary of Agriculture and the president are focused on fixing it. Secretary Rollins put out a five point plan – a four point plan rather to address this crisis. Karoline Leavitt: And she has been honest and realistic with the American people as this administration always is. It will take about three to six months to get the egg supply back to where it should be. But she’s focused and this administration is focused on doing that every day. Karen? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Just back on the markets, you said that what we’re seeing this week right now in Wall Street is a snapshot of a moment in time, but does the president think he bears any responsibility for the turmoil in the stock market this week? Karoline Leavitt: Look, the president is unwavering in his commitment to restore American manufacturing and global dominance. And I think he doubled down on that this morning with his new statement and the tariffs that will be implemented tomorrow on steel and aluminum. Question: And he has said recently he’s not looking at the market. He said you can’t really watch the stock – the stock market, but all of the gains since Election Day have been erased in the S&P 500. At what point, how far do stocks have to fall before the president considers it a factor and changes course? Karoline Leavitt: Again, as I just said, the president will look out for Wall Street and for Main Street just like he did in his first term. And people on Wall Street and Main Street should bet on this president. He’s doing what’s right for this country. Nick, good to see you. Question: Good to see you, too. Thank you, Karoline. So is the president prepared like what we saw with Congressman Massie to pressure other Republican lawmakers into supporting this continuing resolution? Karoline Leavitt: Well, he is very much, as I said, engaged in this process. He’s been making calls to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. And I think his statements against Congressman Massie speak for themselves. And I will let the president put out any additional statements if he chooses to. But he fully expects all House Republicans to vote for this continuing resolution. Question: And just a follow up, can we start to anticipate seeing more of the president weighing in on upcoming 2026 races like we saw this morning? Karoline Leavitt: I’m not sure about that. I’m not even sure if I’m allowed to speak about that from this podium. I would check in with our outside political team for guidance on future races and the president’s involvement. Elena? Question: Thank you. I wanted to ask you about some comments Elon Musk made yesterday. He said that there is $500 to $700 billion in waste and fraud in entitlement spending. He called it, “the big one to eliminate.” Earlier this month, he also referred to Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. Should Americans expect changes, big changes to Social Security and Medicare? Karoline Leavitt: President Trump has been unequivocally clear on this. He is going to protect Social Security and Medicare benefits and Medicaid for hard working Americans who paid into these entitlement programs and deserve those hard earned benefits. And unfortunately, the mainstream media has taken Mr. Musk out of context. Karoline Leavitt: I saw a Bloomberg headline that our team – wrong, and it took Mr. Musk out of context. What he was specifically referring to cutting was the waste and the fraud and abuse that does exist in these programs. According to an IG report from the Social Security Administration, there’s more than $70 billion of fraud in the Social Security program alone that we know of. And so, the president will continue to protect these programs for hard-working Americans. Karoline Leavitt: And actually, cutting the waste, fraud and abuse out of these programs will protect it for hard-working Americans. Question: But Karoline, respectfully – he said around $500 billion to $700 billion, there was no evidence to claim that. And also, if that is the case, that would represent more than a third of what Social Security paid out last year, maybe 20 percent of Social Security and Medicare combined. Karoline Leavitt: Again, if you read his full quote, he said we think, so it’s an estimate based on what he’s seen. He’s not saying definitively, he’s saying that’s what DOGE suspects and thinks. And that’s exactly why DOGE was created, to ensure that we are investigating the fraudulent spending, the wasteful abuse across our federal government. Karoline Leavitt: And I would remind everybody in this room that 77 percent of the American people support this effort by Elon Musk and DOGE to identify such waste, fraud and abuse. Go ahead. You’re welcome. Question: Thanks, Karoline, for doing this. If we could just step back for a second, when President Trump last addressed the BRT, when he was on the campaign trail, his big push was on tax cuts. He’s going there today as he’s proposing tax hikes in the form of tariffs. And I’m curious –. Karoline Leavitt: Not true. He’s not doing that. Question: For why he’s prioritizing that over the tax cuts. Karoline Leavitt: He’s actually not implementing tax hikes; tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that again have been ripping us off. Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people. And the president is a staunch advocate of tax cuts. As you know, he campaigned on no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, no taxes on Social Security benefits. Karoline Leavitt: He is committed to all three of those things and he expects congress to pass them later this year. Question: I’m sorry, have you ever paid a tariff, because I have? They don’t get charged on foreign companies; they get charged on the importers. Karoline Leavitt: And ultimately when we have fair and balanced trade, which the American people have not seen in decades, as I said at the beginning, revenues will stay here, wages will go up and our country will be made wealthy again. And I think it’s insulting that you are trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions that this president has made. Karoline Leavitt: I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press. Mary, go ahead. Question: Hey, Karoline, I have two if that’s OK. The first one was on Russia-Ukraine. I know Special Envoy Witkoff said yesterday that Zelenskyy apologized in his letter to Trump. Can you share any more about that letter and what else might be interesting from it that we don’t know? Karoline Leavitt: Yes, the president did reference that letter, as you’re saying, in his joint address to congress, and I do have an update. As you know, Secretary of State Rubio and our National Security advisor Mike Waltz, have been negotiating with the Ukrainians today in Saudi. They will be providing a full readout of that meeting very soon. Karoline Leavitt: But I can assure you and everybody here and the American people that the news we’ve received from that meeting throughout the day and the president has been briefed on is positive. This meeting has been productive. I will let Secretary Rubio and our national security – Secretary of State Rubio and our national security advisor speak to the specifics of what has taken place today when they are ready to do so when the meeting concludes. Karoline Leavitt: Lindsay, go ahead. Question: Thank you, Karoline. According to Mahmoud Khalil, the president has said this is the first of many arrests like this. Does the administration have a rough estimate of how many arrests you’re planning to make similar? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have an estimate. I do know that DHS, based on very good Intel that they have gathered at the direction of the president’s executive order, which made it very clear to the Department of Homeland Security that engaging, as I said, in anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas protests will not be tolerated. Karoline Leavitt: So, since the president signed that executive order, and since Secretary Noem has taken the oath at DHS, they have been using intelligence to identify individuals on our nation’s colleges and universities, on our college campuses who have engaged in such behavior and activity, and especially illegal activity. Karoline Leavitt: And so, I don’t have a readout on how many arrests will come, but I do know that DHS is actively working on it. And I also know that Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity, and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus. Karoline Leavitt: And as the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that. And we expect all America’s colleges and universities to comply with this administration’s policy. Jasmine? Question: Thank you so much, Karoline, for the question. On Canada, after all of these threats to increase tariffs or turn off electricity, I wonder, does this administration still consider Canada to be a close ally of the United States? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I think Canada is a neighbor, they are a partner. They have always been an ally, perhaps they are becoming a competitor now. But as the president also laid out in his Truth Social post today, he believes that Canadians would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state of the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: And I actually looked into some of the research about the cost of living in Canada, and the cost of living is much higher than it is here in the United States of America. The average cost of a home in Canada is much higher. In Quebec, the highest tax rate for an income of 150,000 or more is 53.3 percent, more than half of Canadians incomes they are being taxed on. So, the president has made it clear that he believes Canadians would be better served economically, militarily if they were to become the 51st state of the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: Reagan? Question: Thank you, Karoline. A week ago, Attorney General Bondi said a truckload of Epstein files had been delivered to her office from the SDNY. When can we expect those files to be released to the public? Karoline Leavitt: I would defer you to the Department of Justice. I don’t have a timeline here. Question: Do you have any update on the JFK files? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t. At this moment, again, I would defer you to our DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard, and also the Department of Justice. I know that they are working on that diligently as the president requested them to do. Christian? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Two questions since we’ve been talking a lot about tariffs. Have there been any updates on standing up the External Revenue Service to collect revenue from that? Karoline Leavitt: Well, we need reciprocal tariffs to go into effect first and, as you know, the president will be rolling those out on April 2nd. And then the next start of that process is collecting that revenue to ultimately create the External Revenue Service, which Secretary Lutnick is working very hard on and is quite enthusiastic about, if you have noticed from his media interviews. Question: Can the president do that through executive action, or will it require legislation? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president already signed an executive order to direct the secretary of commerce to establish the External Revenue Service or at least to identify ways in which it can be done. I would refer you to the Department of Commerce for more on specifics on that. Sure, in the back. Question: Thank you very much, Karoline. I have a few questions on South Korea and North Korea. First question, as you know, South Korean President Moon has been released from illegal detention. What is the reaction of the United States as an ally? Is there a possibility of a summit with President Trump when President Moon returns? Question: Second question on North Korea, Morth Korea launched the ballistic missile – several ballistic missiles into the West Coast yesterday. What is the White House’s reaction on this – Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Sure, yes, I’ll start with your question on North Korea. We condemn these actions, and we call on North Korea to stop their unlawful and destabilizing actions. As for South Korea, the US and Republic of Korea’s alliance is ironclad, and the Trump administration remains in close contact with our South Korean counterparts as we work together to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: The first question, you didn’t answer that. But release of our South Korean president from jail [Inaudible] Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have anything on that, but I can certainly check in with the National Security Council and get back to you. Sure, good to see you. Question: Press secretary, many are concerned about the validity of President Biden’s official actions and also his pardons of the possible criminal actions of individuals such as his family members and Liz Cheney as information is emerging that many of his official actions were auto signed, possibly even the pardons and without his knowledge or consent. Question: Does the White House have any information available currently that Biden was actually the one that approved and signed those pardons? And second question, will the DOJ investigate whether President Biden’s cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy and pardons without his knowing approval? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t know the answer to that question, but I can check in with our folks here who may know the answer to that question and get back to you. Dasha, go ahead. Question: Karoline, you did a great job articulating the vision that President Trump has for what his tariffs – he believes his tariffs can do in terms of bringing jobs back to the United States. I asked you last week about how much Americans might need to buckle up for some short-term pain. A conversation that the President and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have had with the people. Question: I’m wondering what is the – how high is the pain threshold for President Trump and for this White House as you watch some of the turbulence in the stock markets, as you field concerns from businesses that potentially see some of those approval ratings drop in the short term? How much is he willing to stomach that and will he stay committed to his vision for tariffs even as all of this comes up? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has been working hard every single day to alleviate the pain that was inflicted by the previous administration through massive deregulation, through drill, baby, drill, as we like to call it, unleashing the might of our energy industry. Which we know will ultimately drive down costs for consumers here at home. Karoline Leavitt: And again, as I mentioned, the president is intent on signing tax cuts for the American people to put more money back into their pockets, which will ultimately unlock consumer confidence. And again, I’ll reiterate the president’s words in layman’s terms, as he does best. The president wants the American people to have so much more money in their pockets they don’t know what to do with it. That’s the goal of this administration through tariffs, through tax cuts, through deregulation and through unleashing the potential of our energy industry. Karoline Leavitt: I have two more quick notes before I wrap up. Um, April 28th, I can confirm that the Philadelphia Eagles will be here at the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory. I know there was a lot of fake news about an invitation that wasn’t sent or was sent. We want to correct the record. We sent an invitation. Karoline Leavitt: They enthusiastically accepted. And you will see them here on April 28th. And lastly, on a sad note, I would like to express our condolences to Fox News and to the entire Fox family who did lose a cameraman, Craig Savage, who passed away at 61 years old recently. A very tragic death, an individual who was a great man and covered this building for many, many years. Karoline Leavitt: So the entire Press Office, the Communications Office here wants to express our condolences with his family and also with Fox News. And I’ll see you guys later. Perhaps you’ll see the president in a Tesla later this afternoon. Have a good one.
Date: 2025-03-11
Donald Trump: That’s beautiful. That is – X Æ A-Xii Musk: Hello, everyone. Hello, hello. Elon Musk: Say, “Hello, everyone.” X Æ A-Xii Musk: Hello, everyone. Donald Trump: That is beautiful. Anybody know who he is? Elon Musk: Hello. Donald Trump: Hello, Peter. Question: Hello, President Trump. Are you looking to buy or lease today? Donald Trump: I’m going to buy. And I’m going to buy because number one, it’s a great product, as good as it gets. And number two, because this man has devoted his energy and his life to doing this. And I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people. And I just want people to know that you can’t be penalized for being a patriot. Donald Trump: And he’s a great patriot. And he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla. And I mean, nobody else has a car company started up in the last 30 years that’s been successful. I don’t think so. And not only successful but super successful. And because he’s able to find billions and billions and billions of dollars of fraud and waste and all of the things – I mean, our country is going to be very strong very soon because of a lot of the things that he’s done and a lot of the things that I’m doing. Donald Trump: And there’s no better team, but there’s no better for what we’re doing. There’s nobody like this. And he shouldn’t be penalized. And when I watched the other day, I said I can’t believe it. It should be the opposite. People should be going wild. And they love the product. But because he’s finding all sorts of terrible things that have taken place against our country, they want to penalize him in an economic sense, and I just think that’s very unfair. Donald Trump: So I just wanted to make a statement. I’m going to buy one. Now, here’s the bad news. I’m not allowed to drive because I haven’t driven a car in a long time, and I love to drive cars. But I’m going to have it – at the White House, I’m going to let my staff use it, I’m going to let people at the place use it, and they all are all excited about that. Donald Trump: I’m not allowed to use it, can you believe it? Unidentified: Somebody – Donald Trump: One of my great things in life is that I can – you know, I like to drive cars, but I’m not allowed to. And I will say this one, the Cybertruck, I bought for a very special young woman, do you know? I’m sure you’ve never heard of her, Kay. And she’s a great golfer, and she puts the clubs in the back, and I guess it’s a very safe deal. Donald Trump: She loves it. And I actually bought one about a year ago. And she loves it. And it’s very safe, it’s very strong, heavy. It’s all steel, stainless steel, but the cars themselves – so what is this one, Elon? Elon Musk: That’s the model Y. Donald Trump: That’s the model Y. So I have a lot of information to put into price. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: I want to make a good deal here. You know, I do notice this. They have one which is $35,000, which is pretty low. What is that all about? Elon Musk: Yeah, it’s – I guess we wanted to make a point that Teslas aren’t all expensive. You can get a Tesla for as little as $35,000. Donald Trump: Yeah. Elon Musk: And I just wanted to thank the president for his support. This means a lot. And also thank everyone out there who is supporting Tesla. It’s really terrible that there’s so much violence being perpetrated against people at Tesla, Tesla supporters, Tesla owners, Tesla stores. These are innocent people who’ve done nothing wrong. Elon Musk: So, you know – Donald Trump: But nobody’s been – I mean, it hasn’t been – there’s been some physical damage, a little damage, and we want to keep it that way. Because I don’t want to say this, it’s just not that appropriate, but law enforcement is out there watching everybody. We don’t want this to happen and not to somebody that’s been so good to our country. Donald Trump: He didn’t have to do this. He didn’t have to go through this, and we can’t let it happen. And aside from that, I happen to love the product. Yeah, it’s always – it’s a lot nicer if you also happen to love the product, and he’s done a really good job. Go ahead, Peter. Question: Is there a – I guess this is for Elon Musk. Is there a discount at – President Trump wrote the art of the deal? Is there any kind of room for negotiating? Donald Trump: Let me answer that. I know he’d give me a discount. But honestly, I don’t want to ask for one. You know, I’m president, so I want to pay full price. Question: And what is your message, President Trump? Buying a new car while there are some folks who will see this clip at home, and they are struggling with their retirement accounts, down at the moment, uncertainty about work ahead. Donald Trump: Well, I think they’re going to do great. I think we’re – our country had to do this. We had to go and do this. They’ve taken away – other countries have taken away our business. They’ve taken away our jobs. I did it initially very strongly against, as you know, China and some others in the first term, and it was a very successful term. Donald Trump: We had no inflation. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And then, we had COVID, which we had to straighten out, so I didn’t want to be doing anything with respect to other countries at that time. And we did a great job with that. We handled the stock market over. It was higher than it ever was. Donald Trump: And think of that, higher than it ever was to that point before, and nobody thought that was even possible. We did a great job. But we had the greatest economy in history. This economy, in my opinion, is going to blow it away. But what I have to do is I have to get the workers back, I have to get the factories open. Donald Trump: We have – 90,000 factories and plants are closed from what you had just prior to NAFTA, which is not very long ago, 90,000. Think of it, 90,000 factories and plants are closed from what it was, and it’s just not right. So – and we gave it away, presidents before me gave it away, and I could name every one of them. Donald Trump: But they gave it away, and we’re taking it back. We’re taking our jobs back. And one of the things I’ll say, by the way, speaking of Tesla, he manufactures more cars. I mean he opened this incredible plant, one of the largest plants in the world – Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: In Texas. Could you talk about that, Elon? Elon Musk: Yeah, it’s worth noting that the Tesla cars have the most U.S. content of any cars on the market. So, they’re the most American made. We have the biggest factory and the most advanced automotive factory in Texas that we’ve opened and continued to expand. And so, this is very much a – it’s – it’s a – these are great products. Elon Musk: The Model S has won best car ever, you know, so they’re – all these cars won incredible awards. So, they’re great cars, and they’re American made. And I think, you know, try it, you’ll like it. Yeah. Donald Trump: And I’m just saying, beyond the cars, they’re great. But we have to celebrate somebody that has the courage to do this. He could have said, “I’m not doing anything. I’m not going to get involved. Let the country go to hell.” He didn’t want to do that. And remember, he’s going to find and we’re up to almost $500 billion worth of waste and fraud and abuse, 500 billion. Donald Trump: We give – we’re giving 2 billion here, 2 billion there, not millions. It was a bad – if it was $1 million or $2 million, that’s a lot of money. But we’re talking about billions of dollars being given to defunct, you know, scams, given to people with no – with nothing. They have nothing going. They open up a subchapter S corporation, and they put $2 billion into it from nowhere, and we’ve caught a lot of them. Donald Trump: I wish we could catch all of them, but we’ve got a lot of them. And he’s been largely responsible, so we have to celebrate him. And it’s not that he’s conservative. I don’t even know if he’s conservative. I will tell you this. Elon Musk: He says [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I’ve been doing this for – I’ve known him for a pretty long time. He endorsed me. I didn’t know him that well when he endorsed me. But in the time I’ve known him, he has never asked me for a favor. He didn’t ask me for this. I said, “You know, Elon, I don’t like what’s happening to you, and Tesla is a great company. Donald Trump: I don’t like what’s happening. It’s from our standpoint, American cars, American made.” He employs thousands of people. He’s got – at the same time, he has the most modern plants in the world. I said, “I don’t like what’s happened to you.” I’m going to do it. I didn’t even know he was going to come. He’s never asked me for anything. Donald Trump: He endorsed me, and he never asked me. I didn’t even know he was going to endorse me. The guy has never asked me. He’s not saying – in fact, I could go a step further. I ended the electric mandate, OK? I ended the electric mandate. And I figured, when is this guy calling to raise hell with me? And he never called. Donald Trump: I mean he never called me. If I were him, I would have called. So, because he’s probably even better than I am. Question: Mr. President, is he rubbing – is Elon Musk rubbing off on you? Is electric then the way to go? Donald Trump: It’s not that – I’m not – this isn’t for electric or gas because people have their choices. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: I’m just saying that I know people that have these cars. I know one man, we see him all the time. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: He’s constantly – he has five of them. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: He thinks it’s a great – and he was a big guy for Ferraris and other things. And he says, “Man, it blows them away.” I know other people, they have three or four, they love them, they love them. And some people like the gasoline – and they should have their options. Elon Musk: Right. Donald Trump: I’m all about options. But I’m telling you, I ended the electric mandate, and I was waiting for a call. I said, “Did Elon call yet?” They said, “No, sir.” The next day, “What about Elon?Did he call?” He never even mentioned it to me, never complained until this moment. I’m just bringing it up. Who would do that? Donald Trump: He has never asked me for a thing, and he’s built this great company, and he shouldn’t be penalized because he’s a patriot. He’s an incredible patriot. And I don’t even know if he’s a Republican. I really don’t. Question: Mr. President, Mr. President – Donald Trump: Well, I’m not sure if he was – Question: The Tesla stock is also – Donald Trump: You can have drops and markets are going to go up, and they’re going to go down. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: But you know what? We have to rebuild our country. Our country has been stripped of its jobs, of its factories. And I’m tired of seeing where they build apartments, cheap apartments in an old broken-down factory. But you have factories all over the place that are empty from many decades ago, and we’re going to change it around. Donald Trump: And it’s all taxing policy. You know, it’s really a policy because we have great workers, great people. It’s really a policy of – of taxing and incentives. And I’m bringing the incentives back. And I’ll tell you what, numerous plants – and I don’t want to mention specifically, but I’ll mention this one, numerous plants in Mexico and other places that were under construction or soon to be under construction are now coming here and they’ve dropped that because it was unfair what was happening. Donald Trump: Mexico, they were building cars, they were selling them into the United States with no tax, no nothing. And in the United States, we were allowing them to take our jobs and take our factories, and we don’t do that anymore. Now, from a president, it would be a lot easier if I just coasted for another four years. Donald Trump: I would have been an eight-year president. I had the best economy in history in my first four years. I would have done very well with this one, and I had a decision to make. Do I want to do this or do I not? Do I want to do it right? The right thing to do is what we’re doing. We’re going to get our jobs back and we’re not going to be laughed at now. Donald Trump: I will say this that already Canada and I respect very much. As you know, there’s a very strong man in Canada who said he was going to charge a surcharge or a tariff on electricity coming into our country. He’s – he has called and he said he’s not going to do that. He’s not going to do that. And it would have been a very bad thing if he did, and he’s not going to do that. Donald Trump: So, I respect that. But we were just informed that he’s not going to do that. Look, we’ve been treated very unfairly by Canada. We’ve been treated very unfairly by Mexico. But we’ve been treated very unfairly by every country all over the world. The European Union is horrible, horrible. And we’re going to get it back. Donald Trump: And I have a choice I could just coast – and eventually there’d be a blow up down the road, maybe a long way. But we have $36 trillion, and we’re going to get it back. We’re the biggest, we’re the best, and I’m very optimistic. I have to tell you, I’m very optimistic about the country, much more optimistic this way than if I did it the easy way. Donald Trump: I could have done it the easy way I could have coasted. Biden left us a mess. He left us tremendous inflation, tremendously high cost of products. He left us a mess, but he also left us a mess with millions of people that poured into our country that are criminals. Millions of those people happen to be criminals, and we’re looking for them all over the place. Donald Trump: We’re looking for them. And Homan and Kristi are doing an incredible job. But he left us a horrible situation, and we’re changing it. But one of the things we’re changing is we’re going to make our country really wealthy again. We’re going to bring our jobs back. Right now, we’re like a chicken that’s being plucked at from all over the world. Donald Trump: We’re not going to let that happen anymore. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: But very importantly, and I said it, Ukraine, ceasefire, Ukraine, ceasefire. Just agreed to a little while ago. Now, we have to go to Russia and hope President – hopefully President Putin will agree to that also, and we can get this show on the road. We can get – we can get this horrible war where 2,000 or 3000 soldiers a week, every week; 2,000, 3,000, 4000 sometimes, I get the reports. Donald Trump: And they’re not American soldiers, they’re Ukrainian and they’re Russian. But people are being killed outside of that. People are being killed in the cities as things explode throughout the cities, and we want to get that war over with. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Will you talk to President Putin about that? Donald Trump: So, I think it’s a very big – I think it’s a big difference between the last visit you saw at the Oval Office and the – so that’s a total ceasefire. Ukraine has agreed to it. And hopefully, Russia will agree to it. We’re going to meet with them later on today and tomorrow. And hopefully, we’ll be able to wipe out a deal, but I think the ceasefire is very important. Donald Trump: If we can get Russia to do it, that’ll be great. If we can’t, we just keep going on, and people are going to get killed. Lots of people. Is Zelenskyy invited back to the White House? Sure, absolutely. Question: Mr. President, you mentioned the ups and downs in the stock market? You said it will go up, it’ll go down. But do you and your tariff policies right now bear any responsibility for the turmoil we’re seeing this week? Donald Trump: No. Biden gave us a horrible economy. He gave us horrible inflation. And I think the market was going to go very, very bad. If anything, I have a lot of very smart people, friends of mine and great businessmen. They’re now investing because of what I’m doing. Because long term, what I’m doing is making our country strong again, financially strong, militarily strong and strong – if we want to get away – remember this, we have wars. Donald Trump: When I left, we had no wars. We didn’t have Ukraine and Russia. We didn’t have October 7th. We didn’t have that disaster that took place with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. And you look at what’s happened there. We caught the major terrorists which Biden wouldn’t have caught. Why didn’t he catch him? I caught him. Donald Trump: Five weeks into the presidency, I caught the man responsible for Abbey Gate, and he’s going to pay hell right now. He’s a bad dude. He’s a bad guy. But we didn’t have these problems. I had no inflation. I had a great economy. He gave you high prices, you couldn’t buy bacon, you couldn’t buy anything. And also, I inherited a situation with eggs. Donald Trump: The price of eggs was through the roof. Well, now, the price of eggs has come down a lot. Interest rates have come down, gasoline prices have come down. It’s all coming down. It’s all a beautiful thing. I can do it the right way or the wrong way. We’re doing it the right way. And I have tremendous confidence in this country and the people of this country, tremendous – much more so than if I sat back for four years and had a good time in the Oval Office. Donald Trump: I want to look at cars. Elon Musk: I have an announcement to make that could be helpful. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Elon Musk: I want to say as as a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double vehicle output in the United States within the next two years, double. Donald Trump: That’s a big deal. That’s good. Thank you. And by the way, he makes one car. This one, I don’t understand. This one, I don’t want, but that’s OK, without a steering wheel. It comes out next year, right? Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: Explain that, please. Elon Musk: Yes. Well, the Cybercab starts production in Texas next year, and it’s self-driving. We have so much confidence in the self-driving nature of it that it will actually not have a steering wheel. It will not have pedals. It’ll either self drive or not drive at all, but it’ll self-drive. Question: President Trump, before – Donald Trump: And I’m going to pass on that, but – Question: Before this event today, when’s the last time you bought a new car? Donald Trump: Wow, well, I buy a lot for – through my children because they run the company now. I used to buy a lot. I haven’t bought a new car in a long time. Question: What was your first car? Donald Trump: The only thing I know – the only thing I know is the beast I got a big car with very thick windows and thick side panels. Question: Is that going electric? Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: We buy – we buy a lot of – we buy a lot of cars. Actually, I bought this one for Kai. Question: Do you remember your first car? You mentioned that the Ontario premier calling you and giving you his decision about the electricity surcharge, and you said you were pleased about that. Will you make a different decision now about the tariffs on Canada? Will you reduce it? Donald Trump: Well, now, I’m looking into that, but probably so, yeah. He was a gentleman. Question: Will you reduce it back? Donald Trump: He was a gentleman. Look, I said it before, we give Canada $200 billion a year. We subsidize Canada between all of the things we give them and trade. We give them – we don’t have to have cars made in Canada. We don’t have to have lumber from Canada. We have tremendous lumber, we have tremendous trees. All I have to do is unfreeze them from some of the restrictions that were put on. I can do that with an executive order. Donald Trump: We don’t need energy. We have more energy than anybody else in the world. So, we spend – spent $200 billion a year subsidizing Canada. We don’t have to do that. And frankly, the way that it gets solved is Canada should honestly become our 51st state. We wouldn’t have a northern border problem. We wouldn’t have a tariff problem. Donald Trump: They don’t have much. They spend very little, as you know, the least of almost anybody on military, and we spend the most of anybody on military. We have a great military. I rebuilt the military during my first term. We’re going to have to rebuild it a little bit again. Not that much, but we’re going to have to rebuild it a little bit again. Donald Trump: But Canada would be great as our cherished 51st state. You wouldn’t have to worry about borders, you wouldn’t have to worry about anything. And by the way, Canada is very highly taxed, and we’re very low tax. We’re considered a low-tax nation because of me, because I cut the taxes so low. So, the people of Canada would pay much less tax. Question: But just to be – Donald Trump: It makes a lot of sense. And by the way, when you take away that artificial line that looks like it was done with a ruler. And that’s what it was. Some guy sat there years ago, and they said – well, when you take away that and you look at that beautiful formation of Canada and the United States, there is no place anywhere in the world that looks like that. Donald Trump: It’s – Elon Musk: Plus Greenland, of course. Plus Greenland. Donald Trump: And then, if you add Greenland, that’s – Elon Musk: I mean – Donald Trump: That’s pretty – Elon Musk: It’s still going to look beautiful. Question: Mr. President, what do you tell the CEOs that – Donald Trump: OK? Question: What do you tell the CEOs that – Donald Trump: I’m going to look at this, I’m going to make a decision. Do you want to hear what my decision – Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: OK. What’s your best of these cars? What do you think? Elon Musk: Well, the car that I drive is the Model S Plaid. Donald Trump: Which is that one? Elon Musk: That red one in the middle. Donald Trump: I like that, yeah. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: I like that. Elon Musk: It’s – it’s – it’s zero to 60 miles an hour in two seconds, so faster than a Ferrari. Donald Trump: That’s pretty fast. I don’t know if my people can handle this. They’re going to – they’re going to be using it more. I’m not allowed to use it. Unidentified: It looks faster. Donald Trump: That’s – that’s a fast one. Question: Just to be clear, sir, the 50 percent, is that going to go into effect on Canada or not? Donald Trump: Which one? Question: The 50 percent tariffs. Donald Trump: I’ll let you know about it. Question: OK. Donald Trump: I’ll let you know. But I appreciated his call. I thought it was nice. This is beautiful. Whoa, should I get in? Unidentified: Get in. Elon Musk: Get in. Donald Trump: OK. Question: Have you ever [Inaudible] in on one of these? Donald Trump: Let me get in, in a second. Question: Of the Tesla? Donald Trump: Do you want my notes? Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: They gave me notes. I said, “I’m not Biden, I don’t need notes.” Question: I’ll take a look. Elon Musk: I can take that. Donald Trump: Thank you. Elon Musk: Thank you. Donald Trump: Let me get in, in a second. I’ll watch Secret Service go crazy. Thank you. Elon Musk: I mean if you actually drove it around – in this other side. Donald Trump: That’s beautiful. This is a different panel than I’ve had. Everything’s computer. That’s beautiful, wow. This is great. Elon Musk: Yeah [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I don’t want – I don’t – Elon Musk: Your Secret Service [Inaudible] Donald Trump: That’s beautiful. Elon Musk: Yeah. Can you start it? Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Elon Musk: So, do you want to actually drive it or maybe – Donald Trump: You don’t – you don’t want me to drive it, do you? Elon Musk: I saw Biden do a [Inaudible] very easy to drive. Donald Trump: Oh, that’s – that’s – you’re the only one that saw it. So, it’s like – it’s like driving a golf cart, basically. Elon Musk: I know it’s beautiful. Donald Trump: Very simple. Elon Musk: It’s very simple. So, it’s literally like golf cart that goes really fast. There’s no gears. There’s no – Donald Trump: This is really amazing. Unidentified: [Ianudible] let’s take a look at it. So you got to – Mr. President, are you going to get it wrapped in gold? Donald Trump: You think Biden could get into that car? I don’t know. That’s beautiful. Elon Musk: Yeah. Question: Mr. President, talk about some of the violence that’s been going on around the country at dealerships. Some say they should be labeled domestic terrorists because – Donald Trump: I will do that. I’ll do it. I’m going to stop them. We catch anybody doing it because they’re harming a great American company. You know, I’ve stuck up for the NFL. I’ve stuck up for a lot of American companies and other companies, but American companies. I did a very big favor for the NFL. I do favors for all – when you hurt an American company, especially a company like this supply so many jobs that others are unable to do, when you do that, those people are going to go through a big problem when we catch them. Donald Trump: And we have a lot of – we got a lot of cameras up. We already know who some of them are. We’re going to catch them, and they’re bad guys. They’re the same guys that screw around with our schools and universities, the same garbage. And now, we’re going to catch them. And let me tell you, you do it to Tesla and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you and you’re going to – you’re going to go through hell. Question: Mr. President, you – Mr. President, what do you tell CEOs tonight at the business roundtable, especially with the rising tariffs? Donald Trump: Well, I have a roundtable to make it a little while. I just considered this much more important because I want to buy one of these. My whole staff is so excited because I told them they’re going to safely use them, and they can’t believe it. So, Margo, wherever you are, Margo, she’s going to use it. They’re all going to be using it, and they’re going to have a good time using it. And if I can – if I can – oh, there you are, Margo. Donald Trump: Look at – Margo’s right there. What are you, a member of the press now? I think she’s become a member of the press, takes great pictures. What do you think of it, Margo? Do you like the idea? Margo Martin: I love it. Donald Trump: OK, good. Margo Martin: We’re going to have fun. Donald Trump: They’re very happy. Question: Mr. President, your comments the other day not ruling out a potential recession seemed to rattle the stock markets. The commerce secretary said there wouldn’t be one – Donald Trump: I think this country is going to boom, just so you know. Question: Specifically on the recession – Donald Trump: Yeah, I think this country – Question: Do you think there will be a recession? Donald Trump: I don’t see it at all. I think this country is going to boom. But as I said, I can do it the easy way or the hard way. The hard way to do it is exactly what I’m doing, but the results are going to be 20 times greater. Question: Mr. President, you asked – Donald Trump: And remember, Trump is always right, right? Question: And what do you say to Americans – Donald Trump: If you look at what I’ve said over the last 10 years, Trump has been right all the time. This is the – this is the way to do it. We’re going to make America great again. You know, to make it great, you have to have jobs, you have to have factories, you have to have – I look at – I look at some of the things that – like this last administration, he was the worst president in the history of our country. Donald Trump: Nothing was happening, nothing. He had no idea what was going on. Our country went to hell. And then, to allow millions of people to come in that are prisoners and mental institution patients and all of the things that – gang members, drug lords, we’re searching them all down now, trying to get them out of our country. Donald Trump: And we’re going to do that. But on the financial end and the economic end, what we’re doing is, to me, it’s the most exciting. Our country will be greater than ever before, and it won’t take too long. Question: And what’s your message to Americans right now, sir, who are worried about the stock market? What’s your message to them as they watch it? Elon Musk: [Inaudible] the Cybertruck [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Let’s go see the Cybertruck. I did buy one of these. Elon Musk: This – this has bulletproof. Donald Trump: I mean, look, in terms of imagination, I think I have a great imagination. Who else but this guy would design this and everybody on the road is looking at it. It’s amazing, actually. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: As soon as I saw it, I said, “That is the coolest design.” It’s – Do you agree with that, Brian? I mean – Unidentified: I do. Donald Trump: It’s amazing. Unidentified: It’s very cool, yeah. Donald Trump: You got to give him credit. Elon Musk: It’s – we want the future to look like the future, and it’s kind of what kind of truck would Blade Runner drive? That was the design idea. Donald Trump: It’s really amazing. Elon Musk: Yeah. Question: Hey, Elon, are you planning to remain CEO of Tesla while working with President Trump? Is there any thinking on your future at the company? As we’re talking about Tesla, I’m wondering what you’re thinking as with leading the company going forward? Elon Musk: Yeah. Yeah, I’d stay with Tesla and – Donald Trump: He should. Elon Musk: Yeah. Question: Any more plans of additional vehicles besides the ones you have now? New models – Elon Musk: The Cybercab, coming out next year. Donald Trump: The one with no steering wheel. Are we going to buy one of those? We’ll pass. We’re too old fashioned. Question: Mr. President, when you look at the market selling off, that didn’t concern you? Donald Trump: Nope, it doesn’t concern me. Question: And where do you see it going? Donald Trump: I think some – some people are going to make great deals by buying stocks and bonds and all the things they’re buying. I think we’re going to have an economy that’s a real economy, not a fake economy. It was a fake economy. They were putting in all government jobs. You see what happened last week, last month? Donald Trump: We had more real jobs, and government jobs are way down. That’s going to continue. Those are real jobs. Those are jobs that keep the country going. You can’t have all government jobs. You have no income to pay the workers. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: And a lot of those workers didn’t show up to work. That was the other problem. Question: And, President Trump, there’s this protest leader from Columbia University that the administration is moving to deport. And he said that his arrest is going to be the first of many. How many? Donald Trump: I think we ought to get them all out of the country. They’re troublemakers, they’re agitators. They don’t love our country. We ought to get them the hell out. I think that guy, we ought to get him. I heard his statements, too. They were plenty bad. And I think we ought to get him the hell out of the country. Donald Trump: I watched him. I watched tapes. Specifically, I watched tapes. And you can have him, OK? You can have him. And you can have the rest of them. Let him go to school, let him learn. Columbia used to be a good school. Now, it’s been overrun because of bad leadership. That’s what happens. It happens to countries, and it happens to universities, and it happens to companies. Donald Trump: And I don’t want it to happen to a guy that did nothing wrong – he did everything right because he did a great company. But what he did by coming into government, to help government from years of abuse, from decades of abuse – and you see that when you look at Social Security, where you have 200-year-old people on the rolls of – that’s just – he uses the word care. Donald Trump: People don’t care, everyone knows this. But it’s also – I believe it’s also large fraud. I think it’s that, but I think it’s also large fraud. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I’m just telling people. This man is a great patriot, and you should cherish him. You should cherish him. You know, I have a little statement. We have to take care of our high-IQ people because we don’t have too many of them. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: And we got to take care of them. Question: Mr. President, will you talk to President Putin about – You guys look into Social Security administration and you guys are looking for fraud and waste and abuse. Can you guarantee people who are concerned about an interruption to benefits that there will not be? Elon Musk: Yes, we’re going to be very careful with any interruption to benefits. In fact, only by tackling the waste and fraud in entitlements like Social Security and Medicare can we actually preserve those programs for the future because with unchecked fraud and waste, we won’t be able to afford them. The president is very dedicated to solving the budget deficit, which if we don’t solve the budget deficit, we’re going to go bankrupt as a country. Elon Musk: We go bankrupt as a country, there’s no Social Security, there’s no Medicare, there’s no nothing. And to – to sort of echo what the president was saying, what really matters is moving people from jobs that are relatively low productivity in government to high productivity in the private sector, increasing the true output of products and services. Elon Musk: That’s the real economy. That’s what actually enables Americans to have a higher standard of living, and that’s what’s happening. And that’s, I think, the – you’ll see the – you’ll see the truth of that in the – in the months to come. Donald Trump: And we’re going to make it really much stronger by taking people that don’t exist or taking people that shouldn’t be there out, by taking illegal aliens that are on Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid and Medicare, by taking them out. We’re making them much stronger. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: The country will be much stronger, but it’s going to really be stronger economically. And when you look at what we’re doing – I’ve been called by so many companies. Yesterday, as you know, I had a meeting with some of the biggest tech companies in the world. And all they’re talking about, they can – IBM was there. Donald Trump: We had – we had a lot of them. Dell, Michael Dell was there. We had a lot of great companies, Hewlett-Packard. And all they’re talking about is investing in this country. They want to be sure. Don’t forget, they’re looking down the road 10 years and 15 years. They want to make sure we have a strong country. Donald Trump: They’re all coming in. As you know, Apple, Tim Cook, he said that he’s going to invest 500 billion in the United States. He never did that before. He invested in China. He’s got his plants in China. And now, he’s got – going to be building them in the United States. And if I didn’t have victory in that election, he wouldn’t be doing it. And if I didn’t say what I’m saying – and I’m being very honest and it’s much more difficult than just sitting around and having a great time. Donald Trump: It’s a very glamorous position if you want to do that. We could have kept it, but eventually, bad things would have happened. This way, good things. I’m very optimistic about the country. I think we’re going to have the greatest markets we’ve ever had, and it’s going to be really fueled by what we’re doing. Donald Trump: All – you got to see these companies yesterday. They’re investing billions and trillions. They’re investing trillions of dollars here. They wouldn’t have invested 10 cents. Question: Mt. President, will you talk to Vladimir Putin about this ceasefire deal? Do you think you need to have a conversation with him to get the Russians to agree? Donald Trump: Yeah, I’ll talk to Vladimir Putin. Yeah. Question: When will you talk to him? Donald Trump: I want to get – look, that’s the other – it takes two to tango, as they say, right? Question: Yes. Donald Trump: So, hopefully, he’ll also agree, and I really think that would be 75 percent of the way. The rest is getting it documented and, you know, negotiating land positions, etc. Question: So, you’ll talk to him this week about the deal? Donald Trump: I think so, yeah. Question: And when do you anticipate meeting him in person? So [Inaudible] ceasefire in place on the Ukrainian side. How close do you think than you are to a total ceasefire with – Donald Trump: Well, I hope it will be over the next few days. I’d like to see. I know we have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow, and some great conversations, hopefully, will ensue. The people have done a great job. Marco Rubio has been great. Steve Witkoff has been great, Michael Waltz. They’re all – every one of them, they’ve really stepped up. They are into it. They want to see – they want to see two things. Donald Trump: By far, number one is death. The people that aren’t citizens of our country, but they’re people just like you, they’re people, and we want to stop – and we also don’t want to give billions and hundreds of billions of dollars away. We’re in there for $350 billion, and there was no reason. This war would have never happened if I was president. Donald Trump: So, it’s a very sad thing. Thank you, all, very much. I love Tesla. Question: Which one did you buy? Mr. President – Which one did you buy? Mr. President, which car are you going to buy? Donald Trump: The one I like, is that one. Question: And how does this work? So – Donald Trump: I want that same color. Question: Are you going to put down a credit card? Elon, would you take a personal check from the president? Donald Trump: I do it the old – I give checks. Question: Sure. Donald Trump: I like checks. Elon Musk: I think his credit’s good. Question: Do you still have – Donald Trump: You know, I like a check better than this modern system of all of a sudden there’s money in your account, nobody knows. I like signing a check. You sort of – but we’re going to – we’re going to pay – and I don’t want a discount. He would give me a discount. But if I do a discount, they’re going to say, “Oh, he got benefits.” Question: What about – Donald Trump: I don’t want any discount. Question: What about a vanity plate? Donald Trump: Yeah, let’s see. TRUTH, TRUTH. Elon Musk: All right, there is. Donald Trump: T-R-U-T-H, TRUTH. Question: Elon, can you download his playlist? Elon Musk: Sure. Donald Trump: That – that one got you by surprise. Question: Playlist gets downloaded as well. You can pump your music driving around. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: You can do it. And also, I looked at that dashboard, you could do anything. Question: Mr. President, do you think you buying a Tesla will boost Tesla sales and boost their stock? Donald Trump: Well, I hope it does. Look, look – Question: Was that your goal – Donald Trump: I care about one thing. When somebody’s a great patriot, they shouldn’t be hurt. He’s a great patriot. He didn’t know me from Adam until we met a little bit when I was in my first term. But he came out, he endorsed me very strongly, and I admired that and respected that. And I respected him for years, I respected him. Donald Trump: And when there was a chance to help our government, you know, you’re not going to use an average person. Some people would say, “Well, let’s use somebody that failed in business for his whole life.” You know, this guy has been amazing. And that kind of thinking is from a different age, it’s really from a different age. Donald Trump: When we said let’s cut 2 percent. He said let’s cut 60 percent, and he turned out to be right. And a lot of people were are just not here. They don’t work for us. I mean, they’re getting checks, and they don’t work. And you know, Peter, we’ve been – we’ve – look, we have so many different stats and so many different figures. Donald Trump: And it’s so embarrassing to us as a country. Now, we’re going to have a streamlined country with good people. And one of the reasons – and I called for the – it wasn’t a cabinet meeting, it was just a meeting of some cabinet members and Elon. The one thing, and I think he agrees with me 100 percent, it’s one thing to cut, but we want to cut the wrong people, meaning we want to cut people that aren’t doing the job. Donald Trump: We want to keep the right people. Elon Musk: Absolutely. Donald Trump: And I said, “I don’t want to just say we’re going to cut 50 percent.” I want to cut the people that aren’t doing the job, the people that aren’t there, the people that are scamming the system, and he agrees with that 100 percent. Question: Are you sure you don’t want to take a test drive? Donald Trump: I’d love to do it. Maybe I’ll do it some other time. Question: Do you – do you want Elon to keep working with you throughout your first term? I mean, is there going to be an end date for the two of you working together in the next few years? Donald Trump: I don’t know. You know, I was thinking about that the other day. I think he’ll know when it’s time. Question: OK. Donald Trump: Well, he doesn’t want to stay around – Question: It’s just 130 days, I think. Donald Trump: Although, I think he does like it. There’s no place like the White House so maybe – Question: Elon, can you tell – would you want to stay? Donald Trump: I don’t – I don’t think that – I think he wants to get the job done and get back to his businesses. Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: That’s what I think. Elon Musk: But I just – I just want to – I’ll stay as long as it’s useful and productive. And if I can help the country, I’ll stay and do so. Donald Trump: Great. Thank you, everybody. Question: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, President Trump. Donald Trump: Good-looking guy. Question: Elon, thank you. Elon Musk: You’re welcome. Donald Trump: Thank you, everybody. Elon Musk: Thanks, guys. Donald Trump: Good. Well, thank you, everybody. Pulitzer Prize. It’s nice. Is he here?
Date: 2025-03-11
Why would our Country allow another Country to supply us with electricity, even for a small area? Who made these decisions, and why? And can you imagine Canada stooping so low as to use ELECTRICITY, that so affects the life of innocent people, as a bargaining chip and threat? They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!
Date: 2025-03-11
Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on “Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. WHY??? This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!
Date: 2025-03-11
Despite the fact that Canada is charging the USA from 250% to 390% Tariffs on many of our farm products, Ontario just announced a 25% surcharge on “electricity,” of all things, and your not even allowed to do that. Because our Tariffs are reciprocal, we’ll just get it all back on April 2. Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer. We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
Date: 2025-03-12
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to have Micheál Martin, Taoiseach of Ireland. It’s a special place, and he’s a very special guy. He did it the hard way also. He served and then took a little time off, and then he served again. I’ve heard about that. That happens on occasion. And he’s done very well, and uh, we knew each other from a long time ago, but uh, it’s a great honor to have you in the Oval Office and have you at the White House. Donald Trump: We have tremendous business relationships with Ireland, and that will only get stronger. The relationship we have personally and every other way is very, very strong and very, very good. So I just want to welcome you to Washington DC and to our country, and thank you very much. Micheál Martin: May I thank you, President. It’s a great honor for me to be here uh to celebrate St. Patrick’s uh with you – Donald Trump: Right. Micheál Martin: – and I thank you for your hospitality uh and the warmth of your reception uh, and I commend you uh in terms of the work that you’re doing, particularly in terms of the pursuit of peace – Donald Trump: Right. Micheál Martin: – which we discussed earlier uh. I think that’s going well uh, and you really have um in the first sort of 100 years of this uh government you’ve done some extraordinary things very quickly. Donald Trump: Thank you. Micheál Martin: – everybody’s watching that respect. Donald Trump: Thank you. Micheál Martin: It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s an honor to be here. Donald Trump: Well, it’s a great honor to have you and special people, very special people. I know – Micheál Martin: Of course. Donald Trump: – a lot of Irish and uh growing up in New York I know a couple of your people that used to live in that beautiful Ireland and now uh they’re here, but they love your country very much. You know that’s – they have a great, they have a great feeling toward your country. Micheál Martin: They have, and they a lot come back – Donald Trump: Yup. Micheál Martin: – for holidays and stuff like that – Donald Trump: They come back, they come back. Yeah. Micheál Martin: – and checking out their family ancestry and things like that, you know. Donald Trump: Great, fantastic people. Micheál Martin: Some go to Doonbeg as well, yeah. Donald Trump: And they – we love Doonbeg. I love them. I don’t know if I’ll ever see it again, maybe I won’t, but – Micheál Martin: Well, we would like to [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: I, I think I will. We’ll get there. We’re going to get there. A beautiful place, wonderful place. Uh, any questions please? Question: Mr. President, on the tariffs, how far are – Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, how worried are you worried about the Tariffs from the EU which were announced yesterday? And also how worried should Ireland be given the fact that it has a massive trade surplus with the U.S. over $50 billion? Micheál Martin was quite nervous about what going to tell him to get. Donald Trump: Well, I don’t think he looks nervous to me. [Laughter] And if he was nervous, he wouldn’t show it now. I – we do have a massive uh deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from president that didn’t know what they were doing, and you know it’s too bad that happened. Donald Trump: It’s a tremendous job. I give – look, the Irish are smart. You have smart people and you took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies, but you know, through taxation and proper taxation, they made it very, very good for companies to move over there. And we had presidents and people that were involved in this that had no idea what they were doing. Donald Trump: And they lost big segments of our economy. The European Union treats us very badly and they have for years. I saw that. I had it out with them in my first term. I did well, but we had to solve other problems and we did. But European Union’s been very tough and it’s our turn, too. You know, we get a turn at that also. Donald Trump: But they have not been fair. They sue our companies and win massive amounts of money. They sued Apple. Won $17 billion and they used that for other reasons, I guess, or to run the European Union. So I’m not knocking it. They’re doing what they should be doing, perhaps, for the European Union, but it does create ill will. Donald Trump: And as you know, we’re going to be doing reciprocal tariffs. So whatever they charge us with, we’re charging them. Nobody can complain about that. Whatever it is, it doesn’t even matter what it is. If they charge us – if they charge us 25 or 20 percent or 10 percent or 2 percent or 200 percent, then that’s what we’re charging them. Donald Trump: And so I don’t know why people get upset about that because there’s nothing more fair than that. And we – we had a problem with Ontario and they dropped that. When I let them know what we were going to be doing, they dropped it immediately. So I’m glad because electricity shouldn’t be playing with electricity. Donald Trump: It affects people’s lives. Their – their – actually, their life. I mean, it can affect – depending on whether, it can affect their life, so we can’t do that. And it doesn’t make sense that our country allows electricity to be made in another country and sold in to us. Who did that deal for the United States? Donald Trump: OK, I looked at that long ago and I said that’s not something that’s very smart. So we’ve had a lot of bad trade policies, and yet, we’re doing very well right now. But we’re doing well because I won the election. If I didn’t win the election, you would have had a very bad period. I think a lot of the stock market going down was because of a really bad four years that we had when you look at inflation and all of the other problems that were – I mean, wars and inflation and so many other problems. Donald Trump: But we’re going to have very good years. We’re going to have – we had – I don’t know if you saw a little thing like the cost of eggs. Little to you, but big to people out there down almost 30 percent in the last few days. We got it down. We did a lot of things. We have a great Secretary of Agriculture and we did a lot of things that got the cost of eggs down very substantially and so many other things. Donald Trump: A very big thing that I’m very happy with is oil is down to six – $5 a barrel, and that’s faster than I would have – we put on the gas. We stepped on the gas in order to get oil and what’s – what’s happening. So we’re getting that down. And when energy comes down, prices are going to be coming down with it. So in a very short period of time, we’ve done a very good job. Donald Trump: And I think that the tariffs that we’re talking about, and again, reciprocal, I think that the tariffs – there are some cases where they’re a little beyond reciprocal because, you know, we’ve been abused for a long time as a country. We have been abused really for a long time and we will be abused no longer. Donald Trump: OK. Question: Are you going to retaliate to the EU retaliation – – On the Department of Education, sir, would you describe for us this meeting your vision by cutting about half the workforce? And what responsibility do you feel to the civil servants who have now lost their jobs? Many of them worked at the Department of Education during their first term. Donald Trump: Sure I do. I feel very badly and – but many of them don’t work at all. Many of them never showed up to work. Many of them – many of them never showed up to work, Kelly. And unfortunately, and that’s not good. And when we cut, you know, we go – and that’s what I had a number of meetings with a lot of people over the last couple of months. Donald Trump: When we cut, we want to cut, but we want to cut the people that aren’t working or not doing a good job. We’re keeping the best people. And Linda McMahon is a real professional, a very – actually a very sophisticated business person and she cut a large number, but she kept the best people and we’ll see how it all works out. Donald Trump: But our country was run very badly. I mean, whether it was that or contracts that were signed that were so bad. So, obviously bad and I go through them in speeches, I could go through them all day long. I could read for billions and hundreds of billions of dollars and all of that fat and waste and fraud and abuse is being taken out. Donald Trump: But it’s – it’s incredible what’s happened. Now Department of Education, maybe more so than any – any other place, has a lot of people that can be cut. They’re, number one, not showing up to work, number two, they’re not doing a good job. And if you take a look at – take a look at our education process and if you look at the charts, because they have numerous charts where they do the top 40, we’re at number 37, 38, 39 and 40. And recently, they hit, during Biden’s last few days, they hit last. Donald Trump: So they were number 40. And yet, we’re number one in cost per pupil. So it’s pretty bad. But we have a – we have a dream and you know what the dream is? We’re going to move the Department of Education – we’re going to move education into the states so that the states, instead of bureaucrats working in Washington, so that the states can run education. Donald Trump: And you have Norway, you have Denmark, you have Sweden, you have various – Finland, you have various countries that do very well. You also have China that does very well in education, which is a pretty big tribute to China. I must say at 1.4 billion and they’re in the top 10 and it’s pretty amazing. So, we can’t blame size anymore. Donald Trump: You know, normally you’d blame size, it’s too big. How can you do it. But China does it, so we think when you move it back to Iowa and Indiana and all the states that run so well, there’s so many, I could name 30, maybe almost 40. Those will be as good as Denmark. Those will be as good as Norway and they’ll be as good as any of these – I believe they’ll be as good as any. Donald Trump: Now, then you’re going to have 10 that won’t be so great. You’re going to have five that will not be good at all, but we’ll work with them and we’ll get them to be good. But what we want to do is always school choice, but we’re going to do school choice and we’re doing it. But we want education to be moved back where the states run education, where the parents of the children will be running education, where governors that are doing a very good job, will be running education, not run – I drive through the city and I see like so many buildings, Department of Education, Department of – big buildings and department – and by the way, they’re empty. Donald Trump: Nobody shows up to work. So, I think Linda did a very good job. Question: Mr. President. Do you – do you – do you have a meeting with Vladimir Putin scheduled or conversation? What would be your pledge to him – Donald Trump: – I won’t – I won’t comment on that, but we had a great success yesterday. We have a full cease fire when it – if it kicks in. We have to see. It’s up to Russia now, but we’ve had a good relationship with both parties, actually, and we’ll see. We’ll be knowing people are going to Russia right now as we speak and hopefully we can get a cease fire from Russia. Donald Trump: And if we do, I think that would be 80 percent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath finished. It’s a bloodbath is taking place over there. On average 2 to 3000 young people a week are being killed in that stupid war that would have never happened if I were president. So, we have people going over there. Donald Trump: Mr. VP, do you have anything to say about it because you’re very much involved? What’s going to happen? J.D. Vance: Yes, sir. Well, we’ve got some conversations that are happening on the phone and in person with some of our representatives over the next couple of days. As the president said, we think that we’re in a very good place where the Ukrainians have agreed to a ceasefire and we’re now going to see whether we can get the Russians to agree to a cease fire, too. J.D. Vance: And we’ll certainly have news on that when we – when we find out that news. Question: Are you confident that Vladimir Putin will keep the ceasefire, considering that he’s broken them in the past? Donald Trump: I haven’t – we haven’t spoken to him yet with substance because we just found out and we just were able to get Ukraine to agree. So, we’re going to know very soon. I’ve gotten some positive messages, but a positive message means nothing. This is a very serious situation. This is a situation that could lead to World War III and Biden should have never let it happen. Donald Trump: Incompetence allowed this to happen. This shouldn’t have happened. October 7th in the Middle East should have never happened with Israel. The horrible leaving the way they left Afghanistan should have never happened. Inflation should have never happened. You know, we have great inflation numbers, by the way, just got released. Donald Trump: Inflation is way down and it’s based on what we’ve done and we’ve done it in a very short period of time. You know, we had virtually no inflation. For four years, we had almost no inflation and when these characters took over, we went from no inflation to the worst inflation probably in the history of our country. Donald Trump: So, it’s a very interesting. Go ahead. Question: Are you going to retaliate against – Donald Trump: – And by the way, I have to speak of inflation. I love these socks. What’s with these socks? [Laughter] Question: President Trump – J.D. Vance: It’s – it’s in honor of the peace talks, sir. Donald Trump: I’m trying to stay focused, but I’m very impressed with the VPs socks. Question: Mr. President – – What does it say to you that the United States is recognized as having such an important role in the peace process and yet half the parties from the Northern Ireland government have decided not to come to the Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations? Donald Trump: They haven’t what? Question: They haven’t come over. They’re boycotting the Saint Patrick’s Day celebration. Donald Trump: What are they boycotting? Question: They are talking about your position on Gaza as one of the reasons. Donald Trump: Oh, I haven’t heard that. I really haven’t heard that. Look – Micheál Martin: – Can I just say, I pay tribute to the president on the peace initiatives. The one thing we’ve learned in Ireland about the peace process that you’ve just spoken about, and I recall back in the early 90s when the first tentative steps to get peace in Ireland, people criticized people like John Hume or people like Albert Reynolds, and then Taoiseach, but they kept going. Micheál Martin: And when we got that ceasefire in ’93, ok, it took a number of years to get the comprehensive peace settlement. But again, the guns more or less largely went silent. The war in Ukraine is a devastating war on young people. And I think that very simple, straightforward narrative is to be commended. And we all have children. Micheál Martin: I mean, we would be shocked at the prospect of young people losing their lives in that number, be they Ukrainian, be they Russian, whatever. Anything we can do to stop the violence, I think, is an extremely positive thing. And there will be all sorts of people having qualifications on it and all the rest of it. It’s our job then to work on it and to try and build it for US and everything. Question: Mr. President – – Mr. President, your office – Donald Trump: – And I will say, and thank you for that, but I will say last week, 2,500 young people died while we sit here and talk. And while they talk about peace, but they’ve been talking about peace – this should have never happened. This war should have never happened. It would have never happened if I was president. Donald Trump: That’s what makes me more angry than anything else because you’ve had far more people die than they report than these people report for whatever reason. But you had far more people. The numbers are far more devastating. You’ll find that out someday and it doesn’t affect you very much. They’re not Irish and they’re not from my country. Donald Trump: They’re from Russia, mostly. Almost all from Russia and from Ukraine. And people could say why are you doing this? Why are you involved in that? Because there – 2,000 people a week are dying and they have families and they have mothers and they have fathers and they have sisters and they have brothers and friends and they’re dying. Donald Trump: And I’ve seen the pictures, the satellite pictures that we see all the time and it looks like Gettysburg in its prime because that was, they say, one of the most horrific battles ever. You have kids lying all over these fields that are dead because the weapons today are unbelievable. Between drones and various types of guns, I’m not even talking about beyond that with the – with the big babies, you understand what I mean. Donald Trump: I hate to even mention the name, the nuclear name, I hate to mention it. But you have weapons today that are so powerful. And I see kids every week. Donald Trump: I see pictures of kids laying all over the field dead, they’re dead – beautiful kids, they’re dead. And they’re not from here and they’re not from where you are, but he’s working very – we’re all working hard to get this thing finished. It’s crazy, over nothing, and it’s not going to go anywhere. It’s just a terrible situation [Crosstalk]. And I think we have a chance to get it done. Donald Trump: So, we’ve gotten half of it as a ceasefire. And if we can get Russia to stop, then we have a full ceasefire. And I think it’ll never go back to war. I think something will happen [Crosstalk]. Question: Can I ask you about Putin’s relationship with Israel? There’s been a lot of talk recently the governments are looking to bring in what’s called the Occupied Territories Bill, which would ban goods from occupied territories. I know you met with Prime Minister Netanyahu recently. Did Ireland come up in that conversation? Question: Did he raise any concerns about the Irish [Crosstalk]? Donald Trump: One thing I’ll tell you, you’re not from Israel, that’s for sure, right [laughter]. She is definitely not from Israel. It’s an interesting question coming from you. We talk about everything. Israel has been under siege, as you can see, and they had to fight back. October 7th, was a terrible thing. People don’t like to mention it, but it was a terrible, terrible day in the life of the world. Donald Trump: And it’s amazing the way people don’t mention that, but it was a – I’ve never seen anything like it. Those are other clips I get to see. You know, as president you get to see clips that you’d rather not see. But I see clips and that was a terrible day for the world and we’re working hard with Israel. We’re working hard to see if we can solve the problem. Donald Trump: I will say I just saw 10 hostages and they were treated really badly. They were really treated badly. I was shocked. I asked them, was there any kindness shown? They were in there – one was in there for 500 days; one was 323 days. I said was there any – 10 of them. I said was there any kindness displayed? Donald Trump: Like, did they ever say, don’t worry, you’ll be okay, or give you a little wink or give you like an extra slice of bread or something? And everybody said – all of these people said zero, it was hatred, it was pure hatred. So, I mean that’s a very deep-seated problem, you have a big problem. Question: [Crosstalk] some advice? Could you give the taoiseach some advice? Ireland is in the midst of a housing crisis now, and I know you have a lot of experience as a businessman. How can the state build tens of thousands of houses at speed? Donald Trump: You know why they have a housing crisis? Because they’re doing so well. They can’t produce houses fast enough. That’s a good problem, not a bad problem. Micheál Martin: That’s a pretty good answer, president. Donald Trump: No, It’s true. Question: Will you put more tariffs on the EU, Mr. President? Mr. President, will you – ? Donald Trump: Everybody should have that problem, that’s OK. Question: Will you put more tariffs on the EU? Donald Trump: I know this gentleman, he’ll get it solved. Question: Will you put more tariffs on the EU? Will you respond to their retaliation? Donald Trump: Oh, of course, I’m going to respond. Question: You will retaliate [Crosstalk]? Donald Trump: The problem is our country didn’t respond. Look, the EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States. Question: Including Ireland? Is Ireland taking advantage of the US? Donald Trump: Of course they are. I can’t – you know, I have great respect for Ireland and what they did, and they should have done just what they did. But the United States shouldn’t have let it happen. We had stupid leaders. We had leaders that didn’t have a clue. Or let’s say they weren’t businesspeople, but they didn’t have a clue what was happening. Donald Trump: And all of a sudden, Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies and others, this beautiful island of, it’s island, of 5 million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasp. And you mentioned housing and you mentioned other things. I mean, I have property in Ireland, as you know, and I love it. It does great. Donald Trump: But I’d like to have – I’d like to see the United States not have been so stupid for so many years, not just with Ireland, with everybody. You know, I looked at trade deals. I was telling the group yesterday I looked at trade deals in term one. It’s one of the reasons I decided I had to do this because somebody had to straighten it out, and I didn’t see anybody that was going to. I looked at trade deals that were so bad I’d actually say how is it possible that this could have happened? Donald Trump: Who would have been so stupid to let these deals happen? For instance, when the pharmaceutical companies started to go to Ireland, I would have said that’s okay. If you want to go to Ireland, I think it’s great. But if you want to sell anything into the United States, I’m going to put a 200 percent tariff on you so you’re never going to be able to sell anything into the United States. Donald Trump: You know what they would have done? They would have stayed here. Question: [Crosstalk]. Donald Trump: He’s so lucky that I wasn’t [Crosstalk]. Question: [Crosstalk] to Ireland, are you planning to lower corporate taxes to match Ireland’s [Crosstalk]? Donald Trump: Well, we are planning to lower taxes, yes, if the Democrats behave. But the Democrats have no clue. You saw that the other night during the speech. Two young women were slaughtered by illegal aliens, one young man has very serious cancer and many other problems. When you looked at the people up there, they all had difficulty, very serious difficulty. Donald Trump: But when we’re talking about two young girls, beautiful young girls, Laken Riley, you know the whole story, that evening was a disaster for the Democrats in my opinion. And I would mention – and I’d see two mothers that were inconsolable as they stood, crying, their daughters have been absolutely just destroyed, killed, viciously killed. Donald Trump: And the young man who loves the police departments, he had cancer and has cancer, very bad cancer. There wasn’t a – from people sitting there, Democrats. There wasn’t a hand clap, nobody stood. They were just stone faced. These people are sick. There’s something wrong with them. There was no standing for anybody. Donald Trump: The only thing they liked is when they heard about the death taking place with Ukraine, they were happy about that. They were happy about that. Well, Pocahontas was very happy. She’s the one that was clapping. That’s why I looked at her. I said, oh, it’s Pocahontas. These people are sick. They don’t know what’s happening in the real world. Donald Trump: The Democrats have to get their act together. And if they don’t vote, then what you’re going to do is you’re going to have taxes that are going to go through the roof. You’re going to have a very bad time. You’re going to have some very bad things happen and people are going to blame the Democrats. And Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned, he’s become a Palestinian. Donald Trump: He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian. OK. Question: [Crosstalk] there’s been a lot of on and off, some inconsistency – Donald Trump: There’s no inconsistency, only with NBC, which is one of the worst networks on television, by the way. Let me just tell you the inconsistency. I have the right, I have the right to adjust, and I would call – I was called by the automakers, as an example, General Motors, Ford, etc., the big three, the big four. Donald Trump: And they asked me to do them a favor, could I delay it for a period of four weeks so that they’re not driven into a little bit of a disaster for them? They actually love what I’m doing, but they had a problem. And I didn’t – I’m not like a block that just – I won’t delay. I have – it’s called flexibility. Donald Trump: It’s not called inconsistency; it’s called flexibility, and I think you want me to be flexible too. Question: Is flexibility going to be your ongoing view towards – ? Donald Trump: Sure, I’ll always have flexibility, but there will be very little flexibility once we start. April 2nd is going to be a very big day for the United States of America. The United States of America is going to take back a lot of what was stolen from it by other countries and by frankly incompetent US leadership, grossly incompetent. Donald Trump: I gave you an example of Ireland. I would have never let that happen. Impossible for that to have happened. But we’re going to take back our wealth and we’re going to take back – a lot of the companies that left are coming back. If you haven’t read, we have the biggest computer chip company ever – ever, has virtually all of the market. Donald Trump: They called – I didn’t call them; they called me, and they called for two reasons. Number one, we had a great election of somebody that they want running the country and we ran – we won in a big mandate. We won every swing state. We won by millions of votes. We won by 2,750 districts out of – to 500. Think of that, 2,750 districts to 500. That’s why the map when you looked at it was entirely red, meaning Republican, not meaning communist [laughter]. So, anyway. Donald Trump: So, look, this country needed somebody to defend it. It’s this big, beautiful place that was being ripped off by illegal immigrants coming in from prisons, coming in from mental institutions, gang members, gang leaders, drug dealers, pouring into our country with the open borders. I am so angry at the last four years at what they’ve done to our country, what they’ve done to this country between inflation – but maybe the most that bothers me is that they would allow millions of people to come into our country that are stone cold murderers, killers, drug dealers, the worst – gang members, the worst people allowed into our country. Donald Trump: And we’re now getting them out, we’re going to get them out, we’re getting them out. I want to thank Tom Homan, by the way, he’s doing a great job. And I want to thank Kristi Noem, who’s doing a fantastic job. That’s not a – this is a job that’s so unnecessary. This should have never happened. Donald Trump: This should have never happened. So, we’re bringing back our country in many ways, not only financially. And financially, we’ll be stronger than ever before. I think the markets are going to soar when they see what’s happening. I’ll tell you what, I’m called every day by numerous big, big companies. I spoke at the Business Roundtable yesterday. Donald Trump: They had the largest attendance they’ve ever had, and these are only the CEOs and chairmen, but mostly the people that run, the boss, the people that run the top 150 companies. 150 people showed up. Every single company showed up first time it ever happened. It’s been around a long time. The biggest business leaders. Donald Trump: We had a great discussion. Went really well. And I want to tell you, there’s tremendous optimism out there about our country in terms of regulations being cut, in terms of taxes being cut. And it would be great if the Democrats would – would do what’s right. It would be great if the Democrats would do what’s right for our country for a change because they really are – they’re – they’ve lost their way. Donald Trump: They’ve lost their way. They think – they think – they think that people pouring into our country from prisons, jails, murderers, we have 11,088 murderers that were allowed into – people that murdered people, half of which murdered more than one person in our country. We’re getting them the hell out. But who would run it? Who would allow this to happen? Donald Trump: Who would allow men to play in women’s sports? And they’re still fighting it. They’re still – it’s got to be a 95 percent issue, but they’re on television this morning. I see this person, a Democrat saying we should have the right – no, no. Men should not be allowed – they’re hurting women. They’re hurting women very badly. Donald Trump: They’re hurting women and they should not – and they’re also demeaning women. But who would want these things? And everything’s transgender. Everybody transgender. That’s all you hear about. Now, that’s why we won the election in record numbers. But very importantly, now it is what it is. The Democrats should get with us and come up with good tax policy so that Ireland and other countries can’t take our businesses away from us. And he understands exactly. Donald Trump: You guys did the right thing. I’m not upset with you. I think – I respect what you’ve done. You’ve done a great job. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: – But our people – our people – Question: – [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: – Our people did a very bad job – Question: – [Inaudible] – – How advanced are your plans to try and bring some of those companies back to America and will you be bringing – Donald Trump: – Well, I’d love to have them back. I mean, I’d love to have them back, but he’ll be fighting me on it. Micheál Martin: I mean, what I would say, President, if I could – Question: – Do you have a response to that – Micheál Martin: – If I could one second, just – just make the point, it’s a two way street too and we are investing a lot more in America now. And people may not realize, but Ryanair, one of our biggest airlines, for example – Donald Trump: – I’ll trade – Micheál Martin: – Aercap, they buy more – the two of them together buy more Boeing airplanes than anybody else outside of America. Donald Trump: That’s good. Micheál Martin: That’s a little known fact. It doesn’t turn up in the statistics, but Ryanair and Aercap, big aircraft leasing company, Irish Company have done great work with Boeing and huge investments over the last couple of years, you know. Donald Trump: They do a good job. Micheál Martin: So – and there’s a lot of Irish companies here now, about 700 Irish companies based in America. Glanbia [sp], you know Smurfit [sp], what I was saying to you this morning, Vice President, a lot of them creating thousands of jobs in America. And it’s only fair. I mean, that’s correct. Donald Trump: That’s right. Micheál Martin: And that’s the way it should happen. And I think it’s a very good relationship. We have – it’s – it’s a historic one and it’s happened over time. We’ve added value to American companies. We’ve increased our value, they’ve got access to the European market and they did all of that. I understand where you’re coming from fully, but I think it’s a relationship that we can develop and that will endure into the future and will change. Micheál Martin: It will adapt, you’re evolving and you’re doing things. Donald Trump: It’s true. And they’ve done a very good job. Now I just will say this, but with all that we’ve said we can talk about Ryanair. There’s a massive deficit. I don’t mean by a little bit. I mean, there’s a massive deficit that we have with Ireland and with other countries, too, and we want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can and we’ll – we’ll work together. Donald Trump: We’re going to work together great, but the deficit is – is massive. Question: [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: Wait till you hear this one. Question: You said earlier that it was now up to Russia in terms of the ceasefire. Is there anything you can do in terms of pressuring Russia or in terms of sanctions or what can you do? Donald Trump: Yeah. Yeah, we can, but I hope it’s not going to be necessary. Sure we can pressure. We can do that with Russia. Remember this, Russia took Georgia from Bush, right? They took Crimea from a man named, Obama. Barack Hussein Obama, right? They’re trying to take the whole thing from Biden. They’re going for the whole ball of wax. Donald Trump: Who is the only one that never took anything from? Trump. And in fact, I’m the one that stopped Nord Stream II, the pipeline, the biggest pipeline anywhere in the world. I stopped it. It was dead and then Biden got in and he approved it. Nobody mentions that. What I did to Russia was very tough. I was the toughest ever. Donald Trump: But no – they never took anything from me. They took him from Obama and Bush and they took it from Sleepy Joe Biden. With Biden, they wanted to take the whole country, but I think I’ve stopped that, but we’ll see. But yeah, there are things you could do that – that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense. Donald Trump: I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace. I want to see peace and we’ll see. But in a financial sense, yeah, we could do things very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia, but I don’t want to do that because I want to see peace. Donald Trump: And we’re getting close to maybe getting something done. We’ve got Ukraine done. And as you – as you know, I’ve always said that Ukraine might have been the more difficult party. You saw – you were here a week ago when some interesting things happened. I had somebody that didn’t seem to want peace now he’s agreed to peace. Donald Trump: So, we’ll see what happens. Question: [Inaudible] – – [Inaudible] – Donald Trump: – Brian? Brian? Question: Yes, thanks. Donald Trump: Thank you. Question: [Inaudible] First, I want to congratulate you and your lower inflation core ratings. Donald Trump: Thank you. Question: Gas prices going down, airline prices going down, but this is for the Irish gentleman here, if I can see him real quickly. Welcome to United States. You look – you look great. Micheál Martin: Thank you. Question: Nice suit. Donald Trump: That’s it. Now you feel good. He knows. Micheál Martin: What’s coming next? Question: [Inaudible] on Make America Great Again, if you could run on MIGA, Make Ireland Great Again, what would your number one issue be for people in Ireland right now to make your country stronger? And I’ve got a two part question to that as well. Micheál Martin: The number one issue in Ireland is housing. To be honest, and I think it was correctly pointed out, we’ve got to build more houses. We’ve got to build them faster to give the young people of Ireland an opportunity to afford to buy a house or to afford to rent a house. We have a lot of other good things happening. Micheál Martin: That’s my number one priority. What – Question: – Are you trying to perform – – And the second part of my question is Ireland is known for very happy, fun, loving people, great attitude, many in this room right now that I’ve met. Why in the world would you let Rosie O’Donnell move to Ireland? I think she’s going to lower your happiness level. Donald Trump: That’s true. Thank you. I like that question. Do you know you have Rosie O’Donnell? Do you know who she is? Micheál Martin: Yes. Question: I’m joking. Donald Trump: You’re better off – you’re better off not knowing. [Laughter] Question: Prime Minister – Prime Minister, are you expecting – are you expecting to inform the president your views on Gaza considering that you have diametrically opposed positions on the state of Palestine? Your country is one of three in Europe that recognizes the State of Palestine. Are you expecting to discuss this with the president? Question: Are you expecting to inform him? Micheál Martin: I don’t – I don’t have to inform the president. He’s very well clued into the whole situation. We share the president’s, again, unrelenting focus on peace. And his envoy and the president himself, as soon as he came into office, went to get a ceasefire. We’ve been calling for a ceasefire for a long time. Micheál Martin: And we want to consolidate the peace. That is our fundamental – we want the hostages out, I’ve been saying it from day one. It’s a horrific thing to do to take someone as a hostage. And I went to Kibbutz Be’eri after October the 7th, in solidarity with Israel, and that gets forgotten, and I went a week or two afterwards. Micheál Martin: I saw the kibbutz. It was a shocking thing to see, even though it was a week or two after the horror. It was a village. You could see life going on prior to the attack. It was something that will not leave me. And so – and I’ve been interested in the Middle East for a long, long time. It’s complex and it’s all of that. Micheál Martin: But we do desperately need the hostages out, all of them are. Far too long – Question: – Are you – Micheál Martin: – Let me finish. And then we need a ceasefire. We need to consolidate that. We need a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza because, again, there’s too many children and too many people starving and so on. Just too many – and it’s that humanitarian impulse is what motivates the Irish in respect of its views. Micheál Martin: And I’ve always been of the view, it’s been our view that a two state solution would be ideal. It’s become much more challenging and difficult as time has moved on, but that has always been our – our position. But it’s genuinely to have people – because we’ve gone through this, we discussed this prior to you coming in. We’ve been through some of this, people hating each other terrible acts of violence carried out on each other. Micheál Martin: We came through it. It’s our earnest hope that Arab and Jewish people can live side by side. And I’ve met with people, parents of children who were killed on both sides and called parents circle and they worked to try and bring people together. It’s difficult work. Question: What about the president’s plan to expel Palestinians out of Gaza? Are you discussing that with him and giving him your – Donald Trump: – Nobody’s expelling any Palestinians. I don’t know – who are you with? Question: I’m with Voice of America, sir. Donald Trump: Oh, no wonder. OK, Voice of – Question: [Crosstalk] Can you explain how he feels about the president, just saying that he would like to take back US companies, pharma companies based in Ireland? Micheál Martin: Well, I think the pharmaceutical companies in Ireland are doing very well as the president has outlined. And, again, I think it’s about that two-way partnership. I understand fully where the president is coming from. I think there’s actually room that we can discuss all this. I think there’s room for those companies to grow in America. Micheál Martin: And many of them, by the way have already announced fairly significant manufacturing investments now. Donald Trump: It’s true, just recently. Micheál Martin: Like people like Eli Lilly, for example, who have been a long-standing presence in Ireland since the 1970s. I spoke to the CEO recently. He’s a great, great guy. And he’s announced, I think about a $50 billion investment in America? Donald Trump: Plants, new plants. Micheál Martin: There’s big investment, you know, they’ve had big investment in Ireland. Ireland has served them well too. The workforce is very strong. It’s an educated workforce. They delivered well during COVID-19. A number of CEOs said to me, a lot of the plants in Ireland were the only plants that never closed for a single day during COVID, not a single day, productivity is good and so on like that, but there’ll be swings and roundabouts. Question: [Crosstalk] Mr. President, thank you so much. You spoke to President Putin for quite a while on the phone. So, I want to know your assessment. When you take this deal to him now, what do you – how do you assess the chances of doing this? Donald Trump: I have no assessment, and I don’t go by chance. I think it makes sense for Russia, a lot of downside for Russia too. And we have a very complex situation solved on one side, pretty much solved. We’ve also discussed land and other things that go with it. We’re not just doing it and saying ceasefire and we don’t know what’s happening. Donald Trump: We know the areas of land we’re talking about, whether it’s pullback or not pullback. We’ve discussed a lot of the details of what has to go because we don’t want to be wasting time. We don’t want to be wasting time while people are dying. I mean, as we’re sitting here, you probably had two people die on that very open field. Donald Trump: You know, it’s dead flat, it’s great farmland and it’s dead flat. There’s no protection. The only thing that stops a bullet is a human body, and these are bodies that are young people and they’re stopping a lot of bullets because a lot of bullets are flying across those level fields. Dead flat, no protection whatsoever. Donald Trump: It is a disaster. And so, I hope he’s going to – I hope he’s going to have a ceasefire. Question: [Crosstalk] You are using the American leverage to get a lot of political issues that [crosstalk]. Donald Trump: Well, I don’t want to get into that, but if I had to, I’m the only one that’s dealt with them successfully. Everyone else went through it, Bush didn’t deal with them successfully, dealt with them terribly, got ripped off. And Obama was a disaster. You know, they have with Obama, he gave them sheets and I gave them anti-tank missiles, you know that, right? Donald Trump: It’s called javelin. You know the javelin? I’m the one that gave him the javelins. People don’t say that. And then they say, oh, Trump has a great relationship with Russia. I’m the one that gave him the javelins, Obama gave him sheets. That’s an expression, he gave sheets, I gave javelins, so. Question: [Crosstalk] Mr. President, how worried should the undocumented Irish be about your administration that you don’t round them up and send them over here? Donald Trump: Oh, I think the Irish love Trump. We won the Irish with a tremendous amount of votes. I want to thank you very much. We won in the 80s with Irish, I got the Irish vote. I think I have it locked up pretty good unless I did something very stupid like drained your company, your wonderful place of all of its companies. Donald Trump: If I drained Ireland of all of the – maybe I’d lose the Irish vote, I don’t know. But right now, no, I love your – I love it. I’ve been there many times, as you know, and we don’t want to do anything to hurt Ireland. We want it – but we do want fairness, and he understands that. Question: [Crosstalk] Mr. President, [Inaudible] on the markets, you [crosstalk]. Donald Trump: No, that’s enough, Kelly. Thank you. Question: But [Inaudible] is there anything that the Taoiseach could say to you today that would dissuade you from going out and [Off-mic]? Donald Trump: I can’t hear it. Question: Mr. President, it’s Irish-American appreciation month [Inaudible]. Who’s your favorite Irish person? Donald Trump: Oh, there are so many, are you kidding me? Well, I do happen to like your fighter. He’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if I’m a big [Inaudible], but that – Question: Conor McGregor. Was that [Inaudible] Joe Biden? Conor. Donald Trump: Boy, you have – O’Connor’s great, right? You know, talking about Conor, but you have a lot of them – you have a lot of great Irish fighters actually, great fighters. I don’t know what that is, but Ireland’s always had a lot of good fighters. You know why? Because they’re tough people, they’re smart people and they’re passionate people. Donald Trump: And they really have been over the years so many – I think your father was a great fighter, right? Micheál Martin: He was. [Inaudible]. Donald Trump: Wow, and yet look at you, you’re so smooth and so – Micheál Martin: He was a very good defensive boxer, he could weave. Donald Trump: He was a really good – Micheál Martin: He was a good boxer, yeah. Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Micheál Martin: For Ireland, boxed for Ireland and fought some very good [crosstalk]. Donald Trump: That means you’re genetically – I’m not going to mess around, yeah. Question: Do you follow any Irish golfers? Donald Trump: OK, let’s – a couple more from somebody that didn’t ask a question. Yeah, please go ahead. Question: Mr. President, should Apple go back to the US from Ireland? Donald Trump: Who? Question: Apple? Donald Trump: Oh, Apple’s been treated very badly. Look, Apple had tremendously bad luck. I thought they had a very good lawsuit, but they lost. Micheál Martin: Yeah, we fought with them. Donald Trump: $16 billion, $16 billion, and they were after a lot of our American companies. See, that’s what’s unfair. It’s the European Union. I’m not blaming you. I’m blaming the European Union. The European Union’s gone after our companies and Apple is a great company and they have to give $16 billion, $17 billion on a lawsuit that I didn’t think was a good lawsuit. Donald Trump: No, that’s not good. No, the European – we have a problem with the European Union. They don’t take our farm products. They don’t take our cars. We take millions of cars, BMWs and Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagens and everything. We take millions of cars. I said to Angela Merkel at the time, I said, Angela, how many Chevrolets do we have in the middle of Munich? Donald Trump: Why, none. I said, you’re right, we have none. That’s the way it is. We have none. No, I’m not happy with the European Union, I want to tell you. And we’re going to win that. We’re going to win that financial battle. It’s a financial battle. Question: [Crosstalk] European cars, Mr. President, tariffs on European cars. Is that something you’re now considering? Donald Trump: Oh, absolutely, I will do that. Question: Mr. President, [crosstalk]. Donald Trump: Think of it, they have millions of cars coming in, millions and millions of cars, one of probably the largest, Japan’s very big too. But – and they don’t accept our cars. We make great cars. They don’t have our cars, but we have their cars. They don’t have our farm products. We have the greatest farmers in the world. Donald Trump: They don’t accept our farm products, and we accept theirs. So, things are going to change unless they do what they have to do, and they know what they have to do. This is not going to be a tough battle. In my opinion, not going to be tough. Just like when Ontario charged us, everybody said, oh, they just charged us. This will be won in one hour. Donald Trump: And I announced what we were going to do and they withdrew their little threat. And what they don’t say in Canada is that 270 percent – have you ever heard that? We have tariffs on dairy products from Canada of 270 percent going up to 400 percent. You never hear that. Canada is absolutely one of the worst, and when I say worst, worst in terms of charging tariffs. Donald Trump: Their dairy products, they charge our farmers 240, 250, 270 and 400 percent, OK. Think of that, for dairy products, and we charge them like peanuts. You know why? Because we’ve been improperly run for so many years. I had that all settled in my first term. But then of course Biden, you know, he let everything go to hell. Donald Trump: One of the things we did is we took from China hundreds of billions of dollars, and I have great respect for President Xi, but he understood that. He understood it was a one-way street, and you can’t have a one-way street, OK. One more question. Question: Mr. President, [crosstalk] of the Irish you might target your next travel ban? Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Can you say which countries you might target in your next travel ban? Donald Trump: Wouldn’t that be a stupid thing for me to say? [Crosstalk]. He said which countries am I going to target for the next travel ban. Can you believe somebody would ask that question? Question: As part of the – [Crosstalk] what tariff specifically are you going to put on Ireland? Donald Trump: Well, we’re going to talk – we’re going to be talking really to the European Union. You know, I will tell you this one little – we’ll end it with this. So, I have a property, a big property in Ireland that you know well, it’s one of the most highly rated hotels in all of Europe. It’s beautiful, Doonbeg. Donald Trump: It’s beautiful, 600 acres on the ocean and everybody knows it and we have a beautiful hotel. And I was going to do a project there, a big expansion of the place. This was when I was a civilian, before the presidency, before I even thought about the presidency. But I was going to do a really beautiful expansion of the – because it does very well. Donald Trump: And I got the approvals from Ireland so quickly. They were so professional, they wanted it. You know, it’s economic development, it’s jobs, it’s construction jobs, it’s a big expansion, beautiful expansion. But I was told something that bothered me. They said, sir, you also have to get approved by the European Union. Donald Trump: I said why do I have to go to the European Union to expand a hotel that’s in Ireland? They said, well, that’s the way it is. I say, well, shouldn’t that go fast? They said no, it’ll take at least seven years. Donald Trump: You gave me the approval in about four weeks. It was a beautiful professional – if you took four years, you wouldn’t have done a better job. You know, everything was done environmentally, everything. There’s no reason to take very long. I had everything from Ireland in four weeks and then I hired somebody, he said the process will be from five to seven years and I said, oh, really? Donald Trump: And then I found out that they weren’t playing games. Now, think about how bad that is for – for your country. So that was my first experience with the European Union. And I dropped the project, I just said I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to go seven years to expand something. But I have to – I’ll hand it to Ireland, you were so professional, so good. Donald Trump: But I don’t know why European Union had to approve it and with them, it was – it was deal – and that’s – that’s the European Union. So it was – it was a very bad experience I had. Micheál Martin: I’ll just say, President, you have the distinction of being, I think, the only president that has physically invested in Ireland. Donald Trump: That’s – well, that’s good. Micheál Martin: Through your – through your Dune Bay [sp]. Donald Trump: And it’s been a good investment. Micheál Martin: And it’s – I mean, for anybody, you should go there, it’s just stunning. Donald Trump: I love this. Micheál Martin: No, I mean, seriously, even if you don’t play golf, I mean, it is a stunning landscape. Donald Trump: Yeah. Micheál Martin: Your people, your people have restored it very well and our people are going to continue to work with you on that piece to do it all sort of effectively and so on like that. We’re going to continue to do that – Donald Trump: – They’ve had a great – they’ve had a great relationship – Micheál Martin: – But it is – and the local people, my local councilor, Rita McInerney, texted me last week to say and tell President Trump to thank his family for the way they’ve worked with the local community and for the work that they’ve done. Question: [Inaudible] – – [Inaudible] – – Rory McIlroy [Inaudible] – – Visit to America, Mr. President – Donald Trump: – I love Rory. I think Rory is great. He’s a great golfer. He just won two weeks ago. He’s a great guy. I played golf with him three weeks ago and he’s really a fantastic player. He’s in good form, too. When he played with me, he played very well. I can tell you. I – no, Rory – Rory certainly is one of the favorites. Donald Trump: He’s always going to be one of the – he’s a very talented guy. He’s a very good person, too. Question: Are you planning to visit the Doonbeg, Mr. President? Donald Trump: I will. I’ll get there sometime. I hope – I hope soon. In fact, if we meet, we’ll meet at Doonbeg. I would love it, but I hope to be able to get there. Question: Mr. President does America have a future in NATO? Donald Trump: What’s that? Question: Does America have a future in NATO? Donald Trump: Well, NATO has to treat us fairly. If they pay their bills and if they do what they’re supposed to do – when I first got involved with NATO, as you know, they weren’t paying their bills. There were 28 countries and most of them weren’t paying and I got them to pay and they paid billions and billions of dollars. Donald Trump: I made a certain statement that I’m not going to be involved with NATO unless you’re going to pay your bills. And I was asked the question, if we don’t pay, are you going to help us? I said, no. If you don’t pay, you’re saying you’re delinquent, a term – a real estate term. You’re delinquent. You’re not paying your rent. Donald Trump: You’re not paying your bills. If you’re not paying your bills, I’m not going to help. Everybody – we took in – your secretary general will tell you. He was very generous to me. He said I’ve never seen anything like it. Money came in by the billions and billions and billions of dollars and NATO became much stronger. Donald Trump: Now, NATO has expended a lot of that money in fighting this horrible war and it’s too bad they had to do that, but they had the money from me. I was the one that got people to pay. The countries – most of the countries were not paying or they were paying a very small amount. So we’ll see. But NATO can be a force for the good, absolutely. Question: Would you like to see Ireland join NATO, Mr. President? Donald Trump: That’s up to Ireland. Question: Do you think Ireland and the EU are to close? Do you think that perhaps, like you said – Donald Trump: – We are very close. Question: No Ireland in the EU. Do you think there’s too close relationships there? Do you think there needs to be a separation? Like you said, if you can’t get planning permission when you get it in Ireland, but you can’t get it through the EU, do you think – Donald Trump: – Well, look, I can just tell you about my personal experience, that Ireland treated me very well and the EU was terrible and they stopped really a magnificent addition. It wasn’t a big deal from the standpoint of the world. It wasn’t like the things we’re talking about now. But it would have been a very beautiful addition. Donald Trump: And they stopped it, which is bad for Ireland and I don’t know why. I don’t know why it would take five to seven years to get something approved, but that’s what it was. Thank you all, very much. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: – Thank you. Aide: Thank you, Press. Donald Trump: Thank you. Aide: We’re headed out. Thank you. Headed out right behind you right behind you. Right through this door. Thanks, guys. This way. This way. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I should have.
Date: 2025-03-13
Donald Trump: Hello, everybody. It’s great to be with a friend of mine who was Prime Minister of the Netherlands. I got to know him very well. We had a great relationship always. Mark Rutte. Now he’s Secretary General of NATO and doing a fantastic job. Everybody – every report I’ve gotten is what a great job he did, and I’m not at all surprised when I hear it. We had to support him and we supported him as soon as I heard the name. Donald Trump: But he was a fantastic Prime Minister and he’s doing a fantastic job, an even tougher job. Which is tougher, being the Prime Minister of Netherlands or – Mark Rutte: – this job is quite tough. Donald Trump: I Would think so. Mark Rutte: But Dutch politics is also brutal so. Donald Trump: This is pretty tough. But you’re doing – you’re doing good. We’re going to be discussing a lot of things. Obviously, we’ll be discussing what’s happening with respect to Ukraine and Russia. At this moment, we have people talking in Russia. We have Representatives over there, Steve Witkoff and others. And they’re in very serious discussions. Donald Trump: As you know, Ukraine has agreed, subject to this what’s happening today, to a complete cease fire and we hope Russia will do the same. Thousands of people are being killed. Young people usually mostly young people. We’re just talking about it. Thousands of young people are being killed a week and we want to see that stop. Donald Trump: And they’re not Americans and they’re not from the Netherlands for the most part. They’re not from – they’re from Russia and they’re from Ukraine, but they’re people. And I think everybody feels the same way. We want it to stop. It’s also a tremendous cost to the United States and to other countries and it’s something that would have never happened if I were president and it makes me very angry to see that it did happen, but it happened and we have to stop it. And Mark has done some really good work over the last week. Donald Trump: We’ve been working together and he’s done some really good work. So I’m very happy about that. We’ll also be talking about trade and various other things and I think we’ll have a very, very strong day. We’re going to have lunch afterwards that’ll go and then we’ll see you all later. But Mark, would you like to say something? Mark Rutte: Yeah. First of all, thank you so much, Mr. President, again, for hosting me and but also for taking time in Florida, a couple of weeks after you were reelected. Donald Trump: That’s right. Mark Rutte: And of course I have a phone call a couple of weeks ago and I must say, term 45, you basically, you originated the fact that in Europe we are now spending when you take it to aggregate $700 billion more on defense than when you came in office in 2016, 2017. But that was term 45, but then when you look at term 47. Donald Trump: That would be hard to tell. Mark Rutte: What happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering. The Europeans committing to a package of $800 billion defense spending. The Germans now potentially up to half a trillion extra in defense spending. And then of course you had Keir Starmer here, the British prime minister and others, all committing to much higher defense spending. Mark Rutte: We’re not there. We need to do more, but I really want to work together with you in the run up to the Hague summit to make sure that we will have a NATO, which is really reinvigorated under your leadership and we are getting there. We also discussed defense production because we need to produce more weaponry. Mark Rutte: We are not doing enough, and not in the US, not in Europe and we are lagging behind when you compare it to the Russians and the Chinese. And you have a huge defense industrial base. Europeans buying four times more here than the other way around, which is good because you have a strong defense industry. But we need to do more there to make sure that we ramp up the production and kill the red tape, so I would love to work with you on that. Mark Rutte: And finally, Ukraine. You broke the deadlock, as you said, all the killing the young people, dying cities, getting destroyed. The fact that you did that that you started the dialog with the Russians and the successful talks in Saudi Arabia now with the Ukrainians, I really want to commend you for this. The Hague is my hometown. Mark Rutte: I love to host you there in the summer and work together to make sure that that will be a splash, a real success, projecting American power on the world stage. Donald Trump: What Mark is saying is when I first went to NATO, my first meeting, I noticed that very few people were paying. And if they were, they weren’t paying their fair share. There were only seven countries that were paying what they were supposed to be paying, which was – Mark Rutte: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Yeah. Mark Rutte: Even worse. Donald Trump: It could be even worse. But they were just very few countries that were paying and even the paying it was a two percent, which is too low. It should be higher. It should be quite a bit higher. But you had Poland and I remember Poland was actually paying a little bit more than they were supposed to, which I was very impressed with. Donald Trump: And they’ve been actually terrific and some of the others. But most of them weren’t paying or they were paying very little and I didn’t think it was appropriate to bring it up there. But I said, it’s going to be brought up at my next meeting and my next meeting. The first meeting, you want to give them a little break. Donald Trump: The second meeting, it began and I was able to raise hundreds of billions of dollars. I just said, we’re not going to be involved with you if you’re not going to pay. And the money started pouring in and NATO became much stronger because of my actions and working along with a lot of people, including Mark, but they would not pay for other presidents. Donald Trump: And I don’t think other presidents even knew that they weren’t paid. I asked first question, has everybody paid up? And literally, I mean they told me seven. You could be right. It could be three, but that makes it even worse, but they just weren’t paying. And I said, no, I won’t protect if you’re not paying. Donald Trump: If you’re delinquent or if the money isn’t paid, why would we do that? And as soon as I said that, I got a little hit from the press because they said, oh, gee, that’s not very nice. But if you said the other, nobody would have paid. And the money started coming in by the billions and hundreds of billions of dollars flowed into NATO and NATO became strong. Donald Trump: And you remember that and your predecessor, who I thought was a very good man. Mark Rutte: Absolutely. Yes, Stoltenberg. He sends his best greetings. Donald Trump: He was terrific, Stoltenberg, secretary general. And he made the statement that when Trump came in, the money started coming in like we never saw before, hundreds of – actually, probably close to $600 billion came in and NATO became strong from that standpoint. And now we have to use it wisely and we have to get this war over with and you’ll be back to a normal, much more normal life. Donald Trump: And maybe we’re close. We’re getting word that things are going Ok in Russia. And does it mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is, but they have very serious discussions going on right now with President Putin and others and hopefully they all want to end this nightmare. It’s a nightmare. It’s a horrible thing, when you look. Donald Trump: I get pictures every week. They give me the pictures of the battlefield, which I almost don’t want to see. It’s so horrible to see young people laying, arms and legs and heads laying all over the field. It’s the most terrible thing that you’ll ever see and it’s got to stop. These are young people with mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and friends and it’s got to stop. Donald Trump: So we hopefully are going to be in a good position sometime today to have a good idea. We know where we are with Ukraine and we are getting good signals outside of Russia, as to where we are with Russia. And hopefully they’ll do the right thing and so really humanity, we’re talking about humanity, we’re not talking about the money. Donald Trump: But then you add the money to it, and hundreds of billions of dollars is being spent and really wasted so unnecessarily. It should have never happened. So it’s an honor to have you here. They picked a great gentleman. I’ll tell you, I was so happy to hear because you had somebody – Stoltenberg was really good and you have somebody that’s going to do an incredible job. Donald Trump: And I was so much in favor of you. You have no idea. They had another person that I did not like. I was not happy. And I think I kept him from, you know what I’m talking about. I said, this is the right man to do it and he really did. He was a great Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He did a great job and that’s what he’s doing right now. Donald Trump: So thank you everybody for being here and very great honor to have you, and we even have some of our great energy people here today, right? We have the governor and we have Chris. You know Chris, right? Mark Rutte: Absolutely. Donald Trump: Is supposed to be the most talented man in the world of energy, according to the governor. So I don’t know if he’s right. We have, General, you’ve been fantastic. Thank you very much. And we have a lot of good people that won’t be so much involved with this, but they wanted to see what was happening. It’s become a little bit of a show, but they wanted to see what was happening, and I think a lot of good things are happening. Donald Trump: So with that, if anybody would have a question. Question: Mr. President, on Russia. Donald Trump: Please, go ahead. Question: Sorry. Sorry, [Inaudible] Steve Witkoff’s trip to Moscow, you spoke about it, what sort of agreement do you hope he comes away from it with? Donald Trump: Well, we’d like to see a ceasefire from Russia and we have not been working in the dark. We’ve been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost and all of the other elements of a final agreement. There’s a power plant involved, a very big power plant involved. Who’s going to get the power plant and who’s going to get this and that? Donald Trump: And so it’s not an easy process, but phase one is the ceasefire. A lot of the individual subjects have been discussed. We’ve been discussing concepts of land because you don’t want to waste time with the ceasefire if it’s not going to mean anything. So we’re saying, look, this is what you can get, this is what you can’t get. Donald Trump: They discussed NATO and being in NATO and everybody knows what the answer to that is. They’ve known that answer for 40 years, in all fairness. So a lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed. Now, we’re going to see whether or not Russia is there. And if they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world. Donald Trump: Yeah? Question: Vladimir Putin just said he is open to a ceasefire, but he does still have some concerns. He suggested that you two should speak directly. Do you have plans to speak to him soon? If so, are you confident you can get this across the finish line? Donald Trump: He did say that today. It was a very promising statement, because other people are saying different things and you don’t know if they have any meaning or I don’t know. I think some of them were making statements. I don’t think they have anything to do with it. No, he put out a very promising statement, but it wasn’t complete. Donald Trump: And yeah, I’d love to meet with him or talk to him, but we have to get it over with fast. Every day people are being killed. As we sit here, two people will be killed. Think of it, two people are going to be killed during this little period of time. Thousands of people a week are dying. So we really don’t have very much time. Donald Trump: We have to make this fast. It shouldn’t be very complicated. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Donald Trump: Yes. Question: A representative of Canada, the finance minister are in town and will meet members of your administration during the day. Any chances that you will bend on the tariffs on aluminum and the ones that are planned for April 2nd? Donald Trump: No Question: You are not going to change your mind? Donald Trump: No. No, look, we’ve been ripped off for years and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore. No, I’m not going to bend at all on aluminum or steel or cars. We’re not going to bend. We’ve been ripped off as a country for many, many years. We’ve been subjected to costs that we shouldn’t be subjected to. In the case of Canada, we’re spending $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada. Donald Trump: I love Canada. I love the people of Canada. I have many friends in Canada, the great one, Wayne Gretzky, the great. How good is Wayne Gretzky? He’s the great one. But I know many people from Canada that are good friends of mine, but the United States can’t subsidize a country for $200 billion a year. We don’t need their cars. Donald Trump: We don’t need their energy. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need anything that they – that they give, we do it because we want to be helpful. But it comes a point when you just can’t do that. You have to run your own country. And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. It doesn’t – we don’t need anything they have. Donald Trump: As a state, it would be one of the great states anyway. This would be the most incredible country. Visually, if you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it between Canada and the US, Just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago and it makes no sense. Donald Trump: It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state. Keeping O Canada the national anthem, I love it. I think it’s great. Keep it, but it’ll be for the state. One of our greatest states, maybe our greatest state. But why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion? Costs us $200 billion a year. And again, we don’t need their lumber. Donald Trump: We don’t need their energy. We have more than they do. We don’t need anything. We don’t need their cars. I’d much rather make the cars here. And there’s not a thing that we need. Now there’ll be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long, but they need us – we really don’t need them. And we have to do this. Donald Trump: I’m sorry. We have to do this. Yes? Question: Mr. President, you have made it very clear that NATO needs to step up, although great progress has been made in your first mandate. How do you envision this new transatlantic? Donald Trump: Are you talking about NATO stepping up? Question: Yes. Donald Trump: Well, NATO is stepping up through this man. This man is a man that only knows how to step up. And we have the same goal in mind, we want the war ended, and he’s doing his job. He only knows how to do a good job. That’s one thing. That’s why I fought for him to get that job because they had some other candidates that I will tell you would not have done a very good job. Mark Rutte: I need this part of the – of the movie for my family. Donald Trump: We’ll get you a clip. We’re going to get him a clip of that of that little essay. But the rest of the statements, he doesn’t care about. Question: Sir, how does this new transatlantic cooperation, how do you envision it? Donald Trump: Well, we have – that’s one thing. I mean, you know we’re on the other side of the ocean and they’re right there and yet we’re in for $350 billion because of Biden and they’re in for $100 billion. So it’s a big difference and it’s unfair. And I said you have to equalize, they should equalize, they should have – it should have never happened where Biden just gave this money away. Donald Trump: Now, as you know, we’re – we have an agreement with Ukraine on the rare earths and other things, and that’ll get us something back. A lot back. It’ll get us our money back. We’re not doing it for that, though. We’re doing – I’m just doing this to get the war stopped. I’m doing it really to save lives. But at the same time, we were treated very unfairly as we always are by every country. Donald Trump: And we’re in for very substantially more than the European nations are in for and that shouldn’t be. You know, they’re much more affected by it than we are because we do have an ocean in between. But I don’t know. I think good things are going to happen. I really do. I think good things are going to happen. Donald Trump: I do say we were talking before and Mark was very nice. He said if you did get involved, there would be nothing – you’d just be going on and this thing would have gone on for a long time. Mark Rutte: Breaking a deadlock. It was crucial. Donald Trump: Yeah, we broke a deadlock. We did break a deadlock. I hope – I hope it’s meaningful. Yes. Did you have one? Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: Yes, please. Question: Yes, sir. Thank you. Mr. President. Amanda Head with Just the News. On the southern border, you’ve got DHS and ICE who are reporting that there was a little bit of fudging of numbers during the Biden administration on both the catch and the release side with respect to reporting the number of illegals coming into the country – Donald Trump: – They cheated on the numbers. They were – the numbers were – I love that question. Who are you with? Question: Just the news. Amanda Head. Donald Trump: Very nice. That’s good. That’s good. Question: Do you know how many of those are criminal, illegal aliens – Donald Trump: – Many of them – Question: – And Biden is out of office, Alejandro Mayorkas, who can – Donald Trump: – No, Biden fudged the numbers. The numbers were totally fake and he gave fake numbers. I knew they were fake, everybody knew they were fake, but now it came out and terrible what they did. That administration was a horror show for this country. Question: Can you hold anyone accountable? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know. They gave phony numbers and phony numbers are a very bad thing to give, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t know how it would play. We want to get it straightened out. We have – we’re after many, many bad people that were let into our country and Kristi Noem and and my friend Homan, how – how good is Tom Homan doing, right? Donald Trump: And they’re after him and they – I mean, you see they’re taking them out in record numbers. Gang members, gang leaders, drug dealers, this is a problem the Netherlands does not have. The Netherlands never had this problem. If you’d like to take it for a little – Mark Rutte: – We have a few drug dealers, I’m afraid – Donald Trump: – I could deliver some people. I could deliver some nice people to the Netherlands, if you’d like. [Laughter] Mark Rutte: I’m not sure. Donald Trump: No, what – what – what he did to this country, letting 21 million people flow through an open border, many of those people were hard criminals from prisons and jails from mental institutions. And I always say insane asylums because they were seriously deranged and they’re here from not South America, from all over the world. Donald Trump: From South America, but from all over the world. And it’s – so it’s so sad. You’d say why would anybody do this? Why? Go ahead. Question: And one more. There’s some new internal Democrat polling that doesn’t look great for Democrats, but it also has 54 percent unfavorability for Republicans in swing states and battlegrounds for the midterms. You consider those voters capturable for – for Republicans? Donald Trump: Yeah, well, we did – you know, I won every swing state as you know by a lot and I won the popular vote by a lot and we won the counties. If you look at the counties and district plan, we had 2725 and they had 501. That’s a real – that’s why the map is all red. So we had a great thing, yeah, I think – I think winning from the Democrats – I saw – if you look the other night, I made a speech and I introduced two young ladies who were killed and two killed viciously, violently killed. Donald Trump: Young, unbelievable both outstanding people, they were killed by illegal aliens and the Democrats wouldn’t get up and applaud. The mothers were, I mean, inconsolable. They were crying and everybody was crying. The Democrats sat there with stone faces, they didn’t clap, they didn’t stand, they didn’t do anything. Donald Trump: We had a young man with very serious cancer who wanted his – his dream is to be with the police department someday. And he was introduced. They didn’t even clap. Yeah, I mean, they were disgusting. Frankly, they were disgusting. There’s something wrong with them. They’re deranged. They’re deranged like Jack Smith. Donald Trump: They’re deranged people. And I never saw anything like it. I’m standing up and I introduce the mother and the parents of these two young girls that were just recently, essentially killed, violently killed, and the Democrats are like this. It’s so sad. And I saw this morning with one of them is pretty well known, one is arguing fighting like crazy over men being able to play in women’s sports. Donald Trump: I said, yeah, I thought that was tried. I thought that was about a 95 – I think it’s a 95 percent issue. But in a way, I want them to keep doing it because I don’t think they can win a race. I mean, I tell the Republicans I said don’t bring that subject up because there’s no election right now. But about a week before the election bring it up because you can’t lose. Donald Trump: And everything’s transgender this transgender that. You know, it’s – they have bad politics. But one thing they stick together. You know, I wish – and the Republicans stick together mostly, but we have a couple that are grandstanders. You know, you always have grandstanders in life. But the Democrats, they don’t seem – they have grandstanders, but when it comes to a vote, they do stick together, right? Question: If they say they’ll stick together on the shutdown. Will that hurt Democrats going into midterms? Donald Trump: Well, if they do a shutdown and ultimately that might lead to very, very high taxes because we’re talking about a shutdown. We’re talking about getting to work immediately on the greatest tax bill ever passed. That was the one we did. It was a renewal and it’s in addition to it and we’re going to cut people’s taxes. Donald Trump: And if the – if we don’t open, the Democrats are stopping all of these good things that we’re providing. We’re – we’re providing the greatest package of benefits that this country has ever provided. The biggest part of that’s going to be tax cuts for the middle class and for businesses, small businesses, employers, people that hire people and jobs. Donald Trump: And if it’s shut down, it’s only going to be – if there’s a shutdown, it’s only because of the Democrats and they would really be taken away a lot from our country and from the people of our country. Question: Mr. President, on tariffs, you made clear you’re not backing down from this, but many Americans, small business owners say they are concerned that these tariffs are going to hurt them. What’s your message to them? Donald Trump: They’re going to be so much richer than they are right now. And we have many – yesterday, General Motors was in. They want to invest $60 billion. The people from Facebook were in yesterday. They’re going to invest $60 billion by the end of the year. Other people are talking about numbers. Apple, as you know, a few days ago, announced $500 billion investment. Donald Trump: They’re going to build their plants in the United States, which as you know, all – almost all of their plants are in China, now they’re building in the United States. Look, the reason is two things. Number one, the election, November 5th, and the other thing is tariffs. I think probably in that order. But Tim Cook came in and he announced $500 billion, think of it, $500 billion, not million. $500 million is a lot when you think about it, right? Donald Trump: I would have been happy with $500 million, but it’s $500 billion investment by Apple in the United States. And that’s because of the election result. And it’s because of the tariffs and the tax incentives too, tariffs and tax incentives. And I’ve never seen anything like it. We have plants going up now in Indiana. Donald Trump: We have plants going up in Michigan. A lot of plants going to be planned for – I’m trying to steer them to Michigan because Michigan got so badly beaten by what happened with Europe. If you look at Europe, take a look at the EU, we’re not allowed to sell cars there. It’s prohibitive because of their policies and also their non-monetary tariffs. Donald Trump: They put obstacles in your way that you can do nothing about. But if you take a look at what happens, so we sell no cars to Europe. I mean, virtually, no cars and they sell millions of cars to us. They don’t take our agriculture, we take their – it’s like a one-way street with them. The European Union is very, very nasty. Donald Trump: They sue our companies. Apple was forced to pay $16 billion on a case, very much like my case is that I won. They shouldn’t have been even cases, but we felt they had no case and they ended up having an extremely favorable judge and decision. But they’re suing Google. They’re suing Facebook. They’re suing all of these companies and they’re taking billions of dollars out of American companies, many more than the ones I just mentioned. Donald Trump: And I guess they’re using it to run Europe or something. I don’t know what they’re using it for, but they treat us very badly. China, obviously treats us very badly, almost everybody does. And I blame past presidents, to be honest. Because when I was president, we received so far about $ 700 billion from China over the years on the tariffs that I put in. No other president got $0.10 from China. Donald Trump: And that was only beginning except for COVID, I would have been able to finish the process, but we had to fight the COVID thing and we did really well with it, but we had to fight. And then we, actually, as you remember, Mark, we actually handed over the stock market. It was higher than just previous to COVID, coming in, which was sort of a miracle, frankly. Donald Trump: We did a good job, but the tariffs are very important. And I think the psychology, there’s great spirit. When Mark came in, he said, congratulations, there’s a whole new spirit, there’s a whole new light over this country and really over the world because you have somebody that – a whole group of people, really, because I talk about this whole group that we know what we’re doing and a lot of great things are happening. Donald Trump: But I’ve never seen investment like this. Trillions of dollars is being invested in the United States now that would have never – our country could have failed. Another four years of this, what happened in the last four years, our country would have been a crime-ridden mess. And I don’t know if you noticed, a little thing they call it, but it’s not a little thing if you like eggs and you don’t have a lot of money. Donald Trump: Eggs have gone down 25 percent in the last couple of weeks. We inherited that problem, eggs. Groceries have gone down a little bit. Energy has gone down. Do you want to speak to that for a second, Governor? Would you just say a couple of words, you and Chris about energy, what’s happened? Doug Burgum: Well, happy to, but I think that Chris and I just came from CERAWeek, which is the largest conference in the world. So global leaders, people from the EU, officials from all the energy producing countries, all there and all the global nationals, all the US. The – the spirit of that group is through the roof because now they realize that in the United States that President Trump’s policies are pro developing more energy as opposed to we’re trying to shut down energy. Doug Burgum: And that pro-growth, pro-business, pro-energy approach is giving people the optimism. So then the markets are reacting to that and energy prices on the futures market are going to go down because people know we’re not going to be killing off the energy we need for prosperity in all of our countries, but also for peace, because people have used energy to fuel these wars that President Trump is working so hard to end. Doug Burgum: And we know that energy, high energy prices were driving the inflation that he talked about. So it accomplishes two goals for us, which is prosperity for the world, peace for the world when we have smart energy policies and President Trump has brought common sense back to how we think about energy. Donald Trump: And it’s brought down now $65 a barrel, I saw this morning. That’s phenomenal news and that’s what brought it up. They took our beautiful energy policies and they just messed them up and then they went immediately back to them, because by that time, they lost it. They lost that Bronco, as the expression goes. Donald Trump: Chris, do you have something to say? Chris Wright: Oh, I think Doug said it well, but you just can’t overstate how important the return of common sense, the return of knowledge about energy and pro-American consumers, pro-investment in our country. I think globally, that was welcomed. It means capital flows. It means more sobriety and lower energy prices, more economic opportunity for Americans. Chris Wright: So yeah, it was elated atmosphere at a global energy conference. Donald Trump: Well, we’re working on one project. It should be very easy. It’s a pipeline going through a small section of New York. New York has held it up for years, actually, for years. They’ve wanted to do it for years and years. And it will reduce, the most expensive energy almost in the world is in New England, because they have no way of getting it there because it’s been held up by New York. Donald Trump: And the whole of New England and Connecticut and New York, the energy prices are through the roof. And there’s one pipeline will save for per family $2,500 just on heating and another $2,500 on everything else. So the energy by just a simple pipeline going through an area that wants it, an area that’s not a rich area, it’s actually a very poor area, would create jobs and everything else and it’s going to be way underground. Donald Trump: Nobody’s going to see it. Once they fill it up, nobody’s going to see it. Nobody’s going to know it’s there. And families in New York and Connecticut and New England are going to save $5,000 a family. Think of that, because right now they have the highest energy prices maybe in the world, they say, New England. Donald Trump: It’s a disaster. So we’re working on that. In fact, the governor is coming in governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, who’s a very nice woman. She’s coming in tomorrow morning at 9:00 to meet me on that and other things, not only that, but other things. So I hope we don’t have to use the extraordinary powers of the federal government to get it done. Donald Trump: But if we have to, we will, but I don’t think we’ll have to. I can tell you, Connecticut wants it and all of New England wants it and who wouldn’t want it? And it’s also jobs on top of everything else. So that’s going to be very exciting. So we’re meeting with the governor tomorrow morning. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Greenland, what is your vision for the potential annexation of Greenland and getting them potentially to – Donald Trump: Well, I think it will happen and I’m just thinking, I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental. You know, Mark, we need that for international security, not just security, international. We have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coasts and we have to be careful and we’ll be talking to you and it’s a very appropriate, really a very appropriate question. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Mark Rutte: – issue with the high north, so architecture, what you did. So when it comes to Greenland, yes, we’re or not joining the US. I would leave that outside for me this discussion, because I don’t want to drag NATO in that. But when it comes to the High North and the Arctic, you are totally right, the Chinese are now using these routes. Mark Rutte: We know that the Russians are rearming. We know we have a lack of icebreakers. So the fact that the seven outside Russia, there are seven Arctic countries working together on this under US leadership is very important to make sure that that region that that part of the world stays safe. And we know things are changing there and we have to be there. Question: Well, we just had an election there the other day. Do you see a referendum, a plebiscite where the people of Greenland would be in a position to decide if they want to become part of the United States? Donald Trump: Yeah, it was a good election for us, as you know. It was not a referendum. It wouldn’t be called that. It was an individual election. But the person that did the best is a very good person, as far as we’re concerned. And so we’ll be talking about it and it’s very important. Mark mentioned the word icebreaker. Donald Trump: So we’re in the process of ordering 48 icebreakers, and Canada wants to know if they could use them. I said, well, you got to pay for them. Think of it, Canada. We pay for their military. Canada pays very little for their military because they think we’re going to protect them. But even with the icebreakers, so we’re going to order 48, and Canada wants to be part of the deal. Donald Trump: I say, you got to get your own icebreakers. And if you’re a state, you can be part of the deal, but if you’re a separate country, you got to get your own icebreakers. Russia, as you know, has about 40 of them. And we have one big icebreaker, but that whole area is becoming very important. And for a lot of reasons, the routes are very direct to Asia, to Russia and you have ships all over the place and we have to have protection. Donald Trump: So we’re going to have to make a – on that, and Denmark is not able to do that. You know, Denmark is very far away and really has nothing to do – what happens, a boat landed there 200 years ago or something and they say they have rights to it. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I don’t think it is, actually. Donald Trump: But we’ve been dealing with Denmark. We’ve been dealing with Greenland and we have to do it. We really need it for national security. I think that’s why NATO might be – have to get involved in a way because we really need Greenland for national security. It’s very important. You know, we have a couple of bases on Greenland already and we have quite a few soldiers and maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there. Donald Trump: I don’t know. What do you think about that, Pete? So don’t answer that, Pete. [Laughter] Don’t answer that question. But we have – we have bases and we have quite a few soldiers on Greenland. Question: [Inaudible] question your commitment to NATO. Will anything change? Your commitment to NATO? Will anything change? Same amount of money, same amount of – Donald Trump: – Well, I think they’ve made a great step by putting Mark in charge. I think, to me, that’s a great step because he and I have seen eye to eye on everything for a long time. We’ve been doing this a long time now. Mark Rutte: Nine years now. Donald Trump: And so that’s a great step. You have to keep NATO strong, you have to keep it relevant. But the biggest thing we have to worry about right now is what’s going on right now. I think the rest is going to take care of itself. I don’t see this having – this was a fluke. This was something that if we had a competent president, it would not have happened. Donald Trump: The man was grossly incompetent. All you have to do is look and – take a look at – he signs by Autopen. Who was signing all this stuff by Autopen? Who would think you’d sign important documents by Autopen. You know, these are major documents you’re signing. You’re proud to sign them. You have your signature on something. Donald Trump: In 300 years, they say, oh, look, can you imagine, everything was signed by Autopen? Almost everything. Nobody’s ever heard of such a thing. So should have never happened. Question: Tomorrow at the Justice Department about law and order, could you tell us a little bit about that? Donald Trump: Yeah, we’re going to be with the Justice Department. We have a great Justice Department. Pam Bondi is so fantastic and Todd Blanche and Amo, you got to know him a little bit. He was acting for a little while and some other people are incredible in the Justice Department and I consider the FBI to be a part of it in a sense. Donald Trump: And Cash is going to be fantastic and all the people, he’s – Dan Bongino, I love that. I mean, I love that. I think Dan is great. I think we have unbelievable people and all I’m going to do is set out my vision. It’s going to be their vision, really, but it’s – it’s my ideas. And basically, we – we don’t want to have crime in the streets. Donald Trump: We don’t want to have people pushed into subways and killed and then the – the person that did the pushing ends up in a 15 year trial and gets off scot free. We want to have justice and we want to have – we want to have safety in our cities as well as our communities and we’ll be talking about immigration. Donald Trump: We’ll be talking about a lot of things, the complete gamut. So I look forward to – that will be tomorrow at the Justice Department. Question: Mr. President, you are a man of peace, you said it several times and you made it very clear. A man of peace dealing with belligerent people and I’m thinking we saw how you handled Zelenskyy in this very own room. What is your leverage on Putin? Are you thinking sanctions? What if he refuses to – Donald Trump: – Well, I do have leverage, but I don’t want to talk about leverage now because right now we’re talking to him and based on the statements he made today, they were pretty positive, I think. So I don’t want to talk about that. I hope Russia’s going to make the deal, too, and I think once that deal happens, you’re never going to be in a process. Donald Trump: I don’t think they’re going back to shooting again. I really believe if we had a – if we get a peace treaty, a ceasefire treaty, I think that leads to peace. That’s going to really lead to peace. I don’t think anyone wants to go back. They’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s vicious and violent. Donald Trump: And I think if – if President Putin agrees and does a cease fire, I think we’re going to – we’re going to be in very good shape to get it done. We want to get it over with. That’s why it was very important what I instructed everybody, including Steve, what we’re looking for to discuss concepts of land concepts of – of power plants because it’s complicated. Donald Trump: You know, you have a whole – you’re sort of creating the edge of a of a country. The sad part is that country if they didn’t – if this didn’t happen, and it wouldn’t have happened, I don’t know if that would have to give anything back. I guess, Crimea. You know, I said it last time, Crimea was given by Obama, Biden gave him the whole thing and Bush gave him Georgia and Trump didn’t give him anything. Donald Trump: I gave him – you know what I gave him? I gave him – I gave them javelins and the javelins were very effective. As you know, I gave them nothing. Mark Rutte: 2019 Donald Trump: And then also, if you take a look, I was the one that stopped the pipeline going into Europe. It was totally stopped Nord Stream II. Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream II before I came along. But I got along very well with President Putin. I got along with most of them. I get along great with President Xi. I got along great with Kim Jong Un. I got along great with all of them and we had no wars. Donald Trump: We had no problems. We wiped out ISIS in record time. General Raisin’ Cain and he wiped him out and he was going to be our new chief, right? He’s going to be the head of Joint Chiefs of Staff and he’s a highly respected man. He’s going to be great. Pete’s going to be fantastic. I have no doubt about it. We have a great team. Donald Trump: Really great team. Yeah, please, go ahead. Please. Question: Mr. President, some of our allies have said that they’re worried that they could be the next to be attacked by Russia. You’ve spoken directly with the Russian President. Do you think those fears are justified? Donald Trump: No, I don’t – I think when this gets done, it’s done. They’re going to all want to go home and rest. I don’t see it happening. No. I don’t see that happening. And we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen. Not going to happen, but we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen. Yeah. Go ahead, please. Question: Leaders from Russia and Iran are heading to Beijing tomorrow to discuss nuclear programs. What do you hope to get out of that? Donald Trump: Well, maybe they’re going to talk about non-nuclear programs. Maybe they’re going to be talking about the de-escalation of nuclear weapons because, you know, I was talking about that with President Putin very strongly and we could have done something. Had – had that election not been rigged, we would have had something. Donald Trump: I think I would have made a deal with Putin on de-escalation, denuclearization as they say. But we would have de-escalated nuclear weapons because the power of nuclear weapons is so great and so devastating. And and right now, Russia and us have by far the most, but China will catch us within five years. Donald Trump: China doesn’t have, but they’re in the process of building and they build. And within four or five years, they’ll probably have the same. Mark Rutte: And by the way, this is a Republican tradition. Ronald Reagan, when he negotiated with Gorbachev in the 1980s about bringing down the number of nuclear weapons is what you have been doing your first term and it is important. Donald Trump: It would be a great achievement if we could bring down the – the number. We have so many weapons and the power is so great and number one, you don’t need them to that extent. And then we’d have to get others because, as you know, in a smaller way, Kim Jong Un has a lot of nuclear weapons by the way, a lot and others do also. Donald Trump: You have India, you have Pakistan, you have others that have them and we get them involved. But we started off with Russia and us, we have by far – actually, by far the most and we were going to denuclearize. And that was going to happen and then we were going to China and I spoke to China – I spoke to President Xi about it and he really liked the idea. Donald Trump: You know, he liked not to spend trillions of dollars building weapons that, hopefully, he’s never going to have to use and because they are very expensive, also. So that would have been great. OK, one or two more. Question: There’s been tension in the – – Thank you. We’re looking at an impending government shutdown Friday at midnight. Democrats for 30 years straight have said if there’s a shutdown bad things happen. Do you anticipate direct negotiations yourself with conference leader of the Democrats, Chuck Schumer? Donald Trump: If they need me, I’m there, 100 percent. It’s right now, it’s – it’s two or three people. If they – if it shuts down, it’s not the Republicans’ fault. You know, we passed a bill where we had an incredible Republican vote. We only had one negative vote, a grandstander, you know, one grandstander, there’s always a grandstander in the lot. Donald Trump: But it was amazing. People were amazed that the Republicans were able to vote in unison like that so – so strongly. If there’s a shutdown, even the Democrats admit, it’ll be their fault. And I’m hearing a lot of Democrats are going to vote for it. And I hope they do, this is an extension, but ultimately we want to vote for one big beautiful bill where we put the taxes in, we put everything in. We’re going to have big tax cuts. Donald Trump: We’re going to have tremendous incentives for companies coming into our country and employing lots of people. It’ll be – I called it in a rare moment. One big beautiful bill. That’s what I like. Donald Trump: And it’s used to be that’s where they’re heading. And we’ll have to take care of something to do with Los Angeles, a place called Los Angeles almost burned to the ground. By the way, I broke into Los Angeles. Can you believe it? I had a break in. I – I invaded Los Angeles and we opened up the water and the water is now flowing down. Donald Trump: They have so much water, they don’t know what to do. They were sending it out to the Pacific for environmental reasons, OK, can you believe it? And in the meantime, they lost 25,000 houses. They lost – and nobody’s ever seen anything like it. But we have the water. I’d love to show you a picture. You’ve seen the picture. Donald Trump: The water is flowing through the half pipes, you know we have the big half pipes that go down. You used to – 25 years ago, they used to have plenty of water, but they turned it off for, again, for environmental reasons. Well, I turned it on for environmental reasons and also fire reasons, but – and I’ve been asking them to do that during my first term. Donald Trump: I said do it. I didn’t think anything like – could happen like this, but they didn’t have enough water. Now the farmers are going to have water for their land and the water is in there. But I actually had to break in. We broke in to do it because we had people that were afraid to give water. They were – in particular, they were trying to protect a certain little fish. Donald Trump: And I said how do you protect the fish if you don’t have water? They didn’t have any water. So they’re protecting a fish and that didn’t work out too well, by the way. So they have a lot of water going down throughout California, all coming out from the Pacific Northwest, even some from Canada. Thank you, Canada, very much. Donald Trump: I appreciate it. Next thing, you know they’ll want to turn the water off. They want to charge us for the water, but it comes up from the Pacific Northwest and it’s – it’s a beautiful thing to see. I mean, it is brimming with water. Now, if they would have had that done, you wouldn’t have had the damage because the fire would have been put out. Donald Trump: The fire hydrants would have been loaded. The sprinklers in people’s living rooms and bedrooms would have been loaded up with – they had no water. The government makes them put sprinklers and they had no water in the sprinklers because they had no water. So the water is flowing and we’re going to have to give a lot of money to Los Angeles to help them and the Democrats are going to want to do that. Donald Trump: So that’s the one thing different. And frankly, I think that makes it a lot easier. But one of the – the big thing is we have the big beautiful bill, we got to get that done and that will put our – our country in a position like it’s never been. It’s a reduction of taxes. It’s tremendous incentives for companies to come from all over the world into our country. Donald Trump: It’s great environmentally, but it’s not this environmental scam that we went through – that we all went through. It provides for everything, it’s a big beautiful bill and I hope we can get it approved and that will be next. But in the meantime, we have the continuing resolution and the Republicans have approved it and now the Democrats have to approve it, and I hope they will. Donald Trump: And I think a lot of them – I can tell you they want to. I’ve spoken to some of them. They really want to. Their leadership may not want them to and if it closes, it’s purely on the Democrats. One more on. Question: On Korea, sir, we’ve seen tension increasing in the peninsula. You’ve talked about Kim Jong Un. Do you have any plans of getting – of reestablishing the relationship you had during the first mandate? Donald Trump: Well, I would. I had a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, North Korea. If I wasn’t elected – if Hillary got in, you would have had a nuclear war with North Korea. He expected it. He expected it. And they said, oh, thousands of people. No, millions of people would have been killed. But I got in. We went to Singapore. Donald Trump: We met – we went to Vietnam, we met – we got along really good. We had a very good relationship and – and we still do. We still do. You don’t have that threat that you had. I mean, look, when I was running the first time, it looked like there was going to be a war with North Korea. You know that better than anybody, right? Mark Rutte: Tensions were high. Donald Trump: Yeah, and – and it started off – Mark Rutte: – Everybody was – at the start of that, you invited him for talks, but you did. Donald Trump: It started off very rough and he wouldn’t meet with Obama, wouldn’t take his calls. I said how many times did you call? They called a lot. He wouldn’t take that call. He told me I wouldn’t take his call. But with me, it did start off rough, if you remember. Very rough, actually. Very nasty. Mark Rutte: There was a Singapore. Donald Trump: Yeah, but then – no, before that, then it stopped. The rhetoric was extremely tough. It was – it was a little bit – Mark Rutte: – You had a speech in UN, I remember. Donald Trump: Yeah, that’s right. It was a little bit dangerous. And then we met. They asked for a meeting and then we met and the meeting caused the Olympics, which was in South Korea, to become a tremendous success. Nobody was buying tickets for the Olympics because they didn’t want to be nuked. And I met and not only did the Olympics become successful, but North Korea participated in the Olympics. Mark Rutte: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: It was an amazing thing. And that was something that was an achievement of the Trump administration. A great achievement. And so I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, and we’ll see what happens. But certainly, he’s a nuclear power. OK, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Aide: Thank you, press. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you.
Date: 2025-03-13
“Canada needs America, America does not need Canada.” Grant Cardone of Cardone Capital, on Stuart Varney & Co.
Date: 2025-03-14
Question: A couple of questions, Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Happy Friday. Question: Can you give us a preview of the president’s Justice Department speech? Karoline Leavitt: Sure, I’d be happy to. As you know, the president will be heading there later this afternoon. The attorney general will be there as well as the FBI director, Kash Patel. And the president is going to give a speech focused on restoring law and order to our country. In the last four years under the Biden administration, we unfortunately saw a Department of Justice that was weaponized against Americans for their political ideologies. Karoline Leavitt: It was not focused on fighting violent crime and restoring law and order and public safety. So, the president will be talking about his intention to restore those very basic American values to our country. And he will also be there with fentanyl families and angel moms who have lost their children at the hands of illegal immigrant criminals who the previous administration allowed into our country, and also of course to illegal Chinese fentanyl, which as you all know, the president feels very strongly about cracking down on drug cartels, drug trafficking and human trafficking as well. Karoline Leavitt: So, you’ll hear about all that later this afternoon. I don’t want to get ahead of the president any more than that. Question: Caroline, Note: [Crosstalk] Question: will talk to President Putin during the day? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have anything on the president’s schedule, but that could obviously always change. As you saw his Truth Social this morning, he is putting pressure on President Putin and the Russians to do the right thing. Yesterday was a productive day for the United States of America and for the world in terms of peace. Karoline Leavitt: We have never been this close to peace. You saw the NATO secretary general in the Oval Office yesterday, you were there with us, who said that only because of President Trump are we here on the verge of brokering a peace deal? Go ahead, Elena. Question: Did the president talk to President Trump last night on the phone? Karoline Leavitt: President? Question: President Trump talked to President – sorry, President Trump talk to President Putin last night on the phone? Karoline Leavitt: He did not, no. Steve Witkoff spoke to him yesterday in Moscow, as you know. Question: Has the president spoken with the new – the incoming Canadian Prime Minister at all this week? I know earlier this week you said they hadn’t yet spoken, but given everything that’s going on between the United States and Canada, have they spoken? Karoline Leavitt: To my knowledge, they have not spoken. When they do, we can provide a readout of that call. Question: Do you have any update on New York governor meeting – hopefuls meeting with President Trump? Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, I believe it’s still ongoing or it wrapped when I came out here. But the governor was here to talk about the pipeline that President Trump is very determined to get passed in the New England and New York area. And so, that’s as far as I know about the conversation, but I can get an update on it. Question: Karoline, court rulings about all the fired probationary workers, do you use the same language here just now that was in a statement about fighting back against that ruling? Do you mean appealing or something else? And does the administration plan to comply with those orders in the meantime? Karoline Leavitt: Fighting back by appealing, fighting back by using the full weight of the White House counsel’s office and our lawyers at the federal government who believe that this injunction is unconstitutional. And it is for anybody who has a basic understanding of the law. You cannot have a low-level district court judge filing an injunction to usurp the executive authority of the president of the United States. Karoline Leavitt: That is completely absurd. And as the executive of the executive branch, the president has the ability to fire or hire. And you have these lower-level judges who are trying to block this president’s agenda. It’s very clear. And as I just cited, I was appalled by the statistic when I saw it this morning. In three – or in one month, in February, there have been 15 injunctions of this administration and our agenda. Karoline Leavitt: In three years under the Biden administration, there were 14 injunctions. So, it’s very clear that there are judicial activists throughout our judicial branch who are trying to block this president’s executive authority. We are going to fight back. And as anyone who saw President Trump and his legal team fighting back, they know how to do it. He was indicted nearly 200 times and he’s in the Oval Office now because all of the indictments, all of these injunctions have always been unconstitutional and unfair. Karoline Leavitt: They are led by partisan activists who are trying to usurp the will of this president and we’re not going to stand for it. Thanks, guys.
Date: 2025-03-14
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Pam, very much. What a job you’re doing, and it’s a true honor to be with you today. It’s very stirring. This is a storied hall, if there ever was one. And based on the crowd, I think we broke the all-time record. But as we begin a proud new chapter in the chronicles of American justice, this really is something. Donald Trump: We’re turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization and surrender to Violent criminals. And we’re restoring fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And you’re the people that are doing it. Very, very proud of all of you. Under the Trump administration, the DOJ and the FBI will once again become the premier crime fighting agencies on the face of the Earth. Donald Trump: People ask me what am I going to do about law enforcement all the time. The fake news back there, they’re asking me that all the time, what am I going to do and when are you going to do it? And I answer them by saying I’ve already done most of it by appointing the people that I’ve appointed. They’re sitting right here. Donald Trump: They’ve done most of it. I don’t do it. They do it, right, Pam? I think, oh, you are so tough, they just don’t know yet. Let me begin by congratulating the incredible people who will lead these historic reforms. And we start with somebody that you just saw, Pam Bondi. She’s extraordinary and I’ve known her very well for a long time. Donald Trump: I watched her for a long time in Florida, for years in Florida and highly experienced. She seems so young, but she’s highly experienced, that I can tell you. She was a phenomenal attorney general in Florida and she’s going to do a really amazing job. Also, a new director of the FBI, Kash Patel. Kash, right. Donald Trump: A man that I’m very proud of. I’ve known him and Emil for a long time under tremendous pressure. I saw these guys under some of the most corrupt judges I’ve – it’s not even imaginable how corrupt they were. And these guys never wilted, they never – they were not shy, they fought, they weren’t afraid, and they were brilliant. Donald Trump: Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanch, and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney, Emil Bove. And thank you both very much. Great people. They’re great people. The chief of staff who’s so highly respected, Chad Mizelle. Thank you, Chad. Chad? Thank you, Chad. Our next administrator of the DEA, Terry Cole. Terry? Donald Trump: Thank you, Terry. Good luck, you’re going to do great. Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Boy, I’ve been watching him on television the last couple of weeks. He is really a tough one and he’s a great one. Leo Terrell, you watch how good he’s going to be. He’s going to be so good. Donald Trump: Thank you, Leo. Great guy. Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division, who’s got an incredible reputation. She’ll do very, very well. Gail Slater. Thank you, Gail. Good luck. Great job. And we’re joined by many, many great friends and terrific friends and I won’t be able to – too many to name, but some that I just see very quickly. Donald Trump: General Flynn, thank you for being here. Here’s a man who went through hell, by the way, and he shouldn’t have. It was – he’s a patriot, he went through hell. We’re also pleased to be joined by Senator Chuck Grassley and House Majority Whip. Hi, Chuck. House Majority Whip, Tom Emmer. Tom, great job you’re doing. Donald Trump: Representative Guy Reschenthaler, one of the toughest names to say but I got it perfectly I think. And state Attorney General, Ken Paxton, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Somebody who was with us early on and she’s really become a big star and very popular, Brenna Bird. Thank you, Brenna. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Steve Marshall, Alan Wilson, James Uthmeier, Chris Carr, Dave Sunday, Marty Jackley, as well as White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller. What a man Stephen is, become a big star, right? Steve Miller. Steve has been something very special. For generations, the federal Department of Justice was one of America’s most revered institutions. Donald Trump: The men and women of the DOJ brought down the Mafia, hunted down the killers, kingpins and spies, tracked down terrorists and traitors and tore down corrupt political machines all across America. This department commanded the respect and admiration of the entire world. And with Pam and Kash and all of the people I introduced and far more, big numbers and all of you sitting back there, I recognize so many of you. Donald Trump: But with you leading the way, it will soon be the most admired and most respected of all. You’re going to be more respected, and I really believe that there’s also a lot of things to solve, a lot of problems to solve, but that’s going to put you in the upper tier and maybe the top tier. And I believe that’s going to happen. Donald Trump: So proud of the people in this room. But first we must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls. Unfortunately, in recent years, a corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up over generations. They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people. Donald Trump: You remember the 51 intelligence agents that said, as an example, that Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell came from Russia, when they knew it came right from his bedroom. They knew that; it was a big lie, and they knew it so well. They spied on my campaign, launched one hoax and disinformation operation after another, broke the law on a colossal scale. Donald Trump: Persecuted my family, staff and supporters, raided my home Mar-A-Lago and did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the president of the United States. With the help of radicals like Marc Elias, Mark Pomerantz and these are people that nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And so many others. Donald Trump: But these are people that are bad people, really bad people. They tried to turn America into a corrupt communist and third world country. But in the end the thugs failed, and the truth won, freedom won, justice won, democracy won and above all the American people won. There could be no more heinous betrayal of American values than to use the law to terrorize the innocent and reward the wicked, and that’s what they were doing at a level that’s never been seen before. Donald Trump: And it’s exactly what you saw with Joe Biden, Merrick Garland and their cronies. To do the building of the last four years they ripped – what they’ve ripped down is incalculable, but what you’re going to build up is likewise something that will be breaking all sorts of records. They set loose violent criminals while targeting patriotic parents at school board meetings. Donald Trump: They dropped charges against Antifa and Hamas supporters while labeling traditional Catholics as domestic terrorists, the Catholics. We did very well with the Catholic vote. So, I want to thank them for that. They imported – they really did – record numbers. I would say what’s with the Catholics. They’re really after the Catholics. Donald Trump: So, I don’t know, they were after a lot of people, maybe they didn’t even know why. They imported illegal alien murderers, drug dealers and child predators from all over the world to come into our country while putting elderly Christians and pro-life activists on trial for singing hymns and for saying prayers. Donald Trump: They went to jail for that. Our predecessors turned this Department of Justice into the Department of Injustice, but I stand before you today to declare that those days are over, and they are never going to come back. They’re never coming back. So now, as the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred. Donald Trump: The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible. We won every single swing state. We won the popular vote by millions and millions of people. We won districts, 2,750. Think of that, 2,750 districts compared to 505. So we won at levels that I don’t believe ever seen before. Donald Trump: That’s the one where you see the map of the United States and it’s all red. Red for republican, not for communist. Red for Republican. They would like it to turn red for communist, but it didn’t work out that way. The American people have given us a mandate and really, just a far-reaching investigation is what they are demanding into the corruption of our system. Donald Trump: And that’s exactly, I’m sure, what Pam and Kash and everyone else mentioned here and not mentioned is going to be doing. We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose and very much expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct of which was levels you’ve never seen anything like it. It’s going to be legendary. Donald Trump: It’s going to also be legendary for the people that are able to seek it out and bring justice. We will restore the scales of justice in America and we will ensure that such abuses never happen again in our country. And that’s why on day one, I signed an executive order banning all government censorship and directing the removal of every bureaucrat who conspired to attack free speech and many other things and values in America. Donald Trump: My administration stripped the security clearances of the disgraced intelligence agents who lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell. We revoked the clearances of deranged Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James and the crooked law firms that aided their partisan prosecutions. And I went through it. These are state and city courts and the corruption is unbelievable. Donald Trump: We also terminated the clearances of the Biden crime family and Joe Biden himself. He didn’t deserve it. In fact, he was essentially found guilty, but they said he was incompetent and therefore, let’s not find him guilty, I guess. Nobody knows what that ruling was, but I didn’t want any part of it. I think I would have rather been found guilty than what they found with him. Donald Trump: They said he didn’t know what the hell he was doing and therefore, let him go. I said, you know, I’d rather be convicted, Pam. I think that – that was not good. I said, please convict me, don’t say that. I pardoned hundreds of political prisoners who had been grossly mistreated. We removed the senior FBI officials who misdirected resources to send SWAT teams after grandmothers and J6 hostages and it was a great honor for me to fire, I will tell you this, a great honor to fire James Comey, a great, great honor. Donald Trump: That was nothing – that was no better day. A lot of people said, oh, that’s too bad you did that. And they said that’s going to be – and you know what, a year later, they said that actually saved the administration because the level of corrupt things that we learned after that turned out to be that they were doing, in fact, really bad things. Donald Trump: He was a terrible person, did terrible things and persecuted people and all in the guise of being an angel, but he wasn’t an angel. We created a brand-new DOJ task force and anti-Christian bias. And under Director Patel, we’re getting the FBI agents out of the headquarters in Washington, D.C. and back on the streets in pursuit of dangerous criminals where they belong and where they want to be. And you have that big FBI building, and it’s a very big building, and they were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state, but that has no bearing on what I’m about to say. Donald Trump: But we’re going to stop it, not going to let that happen. We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place, because the FBI and the DOJ have to be near each other. That’s one thing I did learn from this persecution, the FBI and the DOJ work together. Now, in my case, they worked together for bad purposes, but they do, they were always together. Donald Trump: So how can you have one that’s three hours away? But one thing I said to Kash, well, we’re going to get a great building built. It’s going to be a magnificent building. He said, sir, we don’t need that kind of room. I said, what do you mean? He said I’m just going to take an old Department of Commerce building that’s about 25 percent the size and that’s what I need. Donald Trump: We’re going to have the best staff that you’ve ever seen and that’s what I need. It’s in a nice location, but I don’t need that big building. Why don’t you just sell the site to somebody? And we’re going to be very happy and they want to have far fewer people, but we also want to have them in D.C. And if for no other reason, we like having law enforcement walking the streets of our capital. Donald Trump: Because when the bad guys are out there and they see there’s an FBI agent, that’s the ultimate in law enforcement and they’re not going to be acting so bad. We’re cleaning up our city. We’re cleaning up this great capital and we’re not going to have crime and we’re not going to stand for crime. And we’re going to take the graffiti down and we’re already taking the tents down and we’re working with the administration. Donald Trump: And if the administration can’t do the job, we’re to have to take it back and run it through the federal government. But we hope the administration is going to be able. So far, they’ve been doing very well. The mayor has been doing a good job. We said, there are tents galore right opposite the State Department, they have to come down and they took them down right away. Donald Trump: And so, so far so good, but we want to have a capital that can be the talk of the world. When Prime Minister Modi of India, when the president of France and all of these people, the head of Prime Minister of United Kingdom, they all came to see me over the last week and a half. And when they come in, I had the route run, I didn’t want to have them see tents. Donald Trump: I didn’t want to have them see graffiti. I didn’t want to have them see broken barriers and potholes in the roads. And we had it looking beautiful and we’re going to do that for the city and we’re going to have a crime free capital. When people come here, they’re not going to be mugged or shot or raped. They’re going to have a crime free capital again. Donald Trump: It’s going to be cleaner and better and safer than it ever was and it’s not going to take us too long. There’s a new phenomenon that is taking place with these violent, vicious lawyers that we have all over. They play the ref, you know what playing the ref is, like the great Bobby Knight basketball coach. Donald Trump: He’d scream and scream at the ref. He’d scream. By the way, I love Bobby Knight because he endorsed me and having Bobby Knight’s endorsement in Indiana was an extremely good thing. A friend of mine said I was running in Indiana at the time. This was early on 2016 and I was doing great, but friend came up and said, do you know Bobby Knight? Donald Trump: I said, no, I don’t, but I hear he was a tough cookie. Not only tough, he was beyond tough, but he’s the most popular guy. You can imagine. It turned out, he wanted to endorse me. He called me about two years before. He said, sir, I’d like to endorse you. I said, is this really Bobby Knight? He said, it’s me. I could tell it was Bobby Knight. Donald Trump: He had been known for throwing the chair across the court and slapping a player. Can’t do things like that, right? And the man that came in fired him. He was a new administrator for the college. That guy didn’t last very long. They were like 14 and zero and they fired Coach Knight. That was not good, but he had a little chip on his shoulder. Donald Trump: But he loved Trump and he came in and he said, I’d love to endorse you. He said, if you ever run, please call me. So he said, do you know Bobby Knight? I said, well, I don’t know him, but he called me a couple of years ago. It was an amazing phenomenon. I took his number. And on each side of my desk in New York, I had stacks of paper, like nice and neat but about two feet high each. Donald Trump: And I said, I wrote his number down and I put it here two years ago and I said, let me see if I can find it. It was almost like a miracle. I had other miracles that happened too. My ear is still throbbing. That was a miracle. That was a miracle also, wasn’t it. That was a miracle also. How are you? Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you, Leo. Thank you. Thank you, my man. That was a miracle. Anyway. OK. That’s very nice. Thank you. But so he said, Bobby Knight. So I said, I put his name down and I wrote it down, it’s in one of these stacks, let me – I lift it up, it would have to be 2,000 or 3,000 pages in each stack. I lifted it up, the first one, had no idea. Donald Trump: And there was his name on a little card, Bobby Knight, with his number. It was like incredible. I tell that story all the time. And I called him and dialed the number. He said, I’ve been waiting for you to call. And he went out and he made a speech for me in a packed arena in Indiana and it was over. It was over. Donald Trump: He was a tough guy. He actually went a little far. If you remember, he made a great speech because he was actually a motivational type guy, to put it mildly. But he left the stage and then I’m talking and he walks back onto the stage. I said, uh-oh, this is trouble. Why is he coming back? He was a big guy too. Donald Trump: Why is he coming back? He said, may I say a few more words, I said, yeah, go ahead, Bobby, say a few more words, a little different. And he said and let me tell you something about this guy, Trump. This guy is – he has to – will use the nuclear weapons that we have. He will use the – he has no fear, he’s going to use – and that’s the kind of guy, and he walked off the stage. Donald Trump: I said, I think I’m in big trouble, Pam. That was not good, but it worked out OK. In the meantime, we won the state in a landslide, and it was great. And it was just an amazing period of time. But this is the most amazing period of time. I think this is more amazing. What’s taking place is more amazing. I think it’s more consequential and, if we do the job – one of the big media outlets said what we did was the most consequential election in the last 129 years. Donald Trump: Well, if we do the job that we’re all capable of doing, I think it’s going to be – it’s going to prove to be that and then some, and that’s what we want to do. We have a real big shot at making this country so great, so great. What happened to our country was so sad. What they’ve done in four years to our country with the borders with Afghanistan, the embarrassing – most embarrassing period of time, allowing the Russian situation. Donald Trump: It was never going to happen with Ukraine. Allowing October 7th to happen, would have never happened because under me Iran was totally broke. They had no money. They weren’t given any money to Hamas or Hezbollah. It was totally broke, but allowing inflation, look at what inflation has done to people, been so devastating. Donald Trump: And now you see that, by the way, the price of eggs is down 35 percent in the last week and a half. We’re doing a good job. Brooke is doing a good job, Brooke Rollins and everybody. And inflation is down, interest rates are down. Gasoline has come down, down to a level that we haven’t seen in a long time. Donald Trump: All things that we wanted to do because then everything else is going to be coming down. We want it to come down. We want bacon to come down and groceries, a term I used to use, it’s sort of an old-fashioned term, but I used to use it on the campaign trail, those last 90 perfect, beautiful days. We just hit it. And I want to thank Suzy, you have done a great job, Suzy Wiles. Donald Trump: Great job, Suzy. A big magazine just named her the most powerful woman in the world and that’s okay with me. She is the most powerful woman if you think about it, John, right? The most powerful woman in the world, but she’s great. And we had a great 90 days. It was a perfect 90 days, and it was a great result, but we want to put that result to good use by doing a phenomenal job. Donald Trump: And I want to tell you that Todd and Emil know this very well. We had an amazing judge in Florida, and her name is Aileen Cannon, and I didn’t know her. I still don’t know her. I don’t believe I ever spoke to her, even during the trial. But I did appoint her federal judge. And these fake lawyers, these horrible human beings were hitting her so hard public relations wise. Donald Trump: They were playing the ref. I don’t think it’s legal. I don’t think it’s legal, they might as well go out and just shout it in a courthouse. They were saying she was slow; she wasn’t smart. She was totally biased. She loved Trump. I didn’t know her other than I saw her the couple of days that I was in court, and I thought her decorum was amazing. Donald Trump: Anything bad they could say though, they were saying about her. It was – whatever they could say bad about a human being, all made up because actually she was brilliant, she moved quickly. She was the absolute model of what a judge should be and she was strong and tough. And how do you get them to stop if you’re a judge? Donald Trump: How do you get them to stop with the playing the ref? Bobby Knight would play the ref. That’s why I brought up the Bobby Knight story. He would play the ref. He’d scream at the ref. He’d scream so hard, oh boy, it was terrible actually. And the people would come up, his assistant coaches would come up, the players. Donald Trump: Coach, coach, don’t do that. Don’t do it. He said he’s not going to change his tune, coach. He called it. He’s not changing. I don’t care and he’s screaming. That’s when he threw the chair, he starts going crazy. And he said, no, he’s not going to change this time, but he’s going to change for the next play. Donald Trump: And sure as hell he did. Bobby, by the way, had the last undefeated team in basketball and, relatively speaking, he had a team, he always had a team. He never had that. He had a couple of great players, obviously, some top NBA players. But very few relatively, he had a team, but he had – he won the national championship three times, but he had the last undefeated team in basketball. Donald Trump: And he would play the ref, and he would scream at him. He knew exactly what he was doing. They’re doing the same thing. They said, no, he’s not going to change now, but he’s going to change for the next one. That’s what he wanted to do. He wanted to scare the hell – they wanted to scare the hell out of the judges, and they do it. And how do you stop it if you’re a judge because you want to go home, you have a family, you have children. Donald Trump: And the New York Times will write whatever these people say, and the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and MSDNC and the fake news, CNN and ABC, CBS and NBC, and they’ll write whatever they say. And what do you do to get rid of it? You convict Trump. All you have to do is be really tough on him and ultimately convict him and they leave you alone. Donald Trump: It’s totally illegal what they do. I just hope you can all watch for it, but it’s totally illegal. And it was so unfair what they were doing to her, but they do it all the time with judges. But in her case, she was very courageous, and it only made her angry. Wouldn’t you say, it just made her angry? She didn’t like it. A lot of them say, oh, please don’t say that about me. My family, what’s my husband going to say, what’s my wife going to say or my kids, please don’t say that. Donald Trump: And it had absolutely no impact on her. And the case against me, which was a case – I will not use a bad word. I promised my wife, I would never use a bad word. So just a little bad, the case against me was bullshit and she correctly dismissed it. She correctly – look at Emil, he’s looking, he said that’s interesting. Donald Trump: But these two guys were warriors. You’ve got a warrior here; you’ve got two warriors. I can tell you that. You’ve got a whole bunch of them. But – and they wouldn’t quit. They wouldn’t take no for an answer. They just wouldn’t quit – these two people right up here and some others that are involved with it indirectly. Donald Trump: And what the lawyers do is they’re doing it to the Supreme Court justices hoping that they’ll be overcome by the horrible things they say about them. They say things about Supreme Court justices and judges that are just horrible. They’re playing the referee. Remember the way they treated Justice Thomas and Justice Alito and Justice Kavanaugh, Justice Gorsuch. Donald Trump: Chief Justice Roberts gets treated unbelievably badly and they’re hoping that they can sway them to go along because, again, what do they do? They’re humans like any – it would be wonderful if everybody was just a perfect computer machine. But they’re not – they’re humans and they don’t want to be accused of many, many things including gross incompetence. Donald Trump: They don’t like it and they don’t want it. There’s not much they can do about it. They’re in a position; they can’t really fight back really very well. And so, what they do is sometimes they get weak. I would say a majority maybe of the time, that’s why I’m so impressed with Judge Cannon in Florida, how strong she was, how she held up. It actually made her more resolute than anything I’ve seen. Donald Trump: I mean it was amazing because they were hitting her so hard. It was so sad to watch this, but it’s sad what they do to other judges. It’s very sad what they do to the Supreme Court. And all of – a lot of the judges that I had, if you look at them, they take tremendous abuse in The New York Times and The Washington Post, all of the different networks. Donald Trump: They take such abuse. And honestly, they’re – very simply, they’re afraid of bad publicity. They don’t want bad publicity and it’s truly interference in my opinion. And it should be illegal, and it probably is illegal in some form. There’s no difference than speaking to a judge or shouting to a judge or doing whatever you have to do in a courthouse. Donald Trump: They’re doing it behind the back. They’re usually doing it anonymously. They’re saying anonymously, off the record, the judge is no good, but everybody knows where it’s coming from. And it’s totally coordinated. It’s a campaign and it’s by the same scum that you have been dealing with for years like guys like Andrew Weissman, deranged Jack Smith. Donald Trump: There’s a guy named Norm Eisen, I don’t even know what he looks like. His name is Norm Eisen of CREW. He’s been after me for nine years now. CREW is a charitable organization. And the reason I’m saying this, Todd, is I’m only going to get one chance to say this, but these are bad people. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know what he looks like. Donald Trump: But everything I read is Norm Eisen of CREW, and CREW is a charitable organization and that’s a political thing. His soul life is to get Donald Trump and he’s been vicious and violent and he’s trying – and he probably had pretty good success over the years. But with me, how did he do? I think I’m president. Donald Trump: Am I here because I’m president? But we had to take all of that abuse. Even during the trials, we had to take tremendous abuse, like, these wonderful guys. They’re not legitimate people there. They’re horrible people. They’re scum and you have to know that. And you’re going to have these cases where you can’t allow yourselves to be deflected. Donald Trump: You just can’t let it happen. You have such a higher calling and I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me or political arms of the democrat party, and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal. It makes no difference how big a victory I had. Donald Trump: I can have the biggest victory in history. It makes no difference what kind of a failure the other side has. These people are going to go after me. And I said it during the other night during the big speech on Tuesday night, I said about democrats and I don’t like that. I have great respect, by the way, for what Schumer did today. Donald Trump: He went out and he said that we’re going to have to vote with the republicans because it’s the right thing to do. I couldn’t believe what I heard, but I think he’s going to get some credit for it. I think, let’s see what happens tonight with the big vote as it comes. But these networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative and it has to stop. Donald Trump: It has to be illegal. It’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal and they do it in total coordination with each other and everything we do, we’re restoring law, restoring order and restoring public safety in America. That’s what we want to do. And we’re bringing honor and integrity and accountability back to the highest levels of the FBI, DOJ and throughout our government. Donald Trump: We’re bringing our country back faster than anyone ever thought possible. We’re working so hard at doing it and we want fairness in the courts. The courts are a big factor. The elections, which were totally rigged, are a big factor. We have to have honest elections. We have to have borders and we have to have courts and law that’s fair, or we’re not going to have a country. Donald Trump: Crooked Joe Biden got us into a real mess with Russia and everything else he did, frankly, but he didn’t know about it and he, generally speaking, signed it with a pen. So how would he know? That auto pen is a big deal. I don’t know. They’re having, who’s doing this? So when my people come up, Will and all of the people, Steve, they come up, and sir, this is an executive order. Donald Trump: They explain it to me and 90 percent of the time I sign it. 99 percent of the time, I say do it. But they come up and I sign it, but you don’t use auto pen. Number one, it’s disrespectful to the office. Number two, maybe it’s not even valid because who’s getting him to sign? He had no idea what the hell he was doing. Donald Trump: If he did, all of these bad things wouldn’t be happening right now. But we’re going to get you back into a great position and we’ve already started. They say that we had the most successful first month of presidency. It’s not a long time, but it’s still a lot. It’s like if you’re a golfer sinking a three-foot putt on the first hole, gives you confidence to sink something on the second hole. Donald Trump: But if you miss that first putt, you don’t like to have the putt on the second hole and the third hole. It can be a very bad experience. It’s nice to get that first month and now we have more than a month. Now we have a month and a half and it’s going really, really well. I can tell you a little secret, although the cameras are blazing back there, so it’s not that much, but I think we’re doing well, as you have been hearing about Ukraine. Donald Trump: I think we’re doing now well with Russia. We’re speaking with President Putin. We want to get the war over. Not only have we spent maybe $350 billion to Europe’s – think of that, $350 billion to $100 billion and yet we’re across the ocean far away. So it shouldn’t have been that way, but Biden let that happen too and we’re getting a deal where we’re going to get that back. Donald Trump: But much more importantly, are the lives that we’re talking about. On average, 2,000 young people are being killed every single day. Now, they’re not from here. They’re from nowhere close to here, but they’re young people. They’re human beings and they have parents. They have sisters and brothers, the mothers and fathers, the friends and the families and the towns where they grew up and they’re losing on average 2,000, even 2,500 a week. Donald Trump: And I want to get it stopped. And we’ve had some very good calls today with Russia and with Ukraine. They’ve agreed for a ceasefire if we can get it with Russia. And it’s not easy. It’s a tough one, but I think we’re doing it. And as the secretary general said yesterday of NATO, a terrific guy, he said without Trump, we wouldn’t be talking about it. It would just go on for years, and millions more people, millions of people have been killed, but millions more people would be killed. Donald Trump: And he said it was a great honor. Without me, it would just keep going on. We’re looking for the ceasefire now with Russia and we’ve had some very good talks about it. We’ve had some very good responses. And I can tell you that there was a case where there would have been no war if I were president, and it’s just 100 percent would not have happened, would never have happened. Donald Trump: I speak to President Putin a lot about it. I said, don’t do it, don’t do it. I won’t tell you what the consequence was. I won’t tell you what he – but if he believed even 5 % of what I said then he would say I’m not going to do it and I think he did. But we had a good relationship and we had a professional relationship and he has respect for this country. Donald Trump: And I think we’ve had some very good results. So I haven’t been able to say that to anybody else. I haven’t wanted to say it until just before I came here, I got some pretty good news. But we have to see what happens. It’s still a long way to go. The fighting is unbelievable. Russia has a large group of Ukrainian soldiers as we speak, surrounded and in grave danger. Donald Trump: They’ve been able to surround them. They’re in grave danger. Biden should have never let this war happen. First of all, you don’t want to pick on somebody that’s a lot larger than you, even with the money. There’s a lot of money that we gave them and a lot of equipment. We make the best military equipment in the world, but even with all of that, it’s unbelievable. Donald Trump: Right now, you have a lot of Ukrainian soldiers that are encircled and in grave danger and I’ve asked them not to kill those soldiers, please, not to kill those soldiers. We don’t want them killed. It’s such a shame to see what’s happened. A thing like that would have never happened. Inflation would have never happened. Donald Trump: October 7th would have never happened, Israel. Iran had no money. They were totally broke. Think of it. They had no money to give to anybody. They were totally broke. And within a short period of time, as soon as Biden came in, he took out all the sanctions in China and everybody else that wasn’t buying oil from Iran was buying it at levels that they never spent before. Donald Trump: And it was a sad thing. And if you look at Afghanistan, that was probably what got Putin started because when he looked at how horribly we looked, I think the most embarrassing day, not that we got out because we were getting out. I would have been out faster than them. I was the one that got it down to the right level. Donald Trump: But we would have kept Bagram, the big Air Force base. We would have kept it. Right now, China occupies Bagram and the reason we would have kept it is because they were one hour away from where China has and builds its nuclear missiles and weapons. And they gave that up at the dark of night. They left the lights on and they left the dogs behind, by the way. Donald Trump: A lot of people say what about all the dogs? They had a lot of dogs and they left the dogs behind. And what a shame, what a shame. The way we got out I think was the most humiliating time in the history of our country, the way it happened. Not that we were getting out because we wanted to get out, but we would have gotten out with dignity and strength. Donald Trump: And what a difference a rigged and crooked election had on our country when you think about it, and the people who did this to us should go to jail. They should go to jail. So I just want to say, God bless America because we have to say, God bless. We’re lucky we’re still here, frankly, and this whole thing could lead, I think. Donald Trump: I think we have it, I think we have it, but this could lead to World War III very easily. It could very easily lead to World War three, but I think we’re in pretty good shape, a lot better than we were before we got involved. That I can tell you. That was heading into World War III territory and that would have been a war like no other because of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons that you don’t even want to know about. Donald Trump: But as many of you do know well, we’re focused on persecuting and these people were really focused on persecuting republicans. The last administration presided over the worst increase in violent crime in our country in many, many decades. We had levels of violence and crime and a lot of it had to do with the illegal immigrants that came in. Remember when I used to complain about it, because I knew how tough they were, how mean they were. Donald Trump: And they said no, no people that come into our country are all wonderful people. No, they’re not wonderful. These are stone cold killers. These are killers like – they make our killers look nice by comparison. They make our killers look nice. These are rough tough people with the tattoos all over their face. Donald Trump: Historically speaking, I don’t want to discriminate against anybody but historically speaking they’re not going to be the head of any major bank that we know of. These are rough people. These are rough, rough killer people and they allowed them in by the millions. In major cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, mothers can’t walk their children to the park without fear of being shot or killed or raped or anything. Donald Trump: Women can’t ride the subway without worrying that a hoodlum will shove them onto the train tracks. In New York, it’s happened twice in the last couple of weeks. They’re standing there, a perfect Wall Street gentleman in one case, and another person who was a worker, good worker, an electrician – gets pushed into a train going 45 miles an hour just prior to the train. Donald Trump: Not stopping, going to go through that. I know the stations very well. I used to take the subway. It used to feel safe. When I was young, I’d go to – my parents would drop me off at the subway, I’d take the subway to my school. Can you believe it? Today they wouldn’t be doing that. And we want to back – we want to get a country back maybe where you can do that again, Pam. But it’s so sad to see what’s taking place. Donald Trump: Under the Biden regime, average monthly homicides increased by 14 percent, property crime rose tremendously, violent crime went up at least 37 percent that they know of. Rape soared by 42 percent, car thefts rose by 48 percent, and robberies surged to 63 percent to 100 percent, they don’t even know what the number is. And I have no higher mission as president of the United States than to end this killing and stop this lawbreaking and to making America safe again. Donald Trump: And that’s what you’re all about in this room. We want to protect Americans, and we protect everybody that’s in our country, American or not American. We want to have a safe and proud country. We’re joined today by dozens of police officers, sheriffs and sheriff’s deputies from all across the country. My message to these law enforcement heroes is simple – with me in the White House, you once again have a president who will always have your back. Donald Trump: We’ll always have your back. Thank you, fellas. Thank you. That’s a lot of good-looking people. I will tell you, I feel safe. I’m glad you’re in the room. I feel even safer. It’s a lot of great people. On day one I signed an executive order directing attorney general to ensure that anyone who murders a police officer, immediately with as fast a trial as we can have, gets the death penalty. Donald Trump: And last month I fired all the radical left pro-crime US attorneys appointed by Joe Biden. There were so many that were bad, and I know there were some that were probably very good, but there were so many that were so bad and so evil, so corrupt. Instead of having Marxist prosecutors who want to put police officers in handcuffs and go after a police officer rather than a criminal, I appointed patriotic tough-on-crime warriors who will partner with police to put dangerous offenders behind bars, put them in jail. Donald Trump: We’re fully reviving 1033 program to provide state and local law enforcement with surplus military equipment, that we have so much of it. I did it in my last administration and I remember Obama wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do it before me – would not do it because he thought it made them look too strong, too military. Donald Trump: I said no, that’s what I want them to look like. I want them to look strong. And it was protective defensive equipment. We had billions of dollars. I gave it out and now I’m going to have a chance to give it out again. They didn’t want to do it with Biden and Biden didn’t know why. I didn’t – if they would have asked him, he wouldn’t have been able to answer the question. Donald Trump: He could never answer a question. They said my press conference yesterday was longer than all of Biden’s press conferences put together for the last four years. And I don’t know if that’s true, but it was close. And perhaps most importantly, we’re securing our border and repelling the invasion of America. Donald Trump: We have – you see the numbers have come down so – and Tom Homan and Kristi were – have been incredible, Kristi Noem, as secretary she’s done great, and Tom Homan is – I don’t know if Tom Homan is here. But wherever he may be, I think he’s chasing people out of our country. If he was here, I’d almost be disappointed. Donald Trump: What are you doing, Tom? But he’s a fantastic guy and he’s a brave guy. Over the past four years, other countries emptied out their prisons and jails, mental institutions and insane asylums and sent the killers, drug smugglers and bloodthirsty inmates from the filthiest dungeons of the world straight into the USA, an open border. Donald Trump: We had an open border policy. Anybody could come in, no matter what you were, no matter where you came from, no matter what you looked like, no matter what you were doing, no matter what you did, no matter how many people you murdered, you could come right into our country. We have murderers right now walking the streets. Donald Trump: We’re joined today by Tammy Nobles, whose 20-year-old daughter, Kayla, was attacked in her home three years ago, horrifically assaulted and strangled to death by an illegal alien MS-13 monster set loose into our country under the open border Biden regime. Kayla was one of countless American victims ripped away from their families by the open border policies of that administration. Donald Trump: And we’re also joined by Kayla’s stepfather, Jeremiah and several other courageous Angel families here today. And I’d love you to all just stand up and take a bow because you are incredible people. Please, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. But I want you to know that we are working every day to expel these savages from our country and ensure that what happened to your loved ones will never happen again. Donald Trump: So, their legacy is going to be a great one. Thank you all very much, appreciate it. On day one of my administration, I declared a national emergency on our southern border. Our first full month in office we achieved the lowest level of illegal border crossings ever recorded, OK, even lower than four years ago. Donald Trump: For years, democrats and the media kept saying that we needed new legislation, we had to have new legislation. We needed it immediately, and I never had legislation, and I had the best border in the history of our country for almost four years. And by the time I got out, we had the lowest numbers ever. My favorite chart of all time was brought down that day, and on that chart said we had the lowest numbers ever. Donald Trump: But it turned out that we really didn’t need new legislation. All you needed was a new president. And I said that – I said that the other night, that’s all you needed was a new president saying close the borders because the Border Patrol is unbelievable, ICE is unbelievable. And all of our law enforcement is just incredible. Donald Trump: All of you guys are amazing, and the people of our country respect you and they love you. And a lot of times you don’t hear that because you have to listen to the fake news back there. But they have great respect for you. So, I just want you to know that. And you know that includes our fire departments, too. Donald Trump: They don’t get spoken about enough. They go into some of the areas, I read where they’re shooting them off ladders. Can you believe it? They go up to put out a fire, Leo, and they go and they shoot them off a ladder. It’s just unbelievable. These firemen and women are incredible. So, I want to put them in the same category because they’re just incredible. Donald Trump: I also like the fact they voted for me like at 94 percent. So, I have to mention them. I have no choice, right? But the truth is they’re phenomenal people, the law enforcement, fire, everybody, they’re phenomenal. Basically, first responders, because that’s what they are. They’re first responders. And we’re ending the migrant occupation of America. Donald Trump: And what we’re doing now is we’re liberating our cities and our suburbs, and our towns and you see a big difference. I’m getting calls all the time from even leaders of other countries saying, sir, the whole world feels liberated now. It feels like there’s a light over America, but there’s a light over the whole world. Donald Trump: I hear that so much. It’s so nice to hear too. And I feel it – I mean, I feel it. I look at – I see the polls. I don’t know if the polls are right, but they’re certainly very good. I’ll take them right now. It’s amazing, amazing what’s taken place in such a short period of time, really six weeks, but it’s longer than that. Donald Trump: It’s really November 5th. I think that hopefully will go down. If you do your job great, it’ll go down as the most important day – one of them at least in the history of our country. You know, July 4th was pretty – 1776, It was pretty important, too. But let’s see if we can top it. Can we top it? I don’t know. Donald Trump: That’s a tough one, but we’re going to try. But it will be one of the most important days in the history of our country. So, I think – and I think everybody in this room wants that to happen. Last month, we officially designated MS-13 and Tren de Uruguay. That’s the Venezuelan gang, the toughest gang they say in the world and the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Donald Trump: That’s a big deal. Nobody wanted to do that in the past. And by the way, we’ve caught hundreds of them, the Venezuelan gang, which is as bad as it gets. And you’ll be reading a lot of stories tomorrow about what we’ve done with them and you’ll be very impressed. Donald Trump: And you’ll feel a lot safer too, because they are a vicious group. They went into Colorado. They took over areas of Colorado. They sort of were like me. They were in the real estate business, but they didn’t go out and get financing. They just took over a building and kept it, and they said to the tenants, get the hell out of here. Donald Trump: One man called the police and they cut off his fingers and they say, you call again, your other fingers and you call a third time and you’re dead. These are tough people and bad people and we’re getting them out of our country. And some are so bad, we don’t want to get them out. We have to put them in jail because we don’t want to even take a chance that they can come back. Donald Trump: Thanks to our efforts, Mexico recently handed over 29 of the biggest cartel leaders, including the depraved kingpin charged with the 1985 murder of DEA agent Kiki Camarena, and that was a big deal. If you know, they’ve been looking for this person for years, many years and we got them. This evil killer will be now prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and we know that – well, let’s put it this way. Donald Trump: I have to be nice. It’s a very strong case. We’re stopping the criminals pouring across our borders at record levels, and we’re also stopping the massive quantities of deadly drugs. In 2023 alone, drug overdoses killed more Americans in 12 months than they did during the entire decade between 1980 and 1990, so 10 times more, but it’s much more than that. Donald Trump: More Americans died from fentanyl last year than died in the Korean War or the Iraq War, or the Afghanistan war, all of them combined. That’s why I’ve placed large tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China and they will remain in place until these deadly poisons stop pouring into our country. And I will tell you, as soon as I put on the tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, unbelievable results have been seen in the last few weeks, unbelievable results. Donald Trump: They weren’t happy about it. You probably read, they weren’t happy, but they are working like hell to end it and they weren’t working very hard before I did that. With us today is a brave mother and advocate and funder who lost her beautiful 15-year-old son Weston to fentanyl. And Anne, if you would, I’d like to ask you to come up and say a few words, please. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, darling. You’re going to be great. Let me put that down a little bit. Anne Fundner: Thank you. Well, first I want to say thank you. I think this is the biggest honor of my entire life, being on stage with President Trump. But I want to tell you a little bit about my son Weston, who absolutely loved President Trump. He had a beautiful Trump 2020 flag hanging in his bedroom and he had it on the beach one day and we took a picture and it became our 2020 Christmas card, with the most perfect slogan for President Trump, peace on Earth. Anne Fundner: What would happen in the next four years would be devastational [ph] to our country and our safety of our children. And in 2022, Weston lost his life, a freshman in high school at the age of 15, from a single pill that took his life. The cartels were allowed to operate on American soil and took hundreds of thousands of American lives. Anne Fundner: And so we knew there was only one person that could save us from the devastation on our American soil and that was President Trump. And so in 2024, we did the best thing that we could do to keep America safe again and we elected President Donald J. Trump. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anne Fundner: Thank you, and he’s done everything that he has promised. We have a 98 percent decrease in border crossings and he has labeled the cartels terrorist organizations. And he has instilled tariffs because there is no price on human life. And so I feel like I can speak for the entire fentanyl fighting community when I say thank you to President Trump and thank you to Pam Bondi and everyone out here who is fighting this fight. Anne Fundner: God bless you. God bless you, President Trump and God bless America. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. You did a great job. He’s up there, watching you. He’s up there watching you and he’s so proud of mom. Anne Fundner: Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you, Anne, very much. And Weston is – I just said to Anne, Weston is up in heaven, watching his mom and he’s so proud of you. He’s so proud of you. Thank you. We’re also joined today by a number of other American families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl. And I’d love you to just stand up for a second and we want to acknowledge you and also your daughters, your sons. Donald Trump: They’re looking down on you and they’re loving you like crazy, so thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This department will not rest until we have ended the fentanyl epidemic in America once and for all. In less than two months since I took office, the DEA and FBI have seized nearly one million deadly doses of fentanyl and that’s just the beginning. Donald Trump: At my direction and working with Pam and everybody else, we’ve launched an all-out war on fentanyl traffickers, and it’s a war that we’re going to win. We’re going to win this war. I spoke with the president of Mexico, very nice woman, very fine woman. And I said, let me ask you, you’re sending a lot of drugs into our country. Donald Trump: We’re not liking it at all, can’t do that. But I said, is Mexico, does it have much of a drug? She said no, we’re not a consuming nation. I thought it was an interesting term. And I said why? Which I’ve heard also, by the way, they’re not a consuming nation. They distribute, but they don’t consume. But I said, why are you not a consumer? Donald Trump: Well, we’re very close with family. I said, so we’re very close with family too. I mean, our families are being devastated and we’re just as close. Why else? She said, well, we spend a lot of money on advertising saying how bad drugs are and they’re very rough ads. They show the skin falling off and the teeth falling out and going blind and losing hair and everything that these things do that you look like you just came out of a horrible concentration camp. Donald Trump: And she said it was their rough adds. And it’s not often that I feel I’ve learned something from a phone call, because I’ve had a lot of phone calls over my life, but I realized right then and there what a great idea that is. And we have hired Susie, a great person who did a lot of our campaign work and we’ve come up with an advertising campaign that’s, I think, really incredible. Donald Trump: More than anything else, it’s terrible to watch. It’s terrible to watch. It’s the only way it’s going to work. And I would be – because we got the numbers down, 18 percent, would have a blue-ribbon committee headed by the First lady of the United States who everyone loves and some of her friends and they work so hard. Donald Trump: But it’s a tough, it’s a tough deal. They’re dealing with a very smart and very vicious people. Some of those businesses, those cartels are run better than any business in America. They say they’re run incredibly, not just here, they all over the world. They run like a major business, but in many cases, better. Donald Trump: And I said, we got it 18 percent down. Well, 18 percent is incredible. It’s like a record. But when you think of it, it’s not very much. And the way you get it down, if you want to get it down to close to 100 percent is with the death penalty, but I think maybe America is not ready for that. China has the death penalty. Donald Trump: Singapore has the death penalty. Various places have the death penalty. Wherever you have the death penalty, you don’t have drugs, but I just don’t know if this country is ready for it. So I tell people and it’s always an option, but I don’t know. I just don’t know if you’re ready for it and that’s OK. It’s nothing you can do. But what we’re going to do is we’re doing this campaign and I think we can get it down 50, 5-0 percent with this campaign, because when people see all the horrible things that these drugs do to you and we’re especially focused on fentanyl. Donald Trump: When they see all of the horrible things that happen when you take drugs, how you look, you lose your look. Everyone’s vain. They don’t want to lose their look, the look is so important, and I think when they see these things, they may say, you know what, I’m going to take a pass. But there is big danger. Pam and I were talking about it before. A lot of people are taking fentanyl and not even knowing. They think they’re doing something else or maybe taking another drug, but at a much lower level, and they die. Donald Trump: You can put on the pin – think of this, the head of a pin, fentanyl, and it’s too much and it will kill the strongest person in the room. And it’s amazing, but we’re going to do this campaign. It’s going to be launched fairly soon, Suzy, and I think it’s going to have a big impact. I think if we got it down by another 30, 35 points, and I really believe we can. Donald Trump: I think that’s an incredible idea. So, I thank the president of Mexico actually. It was a call on tariffs, and we talked about drugs. And she gave me an idea that I think will be very successful. And based on what I saw, it’s going to be amazing. Under our leadership, this department is once again laser focused on protecting the American people. Donald Trump: We’re defending our borders, our streets, our children and our good – really God given – this is God given rights and liberties. Once and for all we’re going to defend our country and we’re going to defend our rights. Etched onto the walls of this building are the words English Philosopher John Locke said, where law ends tyranny begins. Donald Trump: And I see that, and I saw it over the last four years when somebody was allowed to attack viciously, with this department and the FBI, his political opponent. How did that work out? Didn’t work out too well, but it wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t pleasant. I was attacked by a political opponent and probably it helped that I was attacked more than anybody in the history of our country. Donald Trump: Alphonse Capone, the great Alphonse Capone, legendary Scarface, was attacked only a tiny fraction of what Trump was attacked, and maybe it worked out well. I don’t know. If I had to give it up, I probably wouldn’t, but only because I’ve gone through it. But I wonder what the difference would be. Maybe they helped get me elected by those margins, the big margins, the big mandate that we received. Donald Trump: But you can’t go after your political opponent. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it actually, and hopefully they won’t see anything like it. But now with the return of law and order, the entire world is witnessing the triumph of American justice and American freedom. That’s why we’re here today gathered with people that have love for our country. Donald Trump: In the coming years, we will revive the storied legacy of this department and it’s happening right now, I can feel it, and rekindle the spirit of the great lawmen and legal lions of the past, Americans like Wyatt Earp, Eliot Ness, Frank Hamer, Rudy Giuliani – Rudy Giuliani had to suffer greatly, greatly; the greatest mayor in the history of our country had to suffer greatly – Ed Meese, Antonin Scalia, Robert Jackson and Robert F. Kennedy. Donald Trump: We will rebuild pride in our institutions, we will restore the prestige of this great department, and we will bring back faith in our justice system for the citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. And I want to just tell you that this has been a great honor. I was asked to do it, and I said, is it appropriate that I do it? And then I realized it’s not only appropriate, I think it’s really important and I may never do it again. Donald Trump: I may never have another chance to do it again because this is something that I’m leaving to the greatest people I know, the best people, the smartest people, the toughest people I know and they’re going to do an incredible job. And it’s an honor for me to have won this election so that I could appoint these people to do their job and they’re going to do it like you have never seen. Donald Trump: So, I just want to wish all of you good luck. It’s going to be an interesting journey. It’s not going to be easy, but you’re going to win. You’re going to win, win, win and fight, fight, fight, and it’s going to end up being a tremendous result for this country. Donald Trump: So, thank you all very much. God bless America. God bless you all. Thank you.
Date: 2025-03-16
Note: [Sharyl Attkisson interviewed Donald Trump at The White House on March 13, 2025. The interview aired on Sinclair stations on March 16, 2025. The following transcript was provided by the show “Full Measure” and confirmed for accuracy. Video and transcript courtesy and copyright Full Measure.] Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Sharyl Attkisson: Thank you for joining us. Donald Trump: Thank you. Sharyl Attkisson: Is there anything new on the Russia development? Because I understand probably by the minute there are things happening. Donald Trump: I think it’s going well. I think it’s a tough situation that we’re in. You know, I inherited a mess from him in so many ways. Whether it’s the wall or the economy or anything you want to talk about. It’s tough. This was a very tough one. Ukraine, Russia, should have never happened. It would’ve never happened, but it did. Donald Trump: And we have to see what we can do to save a lot of lives and to stop paying billions and billions of dollars. Also, it’s a massive amounts of money, $350 billion we’ve spent on that. And, we’re gonna try and do something about that. But more importantly, right now, you have a lot of people dying. You are losing probably 2000 people a week in shooting soldiers, Russian and Ukrainian, and whatever we can do to stop it. We’re trying to do that. Sharyl Attkisson: Are you speaking to Putin in the last days or hours? Personally? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t wanna say it, but we are dealing with him and I think, I think it’s going reasonably well. It’s a very complex situation, you know, it’s a bloody terrible war. And I do think it’s going well. As you know, we have a ceasefire agreement with the Ukrainian group, and we are trying to get that with Russia too. Donald Trump: And I think thus far it’s gone. Okay. We will know a little bit more on Monday, and that’ll be, hopefully good. Sharyl Attkisson: I’m not understating the complexity of all this, but as a candidate, you said you would have this war settled in 24 hours? Donald Trump: Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that, what I really mean is I’d like to get it settled and I think I’ll be successful. Sharyl Attkisson: What’s the plan if Putin doesn’t agree to a cease fire? Donald Trump: Bad news for this world because so many people are dying. But I think, I think he’s going to agree. I really do. I think I know him pretty well and I think he’s gonna agree. Sharyl Attkisson: It’s been a tumultuous week with confusion over tariffs, with the financial markets. A lot of regular people don’t understand tariffs and how they work. Donald Trump: Well, they’re a beautiful thing, for us. Sharyl Attkisson: Can you explain for people who aren’t really plugged into this, maybe with a specific product example, how we are supposedly getting ripped off by tariffs and how it can be fixed and when we would, when we would see the benefits of it? Donald Trump: Well, we as a country have been ripped off for years and years, decades and decades. And you’ve covered it on your show. I’ve seen it. Canada’s a disaster for us. We lose close to $200 billion with Canada. Nobody did anything. Nobody says that with Canada, that they charge, our farmers think of this. They have four dairy products, some dairy products, 270% tariff. Donald Trump: Nobody knows that. Nobody talks.. Sharyl Attkisson: Can you break that down to like common terms. So our farmers may have a product such as what, and we sell it to Canada? Donald Trump: So we wanna sell milk into Canada, and they throw a 270% price increase on the milk. Sharyl Attkisson: Which means we don’t have much of a market, in Canada? Donald Trump: Which means we don’t sell milk in Canada, it’s almost, it’s called a monetary tariff. But they have a lot of non-monetary tariffs too. That’s things unrelated to, you know, they’ll have a standard that they’ll say you didn’t meet or something that’s called a non-monetary Sharyl Attkisson: So you put a tariff on what, for example, to try to counter the milk tariff? Donald Trump: Well, I can put a tariff on anything, but in the case of Canada, I put it on steel and aluminum. Sharyl Attkisson: Because they wanna sell their stuff to us? Donald Trump: We have a lot of tariffs, that we’re going to be putting on. It really hits on April 2nd. And actually we’ve been very consistent. I think a lot of people are loving what I’m doing. The real business people are loving it. We’re gonna make America rich again, but we’re gonna have tariffs on automobiles. We’re gonna have tariffs on steel, we’re gonna have tariffs on aluminum and copper and many, many different things. Donald Trump: And they’re gonna be very consistent and I’ve been very consistent. I did give General Motors and our Big 3 actually, a month of relief because they would’ve had a very unfair disadvantage over other car makers, which I didn’t want. So I did that, and I think it was something I did from the fact that, you know, I want to take care of our car companies. Donald Trump: But you have, and you’ve been reading about it and seeing it. We have companies moving into the United States at levels that has never been seen before. We have many, many car factories going up. Sharyl Attkisson: If I understand it correctly, the benefits that would come from some of that may largely be down the road, which leads Donald Trump: Well, no, I think, I think immediate. Look, when you’re building those plants, a lot of money comes in from those plants. You know, you’re using companies, subcontractors, contractors, concrete companies and steel companies. And you’re gonna see it initially, but you’re gonna see it more down the road when they open up. And I would rather have that, by the way that I could get, you get money or you get jobs. Donald Trump: And I’d rather see the jobs the biggest hit is when they move in. So you have the biggest chip maker in the world coming in with $200 billion. You know that you saw that number one in the world by far. Mr. Wei, most respected, one of the most respected people in business. Forget about chips from Taiwan. He’s coming in, he’s spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and he’ll be spending it largely in Arizona. Donald Trump: But these companies are coming in at levels that people haven’t seen. And they’re coming in because of the tariffs, and they’re coming in because of me too. But they’re coming in because of the tariffs, the incentive. Because if he doesn’t, they’re gonna have to pay very substantial tariffs for the privilege of selling their product in the United States. Sharyl Attkisson: Well, I simply mean it may take some time, obviously, for the plants to be built Donald Trump: It will. Sharyl Attkisson: And the people to be hired. Donald Trump: It will. But remember, the building of the plant is a lot of money also. Sharyl Attkisson: Point taken, as a society. I’m positing we’ve largely been convinced by our political leaders in the past that it’s okay to kick the can down the road and not fix a lot of important things. It’s very easy to paddle the kayak toward the waterfall with people telling you, you’re never gonna hit the waterfall. Donald Trump: Sure. Sharyl Attkisson: It’s hard to change directions. And I’m wondering, do you think American society today has the guts and the grit to go through any pain that there could be to try to fix big things? Donald Trump: So I think our economy’s gonna roar. I think our stock market’s gonna do great. Sharyl Attkisson: How long would you suggest people may have to wait before they say on a daily basis? “Wow.” Donald Trump: Well, look, I think they’re seeing a lot of things happening. I think they’re seeing the numbers. Look, Apple got up and said, ‘we’re investing 500 billion’, not 500 million. That’s a lot of money too, but $500 billion in the United States. They never did that. They built their plants in China. Now they’re building their plants in the United States. Donald Trump: And that’s because of me, policy also, but also because of me. But you see all these companies, we have news conferences sometimes, and sometimes I just say, announce it. I don’t have enough time for the news conferences. But the kind of money being invested in the country, we’ve never seen anything like it. Sharyl Attkisson: I would say the border has to be very early in this administration. The single most tangible, quick impact people saw. Donald Trump: Yeah. Sharyl Attkisson: I think 96% or above decrease in illegal border crossings and the mass deportations. I don’t know how many of those, are you satisfied with how that’s going so far? Donald Trump: Yeah, I think they’re doing an incredible job. And it’s a tough job too. We have 99% improvement from Biden. And that was his better. You know, he started around the election working a little bit harder, and they got a little bit better, was horrible still. So we’re comparing it to his best time, comparing it to the worst time. Donald Trump: It’s like, it’s not even, you can’t calculate it. How much better? So we have now the best border we’ve ever had, and we did that in a period of five weeks. Pretty amazing actually. Sharyl Attkisson: Does that imply that we don’t need to add a bunch of money and forces? In fact, maybe you could draw down or reappoint the force and manpower that’s down there and we don’t need new laws and new money? Donald Trump: Well, you don’t need very many new laws, because I did it without new laws. I did it twice without new laws. I had the best border ever. And now I think we’re gonna beat those numbers. I actually think these numbers might be slightly better and we’re gonna get ‘em better yet. And I said, during the speech on Tuesday night, I said that ’you didn’t need new anything. Donald Trump: You just needed a new president for that.’ I said, ‘close the border.’ And they closed the border. He could have done the same thing. I think he wanted open borders. I don’t know if he did, but somebody in there that ran the operation, nobody really knows who was running it. Note: [Commercial break] Sharyl Attkisson: There’s a lot of intrigue surrounding the release of the Epstein files. Martin Luther King files, John F. Kennedy files, some current and former FBI agents are saying, some of them telling me that they feel the FBI establishment came out ahead in the standoff, sort of with the New York FBI field office over releasing the records. Sharyl Attkisson: And your attorney general Pam Bondi demanding them, but not getting all that she wanted. Is that process still on track? I think that’s one of the most often questions I’ve been asked the last couple of days to release these records on Epstein, MLK and JFK. Donald Trump: Well, Pam Bondi’s done a phenomenal job in every respect. And there could have been some holdback. I haven’t heard too much about it, but they could. But the bottom line is the records are getting out. The Kennedy records are getting out. Those are the ones they really wanted to see the most were the Kennedy’s. And during my administration, as you know, I released a lot of ‘em. But then a lot of people started coming in. People that I respected, people that worked for the administration asked me not to release the rest. Sharyl Attkisson: Did they say why? Donald Trump: And I respected that. They gave me certain reasons, but I respected that. And I did say, I must tell you, I said that I probably wish I did release the whole thing ’cause I have no idea what’s in there. But since then they found, and we found, 2000 more documents on Kennedy. And the one they want most is Kennedy. Donald Trump: And it’s gonna be released. It’s, it’s moving along and it’s moving along pretty rapidly. It doesn’t, doesn’t go that rapidly. Sharyl Attkisson: In weeks maybe? Donald Trump: Yeah, I would say weeks. Yeah I say weeks. Sharyl Attkisson: Well, let me switch gears and go to the media next. It’s understandable that you would hold the media accountable for its mistakes. And I would argue that nobody has suffered that more than you have in the course of you Donald Trump: Well, you suffered it a little bit in all fairness Sharyl Attkisson: Yeah. But, not as much as you Donald Trump: your wonderful career, but you suffered it. Sharyl Attkisson: But as a supporter of a robust free press, do you worry sometimes that the settlements you’re getting against big press organizations and so on might have a reverse effect and chill the press and make people think that you’re doing something to crack down on a free press? Donald Trump: Well, they really lied about me. I mean, in so many ways, you know that and you understand that. And you’ve had it yourself to a large extent. I mean, you know, larger than most. But they were very dishonest. That’s why I came up with a name, fake news, fake news. And you’re right, I’ve had some good luck suing these people. Donald Trump: And I have some others in there that are, and I’m doing that. I’m doing that for the people of this country. We need a free press. A fair press. I said, we need borders. We need a fair press. We need to stop crime and elections have to be perfect. And they’re not perfect. They’re a disaster. Sharyl Attkisson: I tracked medium mistakes when you first came into office the first time, and there were too many really to count. But I tracked him as best as I could. I’m looking at ’em this time. And I’m not seeing as many when we’re talking about false reporting and fake information. Not that some of that isn’t out there, but I don’t see it to the same extent I did in the 2016 time period. Sharyl Attkisson: Do you think the media is treating you better now? Donald Trump: No, I think that, I’ve become more experienced in handling the media. I think the media respects me more. You know, I’ve done this twice. You know, when I first came in, don’t forget, I had never done it. I won this incredible election and I relied on people for recommendations. And now I know everybody in Washington that you’d want to know. Donald Trump: And we have a great staff. And I had a great staff before too. Look, I rebuilt the military and all of the things we did, the great things that we did, the taxes were the biggest tax cut in history. All the things we did. And I had a lot of great people, but I had some that I wouldn’t have put in, in retrospect, I think now we have unbelievable people. Donald Trump: But no, the media has, I find it to be that it hasn’t changed. What has changed is I think Facebook and Google and a lot of them have become, I think a guy like, Bezos is, I’ve gotten to know him and I think he’s trying to do a real job. Jeff Bezos is trying to do a real job with the Washington Post. And that wasn’t happening before. Donald Trump: My first time. I had Google against me. I had Facebook against me, I had Instagram, I had everybody against me. The whole world was against me. But I mean, 97% of it was just like horrible. It was, and it was really crooked. It was really dishonest. And I think I fought them well. And now I’m actually winning awards for the fact that, you know, a lot of that stuff is coming due now. Donald Trump: It takes a long time through the court system. They have CBS as an example. They totally changed the answers of Kamala Harris. They, they took other answers and put ’em into a slot. They’d ask her a question. She gave a horrible answer. They took it just before the election. One day before the election. They took the answer and they put an entirely different answer into the slot. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Sharyl Attkisson: One quick follow up. There are some people are saying to the extent CBS 60 Minutes was considering some kind of settlement with you, that was almost like a blackmail thing, or that they were doing that because they were afraid now that you’re president that there are certain things you could do that would hurt the corporation. Sharyl Attkisson: What are your thoughts about that? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. I mean, look, they were wrong. Hey, they took an answer from another part of an interview that was much later. Sharyl Attkisson: They said it was from the same question, but Donald Trump: Ah, they didn’t say that. They even, I’ll tell you what, they advertised. The way they got caught was they advertised a little piece of that answer. And then when it was shown on television, that piece wasn’t there anymore. So we said, ’well, wait a minute, what happened to the,’ the answer was so bad, so incompetent that she would’ve lost the election just based on that. Donald Trump: It was such a horrible answer. And they took another answer from another part. And, you know, down deep in the interview and they put it into that. They slotted it in. I never even heard of that before. Nobody did. And they admit that they’re guilty. So we’ll see what happens. I mean, I think, they have problems. Sharyl Attkisson: A lot of what you want to do, of course, the big things, it’s already meeting up with legal challenges and protests and opposition and a good deal of it would require Congress’s help to codify it and kind of get around that. Donald Trump: Yeah, what we’re trying to do that, we’re trying to do it, we’re doing executive orders at the fastest rate that anyone’s ever seen. We had our cabinet, as you know, approved at the fastest level. John Thune has done a great job. Mike Johnson has done a great job. The leaders and the Speaker, they’ve been fantastic. Donald Trump: We have done, you know, really we’re going at at breakneck speed. And I think everyone’s saying ‘they’ve never seen anything like it.’ Now you’re comparing it to people that honestly should have never been there, should have never ever been there. What they’ve done to our country is not even describable. Donald Trump: But, we’re doing a good job. Note: [Commercial break] Sharyl Attkisson: But the hard reality, if you wanna talk about the establishment or the swamp members of Congress, and both parties are funded by some of the very interests that you’re trying to dial back on, it kind of makes the equation a little bit harder. Donald Trump: Well, it doesn’t matter because I’m doing what has to be done and I’m getting the support and I’m doing executive orders. But those, when you say codified, we’re trying to get them codified so that they’ll be there forever. So that at the end of a term, if for some reason somebody else gets in that has a opposing view, this is the right view. Donald Trump: We have to have borders, we have to have honest elections, fair and honest elections. And we’re doing things that even on that front, we’re, you know, moving forward and some very serious things. One of the things that’s very important that we’re doing, 50% of the Department of Education. Now that’s a great thing, and it’s gonna be higher than that. Donald Trump: These are people that weren’t showing up to work, they weren’t doing their jobs, or they weren’t good at their jobs. But more importantly, we want the states to handle education. If you go to Iowa, if you go to Florida, if you go to, certain states, if you go to, uh, Indiana, I could name, I would say 40 out of the 50 states will do a fantastic job. Donald Trump: Five will be okay, and five will not be so good. But we’ll help them and we’ll make them good. One way or the other, we’ll make them good. We don’t wanna run education through DC anymore. I want education to be going. And I think Linda McMahon’s gonna do a great job. She’s gonna do, I think she’s gonna do a fantastic job. Donald Trump: But her job is an interesting job because she’s trying to put herself out of a job. She wants to, and I want to get education back so that the states will run education. They can run it at a much more precise level. It won’t be such a big monstrous situation. We run it locally. The parents will be running it. The school boards are gonna be given back their power. Sharyl Attkisson: Will the federal department shut down entirely? Donald Trump: I hope so. I mean, I expect it will, you’ll have a few people left just to make sure they’re teaching English. You know, you say reading, writing, and arithmetic, right? In the old days, reading, writing, arithmetic, they wanna teach English. And other language is great, but English is our language and they wanna make sure ‘cause you never know somebody goes haywire. Donald Trump: But basically it’s gonna be shut down entirely. That’s what we want. And we want education to go back to the states. They’re gonna run it great. The parents are gonna be running it. The school boards are gonna be given power to run it. And these are school boards where the parents are on those school boards. Sharyl Attkisson: Shortly before the election reading the room, I actually published that I thought it was likely you would win the electoral vote, the swing state vote and the popular vote. Do you have a moment that night where you said to somebody and could you tell us about it? If so, ’Wow. Like this is gonna be a clean sweep.’ Donald Trump: Yeah, I was with Dana White, the great Dana White. He’s a fantastic guy, UFC. And we’re friends and we were watching it and we weren’t exactly sure ’cause the votes looked like they were not what they should have been. And I believe there was cheating in that election too. But then all of a sudden it just broke. Donald Trump: It was too big to rig. They couldn’t stop it. They tried, but they couldn’t stop it. Too big to rig. And it started, I looked at the extent of, you know, a lot of people thought I was gonna win, but they didn’t know I was gonna win by that much. We won all seven swing states by a lot. We won by millions of votes, a popular vote, which is always harder for a Republican. Donald Trump: And, and some of the numbers like we did very well with women, we did phenomenal with Hispanics. Black male population was incredible. The whole thing was, I mean, we were just getting, we were getting numbers that were so, so good. And it was very nice, you know, to see it was very nice. I worked very hard. Donald Trump: I took a big risk by running a big, big risk, bigger than anyone would understand. I had false prosecutions, I had very crooked courts. I had very crooked judges and, people got it. They really understood it. Note: [Commercial break] Sharyl Attkisson: Last thing, I’m gonna read you a couple of your questions and you can answer any you want or skip. Donald Trump: Okay. Sharyl Attkisson: One line maybe. What’s the timeline for creating a budget that’s lower than the last and for balancing the budget? Donald Trump: I hope we could do that very soon. Maybe even now. I’d love to be able to do it. We had big budget meetings with the Senate and I think that, there’s a chance we could do it right now. We’re gonna give it a shot. Sharyl Attkisson: Can we reform taxes to eliminate the need to file? Donald Trump: Well, it’s possible, you know, if the, tariffs work out really well, you wouldn’t need income tax. You know that if tariffs work out well, our country at its richest was during, from 1870 to 1913. That was a richest and that was, we were an all tariff nation. Sharyl Attkisson: Do you put ketchup on your steak? Donald Trump: Yes, I do. Sharyl Attkisson: Is your driver’s license expired? Donald Trump: I’ll have to check. Sharyl Attkisson: Okay. Donald Trump: I’m not allowed to drive. If you can believe it’s, a great, I love driving. I miss it. Sharyl Attkisson: Because you’re president? For security reason? Donald Trump: No, I miss it. I miss not driving. Sharyl Attkisson: Sir, thank you for the interview. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Sharyl Attkisson: I appreciate it. Donald Trump: Thank you very much Sharyl.
Date: 2025-03-18
Laura Ingraham: So, you brought how many paintings into the Oval Office this time? Very different from the first one. Note: [Laura Ingraham interviewed Donald Trump at The White House on March 18, 2025. The interview aired on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that evening. The transcript was provided by Fox News and cross-checked and confirmed for accuracy. Transcript and video courtesy and copyright Fox News.] Donald Trump: Well, I’m going to show you a lot. It’s much different, never been like that. You had some of those paintings in vaults and safes for 100 years. Laura Ingraham: Mr. President, thank you so much for joining us. Laura Ingraham: Wow. Donald Trump: Thank you. Donald Trump: They haven’t been exposed. Laura Ingraham: We got a readout of your call with Vladimir Putin, and it was a fairly optimistic take. Vladimir Putin agreed to a cease-fire immediately on energy and infrastructure – Laura Ingraham: How did you pick – Donald Trump: Right. Donald Trump: I went by the presidents. I picked presidents, all – almost all presidents, some Supreme Court justices – after you. Laura Ingraham: – but not to a 30-day cease-fire. Tell us what happened. Laura Ingraham: Are you – are you paving over the grass here? Donald Trump: Well, you have a situation where you have a lot of guns pointing at each other, foolishly, because it would have never happened if I were president. That was not a war that was supposed to happen. And it did happen. So, that’s where we are. And, right now, you have a lot of guns pointing at each other. And the cease-fire, without going a little bit further, would have been tough. Donald Trump: What was happening is it’s supposed to have events. Every event you have, it’s soaking wet. Donald Trump: Russia has the advantage, as you know. They have encircled about 2,500 soldiers. They are nicely encircled, and that’s not good. And we want to get it over with. Look, we’re doing this. There are no Americans involved. There could be if you have end up in World War III over this, which is so ridiculous, but strange things happen. Laura Ingraham: Yeah. Donald Trump: And I think we had a great call. It lasted almost two hours. Talked about a lot of things, and toward getting it to peace. And we talked about other things also. Donald Trump: It’s soaking wet. And people can’t – and the women with the high heels, it’s just too much. Laura Ingraham: Was there non-negotiables mentioned by Putin? It was reported that – I think the Kremlin media actually stated that he demanded an immediate cessation of aid to Ukraine in order to get to this multistep deal. Laura Ingraham: That’s where you did the Kavanaugh – Donald Trump: No, he didn’t – we didn’t talk about aid, actually. We didn’t talk about aid at all. We talked about a lot of things, but aid was never discussed. Donald Trump: That’s where we did – Laura Ingraham: In the readout, it also stated that both sides want to get to an improved bilateral relationship, the United States and Russia. Laura Ingraham: Kavanaugh thing. Donald Trump: That’s true. Donald Trump: That’s right. Laura Ingraham: How can we trust that Vladimir Putin actually wants that and that he’s not also being influenced at the same time by his close friend President Xi of China? Laura Ingraham: Amy Coney Barrett. Donald Trump: Well, look, we have our own discussions with President Xi of China, and he wants to get along also. And he’s looking to get along and we’re looking to get along with him. And we will. We have a problem with trade, where we have a very big imbalance with China. With Russia, we don’t have that much trade. And they’d like to and we’d like to also. Donald Trump: And – and the grass just – it doesn’t work and we have a gorgeous stone and everything else. Donald Trump: They have some very valuable things for us, including very big forms of rare earth. They have a lot of earth. They have a big chunk of real estate, the biggest – actually the biggest in the world for a country by far. And on that, they have things that we could use, frankly, and they – that other people could use. Laura Ingraham: OK. Donald Trump: I think that President Xi would like to get along and I think Russia wants to get along with the United States. I also think we’re a much different country than we were just a few months ago. We’re a country that’s now respected. We were not respected. We were being laughed at. We had incompetent leadership. Donald Trump: But, you know, we use it for press conferences, and it doesn’t work because the people fall into the – you know, into the wet – Donald Trump: This was a war, as an example, that would have never happened if I were president. Laura Ingraham: The roses stay, the grass goes? Laura Ingraham: Is part of your desire to forge this new relationship with Russia also impacted by Russia’s closer relationship since you left office in 2021 with China? Because I think you talked about before the desire to box out China from that part of the world and have a closer relationship with Russia. Donald Trump: The roses stay. No, it’s a rose garden. No, all of this is just the center section. It’s going to – I think it’s going to be beautiful. I think it’s going to be more beautiful. Look at that view over there. See that? Donald Trump: Yes. So, as a student of history, which I am, and I have watched it all, the first thing you learn is, you don’t want Russia and China to get together. With that being said, no, it’s not a big part of it, but maybe that will happen or maybe it won’t. Obama really forced them together through energy and bad energy policies and what he did, so many different things. Laura Ingraham: Pretty nice. Donald Trump: He forced a marriage which would never have taken place. It was not a natural, and for one reason. Russia has tremendous land, a lot of land, and China doesn’t have enough land. Russia has a much smaller population than China. And it’s sort of a natural – it was always a natural enemy situation. They’re probably friendly now. Donald Trump: Look at that. How is that, pretty good? Donald Trump: But we’re going to be friendly with both. I think we’re going to be friendly with both. China needs us in terms of trade very badly and – but we have to straighten out the deficit. We have now more than a trillion-dollar deficit with China. It’s not even believable. And we’re going to be doing something about that. Laura Ingraham: Pretty beautiful. Donald Trump: And with Russia, they would like to have some of our economic power. Donald Trump: It’s a great place. Laura Ingraham: The criticism that you have heard since really 2015 is that you have more in common with Vladimir Putin than you do with globalist leaders, maybe some NATO leaders, and in this case with Zelenskyy. You’re both nationalists. Zelenskyy’s more of a globalist. How do you respond to that criticism? Laura Ingraham: So you thought there’s no doubt you’re – you’re coming back into office when you walked out of here? Donald Trump: Well, I am a nationalist, but I’m a nationalist for the United States, not for anybody else. And it’s interesting, because there’s nobody been tougher on Russia than me. I’m the one that pointed out Nord Stream 2, and I stopped it. Nord Stream is the biggest pipeline, I guess, in the world, taking care of all of Europe. Donald Trump: Well, I felt that, but I didn’t know that. Donald Trump: And it was being built from before I got there. And they – somehow, they were on the way. It was going to be – and I stopped it. It was just stone-cold dead. I stopped it in its tracks. That’s not somebody that’s being particularly – that was the biggest project they ever had. I had it stopped. When Biden got in, he immediately approved it, like immediately. Laura Ingraham: Is that a – that’s – Donald Trump: One of the first things he did in office was, he approved Nord Stream 2. Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2 until I was president. I said, what are you doing? You mean you’re building a pipeline to Germany and various places in Europe. You’re paying them billions of dollars a month, and then we’re paying a lot of money to fight them. Donald Trump: Let me say it, I didn’t know if I was going to run because I knew how much I won that election by. But if I – if I thought I didn’t win the election, I absolutely wouldn’t have run. Donald Trump: This is not going to work out well. And it stopped. And then Biden approved it, which was a really stupid thing to do, but he did it. And Putin actually said to me: “If you’re my friend, I’d hate to see you as my enemy.” He said that very strongly. But I had – with all of that, I had a very good relationship with Putin. Laura Ingraham: Wow. Donald Trump: I had a very good relationship with President Xi, a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, lots of good relationships. And that’s a positive thing. That’s not a negative thing. But, at the same time, I’m about our country. So that’s why we’re talking about tariffs. We will be taking in trillions of dollars to our country. Donald Trump: But because of the fact I did so well, it was such a horrible election. Laura Ingraham: I want to get to the tariffs in a minute, because we’re going to first hit the other big news of the day – Laura Ingraham: But if you didn’t run, they would never come after you legally. They never would have done all that to you. If you didn’t run, they would have let you alone. Donald Trump: Sure. Donald Trump: I was told, so I took a big chance. Laura Ingraham: – which was the chief justice of the Supreme Court issued what – a rare statement about your suggestion on TRUTH that you posted earlier today that Judge James Boasberg should be impeached after he ordered those deportation flights to El Salvador halted, essentially turned around. The chief justice said, more than two centuries, we understood that, essentially, impeachment was for very rare circumstances and not an appropriate response to rulings you disagree with. Laura Ingraham: Yeah, you sure did. Laura Ingraham: What’s your reaction to the courts stepping in to make a statement here? They didn’t make a statement when Joe Biden decided to forgive all those student loans. Donald Trump: No, I took a big risk actually. Note: [Crosstalk] Laura Ingraham: And the mug shot – Donald Trump: Well, he didn’t mention my name in the statement. I just saw it quickly. He didn’t mention my name. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever told me that, what you just said. Nobody’s ever said it. That’s exactly correct. If I didn’t run, none of this – Laura Ingraham: Yes. Laura Ingraham: Oh, no, no. They wouldn’t have had any investigation. None of it would have happened. Donald Trump: But many people have called for his impeachment, the impeachment of this judge. I don’t know who the judge is, but he’s radical left. He was Obama-appointed. And he actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders, that we shouldn’t be allowed to take them out of our country. Donald Trump: They hated me, but you have to get on with your life. Donald Trump: Well, that’s a presidential job. That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination. And I thought it was terrible. In fact, he said when they were well on their way, he – there was an order issued, as I understand it, to bring them back or to not let them go or something. And this is not something that the country would stand for. Laura Ingraham: They’d be on to the next target. Donald Trump: These people, they were let in here by an incompetent president who had open borders, and anybody throughout the world could come in. And we were given murderers. We were given people from mental institutions and prisons and drug wars. Donald Trump: Right. Laura Ingraham: A judge is essentially saying – excuse me, Mr. President – that this – there still is a process in place. That’s – you can read between the lines. There hasn’t been a full ruling yet. And I know your Justice Department is appealing this on a couple of different grounds. But this is leading people to wonder whether there are court orders that you will defy because you believe that the judge has no jurisdiction or they’re political questions and not justiciable at all. Laura Ingraham: They would have been on to the next target. Laura Ingraham: And what would you say to that? Are there circumstances where you would defy a court order? Donald Trump: It’s so interesting. You’re right about that. Donald Trump: Well, I think that, number one, nobody’s been through more courts than I have. I think nobody knows the courts any better than I have. I would say the chief judge does. But nobody knows them better than I have. And what they have done to me, I have had the worst judges. I have had crooked judges. I have judges that valued Mar-a-Lago at $18 million because that benefited his case because he wanted to see me convicted of something. Laura Ingraham: Yeah. But that’s a pretty big – that’s a – that’s a pretty big gamble. Donald Trump: I have judges that were – had relatives making millions and millions of dollars on the election ruling on the election. Donald Trump: That was a big risk. So, this is the Oval Office, and we’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of effort. We’ve taken a lot of great paintings out of the vault. And I don’t know, maybe you could circle that somehow. So, here’s a question I ask. So, Reagan has a place of prominence and George Washington has a place of prominence – prominence. Laura Ingraham: But, going forward, would you? Would you defy a court order? Donald Trump: And I’ve asked this question maybe 200 times, people come in. I said, “So, who would you put in the place of prominence, George Washington or Ronald Reagan? Who would you put?” Donald Trump: I had judges that were so corrupt. Laura Ingraham: Washington. Laura Ingraham: Because that – we all know that. And that was outrageous. Donald Trump: So, far it’s 219 to zero, and they like Reagan. Donald Trump: No, I never – I never did defy a court order. Laura Ingraham: Oh, I love Reagan. Laura Ingraham: And you wouldn’t in the future? Donald Trump: But here’s what they like more than anything. So, this is the Declaration of Independence. Donald Trump: No, you can’t do that. However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. And these are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think they – I think, at a certain point, you have to start looking at, what do you do when you have a rogue judge? The judge that we’re talking about, he’s – you look at his other rulings, I mean, rulings unrelated. Laura Ingraham: Wow. Donald Trump: But having to do with me, he’s a lunatic. Donald Trump: And they – they ask that this be done. It’s never been up. It’s been in the vaults for many, many decades. And they said we have to do something like drapes or something because the light eventually affects it. And it’s very cool. Laura Ingraham: He wants details of when flights departed and trying to – I guess they seem to be trying to lay the predicate for your administration having defied a court order. Now, you all have said – you haven’t given specific times and you filed a motion in court, your Justice Department, to prevent any more information getting out about specific times of flights. Laura Ingraham: Oh, my gosh. Laura Ingraham: So that seems to be where this is going. Do you have faith that the Supreme Court ultimately will rule your – in your favor in this case? Donald Trump: Isn’t that great? Just went up yesterday. Donald Trump: I do, because the job of getting people out of our country that are murderers, that are absolutely the worst people, the drug lords, they’re causing such problems in this country. Drug lords came in, the biggest of them. They left other countries to come in here. They came through an open border. They’re making millions of dollars destroying people’s lives, killing people. Laura Ingraham: Wow. Donald Trump: And that’s a presidential thing. We’re supposed to be getting them out or getting them brought to justice. We had a judge. I would call him a rogue judge. You can call him whatever you want. I know nothing about him. I heard about this very late in the process, and I said, that’s a strange order. You have local judges, local federal judges, local judges, period, and DAs and prosecutors, DAs, state attorney generals, attorney generals that want to really take over. Donald Trump: You think Joe Biden would do this? I don’t think so. Do you think he’d think of it? Do you think he knows what it is? Donald Trump: I think some of it’s for the publicity. They love the publicity. All of a sudden, they’re on the front page of every newspaper, but they have no right to be. Laura Ingraham: Oh, wow. Note: [Commercial Break] Donald Trump: No, but look at this. So – but this was – none of these pictures were up. You know, very few, like very little. And it’s been – it’s been great. Laura Ingraham: Moving on to DOGE, Judge Theodore Chuang, he is a federal district court judge in Maryland, has ruled against the Trump administration’s efforts, Mr. President, to shut down USAID, ordering the government on an accelerated basis to basically reinstate the agency’s statutory functions. Your reaction to this development? Laura Ingraham: Now, there was a lot made on another network about you’re bringing in the gold accents – Donald Trump: Look at the fraud that we have caught. We have caught so much fraud, so much waste, so many employees that never showed up to work, and we have a judge from a very liberal state who ruled like that. So bad for our country. Donald Trump: Yeah. Laura Ingraham: So I guess they closed the department. They’re going to have to reopen the department. Laura Ingraham: To Trumpify the Oval Office. Donald Trump: Well, we will be appealing it, I guess. Not I guess. I guarantee you. We will be appealing it. We have rogue judges that are destroying our country. Donald Trump: It needed a little life. Laura Ingraham: Well, do you believe that, at this point, given the totality of these lawsuits, it’s a cavalcade of lawsuits, that your administration could be further hampered, your agenda could be slowed down? They’re throwing monkey wrenches at you with these judicial rulings. Laura Ingraham: So, you have the mantle and you have the cherubs from – Donald Trump: Well, we have to go through an appellate process. That takes a long time. We have a judge that wants that – Donald Trump: That’s right. Yeah. Laura Ingraham: Do you have time? Laura Ingraham: Is that from Mar-A-Lago? Donald Trump: We have a judge – Donald Trump: Yeah. That’s actually – they’re gold, all gold. Look. And, you know, it’s angels. They say angels bring good luck, and we need a lot of luck in this country with what they’ve done over the last four years. So, take a look. Do you know that – little secret? I don’t know if you’re going to waste your time putting this on. But throughout the years, people have tried to come up with a gold paint that would look like gold. Laura Ingraham: That’s the point. Donald Trump: And they’ve never been able to do it. Donald Trump: We have time. We’re going to be making a lot of money because of tariffs. The good news is, we have got it on – we’re going to very soon be on an even keel. We’re going to be taking in a lot of money. The Trump card, the gold card, whatever they want to call, it’s OK with me. Whatever’s going to sell better is fine with me. It’d be nice to get a piece, but I don’t get a piece, OK? I get nothing out of it. All I do is want to make this country successful again. Laura Ingraham: Can’t do it. Donald Trump: We’re taking in tremendous amounts of money. We have car companies that are building here who six months were going to build in Mexico, massive plants. They’re building them in the United States. We have Honda is going to Indiana. We have them opening up in Michigan. It’s amazing what’s happening. Donald Trump: You’ve never been able – look at that. Look. You’ve never been able to match gold with gold paint. That’s why it’s gold. And this is very important, very proud of this, Gulf of America. And in fact, Elon said to me, “You know, we’re landing in the Gulf of America.” So, he was saying – and he said it naturally, he said it so routinely. Laura Ingraham: But judges – but, for federal judges, district court judges, to order a sitting president to reinstate fired employees, that – you’re the chief executive officer of the United States. Donald Trump: He said, “Yeah, the capsule, you know, is landing in the Gulf of America.” So, I called Elon, “Where is it dropping down?” He said, “Gulf of America.” How cool is that right? Donald Trump: Yes. Yes. Laura Ingraham: What do you think all these presidents would think right now of the state of the country? Laura Ingraham: You order that these agencies be reviewed. Donald Trump: I think they’d be proud of our country. I think, a year ago, they would have been disgraced by our country. And I think today, they’re proud of our country. This is the Resolute desk, by the way. I had that just redone by an unbelievable group. They – they do only the White House furniture. They do only – very special. Donald Trump: Fired employees, many of whom didn’t even report to work, many of whom were scamming this country. And you see the same thing. Donald Trump: This is the Resolute desk. Many great presidents sat behind that desk, and many didn’t. I mean, you know, they have seven – when you’re president, they give you a choice of seven desks. This is the one. Laura Ingraham: Yes. Laura Ingraham: Why – why did you want this one? Donald Trump: I could read them off. And I did. During various speeches, I read off deal after deal after deal, all big scams. Donald Trump: Just like – I like the history. You had Reagan, you had Kennedy. That was the famous one with John-John, who I knew very well, and he was a friend of mine. He was a great guy. He would have been maybe president someday. He would have been a real chance to be – he was going to get into politics. He was actually a great guy, John-John. Laura Ingraham: Yes. Donald Trump: But remember, when he was a young boy, the picture of him at the bottom of the desk. Donald Trump: And we have a guy that wants to make a name for himself. In many cases, they’re just grandstanders. They want to make a name for themselves. So we will appeal it. And, hopefully, we will meet with reasonable appeals. I have won great cases on appeals. Laura Ingraham: Where’s the Coke button? Laura Ingraham: Yes, some of the – maybe people weren’t fired. Maybe they were temporarily put on – suspended. So we will see how this plays out. But he’s very unhappy with what happened at USAID. Donald Trump: It’s right here. Donald Trump: In the end – well, he shouldn’t be. You know what he should do? He should really look at where the money went. They don’t ever want to do that. The Democrats always talk about, oh, our Constitution’s been violated. The one thing they never talk about is, where did these billions of dollars go? They never want to look. Laura Ingraham: Is that on the desk? Donald Trump: Because when you see where the money went and the scams, it’s – you don’t even have to see anything. Just look at the heading and the scam that they have created. And a judge like him will never look at that. They will just say, oh, you want to – it sounds so nice, USAID. Isn’t that beautiful? But it’s a whole big scam, Laura. Donald Trump: Everyone thinks that’s the nuclear – everyone thinks that’s the nuclear weapon. They think it’s a nuclear weapon. They say if I press this, it’s the end of the world. Donald Trump: And a judge like that is so bad for our country. Laura Ingraham: Oh, and then there’s like 50,000 – Laura Ingraham: Well, it’d be interesting to see whether you’re able to shrink the size of this government. Every Republican president has claimed a desire to. Even Obama said, we have to find waste, fraud, and abuse, but you’re actually doing it, and the judges are trying to stop you. Donald Trump: It doesn’t seem to work out then. Donald Trump: We’re doing it. By the way, we’re doing it at levels never seen before. Laura Ingraham: Fifty thousand – Laura Ingraham: Lunatics are setting fire to Teslas all across the country. Another horrible incident happened in Las Vegas last night. The FBI is on the scene investigating, and there is an ongoing investigation being led by Pam Bondi. In what you have seen so far, do you consider what’s happening an act of domestic political terrorism against one of your allies? Donald Trump: Doesn’t that look beautiful, though, over there? Donald Trump: I do, sure. So Elon is a patriot. And, again, I didn’t – I hardly knew Elon until the election. And he turned out that he liked me better than he liked these radical lunatics that were – better than Kamala, better than Joe, because he’s an intelligent person. He liked – and he backed me, and he went – and he got very much involved. Laura Ingraham: Beautiful. Donald Trump: He thought – he actually would go around saying, if Trump doesn’t win, our country is over. Donald Trump: To me, you know, it looks beautiful. The Gulf of America, look at that. Laura Ingraham: But do you consider this an act of domestic terrorism? Laura Ingraham: Which one’s better? Which one – Donald Trump: Sure. Sure. I think so. Donald Trump: I’ll take the Declaration of Independence. I think so. Isn’t that cool? Laura Ingraham: Why? Laura Ingraham: When’s the first time you signed – the way you sign your name, it’s just people are so fascinated by it. Have you had that signature since you were little? Donald Trump: I think that, if and when they catch the people, and I hope they do – the good thing is, they have a lot of cameras in those places, and they have caught some already having to do with that. I think that you will find out that they’re paid by people that are very highly political on the left. Donald Trump: Pretty much, but it’s become sharper. In other words, if I look at it from 20 years ago, it was similar, but it was much softer. Laura Ingraham: Meanwhile, it’s because of Elon Musk, everything he did with SpaceX, that those astronauts, stranded for nine months, they’re finally coming home, Mr. President. Your reaction to what’s unfolding. Laura Ingraham: And you like – you like when your staff secretary reads out the executive orders to you when you’re signing it? Donald Trump: So, when I came in office, I said, Elon, we got to get them out. You have a rocket ship handy? How many people have a rocket? And Biden left them up. He abandoned them. We could have done this sooner, but Biden didn’t want to, because he was embarrassed by what happened. So they were up there. They were supposed to be there for a few days. Donald Trump: I only do that for the media, for the fake news. Donald Trump: They were there for many months. And now they’re coming back. But think of it. Elon’s able to do that with his genius, and you have people that hate it. And I really believe these are people that hate our country. It’s a big problem. But they don’t – there aren’t so many of them. There are many more that love our country, and they love our country now more than they have maybe ever in their lives. Laura Ingraham: Oh, OK. Donald Trump: There’s never been a movement like MAGA, like America first. Call it whatever you want to call it. This is the greatest movement in the history of politics. Donald Trump: This way. Yeah, they read it out. And, you know, I’ll do now because I don’t even have to move. I’ll do them just – I’ll sit here, I’ll do them, and you can do a lot. They get a kick when I’m doing other work and doing a news conference when you had another guy that couldn’t name his favorite ice cream. Laura Ingraham: What’s the next stop for the astronauts? Are they going to be coming to the White House? Donald Trump: They always used to ask him, “What’s your favorite ice cream?” “Vanilla.” Oh, great. He’s done a press conference, ladies and gentlemen. It was crazy. Donald Trump: No, they’re going to be – number one, they have to get better. When you’re up there, and you have no pull in your muscle, you have no gravity, you can lift 1,000 pounds like this – they have to get better. It’s going to be a little bit tough for them. It’s not easy. They’re up a long time. And when they do, they will come to the Oval Office. Laura Ingraham: Will you talk to him again, do you think? Joe Biden. Note: [Commercial Break] Donald Trump: Yeah, I’ll talk to him. Sure. Laura Ingraham: They have a $60 billion trade deficit. China has like a $300 billion last year. You said it goes up – when you can add it all up, it’s a trillion. Laura Ingraham: Do you ever call any former – Donald Trump: Canada is – Donald Trump: You should see – Donald Trump: [No audio] – way over 100, Canada. And here’s my problem with Canada. Canada was – Laura Ingraham: President? Do you any – call any of the former presidents? Donald Trump: [Audio continues] – meant to be the 51st state, because we subsidize Canada by $200 billion a year. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We have a lot of lumber. We got – we freed it up, as you know, last week. We’re freeing it up, so that you can actually cut down a tree without being given the death penalty, because what these – what these radical environmentalists have done to our country. Donald Trump: No, not much. Donald Trump: But we freed it up. But we don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything. We certainly don’t want their automobiles. They make a lot of – millions of automobiles are sent in. I’d rather have them made in Michigan. I’d rather have them made in South Carolina or any one of our – Laura Ingraham: No. Laura Ingraham: But you’re tougher with Canada than you are with some of our most – our biggest adversaries. Why? Donald Trump: A lot was made out of the fact that I got along very well with President Obama, right? You saw that. Donald Trump: Only because – only because it’s meant to be our 51st state. Laura Ingraham: Yeah, it seems so. Laura Ingraham: OK, but we need – Donald Trump: I can – you know, I can do things that a lot of people – Note: [Crosstalk] Laura Ingraham: You were friends with pretty much all of them at one point. Donald Trump: No, no, but listen to this for a second. Donald Trump: I just didn’t like the job they did – Laura Ingraham: We need their territory. They have territorial advantage. We’re not going to let them get close to China. Laura Ingraham: Yeah. Donald Trump: One of the most – Donald Trump: Because it’s not about friends. I didn’t like the job they did. They let our country down. Laura Ingraham: Right? Donald Trump: Look, I deal with every country indirectly or directly. One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada. The people that – now, this was Trudeau. The people that – good old Justin. I call him Governor Trudeau. He was – his people were nasty. And they weren’t telling the truth. They never told the truth. Donald Trump: You know that they say, well, we don’t charge. Well, they do. They charge tremendous. They charge tremendous. And if you look at dairy products, what they have done to our farmers, I’d go up to Iowa. I’d go up to different places, Nebraska, and they would always complain about Canada, how they get ripped off. Donald Trump: Do you know that Canada has a 250 percent tariff, 250? Nobody knows that. They charge us numbers that are crazy. Laura Ingraham: But what’s the endgame? Donald Trump: We have a very big deficit with Canada. Laura Ingraham: Sixty billion. Donald Trump: And there’s no reason. Much more. We have much more. Laura Ingraham: I don’t think so. Donald Trump: Just so you understand, we subsidize Canada. And I like Canada. I love Canada. I love Wayne Gretzky. I love his wife. I love every – Laura Ingraham: But now the Liberal guy is – the Liberal Party is going to win now in the next election, most likely. Donald Trump: I don’t care. Laura Ingraham: And they were – they were on – they were down and out. Donald Trump: I don’t care. I don’t care. Laura Ingraham: But isn’t that going to be – make them more hostile to us and possibly open the door – Donald Trump: No, I’d rather deal with a Liberal than a Conservative. Laura Ingraham: – for China, closer to Canada? And that would really put us in a bind. Donald Trump: The Conservative that’s running is stupidly no friend of mine. I don’t know, but he said negative things. So, when he says negative things, I couldn’t care less. I think it’s easier to deal actually with a Liberal. And maybe they’re going to win, but I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter to me at all. Laura Ingraham: So your endgame is what with them? Donald Trump: My endgame is, I don’t want to have a big deficit. I don’t want to see the United States of America – and you say 60 and I say 200, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t want us to pay $60 billion or $200 billion to a country that, if they were a state, think of this, it would be our biggest, most beautiful. It would be great. Donald Trump: This state, it would be cherished. We’d take care of it. The people would pay half they’re – what they’re paying right now. Canada – you know, Canada pays very little for defense. We – they think we’re going to defend that. Laura Ingraham: We protect them. Donald Trump: What? Laura Ingraham: We protect them. Donald Trump: We protect them. We protect them. Do you know in NATO they pay less than anybody else? In everything else, they go – we bought – we’re in the process of buying 48 icebreakers. All of a sudden, I see Canada’s involved, where they’re going to get a piece of them. I say, what are they paying? So I got tired of it. Here’s the story. Donald Trump: I had one of the most successful economies. I had the most successful economy in the history of our country in my first four years. We did a great job, largest tax cuts ever, largest everything. We had right to try, where people were able to use drugs. Stupidly, for many years, they weren’t able to use the far-reaching drugs, because they weren’t approved yet. Donald Trump: Somebody’s terminally ill, they couldn’t do it. With me, they can do it. We did so many things. We rebuilt our military. Canada doesn’t pay for military. They don’t give anything. They give us nothing. And they are the worst people to negotiate with of everybody. They had the worst – Laura Ingraham: You got them with USMCA. You finally got them around the edge on that, though. You got them. Donald Trump: No, I got them there. And USMCA is good, but they cheat. An agreement’s good, but they cheat. And Mexico cheats also. Laura Ingraham: But China cheated on your 2019 agreement. Donald Trump: Can I tell you what? Note: [Crosstalk] Laura Ingraham: Phase one, they totally cheated and dropped it with Biden. You had a great deal. Donald Trump: When Biden took over, he didn’t push them. I would call up once every two weeks, saying, you’re not living up to the agreement, and they’d buy more corn, more this. So the most we ever did was $15 billion with China, the farmers and everything, and manufacturing. Laura Ingraham: Yes. Donald Trump: I had them up to $50 billion. And they were doing it. When Biden did it – do you think Biden called up President Xi and said, you’re screwing us?
Date: 2025-03-20
Karoline Leavitt: There’s this big group. Question: It’s hard too, right? Karoline, what do you say to critics of the president’s education plan? Karoline Leavitt: Uh, where were – where was there criticism of our nation’s failing test scores for the last several decades? The Department of Education was founded in the 1970s and since then we have spent more than $3 trillion at this federal bureaucracy. What has been the return on that investment for the American taxpayer? Karoline Leavitt: Uh, levels that are less than ideal, less than proficient. Our children’s test scores are incredibly concerning when it comes to reading rates, literacy rates, math and science test scores. The numbers prove that. And the president is finally – this president is finally taking much needed action to return education to where it belongs. Karoline Leavitt: And that’s to educators closest to students in their classrooms, in their respective states. We’re going to have a great event here later at 4:00. There will be students here, teachers here, parents here, educators and of course governors from around the country who are very excited about taking on this responsibility to educate our nation’s students. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Who’s going to run federal student loans? Karoline Leavitt: So, the Department of Education will be much smaller than it is today. As you know, the president’s executive order directed Linda McMahon to greatly minimize the agency. So, when it comes to student loans and Pell grants, those will still be run out of the Department of Education. But we don’t need to be spending more than $3 trillion over the course of a few decades on a department that’s clearly failing in its initial intention to educate our students. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: So, is the federal government going to be spending less? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline, you said it’s going to be much smaller than it is, is it not going to be shut down completely? And then I have a second question. Karoline Leavitt: As I said, Pell grants and student loans will still be run out of the department in Washington DC, but the great responsibility of education, educating our nation’s students, will return to the states. Question: And the Department of Education plays a critical role in enforcing civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination, who’s going to do that now? Karoline Leavitt: Any critical functions of the department such as that will remain, but again, we’re greatly reducing the scale and the size of this department. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: What about Federal Title I funding and special education funding is that still going to – Karoline Leavitt: Same answer. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Thanks, Karoline. On the Federal Reserve, the president criticized the rate decision yesterday, is he looking to replace members of the Federal Reserve Board like he did on the Federal Trade Commission? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has appointed Miki Bowman, as you know, to be the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve. Were incredibly optimistic about her. She’s on the ball as the president says and knows how to get things done. The president has every right to criticize the – the decision and he’s made it very clear that he believes in lower interest rates are going to help this country boom and this administration is working on lowering the rate of inflation caused by the previous administration every day. Karoline Leavitt: Inflation is cooling, the numbers indicate that. And the president strongly believes in low interest rates and I think the American public do too. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline, on the deportations flights, Karoline, you’ve said that you’re confident that you’ve complied with the judge’s order? Karoline Leavitt: We are. Question: If that’s the case, then why not turn over the information about the flights? Karoline Leavitt: We are 100 percent confident that we’ve complied, and as I said from the podium and will continue to say, all of the flights that were subject to the written order of the judge took off before the written order was pushed in the courtroom. And the president is well within his article – or his Article II power and his authority under the Alien Enemies Act to make these decisions. Karoline Leavitt: And we think it’s egregious that a single district judge is trying to tell the president of the United States who he can and cannot deport from our soil, especially when it comes to designated foreign terrorists. Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Jeff, go ahead. Question: The administration is getting some attention this week for a memo that was released, I think a couple of weeks ago, taking segregation out of the criteria for federal contracting. Can you explain what that memo was supposed to do? And if you’re looking to – I presume you’re not looking for segregation to come back. Question: But can you explain the reason for the memo? Karoline Leavitt: Did the memo come from the White House or was it from an agency? Question: It was from – it was from the administration, I think it was OPM. Karoline Leavitt: Okay, I would defer you to whichever agency wrote that memo. I haven’t seen it, so I can’t speak to it. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead, Reagan. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Uh, this executive order dismantles the department. To abolish it completely requires Congress to act. Is the administration asking Congress to codify Trump’s executive order to abolish the department? Karoline Leavitt: I’ll leave it to the president to speak on that later, 4:00. Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: What is the president doing about Gaza? Is he trying to get the cease fire back in play? What’s – what’s his plan? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages, there would be all hell to pay. And unfortunately, Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives. This situation, let’s not forget is completely the fault of Hamas. When they launched that brutal attack on Israel on October 7, and the president has made it very clear that he wants all of those hostages to come home. Karoline Leavitt: And he fully supports Israel and the IDF and the actions that they’ve taken in recent days. Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Michael. Go ahead, Michael. Question: – the president would like to see American schools and students reach over the next four years after he signs this EO? Karoline Leavitt: Well, again, he in – in the intent of this EO is to return this great responsibility back to the states and we know – we believe in federalism here at the White House. I know the previous administration didn’t, but we think decisions are best made when they’re closest to the people, and we trust teachers and educators and their respective schools to make these very important decisions about our children’s education and their futures. Karoline Leavitt: And the current status quo is failing our students. In fact, I have some facts right here, 13-year-olds mathematics scores are the lowest they have been in decades. 13-year-olds reading scores are the lowest since testing began over 30 years ago. Low performing students are falling further behind. One city, Baltimore, Maryland, in 2023, high schools had zero students who tested proficient in mathematics. Karoline Leavitt: As a mother, myself, I know I share the concern of many parents across the country. We want our children to be bright and smart and ahead of the game. This is also, I would say, a national security issue when you look at how students around the world, particularly in China are being educated, American students are falling behind. Karoline Leavitt: We’re not keeping up with our allies or our adversaries, and that’s a major problem for our country and the president is fixing it today. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline? We’re less than two weeks away now from the August 2 big tariff deadline, has the president spoken with his Canadian counterpart and the Prime Minister on – Karoline Leavitt: Not to my knowledge, I don’t believe he has, but I can check in with the president and get you a firm answer on that. But my understanding is they haven’t spoken and the president has been very clear about his intention for April 2. It’s going to be a big day for our country. I would encourage all of you to be here to cover the White House that day on April 2 because there will be big announcements when it comes to reciprocal trade. Karoline Leavitt: And the president will be highlighting the unfair trade practices, the ways in which America has been ripped off by every country around the world, quite frankly, and there will be big tariffs that will be going into effect and the president will be announcing those himself. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: The European Union had a decision yesterday against Apple and Google. Are you familiar with that, and is there anything the president, is that a response to the April 2 tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: I think we’ve seen a lot of movement actually around the world of countries who are lessening their tariffs. I know the EU also paused their alleged tariff on whiskey. And so, I think you’re seeing countries are taking the president seriously. They understand that he is going to do what’s right for American workers and families, and so the president and his team are in constant communication with our EU counterparts, but also our counterparts around the world. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: The decision to – off some of the failures over the last 30 years from the Department of Education. So, for critics, what has been the ROI on $3 trillion going to a failing education system. Karoline Leavitt: It’s a great question, nothing. And that’s exactly why the president is signing the order later today. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline – The executive order today, is it also the goal to eventually be spending less in federal dollars on education? Karoline Leavitt: Of course, it’s our goal to reduce the size and scale of this government across every agency, which is why you’ve seen very strong and quick actions taken to reduce the amount of money that federal taxpayers are paying on a system that is failing them and their families. Question: Does that mean like eventually downsizing some of the programs that are run out of the education department currently? Karoline Leavitt: It means stopping the wasteful spending, and as I said, critical programs will be protected. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: So, given that – You have this noon deadline looming for this DC judge for the DOJ to turn over these documents, when it comes to the time logs of these deportation flights. Is the administration going to turn over that information, the exact time logs? The – the information that the DC court is asking for? Karoline Leavitt: I won’t get ahead of our lawyers, but you’ll hear from them in court. Question: In a follow up question, the Commerce Secretary yesterday said that Tesla stock is something that Americans should be buying. Is that the stance of the administration that people should be investing in this? Is that something that the Commerce Secretary should be recommending? Karoline Leavitt: I think the Commerce Secretary was reiterating that the president supports an American made company like Tesla who produces a very good product for the American people, which was beloved by the American people, particularly Democrats until Elon Musk decided to vote for Donald Trump. And now we’ve seen despicable and unacceptable violence taking place across our country at Tesla dealerships, against workers, employees, and also innocent Americans who drive these vehicles. Karoline Leavitt: It’s a – actually a scary time in our country because of this political violence from the left and the White House and the president’s entire administration condemn it wholeheartedly. We’ll see you guys at 4:00. Thank you. Question: Thank you. You thank. Thank you, Karoline.
Date: 2025-03-21
Donald Trump: Hello everybody. It’s nice to meet with you. I just want to start by saying we had a meeting yesterday on the Department of Education, which is being moved. We’re going to educate the children in their states, where they can get a proper education. The numbers are horrible the way it is and we’re going to make a move that’s very big. Donald Trump: I don’t think it’s even risky a little bit. I think it’s going to be amazing. It should have been done years ago. They’ve been talking about doing it for many years, but nobody ever got it off, but we did and there was great excitement and great acceptance of it by almost everybody, including a lot of democrats, actually. Donald Trump: I do want to say that I’ve decided that the SBA, the Small Business Administration headed by Kelly Loeffler, is a terrific person, will handle all of the student loan portfolio. We have a portfolio that’s very large, lots of loans, tens of thousands of loans, pretty complicated deal, and that’s coming out of the Department of Education immediately. Donald Trump: And it’s going to be headed up by Kelly Loeffler at SBA, and they’re all set for it. They’re waiting for it. It’ll be serviced much better than it has in the past. It’s been a mess. And also, Bobby Kennedy, the Health and Human Services will be handling special needs and all of the nutrition programs and everything else, rather complex, but that’s going to be headed by and handled by Health and Human Services. Donald Trump: So I think that will work out very well. Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education and then all we have to do is get the students to get guidance from the people that love them and cherish them, including their parents by the way, who will be totally involved in their education, along with the boards and the governors and the states. Donald Trump: And it’s going to be a great situation. I guarantee that in a few years from now, I hope I’m going to be around to see it, but I think we’re going to see a lot of it. I think that you’re going to have tremendous results. You’re going to have results like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, a lot of the countries that do so well. Donald Trump: I think you’re going to have a lot of those results. If you look at Iowa and Indiana and Idaho, so many places that run so well, Florida, Texas, big ones, and you’re going to have great education, much better than it is now, at half the cost. And we’re not even doing it as a cost item, although you will save probably half, maybe more than that, and you’re not going to be at the bottom of the list. Donald Trump: You’re going to be much higher and maybe you’ll be – I will guarantee, some of the states will be at the top of the list. They’ll be comparable or better than these number one, two, three, four, five countries – the countries that are in the top five positions. So to me, it’s very exciting and it’s been received very well. Donald Trump: So I just wanted to tell you about the student loans and special needs, but we’re here for a reason today that is very exciting and I’m thrilled to announce that at my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth generation fighter jet, number six, sixth generation. Donald Trump: Nothing in the world comes even close to it and it will be known as the F-47. The generals picked a title and it’s a beautiful number, F-47. It’s something the likes of which nobody has seen before in terms of all of the attributes of a fighter jet. There’s never been anything even close to it from speed to maneuverability to what it can have to payload. Donald Trump: And this is been in the works for a long period of time. After a rigorous and thorough competition between some of America’s top aerospace companies, the Air Force is going to be awarding the contract for the next generation air dominance platform to Boeing. As you know, was highly competed for. There was a lot of competition, Generals and it’s been going on for a long time, very, very tough competition. Donald Trump: But this plane has produced numbers that nobody’s ever seen before. The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built and experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years and we’re confident that it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation. Donald Trump: There’s no other nation – we know every other plane. I’ve seen every one of them and it’s not even close. This is a next level. You know, Level five is good. This is level six. They say the F-47 is equipped with state-of-the-art stealth technology. It’s virtually unseeable and unprecedented power. It’s got the most power of any jet of its kind ever made. Donald Trump: Maneuverability, likewise, there’s never been anything like it despite the power and speed. Its speed is top. It’s over two, which is something that you don’t hear very often. America’s enemies will never see it coming. Hopefully we won’t have to use it for that purpose, but you have to have it. Donald Trump: And if it ever happens, they won’t know what the hell hit them. A new fleet of these magnificent planes will be built in the – and in the – during my administration, for the next couple of years. It’s ready to go. They’ve already built much of what has to be built in terms of production, including the sheds, will ensure that the USA continues to dominate the skies. Donald Trump: We’ve given an order for a lot. We can’t tell you the price because it would give way to some of the technology and some of the size of the planes, good-sized plane. This contract also represents a historic investment in our defense industrial base, helping to keep America at the cutting edge of aerospace and technology. Donald Trump: Our allies are calling constantly, they want to buy them also. And we’ll – certain allies will be selling them, perhaps toned-down versions. We’d like to tone them down about 10 percent, which probably makes sense because someday maybe they’re not our allies, right. But I would like to ask Secretary Hegseth, who’s doing a fantastic job. Donald Trump: He’s really been very inspiring in so many ways. And I must say that, before he speaks, we have had record people wanting to join our military in the last two and a half months literally since this – I think probably since the election November 5th. But especially since we came to office and since I announced Pete. Donald Trump: He’s young, he’s smart, he’s strong, he loves it, and they love him. But we’ve had record numbers of people wanting to join our military. Now if you go back six months, it was the exact opposite. You had record numbers of people not wanting to join the military. Now you have record numbers of people wanting to be in our military. Donald Trump: And that’s a really – that’s a great honor. That shows you we’re really on the right track. So, Pete, maybe say a few words. Pete Hegseth: Sure. Well, Mr. President, this is a big day. This is a big day for our warfighters. This is a big day for our country, a big day in the world. The name of this program is the Next Generation of Air Dominance. Mr. President, because of your leadership, your clarity, we are going to – America is going to have generations in the future of air dominance because of this sixth-generation fighter. Pete Hegseth: We’ve had the F-15, we’ve had the F-16, the F-18, the F-22, the F-35. Now we have the F-47, which sends a very direct, clear message to our ally allies that we’re not going anywhere. And to our enemies that we can – we will be able to project power around the globe unimpeded for generations to come. Mr. President, this is a gift to my kids and your kids, to my grandkids and your grandkids. Pete Hegseth: This is a historic investment in the American military, in the American industrial base, in American industry that will help revive the warrior ethos inside our military, which we’re doing, rebuild our military, which the previous administration did not do, by the way, Mr. President. They paused this program and were prepared to potentially scrap it. We know this is cheaper, longer range and more stealthy, President Trump said we’re reviving it and we’re doing it, and then we are also going to reestablish deterrence. Pete Hegseth: Under the previous administration we looked like fools – not anymore. President Trump has reestablished American leadership. The F-47 is part of it. And Mr. President, thank you for having the courage to do it and leading the way for all our warfighters. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Pete. One of the things I will say, but the generals are going to speak in just a couple of seconds, but this plane flies with drones. It flies with many, many drones, as many as you want. And it’s a technology that’s new, but it doesn’t fly by itself. It flies with many drones, as many as we want. Donald Trump: And that’s something that no other plane can do. So, I’d like to introduce, if I might, Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin and also General Dale White, two incredible people that I’ve known over the years, but I got to know them really well over the last few months. And would you say a few words please, General? David W. Allvin: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for your unwavering commitment to our military. I will say that this is a big day. This is a big day for our United States Air Force as well. Air dominance is not a birthright, but it’s become synonymous with American air power. David W. Allvin: But air dominance needs to be earned every single day. And since the earliest days of aerial warfare, brave American airmen have jumped into their machines, taken to the air and they’ve cleared the skies. And whether that be clearing the skies so we can rain down destruction on our enemies from above or we can clear the path for the ground forces below. David W. Allvin: That’s been our commitment to the fight and that’s really been our promise to America. And with this F-47 as the crown jewel in the next generation air dominance family of systems, we’re going to be able to keep that promise well into the future. I also want to thank everyone from industry and with the government, our engineers who have worked tirelessly on this program to bring it where we are right now today. David W. Allvin: This shows that American talent, American skill and American determination are second to none because this platform is second to none. So, we believe that this provides more lethality, it provides more capability, more modernized capability in a way that is built to adapt. This along with our collaborative combat aircraft the president talked about with drones. David W. Allvin: This is allowing us to look into the future and unlock the magic that is human machine teaming. And as we do that, we’re going to write the next generation of modern aerial warfare with this. This enables us to do this. The manner in which we put this program together puts more control in the hands of the government so we can update and adapt at the speed of relevance, at the speed of technology, not at the speed of bureaucracy. David W. Allvin: This is more air force. This is more options for the president. We say our mission in the United States Air Force is to fly, fight and win air power anytime, anywhere. If you want to go anywhere, you have to have a platform that gets you anywhere. This provides the president options from the very – one end, which is a quick response and then we can get right back into a fighting stance without having to deploy troops that are going to take maybe months and cost more lives. David W. Allvin: We can be back in a fighting stance and maybe we restore that deterrence, all the way to decisive victory as part of a joint force that is the most lethal and capable military ever known in history. That’s what we provide now. And this allows us to provide it into the future. It’s more deterrence, more capability. David W. Allvin: It’s what peace through strength looks like into the future, Mr. President. So, we’re very proud of that and all we can say is, on behalf of the United States Air Force, let’s deliver. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, General. Would you like to say something? Dale R. White: No, sir, I’ll just double what the chief said. Donald Trump: He knows what to do. [Laughter] Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: He knows who the boss is. Dale R. White: Exactly right, air superiority is what it’s all about and this is what we’ll deliver. Donald Trump: That’s great. Thank you very much. Great job. We’ve worked together long and hard on this, and this was a big secret. In fact, we don’t show too much of the plane for that reason, see where we show – you see how beautiful that is. But that’s just a very small part of it. I wasn’t surprised. I was wondering how much are you going to show, and they came in with that. Donald Trump: You see a wheel in the front and that’s about it. Any questions? Question: President Trump, 80,000 pages of documents is a lot to sift through. Can you just tell us who killed Kennedy? Donald Trump: Well, you know, I was given the task of releasing that because many presidents have gone through it and they haven’t released and I said release. We even released Social Security numbers. I didn’t want anything deleted. They said, sir, what about Social Security? People are long gone. But they’re long gone. Donald Trump: So, I can’t imagine, but I said if you don’t delete it, if you do delete it, we have – people are going to say why did you delete it? There’s something in there. So, we gave Social Security, we gave everything, and the rest is for you to look at, Peter. You’re going to see whether or not you see anything. Donald Trump: But we’ve given it. We’re doing it with Dr. Martin Luther King too. They’re preparing all of that. They’re going to release everything and whoever else they want. I mean, we have nothing – we really have nothing to hide. We shouldn’t have, you know, when a lot of time goes by. But with the Kennedy files in particular, they were going crazy on them. Donald Trump: I don’t think there’s anything that’s earth shattering, but you’ll have to make that determination. In those – you know, it’s 80,000 – it’s actually 88,000, and we have some additional things, as you know, come out today. And for that, you can go to the offices, and you can see whatever you want to see. Donald Trump: Everything is out there, totally open. The additional stuff is available later on today. You go over to the offices, and you can have it immediately. And you’ll make a determination. Question: And on something else, these Tren de Aragua guys, because of your executive order, they are designated as foreign terrorists. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: If ISIS or al-Qaida foreign terrorists were operating here in the United States, cops would probably be shooting first and asking questions later. And so, what is the difference between terrorists, between somebody like an ISIS or an al-Qaida operative versus an MS-13 or Tren de Aragua? Donald Trump: Well, these are people that focus on destroying people in their homes. They’re not as international in that sense. They’re a group of thugs, they come from Venezuela. They come from the prisons of Venezuela. They’re very dangerous people, but they didn’t look so dangerous when the guards took care of the situation from El Salvador. Donald Trump: And I want to thank the president. He’s a friend of mine. He’s done a great job, but I just can’t imagine that the democrats are taking this issue where they want to have them back. So now they have men playing in women’s sports. They have transgender for everyone. They have open borders. They have all of their crazy policies that are, I think, 95, not 90-10, OK? And their new policy is, let’s bring Tren de Aragua back into our country. Donald Trump: These are the worst gang members there are. They looked amazingly frail though by the way they were handled. It’s very amazing. When they were in Colorado, cutting the fingers off a man because he made a phone call to the police, they seemed a lot tougher then than they did when they were having their heads shaved and they were in shackles. Donald Trump: They’re tough people. They’re bad people. We don’t want them in our country. We can’t let a judge say that he wants them. He didn’t run for president. He didn’t get much more than 80 million votes. And we just can’t let that happen. It would be so bad for our country. I won on the basis of getting criminals out of our country that were let in. It was called unforced error. Donald Trump: They were let in by Biden, incompetently let in, and let in by the millions, actually, 21 million people. I believe it’s 21 million and that’s not even including the got-aways, but these are rough people. We want them out of our country. And I won the election based, at least partly, on that and that’s a big part. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: I don’t know if you saw this. Tim Walz is now saying about Trump supporters, and forgive me, I’m just reading a quote from Tim Walz. I think I could kick most of their ass. Donald Trump: Oh, boy, he’d be in trouble. Question: Is there any way to know? Donald Trump: Well, he’s a loser. [Inaudible] He lost an election. He played a part. Usually, a vice president doesn’t play a part, they say. I think Tim played a part. I think he was so bad that he hurt her, but she hurt herself and Joe hurt them both. They didn’t have a great group, but I would probably put him at the bottom of the group. Question: Have you heard that Biden wants to get back involved for democratic politicians, fundraising and campaigning against your policies? What do you think of that? Donald Trump: I hope so. I hope so. Question: Mr. President, there are families from – some of the people – Donald Trump: Who are you with? Question: I’m with La Nacion Newspaper from Argentina. There are families from some of the people that were on those flights to El Salvador that claimed that they’re not criminals, they’re not members of Tren de Aragua, of MS-13. What can you tell them and what guarantees can you give them that everyone in those planes were actual criminals, terrorists, as you said? Donald Trump: Well, I was told that they went through a very strong vetting process and that that will also be continuing in El Salvador. And if there’s anything like that, we would certainly want to find out. But these were a bad group. This was a bad group. And they were in bad areas and they were with a lot of other people that were absolutely killers and murderers and people that were really bad, with the worst records you’ve ever seen. Donald Trump: But we will continue that process, absolutely. We don’t want to make that kind of a mistake. Question: Mr. President, is the US planning to give up the position of NATO supreme allied commander, and if so, why? Donald Trump: NATO is something that I saved. NATO was gone until I came along. In fact, the previous secretary general, a very good man. Both of them are good. The current man is fantastic, but both of them have said, if it wasn’t for Trump, you wouldn’t even have a NATO, because we were paying the cost of almost all of the countries and now they’re paying. Donald Trump: I said, we’re not going to do this. We’re not going to continue – you hurt us on trade. You do bad things on trade and then on top of it, we’re supposed to pay for your military. And because of what I did, hundreds of billions of dollars flowed into NATO by countries that just weren’t paying. They were delinquent. Donald Trump: They weren’t paying their bills. So NATO is solid. They’re strong, but they have to treat us fairly. Question: Are we going to give up the – Donald Trump: Because look, without us, NATO is not the same thing. And I can tell you, I’ve been having very good discussions, as you know, with President Zelenskyy and with President Putin. And President Putin will tell you that without the United States, he wouldn’t be worried, but he is worried when the United States is involved. Donald Trump: And I have to tell you, I’ve dealt very well with both gentlemen and we have, I think, we have the confines of a deal. I hope we have the confines of a deal. I’m doing it for two reasons. Number one, and by far most importantly, thousands of young people, and they’re not American people, they’re Russian and they’re Ukrainian, are being killed every week, thousands a week. Donald Trump: And also, the United States has paid, because of Biden, $350 billion on a war that should have never happened. If we had a competent president sitting right here, that war would have never happened. It would have absolutely never happened with me and it didn’t happen. For four years, it didn’t happen. Question: Mr. President, do you think you have the authority, the power to round up people, deport them and then you’re under no obligation to a court to show the evidence against them? Donald Trump: Well, that’s what the law says and that’s what our country needs because we were – unfortunately, they allowed millions of people to come into our country, totally unvetted, totally unchecked. So you ought to ask, did he have the authority to allow millions of people? Did Biden have the authority to do something that’s unthinkable have open borders where millions of people poured into our country totally unvetted and totally unchecked, just as you would say. Donald Trump: And many of those people were criminals. Many of them were from jails and prisons and mental institutions and gang members and drug dealers and very dangerous people. Many were murderers. We have 11,088 that we know of murderers, they murdered. Of that number, at least half killed more than one person there in our country. Donald Trump: They’re there in a location near you. Biden allowed that to happen to our country and his people that really ran the country and the person that operated the autopen, I think we ought to find out who that was because I guess that was the real president. So when you ask me if we have the authority, did Biden have the authority to allow millions of people to come into our country? Donald Trump: Many of these people hardened criminals at the top of the line who have caused tremendous damage in our country. You see them in New York City, fighting with our police, I mean, literally having fistfights in the street with our police. These are tough, hard criminals. Many of them came out of jails and not just South America, from all over the world. Donald Trump: They came out of from Africa, from the Congo. They came out from Asia. Not just South America, but many from South America. These are hard, tough criminals and we have to get them out. And a judge sitting behind a bench someplace got a nice appointment. You can’t take that away from the people that are responsible. Donald Trump: Now in this case, Marco Rubio has a lot of big decisions to make and he’s a fantastic person, a great man. I think he’ll be our best, I think he has a chance to be our best secretary of state. He’s been doing incredible. He works so hard. He’s gone to so many different countries already and he’s got the authority to get bad people out of our country. Donald Trump: And you can’t stop that with a judge sitting behind a bench that has no idea what goes on, who happens to be a radical left lunatic. Question: Do you think the judiciary – you guys today are denying this New York Times report that Elon Musk was going to be shown a 20 to 30-page presentation about a theoretical war plan against China. Why not just show it to Elon? Donald Trump: Because I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war with China. Now, I deal with these people all the time. And I’m dealing with Pete, I’m dealing with these gentlemen on numerous different airplane purchases, and I think they’re all going to be great. But I don’t want other people seeing – anybody seeing potential war with China. Donald Trump: We don’t want to have a potential war with China. But I can tell you, if we did, we’re very well equipped to handle it. But I don’t want to show that to anybody. But certainly, you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much. He’s a great patriot. He’s paying a big price for helping us cut costs and he’s doing a great job. Donald Trump: He’s finding tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. But I certainly wouldn’t want – Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible perhaps to that. But it was such a fake story. The New York Times is just as fake as CNN and MSDNC. And anybody read that story, people laughed at that story. Who would do such a thing? Donald Trump: And the first thing I did is I called Susie and I called Pete. I said, is there any truth to that? And they said, it’s ridiculous. No, he’s over there to talk about cost. You might want to address that, Pete. But Elon was over there today to address costs, DOGE, thing called DOGE, which you’ve heard about. Donald Trump: Pete? Pete Hegseth: That’s exactly right, Mr. President. You pointed out, it was a fake story. We pointed out it was. It was meant to sort of undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with Elon Musk. Elon Musk is a patriot. Elon Musk is an innovator. Elon Musk provides a lot of capabilities our government and our military rely on, and I’m grateful for that. Pete Hegseth: We welcomed him today to the Pentagon to talk about DOGE, to talk about efficiencies, to talk about innovations. It was a great informal conversation. The rest of that reporting was fake. There was no plans, there was no Chinese war plans, there was no secret plans. That’s not what we were doing at the Pentagon. Donald Trump: I might add that I think Elon, if you – if they ever wanted to do that, I think Elon wouldn’t do it. I think he wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t want to put himself in that position, but if you read what’s out of the New York Times, it’s such a dishonest newspaper. It’s such garbage, it’s – it used to be called all the news that’s fit to print. Donald Trump: Well, it’s all the news that’s not fit to print. They have fake sources, or they don’t have sources. I think they make most of it up. But this was a made-up story by the New York Times, I call it the failing – it’s a failing newspaper. It’s failing and they shouldn’t do that. They really are the enemy of the people. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: We do need honest journalism in this. We’ve made such big strides over the last two months, but we just need honest journalism, and we don’t have it. When you have a CNN – I watch – you have to watch these people every once in a while, just to see where they’re coming from. And it’s so dishonest, MSNBC is, I think, probably worse and they’re both doing horribly in the ratings. Donald Trump: I think they’re going to be turned off. They’re not doing any ratings. You’re doing well on the ratings. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, I understand that your trade rep is meeting their Chinese counterpart next week. Is there anything that they can do to stop April 2nd or to roll back the tariffs that you’ve put on China already? Donald Trump: Well, we can talk, but basically, I call April 2nd – I would have made it April 1st, but I didn’t want to be April Fool’s Day because then nobody would believe what I said, and they do believe me. April 2nd is going to be Liberation Day for America. We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world, friend and foe. Donald Trump: We’ve been ripped off on trade. We’ve been ripped off on military. We protect people and they don’t do anything for us. It’s just so unfair for years and years. And now some of that money is going to be coming back to us in the form of tariffs. There are, I mean, tens of billions – it’s going to be numbers like nobody’s ever seen. Donald Trump: So, Nvidia announced today, you saw that, hundreds of billions of dollars of investment. The biggest chip maker in the world announced hundreds of billions of dollars of investment – hundreds of billions, not millions, but billions. And they’re all coming here. Apple just announced $500 billion worth. They’re going to build plants here. Donald Trump: You know, they built their plants in China, they’re going to build them here. And they’re starting immediately. We have investment the likes of which this country has never seen already announced. And they all want to have news conferences. I don’t have enough time to have that many news conferences. But I would say so far at least $4 trillion – $4 trillion is coming in. Car companies, very importantly, a lot of the car companies that were going to build in Mexico or Canada are now building here because I don’t want cars from Canada. Donald Trump: I don’t want cars from Mexico. They want to do it, it’s fine, but I want the car companies to build here, not – you know, they were building in Mexico, three plants, big plants, really big plants and they were going to sell the cars right across the border. We wouldn’t have the jobs, we wouldn’t have the profits, we wouldn’t get the taxes, we get nothing. Donald Trump: All we get is unemployment and empty factories. Those days are over. So, now those three places are going to build here, but many more than that. We have a big one – Honda is building, just announced, a really big plant in Indiana, great state, smart place to build. And we have many car companies coming here. Donald Trump: The steel mills are going to be booming, going to be booming. And many other things come with that. But we need that for defense. You know, there are certain things you have to have. You have to have steel. We would have had – if I didn’t do in my first term tariffs to stop the onslaught because they were dumping steel in order to destroy our steel plants. Donald Trump: If I didn’t do 50 percent and even 100 percent in certain cases tariffs on steel, you wouldn’t have a steel plant in the United States. And Biden was unable to get rid of those tariffs because they threw off so much money that his numbers, which didn’t Work anyway, because his numbers were terrible, what he did, the way he spent money was so horrible. Donald Trump: And what he allowed to happen to energy. That’s the other thing; energy is going to be like it’s never been before. Mr. Vice President is here. Do you have anything to say while you’re here? J.D. Vance: No, sir, I’m – Donald Trump: Good Vice President. J.D. Vance: [Laughter] I’m just here to watch the show, sir. I think airplanes are pretty cool, so I wanted to check this out. Donald Trump: Airplanes are cool, it is cool. Question: Mr. President, what do you think that China can do to take off the trade war at this point though? Donald Trump: Well, I’ll be speaking to President Xi. I have a great relationship with him. We’re going to have a very good relationship. But we have a $1 trillion deficit, because of Biden, with President Xi – more than that. I mean I’ve heard $1.2 trillion. We have a deficit. And I’ve explained that to President Xi. We also have a problem where he’s allowing fentanyl to be sent into Mexico and then cross the border and, you know, killing – I think the number is much higher than the 125, 115 that – I think it’s closer to 300,000 people a year. Donald Trump: And so, that’s a problem. But they have a tremendous surplus against the United States, and we don’t want that. Question: Mr. President, why do you want to control Ukraine’s power plants? A number of presidents have come to you asking for exemptions on tariffs. Is that something that is under consideration by you? Donald Trump: Well, people are coming to me and talking about tariffs. And a lot of people are asking me if they could have exceptions. And once you do that for one, you have to do that for all. So, I mean generally – I did something interestingly during – two weeks ago, I gave the American car companies a break because it would have been unfair if I didn’t. And everybody said, oh, he changed his mind on tariffs. Donald Trump: I didn’t change my mind. I helped our sort of Big Three, Big Four, I helped some of the American companies. And instead of taking it properly, they said, oh, he changed it. I don’t change. But the word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes there’s flexibility. So, there’ll be flexibility. But basically, it’s reciprocal so that if China is charging us 50 percent or 30 percent or 20 percent – and I don’t mean China, I mean anybody, any country, Canada. Donald Trump: Nobody knows that Canada is charging our dairy farmers. They have 270 percent tariffs. Nobody knows that. Nobody knows that. They have up to 400 percent. They have a couple of tariffs at 400 percent. Nobody knows that. Nobody talks about that. And remember with Canada, we don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their energy. Donald Trump: We don’t need anything from Canada. And yet it costs us $200 billion a year in subsidy to keep Canada afloat. So, when I say they should be a state, I mean that, I really mean that. Because we can’t be expected to carry a country that is right next to us on our border. It would be a great state. It would be a cherished state. Donald Trump: The taxes for Canadian citizens would go down in less than half. They don’t spend money on military because they think we’re going to protect them. There are many things that they do like icebreakers. They want us to provide icebreakers for them. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Canada, they’re very tough traders too. Donald Trump: I want to just tell you, all the people, they’re tough traders. They trade very tough. And the expression I use is some people don’t have the cards. I used that expression about a week and a half ago, right? Somebody was negotiating who didn’t have the cards who’s now I think saying that he wants to do it. And I think we’re going to have a big deal on that very special something. Donald Trump: We’ve got to make a deal on that. But Canada has been a very nasty negotiator against the United States, took advantage of the United States for a long time. But nobody knows that they were getting 270 percent tariffs on dairy products. Question: A follow-up on Canada, and I don’t think I’ve heard you say this in all of the talk about Canada becoming the 51st state. Are you concerned that if they became the 51st state, they would be a very, very blue state, very, very big and very, very blue? Donald Trump: No, they might be. But it would – you have that artificial line that goes – that straight artificial – that looked like it was drawn by a ruler. Somebody with a – I don’t mean a ruler like a king, I mean, like a ruler, like a ruler, this way. And it’s just an artificial line that was drawn in the sand or in the ice. Donald Trump: And can I tell you, Peter, just – you add that to this country, what a beautiful landmass, the most beautiful landmass anywhere in the world and it was just cut off for whatever reason. It would be great. Now, is it liberal? Maybe. But a conservative until I got involved because I don’t care who wins up there. Donald Trump: Frankly, he probably would do better with the liberal than the conservative if you want to know the truth. But just a little while ago, before I got involved and totally changed the election, which I don’t care about. Probably it’s our advantage actually. But the conservative was leading against, I call him Governor Trudeau, the conservative was leading by 35 points. Donald Trump: So, I don’t know about that. I think Canada is a place like a lot of other places. If you have a good candidate, the candidate’s going to win. Question: And I don’t know – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – if you’ve seen this, but the two astronauts that you just helped save from space, they didn’t get any overtime pay for all that extra time. They got $5 a day per diem for 286 days, that is $1,430 in extra pay. Is there anything the administration can do to get them – to make them whole? Donald Trump: Well, nobody’s ever mentioned this to me. If I have to, I’ll pay it out of my own pocket, OK, I’ll get it for them. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: I like that. I’ll pay it right out of my – is that all? That’s not a lot for what they had to go through. And I want to thank Elon Musk, by the way, because think if we don’t have him. There’s only so long even though they’re in the capsule up there, that the body starts to deteriorate after nine or 10 months. Donald Trump: And it gets really bad after 14, 15 months, with the bones and the blood and all the things that you’ve been reporting on very well. And if we don’t have Elon, they could be up there a long time. Who else is going to get them? And I just want to thank him. He’s going through a lot, what they’re doing to him. Donald Trump: And these people are going to be caught and they’re going to be caught and they’re going to be prosecuted. And from what they tell me, I see this just by watching your programs and reading the news, but from what they tell me, they could get 20 years in jail and they’ll get it. I’ll tell you, there’s going to be no leniency and there’ll be no pardons. Donald Trump: I can tell you that right now. Question: You said this morning, 20 years in jail and then maybe they’ll go to one of these prisons in El Salvador. Do you think with the way that the judges have been issuing injunctions, it would be easier or harder to send these Tesla domestic terrorists to a jail in El Salvador than these MS-13 or Tren de Aragua guys? Donald Trump: Well, I view these people as terrorists, just like others. When I looked at those showrooms burning and those cars, not one or two, like seven, eight, 10 burning, exploding all over the place, these are terrorists. You didn’t have that on January 6th. I can tell you. You didn’t have anything like that on January 6th, which is sort of amazing because on January 6th, the Democrats were talking. Donald Trump: Nobody was killed other than a very beautiful young woman, Ashli – Ashli Babbitt. Nobody was killed. And you look at what’s going on now with these terrorists, these are terrorists. And that’s an organized event. Take a look at their signs, take a look, they’re all made by the same sign company, a nice, expensive job. Donald Trump: No, these are – the people that finance it are, in my opinion, are just as big a trouble as the people that are setting the match and setting the fires. So we’ll see. It’s under very serious investigation by the FBI and by the Justice Department. These people are terrorists. OK. Go ahead, behind you. Question: Mr. President, what do you say to American military families who are seeing Elon Musk at the Pentagon today, are hearing about Defense Department cuts and their thoughts are immediately going to the safety of their loved ones who are currently deployed? Donald Trump: Yeah. Well, we’re making our country strong. And when they see a thing like that and they hear that story about Elon and China, what they should do is realize that The New York Times is a corrupt institution because I think they’re the ones – they knew that story wasn’t true. Nobody believed that story. Donald Trump: People that when I first – they laughed when they heard this story. Nobody believed it, that the Pentagon was giving him a briefing on what war with China would look like, and he has business – no, they made that up because it’s a good story to make up. They’re very dishonest people. Look, I have it with the Times and you’ll see more and more of it, to me, it’s a very, very dishonest organization. Donald Trump: But a story like that is made up. It’s total fiction. And I just wanted to make sure I called up chief of staff and I called up Pete and I said, is there any truth to that, absolutely not. He’s there for DOGE, not there for China. And if you ever mention China, I think you’d walk out of the room. He wouldn’t take it anyway. Donald Trump: So it’s just a made-up story. Nobody’s taken better care of the military. One of the things that, I know that Pete’s doing, is he’s talking about a lot of the civilian staff and we’re going to get them other jobs. We’re going to have a lot of jobs in this country, but we don’t want to have wasteful jobs. Donald Trump: We want to have meaningful jobs and those were wasteful jobs. Those are jobs that not only military, but jobs where people don’t show up. You take a look at Department of Education. I’ve never seen so many buildings with the names on it. You go past one after another Department of Education and they’re empty. Donald Trump: The people don’t show up. You know why, because they have other jobs, because they’re playing golf or they’re playing something. They’re doing something. And we have a lot of great people, but we have to move that back to the States. We’re going to make our country strong and we’re going to get people much better jobs, because we have companies moving into our country, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Donald Trump: Nothing like this has happened. And it’s automatic. They don’t want to pay the tariffs. How do you avoid paying the tariffs? You build your plant in the United States and it’s a beautiful thing to see. I see it. So far, I would say $4 trillion. Nobody’s ever heard of them. No country has ever heard of numbers like that, $4 trillion and those are the best ones. Donald Trump: The biggest best chip maker in the world. I’m not a fan of the CHIP Act, where you give billions away, billions of dollars away to companies that don’t need it and it won’t bring them here. I’m giving nothing away. All they’re doing is coming here. They’re building because they want to avoid – remember this on the tariffs too because that’s going to be – Liberation Day, April 2nd, it’s reciprocal. Donald Trump: If they charge us, we charge them. So somebody will say, well, how much are the tariffs, very fair. If India, as an example, has been very bad to us on tariffs. They charge 100 percent, 200 percent. Whatever they charge – Now, Europe just announced they’re lowering the tariffs on cars. We charge, like a joke, 2.5 percent. Donald Trump: That’s what this country charges. Europe just announced that they’re reducing their tariffs on cars to 2.5 percent. That’s nice. But they also have non-monetary tariffs where they make it impossible for the cars to get in even without the dollars on them, dollar signs. It’s called a non-monetary tariff where they put on controls where no matter what happens because they don’t want cars – they don’t want the American car in their market, and yet they send us millions of cars. Donald Trump: They send us big agriculture. They don’t want our agriculture. They don’t want anything from us. European Union’s very tough, but now it’s fair. So whatever they do to us, we do to them. [Inaudible] what? Question: As Russia continues to attack Ukraine, are you planning to impose any sort of sanctions on – Donald Trump: Well, they’re fighting against each other. Yeah, I think we’re going to have to have a ceasefire on a lot of areas. And so far, that’s all held very well. And getting that ceasefire, they had a lot of guns pointing at each other. We had some soldiers unfortunately surrounded by other soldiers and they are going to be – I believe we’re going to pretty soon have a full ceasefire and then we’re going to have a contract. Donald Trump: And the contracts being negotiated, the contract in terms of dividing up the lands, etc., etc. It’s being negotiated as we speak. What do you say to critics who say that your actions towards law firms amount to coercion? Well, the law firms all want to make deals. You mean the law firms that were going after, that went after me for four years, ruthlessly, violently, illegally? Donald Trump: Are those the law firms you’re talking about? They’re not babies. They’re very sophisticated people. Those law firms did bad things, bad things. They went after me for years, Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax, all a hoax. It was a hoax. It was Hunter Biden’s laptop. It didn’t come out of Russia, by the way. It came out of his bedroom. Donald Trump: It was all a hoax developed by democrats, Hillary. I don’t think Biden did because I don’t think Biden knows what the hell he’s doing, frankly, based on everything I see. I’ve seen things since being here that are so sad. What he’s done to this country, what he and they did to this country, those people that surrounded him, who, by the way are radical left but smart. Donald Trump: He’s not smart, he was never smart, but these are radical left smart people. They totally controlled him. He did whatever they told him to do and it’s a shame. It’s so sad to see what happened, what they’ve done to this country, both not only the inflation. The inflation you saw, but allowing millions of criminals, millions and millions of criminals into our country. Donald Trump: That’s an inexcusable act, and many other things besides that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-03-24
Donald Trump: Thank you very much for being here. We had a very, very good cabinet meeting. We’re on our way to some tremendous numbers. I think, first of all, many companies are now moving into the United States. They’re coming back. Some of them left us from many years ago, decades ago, and they’re all – it seems they’re all coming back. Donald Trump: We have probably identified maybe $4 trillion worth of companies moving back or going to move back, and many of them have announced. It’s going to be tremendous jobs, high-paying jobs, too. And you probably know, the chip business – not because of the CHIPS Act, which was a disaster. You gave billions of dollars to companies that already have many billions of dollars. Donald Trump: They’re just – they said, “Thank you very much.” It was no incentive for them to use it. But what is good is the tariffs, we’ll make it so that they want to come back. That’s why they’re coming back. I think they’re coming back because of the election that took place on November 5th and because of the fact that they have to come back because the tariffs are forcing them to come back. Donald Trump: And remember, there are no tariffs if you build here, and that’s a big factor. So, we have record numbers. Howard was just telling me the numbers that we’re talking about are crazy, beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. So, they’ll be doing a lot of – a lot of building, all sorts of businesses, including the basics of automobiles. Donald Trump: We have – as you know, Indiana is – Honda is coming in with a massive plan to Indiana. But there are many plants that are happening. And literally, some have started already. General Motors is already redoing plants that were half abandoned or they have plants that weren’t being fully utilized. They’re going to be – they and others are going to be making parts and other things in those plants so that it’s one-stop shopping finally. Donald Trump: It’s ridiculous. You had to go to Mexico. You had to go to Canada. The car went all over the place, it was like – I don’t know how – how that would have worked. But that’s the way it sort of ended up. We had a deal and – we have a deal, it’s fine, but people took advantage of the deal. They cheated. And when you cheat, the deals are unfortunate. Donald Trump: But now, what’s happening is the numbers are beyond our wildest expectations. Now, having to do with cutting, we’ve done a lot of cutting, a lot of cutting from people, ideally the people that aren’t doing their job. In many cases, people weren’t attending jobs. In some cases – in many cases, people didn’t exist. Donald Trump: They had on the government roles people that don’t even exist. But of the ones that did exist, as you know, many didn’t come to work, many had no intention of coming to work, many were paid and working someplace else. There were lots of bad scenarios, but they’re being weeded out. And I think we’re probably ahead of schedule on that. Donald Trump: And to me, something that was just terrible is the contracts that were finding, the fraudulent contracts that we’re finding where millions and millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, in some cases, were given out. And we’ll – I think we’ll start with that. I’d like to start with Doug Burgum, secretary of the interior. Donald Trump: He told us about a couple of contracts that we have now found when he got there. They saw this with Chris and everybody, and they couldn’t believe it. Doug, could you just – Doug Burgum: Eight hundred and thirty million dollars. So, that’s one – one that we’ve stopped. And – and that contract was going out after you were inaugurated, sir. Donald Trump: Yeah. Doug Burgum: So, it was jumping – Donald Trump: Such pure fraud. Doug Burgum: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s a fraud. But we’ve had many fraudulent contracts that were caught by the work that Elon and his people are doing and working with our people. It’s been brought to light the fraud, not just waste and abuse. The fraud has been incredible. You mentioned one, Madam Secretary. Brooke Rollins: Well, yes, sir. Well, let me just add to that – and thank you. We just had a wonderful cabinet meeting, all aligned on – on certainly the – the effort to realign the government. But even at the US Department of Agriculture, we’ve canceled a $300,000 contract educating on food justice for queer and transgender farmers in San Francisco. Brooke Rollins: A similar contract we canceled in New York, again educating transgender and queer farmers on food justice and food equality. I’m not even sure what that means, but – but apparently the last administration wanted to put our taxpayer dollars towards that. We canceled a $600,000 contract in – out of Louisiana that was studying the menstrual cycles of transgender men, a $600,000 contract. Brooke Rollins: We canceled another contract out of a university in the middle of the country that focused on getting more diversity, equity, and inclusion into our pest management industry. Again, these are nonsensical. It makes zero sense to use taxpayer dollars to fund these. I know these are just a few examples of the hundreds and hundreds – Donald Trump: There’s fraud. Brooke Rollins: That we have found. Elon Musk: A case – a clear case of fraud was with the Small Business Administration where they were handing out loans – $330 million worth of loans to people under the age of 11. I think the youngest, Kelly, was a nine-month-old who got a $100,000 loan. That’s a very precocious baby we’re talking about here. Donald Trump: Kelly, what about that? Kelly Loeffler: Well, we’re tackling the fraud, waste, and abuse of the agency. We’ve seen, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud go unprosecuted, so we’re taking that on. We have a zero-tolerance policy for fraud, and we continue to crack down on it and make sure people are held accountable. Donald Trump: That’s amazing. And you have a lot of that. You found far too much of it. It’s a pure fraud. We like to use the words waste and abuse because they make – they sort of sound good. But many of these things are pure fraud. Now, there was a contract that you’ve heard about where Stacey Abrams got $2 billion just before we took over, and it was a rush to get her the money, and that was environmental, and nobody knows what she was doing, but 2 billion. Donald Trump: If you got 2 million, that’s a lot. If you got 200,000, that’s a lot. But this was $2 billion was given. Lee, do you want to talk about that and the other one that was even worse? Lee Zeldin: EPA has now canceled over $22 billion worth of contracts, $2 billion going to this NGO that Stacey Abrams was tied to. They received only $100 in 2023, and then the Biden administration gave them $2 billion. The director of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund saw his former employer get $5 billion. So, $20 billion went to just eight NGOs, and they’re all pass-throughs. Lee Zeldin: And then they were giving it to other entities, many of them were pass-throughs. And what you have is all these extra middlemen, they’re taking their cut, and the taxpayer ends up getting screwed. They’re losing out on all this hard-earned money. They can’t afford to have the federal government waste. The partnership with DOGE – and Elon Musk has been incredible at EPA. Their team is – is very talented. Lee Zeldin: We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them, and of course, this mandate from President Trump to make sure that we identify every last penny, whether we’re saving $50,000, $5 million, or $22 billion. We will not rest until every last penny is saved. Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to do this for the American public. Donald Trump: Thank you. Great job you’re doing. So, we have a lot of that. We’re getting down to a point – we think probably over the next two or three months, we’ll be pretty much satisfied with the people that are working hard and want to be members of the administration and our country, really. And they’re doing – a lot of good people. Donald Trump: We have a lot of great people. We want to keep the – we want to keep the good ones, and we want to get rid of the ones that don’t exist and we want to get rid of the ones that do exist but don’t work, and we have quite a few of them. Would anybody else like to say something before we take some questions from the press, please? Donald Trump: Doug Collins. Doug Collins: Yes, Mr. President. I think one of the things that you’ve always told me is take care of our veterans, and that’s what we’re doing at the VA. And one of the things, though, is you also have to know who your employees are. You have to know the very fact of who you are. We’re 470,000 roughly when we started this, larger than the active-duty Army when you think about that in the perspective. Doug Collins: But, however, this is an interesting point. When I first got there and we started looking at this, you know, how you take care of people, we didn’t have an HR system that could actually give us a rundown on who actually was working where, that we’ve had to work with that working with our – our VA employees who are DOGE liaisons. Doug Collins: We’ve been able to put together an organizational chart which we can start looking at that. But the interesting part about it is it’s about taking care of veterans. And what you’ve told me to do is how do we get the people in the right places. And I think when we look at this, GAO has told us we were high risk for years. Doug Collins: The previous administration put literally tens of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of employees over the last four years, and we saw our statistics basically go – stay the same or go down. Backlogs went up. You know, maybe the question is not money and employees anymore. Maybe it’s the organization and how we effectively deliver for the American people. Doug Collins: And that’s what we’re going to do. Donald Trump: OK. Unidentified: Well said. Donald Trump: And, you know, one thing I want to add to it, it is not necessarily a very popular thing to do. You know, you’re talking about employment, you’re talking about people and the lives of people. And yet, I think the American public understands we’re trying to save our country and make our country great again. Donald Trump: I mean you could say it, but we’re trying to save our country from this extraordinary thing that was happening. What they were doing to our country was just a horrible thing. And I have no idea how it plays out in the public. I have – I guess you see poll numbers that are very good numbers, but I don’t know what that means long term. Donald Trump: But it’s something that has to be done. If we don’t do it, we’re not going to have much of a country left. So, we have to do it. So, we’re doing things that I think a lot of presidents wouldn’t be inclined to do. But we’re doing it to really – you know, I don’t want to use cliche, I don’t want to say we’re doing it to make America great again because I say that on the campaign trail, but there’s really no other words that could express it better than that. Donald Trump: It’s – we’re doing it to help our country. And our country was – was riddled with fat like no country probably anywhere in the world, and we’re getting rid of the fat. And at the same time, we’re bringing in – we’re going to be bringing in millions of very good high-paying jobs and we’re going to be taking in a lot of money. Donald Trump: Our country is going to be very strong. We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world, friend and foe. We were taken advantage of like nobody’s ever seen. And you saw what happened today with Venezuela. We did something with Venezuela, which is long in the making, and it’s very substantial. And we’ll be announcing cars very shortly. Donald Trump: And we already announced steel, as you know, and aluminum. We’ll be announcing pharmaceuticals at some point in the not too distant – because we have to have pharmaceuticals. We don’t make pharmaceuticals anymore in our country. And if we have problems like wars or anything else, we need steel, we need pharmaceuticals, we need aluminum. Donald Trump: We need a lot of these things that we sort of don’t make anymore, and yet we’re equipped to do it all. So, we’ll be announcing some of these things in the very near future, not in the long future, the very near future. And it’ll bring – it’ll bring in billions of dollars, billions and billions. And it’ll bring in maybe more importantly jobs. Donald Trump: It’ll protect the jobs we have. And it’s going to be really, really quite amazing. Chris, did you have something to say? Chris Wright: Yes, Mr. President. I want to say energy is the infrastructure that makes our country run and drives our national security. The Biden administration grew my department, the Department of Energy, by 20 percent and expenditure much more than that, all in an effort to reduce the production of energy in the United States and to make energy more expensive. Chris Wright: We are stewards of the American taxpayer dollars, right? That’s the job of everyone around this table, led by you. We want to reverse that trajectory and care about every dollar an American taxpayer gives us and are we using it for the benefit of Americans. Let me tell you one thing, huge growth in expenditures, huge growth in employee count. Chris Wright: Puerto Rico, an American territory, had its electricity grid destroyed. They had billions of dollars in the Department of Energy to help Puerto Rico. Yet, they didn’t spend that money because that money would have meant more energy, more jobs, more prosperity in Puerto Rico. They wanted to have them as a poster child of wind and solar. Chris Wright: This island should run on wind and solar. That just doesn’t work. But they cared about politics more than the American people, and they didn’t treat the dollars like they were their dollars. This table, the team you have assembled, we’re treating the American dollars like they’re our dollars. Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: Thank you. We’re doing a great job on energy, by the way. We have – we have things happening with energy that will knock your socks off. And really, amazing, amazing job. Howard, do you want to say a couple of words? Howard Lutnick: Well, what is so exciting is April 2nd is just around the corner, and that’s American Liberation Day. That’s the day when the rest of the world starts to treat America with respect. And your leadership, understanding how the rest of the world treats us and what balance and what fair trade finally is going to be, is going to take care of America. Howard Lutnick: It’s going to launch the External Revenue Service to start to build the power and prestige of America back. And I’m honored to be helping you on that course. Donald Trump: It’s an interesting term, right, the External Revenue Service. We’re going to take in a lot of money from the outside, and that’s going to keep our taxes low and I think getting a lot lower. It’s going to be a lot of money, and that will – the external will take care of the internal to a large extent. So, I think it’s – it’s going to be a beautiful transformation. Donald Trump: Linda, you might say a couple of words. You’ve done so amazingly. It’s a 50 percent cut. And more importantly, we want to bring education into the states. We’re at the bottom of the pack, but we’re the most expensive per pupil, and we want to bring education back to the states where they can teach the students lovingly with their parents and with the boards and everything else, and they’ll be every bit as good as these other countries. Donald Trump: These states – these individual states will do a phenomenal job. You want to say something? Linda McMahon: Yes, sir. And if we think about education, if we don’t address the issues in education now and start getting our scores up, what are we going to find in our next generation and generation after that? Where are our engineers, our doctors, our lawyers, our scientists, our – our AI and technical experts going to come from? Linda McMahon: We will go farther and farther down. And with everything else we’re doing within our country, building manufacturing, bringing all of that back, if we don’t educate in the best way we can, we will be lost and those generations will be lost. It is, I think, the cornerstone of our culture and what we need to focus on. And so, by having education at the best place where it can be, which is at the state, the local levels with governors, with best practices and tools, which I hope the Department of Education can help supply for them, we’ll do it. Donald Trump: And, Linda, as you know, the SBA has taken over student loans, which is a lot of loans. It’s a big job. And, Kelly, we appreciate that. You’re going to do fantastically well. And Bobby is going to be taking over their various medical aspects and health aspects of the educational process. So – and he’s going to do a fantastic job of it. So, thank you very much. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. President. I would just say that I’m very grateful to you and very grateful for the partnership with DOGE, with Elon. We’ve identified extraordinary ways in my department and HHS. The expenditures, the budget of HHS during the Biden administration went up by 38 percent, the employees went up by 17 percent, and health care went down. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: We have 40 comms departments. We have 40 procurement departments. We have 40 IT departments. And we have 40 – procurement, HR, none of them talking to each other. We are, with Elon’s help, eliminating the redundancies. We are streamlining our department. We’re going to go back to providing gold standard science. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: We’re going to get the money to the scientists and to the patients rather than to the administrators and to the bureaucrats. And we’re going to restore gold standard science, and we’re going to make America healthy again. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. It’s great. If you might, Madam Secretary, say a little bit about what’s happening and how well we’ve done at the border. Kristi Noem: Sir, this last week, I was in Arizona, California, Alaska, and Florida, and CBP literally has almost 100 percent operational control of the border, which means that our country is secure and that we know who’s coming into this country and that they love our country and they want to help keep it great into the future. Kristi Noem: We are in the month of March, the last couple of weeks, increased our deportations by 50 percent. So, we’re now not even just getting the worst of the worst out. We’re making sure that there’s consequences for being here and committing crimes in our communities. And we’re – the numbers are continuing to escalate and to go up, sir. Kristi Noem: This next week, I’m headed – or this week, I’m headed down to El Salvador. I’ll be in the prison where we sent TdA members. I’ll be meeting with the president and also Colombia and Mexico and talking about building these relationships so that we can continue to get people out of this country that don’t belong here and take them home. Kristi Noem: And also, you had talked to me about sending the message worldwide about the fact that people shouldn’t be coming to this country and they shouldn’t be coming here illegally. So, we are in several other countries around the world with a message right now that’s saying if you are thinking about coming to America illegally and coming here, don’t do it. You are not welcome. Kristi Noem: We have a legal process to becoming a United States citizen and there are consequences if you come here illegally, and America has changed because we’re putting Americans first. So, we’ve also – the Coast Guard has done phenomenal work. I don’t know if you all have reported on it, but we have broken historic records in the amount of drug interdictions that they have brought in. We’ve repositioned the fleet to go after the fentanyl crisis and to go after the southern border and securing it, and they’ve done amazing work as far as that. Kristi Noem: We were down in Florida, they brought in $0.5 billion worth of cocaine that they had done in 14 interdictions and had brought them in, going right directly after the cartels, and doing great work there. And we have a cutter that we have sped up the process, sir, the icebreaker. That will be hitting the waters here this summer. Kristi Noem: And we’ve got two more that will be coming. But, you know, Russia is using their cutters and icebreakers up in the Arctic to do surveillance on us, and we’re going to reposition our fleet to continue to partner. I want to thank the secretary of defense and the Navy for all of their help and partnership, too. Kristi Noem: We – we do operations together because they’re – obvious Navy warships are in certain regions, but our cutters are faster and can work together in a partnership that’s securing America. So – and we’re going to eliminate FEMA. So, we’ve got a lot – a lot to do, but it’s all good, and – and we’re working hard, and we’re going to make sure that we’re continuing to do exactly what you promised. Donald Trump: That’s great. Great job. Yesterday, there was a plaza that you know well, there’d be hundreds of thousands of people standing at that plaza, pouring into our country, totally unchecked, many people from jails and prisons and mental institutions and gang members, and horrible, horrible. And they just pour into our country. Donald Trump: Yesterday, I was speaking to somebody, I was checking on the border, and they said there was literally nobody in this massive plaza. You know what we’re talking. A plaza that would hold hundreds of thousands of people. There was literally nobody there. There was one person sweeping it, but there were no people. Donald Trump: It’s been amazing. It’s been an amazing transformation, very quickly. And we’re getting the bad ones out first, and we’re taking them out. And there are some really bad ones, really bad ones, murderers, murderers of more than one people. At least 50 percent murdered more than one person. These are the people they were letting in through their open border policy. Donald Trump: It was terrible. But I want to just congratulate you and Tom Homan on the job you’ve done. You’ve been – it’s really – Kristi Noem: Sir, in Boston this weekend, hundreds of dangerous criminals were removed. Four killers taken out of the country just by what they did in Boston these last few days. Donald Trump: Yeah. And these are killers that there’s no reasoning. It’s not like, oh, let’s talk them out of it. These are stone-cold killers. They don’t care. They don’t even think about it. They kill somebody, they go to sleep, they wake up, they don’t even remember they killed them. These are bad people that should have never been allowed into our country. Donald Trump: Pam is doing such a fantastic job. I thought maybe you could say a few words. Pam Bondi: Thank you, President. As far as the – we are hearing a lot about fraud, waste, and abuse. A lot of waste and abuse, but there is a tremendous amount of fraud. And, Elon, thank you for your partnership. Thank you for your team. You have uncovered so much fraud in our government, and we will prosecute you. Pam Bondi: We have an internal task force now working with every agency sitting here at this table. And if you’ve committed fraud, we’re coming after you. Thank you, Elon, for that. On the violent crime level, thanks to President Trump’s directive, we are seeking the death penalty again. So, all of these horrible violent criminals that you’re hearing about around the country, they will face the death penalty federally within our country. Pam Bondi: And the drug dealers need to get out of here because we are coming after you. We’re going to have 94 great US attorneys around this country. And everyone will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Donald Trump: Thank you. Pam Bondi: Thank you, President. It’s at your directive. Donald Trump: I couldn’t have said that better. That’s very good. That’s very good. She’s doing a fantastic job. Thanks, Pam. Do you have any questions, please? Question: Mr. President. Donald Trump: Yeah. Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, what can states do now to implement your Department of Education executive order? Donald Trump: Well, I think what’s going to happen is we are cleaning out a lot of things like the loans, student loans, which will be handled very professionally by people that do that. And then, as you know, RFK Jr. is going to do a fantastic job having to do with health and the other things and frankly better than the people at the Department of Education. Donald Trump: You see the buildings all over DC. And then the rest is the states are going to start coming in and taking all of the information on all of their students. And I think a lot of that information is going to be shipped to different states like Iowa, like Indiana, like so many. They’re so anxious to get – they’re calling us, and they’re so anxious to get it. We’ll be shipping the records of the children that they’re taking care of, that they want to take care of, and the process will begin. Donald Trump: And I think it won’t be that long before the states will be really running the Department of Education. Our teachers are going to be taken very well care of. And I said, you know, personally, I don’t care union, nonunion. That doesn’t matter. Teachers are so important to this country and to me, and we’re going to take great care of our teachers. Donald Trump: And I know it’s very important to Linda. So, I think you’re going to see a tremendous change very quickly having to do with education. And it’s – the process has already begun, very strongly begun. I think we’ve done, you know, in whatever it is, eight weeks, people are amazed at how much we’ve done in terms of the safety of the country. Donald Trump: In fact, I would like to ask maybe Marco to say a few words on what’s happening with respect to, in particular, Russia and Ukraine, where we have some pretty good news. I think we want to get it stopped losing 2,500 young people, and these are Russian and Ukrainian people largely. And they’re not American people, but on a human basis, we want to get it stopped, and we want to stop spending billions and billions of dollars to a country that we think it’s – it’s time, and we’re doing pretty well. Donald Trump: Marco, do you want to say something? Marco Rubio: Yeah. Mr. President, first of all, I think the American people should be proud that we have a president that’s promoting peace and the end of conflict on this planet. This is a war that’s gone on for three years, as you pointed out, that, as you rightly pointed out, would have never happened had you been president. Marco Rubio: But now, it’s here and it needs to be brought to an end. There is no military solution to this war. It has to end through negotiation. And there’s only one leader in the world that’s capable of bringing the two sides to a table, and that’s our president, the president of the United States, President Trump. Marco Rubio: And that’s what he’s done. And so, today, even as we speak, we have teams on the ground in Saudi Arabia meeting with the respective sides in the hopes of making progress towards this outcome that we all want to see. And – and I think that the country owes you a great debt of gratitude and the world, really, because I mean you’re the only leader in the planet that can bring the two sides together to bring an end to this conflict, and that’s what you’ve done, and you’ve done it despite, you know, impediments from other countries and others who maybe have different opinions about how this should go. But ultimately, I think that the only chance we have for peace is through the president’s leadership, and you’ve shown that. Marco Rubio: And we hope it will bear fruit. And today, we’ll hopefully be one step more in that direction. Donald Trump: Thank you, Marco. And on the Middle East, another hotspot that we didn’t have a problem with. There was no problem in the Middle East when we left. And now, there’s a lot of problems in the Middle East, but we’re working on that. But I think we’ve seen significant progress, and I think you’ll have start – we’re going to start – we were talking with the vice president a little while ago, and you’re going to see countries start to fill up the Abraham Accords. Donald Trump: More and more countries want to join. That was a great success, tremendous success, and then Biden and his group did zero with it. That should have been filled up within a year of the election. It would have been filled up. So, countries are starting to want to get involved very much with the Abraham Accords again, so that’ll be great. Donald Trump: JD, do you want to say something? J.D. Vance: Yes. Sure. Yes, sir. Just on that topic, if you think about what happened with the Abraham Accords, one of the great diplomatic breakthroughs under the first Trump administration really in the last 30 or 40 years of American history in the Middle East, and the Biden administration did absolutely nothing with it. Built on it, not add at all, added zero additional countries. J.D. Vance: Purely out of political spite, the Biden administration, I think, hurt the United States and really hurt the project of world peace. That has changed. Luckily, about two months ago, we got a new president, and that president has given us the task of building out the Abraham Accords, adding new countries to it. And really, what you see is a lot of these – these – these countries that have historical, ethnic, or religious hatreds want to build. J.D. Vance: They want to build new artificial intelligence. They want to build new real estate projects. They want their citizens to become rich and prosperous and peaceful. And they’re setting to the side some of those old hatreds under the leadership of President Trump. So, it’s early, but we made a lot of progress, and we’ll keep on making progress, sir. Donald Trump: One other – thank you, JD. One of the things that’s very important I think to mention, I saw a show yesterday and they had a Democrat congressman on. It was on Fox. And he said, “Well, President Trump said prices would be coming down. And instead, he’s focused on other things.” Well, we are focused on a lot of other things like peace, like all of these companies that are moving in, and jobs. Donald Trump: But what he didn’t say is that prices have come down very substantially. And if you look at – when I came in, after one week, they were screaming at me about eggs. Eggs had nothing to do with me, but they went through the roof, and you couldn’t get them. And now, they’re down about 35, 40 percent, maybe even more than that. Donald Trump: I’m going to let – Brooke, if you would just discuss that. Brooke Rollins: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: And groceries. Generally, prices are coming down, and energy prices are coming down. And I hope the Fed lowers interest rates, and then you’re going to see interest rates coming down. And I’ll have you speak about that in a second, Scott. Brooke, go ahead. Brooke Rollins: Well, sir, thank you. I think the first thing that’s really remarkable to note is that the prices of eggs under the four years of Joe Biden increased 237 percent. Two hundred thirty-seven percent in those four years, and yet it wasn’t covered in the press at all. No one talked about the price of eggs in the summer of last year, for example, from the media. Brooke Rollins: So, of course, the president wins and he is inaugurated; and the next day, everyone is yelping about why the price of eggs are so high. So – so, it was certainly one of many, many issues we took on. Under the four years of Joe Biden, we had the cost of input go up 30 percent for all of our agriculture products. Brooke Rollins: At the same time, the trade deficit increased $49 billion. So, it was zero under the first Trump administration. And then under Joe Biden, we sold $49 billion less of our ag products around the world. Then you combine that with the avian bird flu. And I know I’ve talked to a lot of you in the press on this over the last three or four weeks. Brooke Rollins: But listen, here’s the deal. The president, under his vision and support, we released about a month ago a very significant plan on how to bring the price of eggs down. It included five prongs. I won’t go into it now because I don’t want to bore everyone. But – but since that day, since we released that plan regarding biosecurity, repopulation, importing eggs, research, and then deregulating, taking those onerous rules off of our farmers, our egg laying farmers, since that time, the price of eggs – the wholesale price of eggs has come down 53 percent. Brooke Rollins: So, we’re going to keep working on it. Listen, it’s not something you solve overnight, avian bird flu and some of the other animal diseases. We’re working across the government, several partners out in the cabinet on that, especially my friend Secretary Kennedy over at HHS. But we have a long-term solution. Brooke Rollins: But at least for now, in the short term, thanks to President Trump and so many that have worked so hard, the price of eggs are coming down, as well as the price of groceries. So, thank you, sir, for the opportunity to lead on that. Donald Trump: And the number is 53 percent, and they’re readily available. So, that’s – I think it’s a fantastic job. And overall, groceries are down, too. So – Brooke Rollins: That’s right. They’re coming down. Donald Trump: So, the consumer is finally seeing some good news instead of year after year of prices going up because of grossly incompetent leadership. Scott, do you want to talk about interest rates, where you see it all going? Scott Bessent: Yes, sir. So, we are – under your direction, we’re reprivatizing the economy, we’re bringing down government spending, we’re bringing down excess employment in the government sector. On the other side, we’re going to re-leverage the banking system. We’re going to have all the new manufacturing jobs, so everyone who’s laid off the – from the government will have an opportunity to go into the private sector, and that is going to lead to disinflation. Scott Bessent: We’re going to – inflation is under control. We’re going to get the affordability crisis fixed, so lower energy, deregulation, more private sector jobs that will naturally get interest rates down. Interest rate is down. Mortgage rates are down almost every week since January 20th. The energy costs are down, about 15 percent. Scott Bessent: Crude oil is down about 15 percent. And as we keep that going, interest rates are going to keep declining. It will be good for mortgages. It will be good for credit card debt. It will be great for auto loans. Donald Trump: That’s great. And you’re doing a really, really good job. I hope – I’d like to see the Fed lower interest rates. That’s just my opinion. Because things are coming down, we have inflation under control. Tremendous amounts of money will be soon coming in from tariffs, which is about time that we were able to partake. Donald Trump: We’ve been ripped off by every country on that – on that basis, and it’s about time. But that will be, I think, very – treated very fairly. We’d be very fair. But the money that we’re talking about is rather astronomical, and it should be because we’ve put years and years – I was able – in the first term, we had a great first term, with the highest stock price increase ever, all the different things that we had. Donald Trump: But one of the things, we took in a lot of money in tariffs. And I had just started that process, and we had to slow it down because of the COVID. We didn’t – we didn’t go forward. We had a – we did a very good job with COVID, but that was something that happened to the whole world. It was a shame. What a shame, all those people dead and all of the problems that it caused for countries far worse. Donald Trump: I mean, some countries still haven’t recovered. Economically, they haven’t recovered. But we were – we took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs just starting the process. But this is a program that’s going to be, I think, unbelievable for our country, and I think it’s – it’s treating other countries very fairly, very, very fairly. Donald Trump: I’d like to ask, if I might, Sean Duffy to say a few words about the air traffic control situation. You know, there were some mishaps. One, in particular, the helicopter crashing into the plane. We have a system that’s 40 years old. They spent tens of billions of dollars trying to patch it up and, you know, make it work, but it doesn’t work. Donald Trump: And my pilot says they use different systems. They don’t want to use our system, it’s so obsolete. And it’s an obsolete horrible thing that happened with respect to it, and we were going to – I said, “Day one, if this happens, if we are successful, we’re going to have to get a brand-new, modern, top-of-the-line air traffic system.” And I think I can say that I’ve been working a little bit with Sean on it, but Sean’s been working hard on it and with his new person at FDA, who’s going to be terrific, by the way. Donald Trump: And maybe you want to talk to them about that because we need safety in the air, total safety in the air, and this will give that to you. Sean Duffy: Sure. Thank you, Mr. President. We had a conversation on Friday. Again, our – our air traffic control system, as we talked about maybe privately or, I don’t know, publicly with all of you, but we have decades of ideas and billions of dollars and no progress is ever made on any of these initiatives. Air traffic control is the same thing. Sean Duffy: And so, we’re having a conversation about building a state-of-the-art, brand-new, best technology, envy of the world air traffic control system. And what’s interesting from – from the DOGE team is they’ll look and say, “Well, what is the problem? Why hasn’t this been built? This is about safety. This is about people’s lives.” All of you fly. Sean Duffy: Your family flies. Why hasn’t it been done? And the problem is in government, it takes way too long. So, technology changes, and money changes, and administrations change. We have to do this fast, which is why we need the partnership from the Congress to give us the money upfront. The best ideas and the best technology available in the world, we’re going to build in the system. Sean Duffy: I think, Mr. President, we can do it in three years. I think Trump Tower was built in three or three and a half years. I think we could match the Trump Tower time frame. Donald Trump: Two years. Sean Duffy: OK. Donald Trump: Two years. Sean Duffy: Maybe not that good, but about – about – Donald Trump: Actually, 18 months to be exact. Sean Duffy: About three years. And again, it’s a – it’s a – we have to choreograph because, again, our towers are operational, keeping planes in the air. So, it’s a – we have to choreograph this. But we can do it in short order. If I could just make one other point, Mr. President? We’re at $36 trillion in debt. You have never had a DOGE. We’ve never come in and looked at our government the way, Mr. President, you’ve looked at this government and said there’s too many people, there’s – there’s contracts fraud, waste, and abuse. Sean Duffy: And so, we’ve had a few bumps in the road as we’ve gone through this process. But if you look around this room, everybody has – has seen the – how the process has evolved and everyone appreciates some of the insight and – and technical support that we’ve gotten to make this government more efficient, to – to – to make it more responsive to the American people. Sean Duffy: And so, again, when you have a new system like this, you’ll – you’ll get some bumps. But things are rolling out. The last three weeks have been much, much better as our teams have integrated and we’re working to – to deliver for the American people. And I would day some of the press had made comments last time about what happened in the last meeting. Sean Duffy: We had a – we had a great conversation in the last meeting. Elon and I had a great call after – after the meeting. And so, sometimes, the reporting can be a little bit off. I love the – the – the analysis that you guys do when you’re not in the room. But I would just note that we’re working well together, Mr. President. Donald Trump: That’s right. Sean Duffy: And the whole team here is working well together. Donald Trump: Well, actually, we decided to see you after the cabinet meeting instead of before, and I think that’s nice. But if you think about it, I guess never in history has anybody invited you to a cabinet meeting. We’re very open and transparent, and we had a very good meeting today. So, I mean, you’re standing here and you’re seeing what the result of the meeting is. I think we’re doing an amazing job for essentially eight weeks on the job. Donald Trump: I think it’s – there’s never been anything like it. Did you have a question, please? Question: Two actually, if you don’t mind. Thank you for having us. Donald Trump: Thank you. Question: We appreciate it. One, actually, to follow up on the attorney general’s comments and then one for you. You said that you’re now preparing to prosecute examples of fraud across federal agencies that have been referred to you. Is that what you said? Pam Bondi: We are working with a team. We have a team of attorneys in place, working with Elon’s incredible team, helping us, taking referrals from the cabinet members. And these are your tax dollars, and a lot of it is just abuse. A lot of it’s waste. But if it’s fraud, we are investigating it, and we’re coming – Question: So, you got referrals. You got referrals. Pam Bondi: We are looking at multiple cases of fraud throughout the federal government. Question: One for you, Mr. President. Greenland is confused about the second lady and the national security advisor visiting this week. They’re concerned that this is a further provocation of whatever it is you ultimately want for Greenland. Could you further explain why they’re going, what is the ultimate end goal when it comes to Greenland? Donald Trump: Yeah, well, not provocation. This is friendliness, not provocation. We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to their being properly protected and properly taken care of. They’re calling us. We’re not calling them. And we were invited over there. Donald Trump: And I thought it would be a great – I have great respect for the wife of our first – of our great vice president. I think she’s doing a – she’s a brilliant woman, she’s a very nice woman, and she loves the concept of Greenland. And so, she’s going there. And I think Marco is going there, and some others are going there. Donald Trump: But we’ve been invited. And they really like the idea because they have been somewhat abandoned, as you know. They haven’t been taken well – good care of. And I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future. I think it’s important, it’s important from the standpoint of international security. Donald Trump: And if you look at the ships outside of Greenland, you have Russia, you have China, you have lots of different people and lots of different places, and it cannot go on the way it is. It’s not going to go on the way it is. I’ll make a statement. It’s not going to happen. So, they’re going there, and that’s purely friendship. Question: Who’s doing the inviting? You said people. Donald Trump: A lot of people, yeah. People – people from Greenland are asking us to go there. We have many, many requests from many, many people, some officials, too. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: Yes, please. Question: Can I ask you about economic forecasts? I saw one economic forecast coming out from the OECD this past week. They are forecasting stagflation for the United States, a downtick in terms of GDP growth. Do you agree with that forecast? What do you see over the course of 2025 for our country? Donald Trump: Well, we inherited a very, very bad and perilous situation from a group of people. Again, we just got here. From a group – and this takes a long time to develop. From a group of people that truly didn’t know what they were doing. And you see that with not only costs, you see that with all of these fake contracts that have been given out. Donald Trump: So, we inherited a bad situation. But I think we’re going to have an economy that booms. I think when – when it all kicks in, it’s not going to take very long because some of these people that announced that they’re going to spend billions of dollars – I mean, literally, Apple is spending $500 billion. Donald Trump: They’ve never made anything close to that to do that. They’re building plants here instead of China, instead of other places. When it all happens – and it’s going to happen very soon. These are people that are already – in many cases, they’re already starting. They just announced – in some cases, they – literally, they announced, but they actually started before the announcement, as you know, because some are already building. Donald Trump: This is going to kick in. I think it’s going to be amazing. So, they’re looking at – based on numbers that I was looking at six months ago, seven months ago – I was very concerned about the economy. We’re going to have something that’s like nobody’s ever seen before. We have – we have numbers, and we have job generation that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before. Donald Trump: See how it works out, but I think the economy is going to go through the roof. OK. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: Yeah, please. OK. Question: About Ukraine, in an interview with Time magazine published this morning, President Zelenskyy said he believes that some members of your team have been influenced by Russian information. Those were his words. What do you – what do you have to say to that? Donald Trump: Well, probably, they have been influenced to get this thing settled because Ukraine wants to see it settled. I think they have to have it settled. And Russia wants to see it settled. And I think if I were president, this would never happen. Marco is doing a great job, and Steve Witkoff has been incredible, Michael Waltz. Donald Trump: We have a great group of people working on it. And it takes a good part of their day settling something that really – well, it affects us monetarily because we’ve given so much money. And we’re getting that done. In fact, Scott is telling me that the agreement on rare earths is just about completed. They’ll sign it shortly. Donald Trump: So, it’s – as you know, Europe is in for a very small fraction of what we’re in for. It affects them much more than it affects us. And again, they are in as a loan, which nobody knew until I came along. Europe is giving the money to Ukraine as a loan. We were just pouring money into Ukraine. It was a very unfair situation. Donald Trump: So, we made a deal on rare earths. But most importantly, we want to stop the killing that’s going on. Two thousand five hundred, on average, mostly soldiers, a week are being killed, and they’re Russian and Ukrainian. And if we can stop it, that’s a very important thing to me on a human basis. OK? Anybody else? Question: Sir, are you signing the rare earths deal today? Is that what you mean? Donald Trump: No, we’ll be signing it soon. Question: So, as Ukraine – Donald Trump: It’ll be signed very soon. Question: China has – May I ask another question on Ukraine? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: You recently mentioned the fate of all the Ukrainian children abducted and transported to Russia. Donald Trump: Right. Question: So, are you demanding that Russia return these kids to their families in Ukraine? Donald Trump: Well, it’s one of the things that we’re talking about. I know that – that no decision has been made. We’re talking about territory right now. We’re talking about lines of demarcation. We’re talking about power – power plant ownership. Some people are saying the United States should own the power plant and then work it that way because we have the expertise to fix it up, etc., etc. Donald Trump: So, OK, that would be – something like that would be fine with me. But they are talking about ownership of the big nuclear power plant, in particular. But all of these things will come up, and they have come up, and we – that has been discussed. Yes. OK, I want to thank everybody very much. This was a great meeting. Donald Trump: These are phenomenal people. We’re lucky to have them. I have to tell you, I want to thank you all. And, Elon, I want to thank you. I know you’ve been through a lot with this horrible situation that happens. Elon Musk: I’m not [Inaudible] the costs in there. So – Unidentified: That’s right, saving America. Good answer. Donald Trump: It’s very unfair. What he is is a patriot. He’s a man that – I can tell you. He’s a friend of mine. He’s become a friend of mine. He supported me in the election. That’s when I got to know him really. I knew him a little bit from the first term, but not much. But he’s a patriot more than anything else. He’s never think of it. He has never asked me for a thing. Donald Trump: He could have. I always say “I wonder if he’s ever going to ask me for something.” And that’s always subject to change. And if it does change, I’ll let you know about it. But Elon has never asked me for a thing. I mean, I got rid of the electric car mandate. I have no idea how that affects him but possibly not good. Donald Trump: I don’t know. But he’s never asked me for a thing, and I think that’s an amazing tribute. I did get activated last week when I saw what they were doing. I said he makes an incredible product, and we’re going to go out and tell people you can’t do that stuff and support him. They got to support him because if he wasn’t doing this, he wouldn’t have any of these difficulties. Donald Trump: And I think it’s getting less and less. Pam has done a great job with regard to all of the – I mean, I know the kind of investigations that are going on. If she finds them, which she will, she’s already found four of them. Pam Bondi: We will. Donald Trump: But I think they’re going to suffer very grave consequences because they’re really terrorists when you think about it. They’re – they’re very – terrorists at a high level. And I think the people that are financing them, they could very well be people I know, people that you write about. But those people are in big trouble, so they better cut it out. Donald Trump: But Elon is a patriot. We want to thank you very much for the job you’re doing. Elon Musk: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Elon Musk: Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Question: Sir, how many months do you expect – Donald Trump: Thank you, everybody. Question: Sir, how many months do you expect [Inaudible] Unidentified: Thank you, press. Thank you. Exit now, please. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Elon Musk: I just want to also say thanks to all the DOGE team who are getting death threats on a daily basis just trying to do the right thing for the American taxpayer and for the American people. Just a thank you to the DOGE team who are literally getting death threats and being accosted. Unidentified: Hear. Hear. Elon Musk: And, you know, these are – a lot of them are just kids. You know, they’re just trying to help out. And they’re very talented. They could get jobs for millions of dollars a year. Instead, they come here, earn peanuts, and get death threats. So, thanks to the DOGE team. Donald Trump: Thank you.
Date: 2025-03-25
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. We’re going to have a little session today on the ambassadors. It’s a group of people that were selected. They’re doing very well. They’re very far along in the process. And they’re going to each introduce themselves and talk about the country that they’re going to. And they might say a little bit about themselves also because people are very interested in that. Donald Trump: We’re also going to sign right now some executive orders. And Will, if you come – would come forward. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: I’ll start thinking about signing them, right? Will Scharf: A few things for you today, sir. First, we have a pardon for Devon Archer. Uh, Devon Archer was a former business partner of the Biden family. Uh, he’s, uh, was prosecuted relating to a fraud investigation. But notably, the tone and tenor of that prosecution changed dramatically after he began to cooperate with Congressional investigators and serve as a witness against Hunter Biden and the Biden family. Will Scharf: We believe that was an injustice and therefore, we’re asking you to – to pardon him. Donald Trump: And many people have asked me to do this. They think he was treated very unfairly. And I looked at the records, studied the records and he was. He was a victim of a crime as far as I’m concerned, so we’re going to undo that. All right. That’s nice. Devon Archer. Congratulations, Devon. [Laughter] Will Scharf: Next, sir, we have a Presidential Memorandum for your attention. This memorandum requires the immediate declassification of all FBI files relating to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. This was obviously one of the instances of the weaponization of law enforcement powers of prosecution against you and others. Will Scharf: We believe that it’s long past time for the American people to have a full and complete understanding of what exactly is in those files. Donald Trump: Which gives the media the right to go in and – go and check it. You probably won’t bother because you’re not going to like what you see. But this was total weaponization. It’s a disgrace. Should never happen in this country. But now you’ll be able to see for yourselves all declassified. Is that correct, would you say, all declassified? Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Everything? Will Scharf: The, uh, the FBI file with a – there’s a classified annex, but other than that, this – we’ll put everything in the public eye. Note: [The president signs the document] Donald Trump: Is anybody going to look, huh? Are any of you going to look? And frankly, the FBI should be ashamed of themselves and so should the Department of Justice and so should Biden, OK. Will Scharf: Next, sir, we have an executive order for your attention. We’ve taken action against the number of law firms that have participated either in the weaponization of government, the weaponization of the legal system for political ends or have otherwise engaged in illegal or inappropriate activities. The law firm of Jenner and Block is one of these law firms. Will Scharf: This is a law firm that as you know employed Andrew Weissmann after he came off of the Mueller investigation. It’s a law firm that’s engaged in invidious, racially and sexually discriminatory practices. It’s also a law firm that has participated in the weaponization of the legal system against American principles and values. Will Scharf: And we believe that the measures in this executive order will help – help correct that. Donald Trump: And Andrew Weissmann is the main culprit? Will Scharf: He’s certainly – Donald Trump: With respect to this firm. Will Scharf: He is one of a number of reasons that we believe this executive order is warranted. Donald Trump: He’s a bad guy. Note: [The president signs the document] Donald Trump: OK. Will Scharf: Next, sir, we have an executive order for your attention relating actually to government payments. Historically, checks issued by the Treasury, I believe, are 14 times more likely to become the subject of fraud than electronic transfer payments. This is an executive order that’s going to push the Treasury Department to modernize its payment system to ensure that where possible, they’re using electronic methods of payment as opposed to paper checks in order to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the government. Will Scharf: Which is obviously an endeavor that we’ve – we’ve been pursuing in numerous aspects of government under your leadership. Donald Trump: It’s basically modernization of equipment and methods. And it’s something that really, I think, is going to be a great. The secretary of the Treasury wanted it, Scott. And so we’re doing this. And we have other modernization programs going on. We could let somebody else whoever’s next, whoever that may be do it, but it’s something that should have been done 25, 30 years ago. Note: [The president signs the document] Donald Trump: OK. Will Scharf: Along similar lines, sir, this is an executive order. We’re calling it Protecting America’s Bank Account. The basic idea here is that instead of having lots of different departments and agencies and offices issuing payment often without justification, often without any provided rationale, we’re going to be centralizing payment processes where possible in the Department of the Treasury. Will Scharf: And ensuring that measures are taken in Treasury against waste, fraud and abuse to ensure that money that’s leaving the public Treasury is as protected as it possibly can be. Donald Trump: All right, good. Note: [The president signs the document] Donald Trump: Many of these things should have taken place decades ago or longer. [Laughter] Will Scharf: Lastly, sir, we have an executive order for your attention on the very important subject of election integrity. We believe that this executive order is the – the farthest reaching executive action taken in the history of the Republic to secure our elections. Among numerous other aspects of this executive order, this is going to cut down on illegal immigrants, on the voter rolls, ensure that the Department of Homeland Security and the data that they have available is being fully weaponized to ensure that illegal immigrants aren’t voting. Will Scharf: This will include a citizenship question on the federal voting form for the first time. This executive order instructs the EAC to cut federal funding to states that don’t take reasonable steps to secure their election. This calls on the Department of Justice to vigorously prosecute election crimes, particularly in states that we don’t believe are in compliance with federal law around election integrity. Will Scharf: I could go on and on for a while, sir, but compliance with National Election Day rules cracking down and investigating and prosecuting foreign interference in our elections, revoking President Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which essentially weaponized government to corrupt and pollute our election process. Will Scharf: There’s a lot in here, but we believe that these are very important steps that we need to be taking as an administration, at your direction, to ensure that our elections are as secure as they possibly can be. Donald Trump: OK, you all understand that, yes? Election fraud, you’ve heard the term. We’ll end it, hopefully. At least this will go a long way toward ending it. There are other steps that we will be taking in the next – in the coming weeks. And we think we’ll be able to end up getting fair elections. Perhaps some people think I shouldn’t be complaining because we won in a landslide. Donald Trump: But uh, we got to straighten out our election. This country is so sick because of the election, the fake elections and the bad elections. And we’re going to straighten it out one way or the other. Note: [The president signs the document] Donald Trump: And it’s an honor to sign this one. To sign all of them, but to sign this one is a great honor. Will Scharf: Excuse me. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Will Scharf: Sorry, sir. Donald Trump: So we’re going to go around the room a little bit quickly. And we’re going to introduce these very outstanding people. They’ve had, uh, in all cases, outstanding careers. They’re very incredible people that are going along as rapidly as the system can go along. We’re ahead of, I guess anybody else thus far. Donald Trump: So I want to thank John Thune. He’s done a very good job and the whole Senate. We’re being delayed as much as possible by Democrats, but that’s standard. It gets to be just standard. Donald Trump: But the process is moving along very quickly. So, Sergio, just say hello and then we’ll introduce everybody. Sergio Gor: Absolutely. Sergio Gor, Director of Presidential Personnel. It’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know every one of you every step this way. As the president said, we’re at a record pace. We have more nominees today from the Senate than at any previous point, over 70. And that’s a record in two months and we’re proud of that. Sergio Gor: And we’re determined to ensure the world has America first Patriots in all of our posts. Donald Trump: Charlie. Charles Kushner: Charles Kushner, I’m going to France and Monaco and I’m proud to serve under the greatest president of our country. I’m very proud to serve. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. James Blair: James Blair. Honored to work here in the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff. And Mr. President, I think that all of these successful people who’d want to go serve the United States under your leadership is a testament to your vision and leadership. Donald Trump: Thank you, James. David Perdue: I’m David Perdue. I’m going to the People’s Republic of China and it’s my honor to represent President Trump, the people of America, represent our interests and values in China. Leah Campos: I’m Leah Campos, I’m going to represent the president in the Dominican Republic. Mr. President, thank you for the honor to serve you and – thank you. Michael Waltz: Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor, look forward to working with every one of you on behalf of the president, his leadership and the American people. Donald Trump: Thank you. John Arrigo: John Arrigo. I am going to the Republic of Portugal. And I am very excited to do so and serve our – what I consider one of my closest friends and one of the best presidents this country has ever had. Thank you. Kevin Cabrera: Kevin Cabrera, nominated to be ambassador to Panama and it truly is an honor, president, to be part of your administration. Donald Trump: Thank you. Tom Barrack: Tom Barrack, nominee to the Republic of Turkiye. Delighted and honored to be with you, Mr. President, and the host country, which is one of the most ancient and civilization, is in search for your peace, prosperity and security program. Thank you. Donald Trump: Good place. Good leader, too. Pete Hoekstra: Mr. President, thank you, it’s an honor. I’m Pete Hoekstra, you know that, but I am going to Canada. I look forward to serving you in Canada and your agenda. Donald Trump: And you’ll do a great job. Thanks, Pete. Ron Johnson: Thank you, Ron Johnson, sir. Thank you for the nomination to represent you and the United States to the United Mexican States. And I’m really encouraged by some of the conversations you’ve had with President Sheinbaum recently and to the increase in support that we’ve seen of her government along our border on the important issues. Ron Johnson: So, thank you, sir. Donald Trump: They have stepped it up a lot, Mexico and Canada. So, let’s see how it works. Right. Thanks. Ron Johnson: Yes, sir. Matt Whitaker: Matt Whitaker from Des Moines, Iowa. I’m proud to, as soon as I’m confirmed, go represent you at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Donald Trump: Thank you, Matt. George Glass: George Glass on my way to Japan. I – previous administration, I served for you in Portugal. It is a great honor to be able to do this a second time and thank you very much for the opportunity. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, George. President Trump. Ken Howery: My name is Ken Howery. I’m your nominee to be ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark, a very close partner and ally. I served for you last time for the Kingdom of Sweden. I want to thank you for the faith you’ve placed in me as your nominee to Denmark. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. Stacey Feinberg: President Trump thank you for the honor of a lifetime. My name is Stacey Feinberg and hopefully I’ll have the honor of serving in Luxembourg. And I think that this is the greatest presidency and the greatest time in history and it’s all because of you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Nicole McGraw: Nicole McGraw, nominated to serve in Croatia. And it’s such an honor to be here with you today and to serve you and the American people. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. Brandon Judd: President Trump, thank you very much for your nomination to the Republic of Chile and let me tell you, Border Patrol agents are so thankful for everything that you’ve done for them. But – . Donald Trump: That man knows more about the border than anybody. I tell you. Thank you. Brandon Judd: It’s a great honor. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Thanks, Brandon. Brian Burch: Mr. President, Brian Burch. If I’m confirmed I’ll be representing you at the Holy See. Catholics are very proud of your work. Your team is doing an excellent job. So, thank you, very honored to serve. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Somers Farkas: Mr. President, thank you again for the honor, the greatest privilege. My name is Somers Farkas. I will serve this great man at the Republic of Malta. Thank you, sir. Joe Popolo: Thank you, Mr. President, Joe Popolo from Dallas, Texas. Very proud to serve you at the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the very first country to recognize the United States 250 years ago. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. Mike Huckabee: Mr. President. If I’m confirmed, I will be representing you in the State of Israel. It will be an extraordinary honor. And you’ve done more for Israel than any president in any time of its history. And we are grateful. And I’m hoping I’ll get to be there by Passover. Donald Trump: Thank you, Mike. And Mike is an outstanding guy. We all – they all are. And Mike, I think he’s going to do wonders for Israel. He actually probably gets along with both sides and that’ll be interesting to see. But the world is watching you, Mike. So good luck. Mike Huckabee: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Good luck. You’re going to do well. Thank you very much. Tilman Fertitta: Mr. President, thank you for this great honor to serve the Republic of Italy and San Marino. I’m so looking forward to going over there and working with that great ally and for the pleasure to serve you. Your staff has been great working with us and have done a great job and we really appreciate them. Thank you, sir, for pushing this along. Donald Trump: And have a good time. A really good time [Laughter]. Warren Stephens: I’m Warren Stephens from Little Rock, Arkansas, and I have the honor to represent the president and the United States in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And to be chosen to go to such an important ally of ours – I know sir and I’m looking forward to it, but thank you for the honor. Donald Trump: You’re going to do fantastically. These are tremendously successful people and you two guys and then you add on Mike, I think they have a little more money than Mike [Laughter], but he’s got some other advantages. He’s got some other – like upstairs. He’s got some big advantages [Laughter]. It’s very exciting. Donald Trump: It’s really exciting to have all of you. Would you have any questions, media, for the people that you just saw – so outstanding, and I thought it would be nice to bring them before you. And so, if you have any questions, please. Question: I wanted to ask you about the talks in Saudi Arabia. It sounds like you’ve made some progress on a Black Sea ceasefire. Could you update us on that? What happens now? Donald Trump: So, we’ve made a lot of progress on two fronts, on both sections that we call them, we call them sections, but they’re much more than that – Russia, Ukraine and also the Middle East. And we’ll see what happens. We’re in deep discussions with Russia and Ukraine. And I would say it’s going well, but it’s a very – it’s a situation we should have never had to even think about, should have never happened. Donald Trump: And on the Middle East, that’s been going on for a lot of years, centuries and centuries, it just keeps going. And we are making a lot of progress. So, it’s all I can report. But some very, very big talks are going – and detailed talks are going on right now on both fronts. Question: Mr. President, you said that your national security adviser learned a lesson after a reporter – . Donald Trump: Excuse me, I didn’t pick you. Go ahead, please. Question: Mr. President, the ceasefire agreement that was brokered today allows for third-party countries to help implement the agreement. What does that look like and who’s going to be involved? Donald Trump: The ceasefire agreement? Question: Yes, the maritime ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Donald Trump: Well, they’re going to get together. Look, it’s – they agreed to something, and they got broken. There’s tremendous animosity. There’s a lot of hatred, as you can probably tell. And it allows for people to get together, mediate it, arbitrate it and see if we can get it stopped. And I think it will – it’ll get stopped. Question: What countries are you looking to work with, sir, to help implement and monitor that ceasefire? Donald Trump: We have other countries involved and they’re involved very strongly in the process. And that’ll be resolved. Actually, as bad as it is that’s the least of the problems. So, that will – we’ll get that resolved. And we are being aided by other countries too. Yes, please, all right. Question: Tomorrow, the subcommittee on DOGE is going to review funding for NPR and PBS. Now every republican president has always promised to take away this money that’s going to these two public news outlets. If they’re successful, I know Senator Kennedy has backed it, Marjorie Taylor Greene in congress has backed it. Would you be interested in defunding and taking away taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS? Donald Trump: Well, I would love to do that. I think it’s very unfair. It’s been very biased. The whole group, I mean the whole group of them. And frankly, there’s plenty of – look at all the media you have right now. There’s plenty of coverage. I was from a different age, and they spent more money than any other network of its type ever conceived. Donald Trump: So, the kind of money that’s being wasted and it’s a very biased view, you know that better than anybody. And I’d be honored to see it end. We’re well covered, look at all the people that we have here today. We’re well covered, and we don’t need it. And it’s a waste of money, especially – I don’t even know what DOGEs recommendation is. I assume their recommendation is to close them up. Question: Well, after they hear all the testimony, I think they’re going to make a decision relatively sooner than later. But we’ll see what that turns out. Donald Trump: I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t because they have found so much waste, fraud and abuse, hundreds of billions of dollars and just waste, fraud, abuse. You heard yesterday some of the new things that were found, $22 billion just in – billion. Donald Trump: You know, if you had $22 million, it would be nice, but $22 billion, put into environmental accounts. One was $2 billion, into one account. Stacey Abrams, where they had $100 in the account. And just before I came in, they put $2 billion, and you guys are looking. And say you mean $2 million or maybe $200,000. No $2 billion were put in the account. Donald Trump: What do you think of that, Mike? Do you think that’s a straight deal? $2 billion? Michael Waltz: Just write me the check, Mr. President. [Inaudible; Laughter] Donald Trump: It’s just – it’s a horrible thing. And we had – we have so many of those things. So they’ve done an incredible job. And the country wants to hear it. I think DOGE is actually very popular because of what’s happening. They’re hearing about all of these scams and for big, big money, tremendous amount. And when you add it up, uh, just hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted. Donald Trump: And much of its fraud. You know, we talk about waste, and it is waste and abuse, but a lot of its fraud to. Question: Can I follow up on something? Mr. President? I have a question on DOGE? Donald Trump: Yeah, go ahead, Brian. Question: I am, I just want to follow up on that. If Planned Parenthood is defunded, would you look into the harvesting of baby organs that they’ve done throughout the years and maybe go after some criminal prosecution on that? Donald Trump: Well, I think you’re talking about a subject that is a heated subject. And we’ll look into it. We’re going to look into everything. But that’s certainly a subject that’s been debated for a long time. And we will look into it, yeah. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President, a lot – some senators have expressed hope that the White House will support a rescission package to codify some of the DOGE cuts into law. Where does the White House stand on that? And are you making progress on – Donald Trump: On which package? Question: A rescission package to codify some of the DOGE cuts into law. Donald Trump: Yeah, well, it would be great. I think we’re going to do that. I think they’re going to do it. I think we’re also going to be codifying a lot of the executive orders that we’ve done, which have been very popular. And we’re looking at one, I will tell you right now that I think perhaps will be controversial but not with the people and that sanctuary cities. Donald Trump: We’re going to end sanctuary cities for some of these jurisdictions that aren’t cooperating with law enforcement. They’re guarding criminals. They’re taking the rights away from the citizens of this state and their city. And we’re going to be ending sanctuary cities if we find it necessary to do in certain major areas. Donald Trump: And we may just end the entire thing all together. Because it’s just a way of protecting criminals. And nobody else is benefited by that. And for some reason, Democrats want to keep it and they want to shield criminals from being sent back to their countries or being sent to prison. And in the meantime, the crime rate has gone through the roof. Donald Trump: Under Biden, it was through the roof. It’s starting to come down, but we’re taking a lot of people out of here. So we may be presenting you very shortly with an executive order ending sanctuary cities. Question: Mr. President, are you going to change any of the practices that your national security officials used after a reporter was inadvertently added to a group chat about attacks on Yemen? Donald Trump: Well, I think it’s a question I’ve been asked now, and I’ve given a few answers and they’ve all been the same. We have an amazing group. Our national security now is stronger than it’s ever been. We have had a very, very successful numerous attacks on that area. These are people that shoot down ships, not only our ships, ships all over the world, they’re shooting down right out of the water and damaging them badly or they’re going down. Donald Trump: They’re also shooting anything that happens to be flying in the area. We hit them very, very hard. There was no classified information as I understand it. They used an app, if you want to call it an app, that a lot of people use. A lot of people in government use. A lot of people in the media use. And I think I’ll ask Mike. Donald Trump: Mike is here. Do you want to respond to that please? Michael Waltz: Yes, Mr. President. You asked about lessons. I think there’s a lot of the lessons. There’s a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves, making up lies about this president, whether it’s the Russia hoax or making up lies about Gold Star families. And this one in particular I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with. Michael Waltz: And we are – and we are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room. But I’ll tell you what, the world owes President Trump a favor. Under Biden, global shipping was shut down. Pinprick attacks months between them, our destroyers being fired upon dozens of times. President Trump took decisive action with his national security team, took out the head missileer knocked out missiles, knocked out headquarters, knocked out communication sites. Michael Waltz: And for once, as we hear, as you all hear from every one of our allies, thank God for American leadership. Again, thank God for American strength. You’re welcome world [Inaudible]. And – and look, we have a national security team that was coordinating these efforts. As Director Ratcliffe testified today. Michael Waltz: His first day on the job he was introduced to this app on his government systems at the CIA and at the State Department and otherwise. So look, this journalist, Mr. President wants the world talking about more hoaxes and this kind of nonsense rather than the freedom that you’re enabling. And a key part of our sovereignty is open sea lanes and knocking the crap out of terrorists. Michael Waltz: Which is exactly what your team and Pete Hegseth, a good friend and fellow veteran is leading the charge on. And it’s an honor to be a part of it. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: We had a very, very successful – excuse me. We had a very, very successful evening. And we’ve had numerous successful evenings and days in that area. The Houthis are absolutely on the run. The worst of them have been killed. This should have been done a long time ago by Biden, but Biden was an incompetent president. Donald Trump: He couldn’t do anything. He wouldn’t – he didn’t know where – where he was going. He had no clue. This guy had no clue. This should have been done a long time ago as they shoot missiles at ships, randomly shoot missiles at ships. And – and they make their own missiles. You know, this is not an incompetent group of people. Donald Trump: They make their own missiles. They get the missiles also from Iran. It’s an offshoot of Iran. Another offshoot. You have Hamas. You have Hezbollah. You have the Houthis. You’ve got a lot of stuff going on with Iran. And we sent a letter to Iran. You’re going to have to be speaking to us one way or the other pretty soon because we can’t let this happen. Donald Trump: But that’s an app that a lot of people use. And somebody got on it. I happen to know the guy’s a total sleazebag – Question: How did the – Donald Trump: From the Atlantic. The Atlantic is a failed magazine. It does very, very poorly. Nobody gives a damn about it. It gives – this gives it a little bit of a shot. And I will tell you this that they’ve made up more stories and – and they’re just a failing magazine. The public understands that. He’s a very good man. Donald Trump: That man is a very good man right there, that you criticize so strongly. Question: Sir, did you make a mistake? To ban the use of – Donald Trump: He’s a very good man. And he will, uh, continue to do a good job. In addition to him. We had very good people in that meeting. And those people have done a very, very effective job. And you’re going to see it. And it goes on, by the way. It’s going to go on. And I think the Houthis wish that it didn’t happen. Donald Trump: But that’s what it’s all about. We have to create a safe country, a safe world, and that’s what we’re doing. Question: Mr. President, where – Do you feel our national security was put at risk, Mr. President? Do you plan to ban the use of senior officials using Signal – Donald Trump: Do I plan to ban who? Question: The use of Signal to communicate from senior officials – Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know what is – I don’t know anything about Signal. I wasn’t involved in this. But I just heard about it. And I hear it’s used by a lot of groups. It’s used by the media a lot. It’s used by a lot of the military. And I think successfully. But sometimes somebody can get onto those things. That’s one of the prices you pay when you’re not sitting in the situation room with no phones on, which is always the best frankly. Donald Trump: But you know, you – the best is to be there. In fact, oftentimes I’ve been in the – in fact, just last week, I was in the situation room with something very important. And we had a couple of people hooked up by line. And I said cancel the line. Sorry, fellas. What you do is we’ll tell you all about the meeting. Donald Trump: Because I know people do get on those lines, whether it’s Signal or anything else. Yeah? Question: Are you going to change any procedures as a result of this? Donald Trump: Well, I mean, look, we look at everything. And you know, they’ve made a big deal out of this because we’ve had two perfect months we’re bringing – we are bringing in business. We have another one announced tomorrow, a big one very big. Like, in the history of our country, nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And I think probably a lot of people are saying it’s – they started by saying it was the greatest first month that a president has ever had. Donald Trump: And I think that’s true. And now they say it’s the best second month. And they had to find something. And this – certainly, we’ll look at this. But the main thing was nothing happened. The attack was totally successful. It was I guess from what I understand, it took place during. And it wasn’t classified information, so this was not classified. Donald Trump: Now if it’s classified information, it’s probably a little bit different. But I always say you get – you have to learn from every experience. I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael. Uh, he’s a good person. The person that was on just happens to be a sleazebag, so maybe that’s just coincidence. Donald Trump: I don’t know. Question: But you are the – Mr. President, would it be a – Investigation – Mr. President? Problem if the Atlantic released all the text messages if they’re not classified? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know. I’d have to ask the military about that. Because you know, maybe you wouldn’t want that. I don’t know. I will say this. That from what I heard, the – the man that we’re talking about, who’s not somebody that I don’t think most people have ever heard of, he left – he – sounded very boring and he left early, he got off the line very early. Donald Trump: So, I can’t speak to it other than that. So, he’s made up a lot of stories and I think he’s basically bad for the country. But it’s a failing venture, a very failing venture. They’re very upset and a thing like this is publicity for them. But I don’t think we should allow people that are very good like that man sitting right at the end of the table who’s done a great job – we shouldn’t allow them to be hurt by it. Question: Mr. President, can I follow up on that? Can I follow up on that? Are you – so, are you saying you’re OK with the continued use of Signal by administration officials for sensitive – Donald Trump: No, that’s not what I said. I said we’ll look into it, but everybody else seems to be using it. It seems to be the number one used device or app – whatever you want to call it. And we will certainly – look, if it was up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together, the room would have solid lead walls and a lead ceiling and a lead floor. Donald Trump: But you know, life doesn’t always let you do that. In the meantime, the attack itself that we were talking about and discussing has been an unbelievable success. Question: But you will conduct an investigation, is what you’re saying, into this. We’ll look into it, sure. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – that investigation. Donald Trump: Yeah, I want to look into – Question: Is that the FBI – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Anything like that, I would ask them, it’s not really an FBI thing. It’s really something having to do with security – security like will somebody be able to break in? Are people able to break into conversations. And if that’s true, we’re going to have to find some other form of device. And I think that’s something that we may have to do. Some people like Signal very much, other people probably don’t. But we’ll look into it. I think, Michael, I’ve asked you to immediately study that and find out. Donald Trump: If people are able to break into a system – now in this case, it wasn’t that the – this attack was going on and nobody found out anything. And again, the person that was on, as I understand it, he left very early because he didn’t find it very exciting, but I think it’s something you should look into. Michael Waltz: Yes, sir, we are – we have our technical experts looking at it. We have our legal teams looking at it. And of course, we’re going to keep everything as secure as possible. No one in your national security team would ever put anyone in danger. And as you said, and we’ve repeatedly said, the attack was phenomenal and it’s ongoing. Michael Waltz: But the media wants to talk about everything else except for the hostages you’re getting out of the Middle East, Iran on its back foot, sea lanes getting reopened, peace in Europe. As we just saw today with the Black Sea ceasefire we were just on with Steve Witkoff, myself, our team in Saudi Arabia. They want to talk about all this other stuff except for your amazing successes and the successes of your team. Question: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: One of the other things, and sometimes you have to move very quickly and there are other devices that are very good, but they are very, very cumbersome and you’re not able to use them from a practical standpoint. So, all we can do is find out the best we have with modern technology. They’ll probably get better over the years. Donald Trump: Yeah, go ahead. Question: Sir, on the Black Sea – so, the Kremlin has said that there are several conditions that would need to be met for this agreement to happen. This includes sanctions relief for banks and some companies. Did the US agree to all of those conditions that they laid out? Donald Trump: They will be looking at them and we’re thinking about all of them right now. There are about five or six conditions, we’re looking at all of them. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – said that it’s looking into how journalists got added to that Signal chat. Is it possible that there could be a firing of even a lower mid-level official once that person is identified? Donald Trump: About what? Question: About the Signal chat that we’ve been discussing. Donald Trump: We’ve pretty much looked into it. It’s pretty simple, to be honest. It’s not – it’s just something that can happen. It can happen, you can even prepare for it and it can happen. Sometimes people are hooked in and you don’t know they’re hooked in. They’re hooked into your line and they don’t even mean bad by it, but it’s not a perfect technology. Donald Trump: There is no perfect technology. The really good ones are very cumbersome, very hard to access. And I think we’re going to look at – we always want to use the best technology. This was the best technology for the moment, but again it wasn’t classified. So, they probably viewed it as being something that wasn’t that important. Donald Trump: And it obviously – with the attack being – I mean, I don’t know if it’s been read out to you yet, but that attack was a tremendous success for the US, a tremendous success. Question: Who said the information – who said the information was not classified? Do you think that Mike Waltz made a mistake, and does he need to apologize? Donald Trump: No, I don’t think he should apologize. I think he’s doing his best. It’s equipment and technology that’s not perfect and probably he won’t be using it again, at least not in the very near future. What are your – Michael Waltz: Sir, I agree with you. Let’s get everybody in the room whenever possible. Donald Trump: A lot of times you find out defects by exactly things like that, but I don’t think it’s something we’re looking forward to using again. We may be forced to use it. You may be in a situation where you need speed as opposed to gross safety and you may be forced to use it. But generally speaking, I think we probably won’t be using it very much. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the secretary of defense on that chain, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth and JD Vance, the vice president, said that the Europeans were freeloading. Do you agree with that assessment? Donald Trump: Do you really want me to answer that? Yeah, I think they’ve been freeloading. The European Union has been absolutely terrible to us on trade, terrible. And as you know, NATO, I got them to pay hundreds of billions of dollars. They were way behind. And if you look, even if you look at Ukraine, so we’re in for $350 billion because of Biden – should have never happened – this war should’ve – . All these dead people should not be dead. Donald Trump: All these broken cities that are demolished down to the ground, those gorgeous towers, the most beautiful in the world, the most beautiful spires in the world. The spires in Ukraine were said to be the most beautiful of all. Just about every one of them is lying on its side in a million pieces. It’s so sad to see what’s happened to a heritage. Donald Trump: No, I think that – I think when they say the European Union and the – and you could say NATO also. Look, NATO – and I don’t blame NATO for this. I don’t blame Europe for this. I blame Biden for the fact that he didn’t make them equalize. And to this day I said to him you got to catch up, you got to equalize. Donald Trump: But why are they in for $100 billion and we’re in for possibly $350 billion? It shouldn’t be – it shouldn’t be. And you could say more important for them because we have an ocean in between. So, it’s one of those things. You’ll be seeing a Liberation Day. I call it Liberation Day in America. You’re going to be seeing an April 2nd – didn’t want to do it on April 1st for the obvious reason, April 2nd. But you’ll be seeing tariffs. Donald Trump: And I think I’ve been very fair, I have them set, but I think I’ve been very fair to countries that have really abused us economically for many, many decades. Question: But on the same – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – that information was not classified. Which of your National Security advisers told you – ? Just following up on your comment on the economy. There is reporting that consumer confidence fell for the fourth straight month. What is your message to Americans who are concerned about – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, I know this, that for the first time in like 50 years, right track, wrong track – we’re on the right track and I think people see that. And if you look at prices, prices are way down. You know, when I first came here, the first time I met with you people officially, they were screaming at me about eggs. Donald Trump: I said I’ve been here for a week, and I’m being yelled at about eggs. Egg prices have come down 45-50 percent in the last week and a half. And our secretary of agriculture has done a great job. As you know, Brooke, she’s done a fantastic job. And others working with her have done a great job. But we brought eggs down at a level that nobody thought we could get at. I inherited that situation, and I inherited a grocery situation. Donald Trump: The groceries went way up – an old-fashioned word, but it’s a very descriptive word. Groceries have gone through the roof, and I used to campaign on it. I used to say we’re going to get groceries down and we have got it down. I watched a certain newscast over the weekend and a congressman, democrat congressman said, well, Trump’s done a lot, I agree. Donald Trump: He’s been great on the border. He’s been great on the military, but you know he hasn’t brought prices down. That’s false. Gasoline is way down, eggs are way down, groceries are down very substantially, but down, almost everything’s down. Now I’d like to see interest rates come down a little bit. And you’re going to see billions of dollars, even trillions of dollars coming into our country very soon in the form of tariffs because we were abused by presidents that, frankly, in all fairness, it wasn’t their expertise, but they had no idea what they were doing. Question: Mr. President, you say tariffs will create more jobs here in America. So, which states? Donald Trump: I agree, it will be – it’ll create a lot of money and more jobs. But if you look, so in the last – these gentlemen would know about it, and ladies, because some of the ladies are great businessmen in this room that are becoming ambassadors, great, really great, top of the line. When you look at the number of companies that have said, look, we’re close to, I would say close to $4 trillion. Donald Trump: We never had numbers like that. The number one chip maker in the world from Taiwan coming in with $200 billion. Donald Trump: We have Apple – look at Apple, $500 billion, $500 billion, and they’re going to build plants all over the United States. They were all being built in China. You have many, many companies. And maybe above all, you have the car companies coming in at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. We have – Honda is opening up one of the biggest plants in the world in Indiana. Donald Trump: And many car companies are coming in. We have AI. We’re leading China by a lot in AI. And we’re going to keep it that way. Because we’ve made it very good for them. And we’re going to protect them. Once you’re here, we’ll protect them through taxes, through incentives and also through tariffs. Thank you very much, everybody. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Date: 2025-03-26
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be with you today. We just celebrated Women’s Day at the White House. It was fantastic, attended by a lot of great women, a lot of great women. All women are great. So, this is the beginning of Liberation Day in America. We’re going to take back just some of the money that has been taken from us by people sitting behind this desk, or another desk that’s not quite as nice, but they have their choice of seven, as you know. Donald Trump: And we’re going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking a lot of things that they’ve been taking over the years. They’ve taken so much out of our country, friend and foe, and, frankly, friend has been oftentimes much worse than foe. And this is very modest. Donald Trump: What we’re going to be doing is a 25 percent tariff on all cars that are not made in the United States. If they’re made in the United States, there’s absolutely no tariff. We started off with a 2.5 percent base, which is what we were at, and we go to 25 percent. And basically, as you know and as you’ve been seeing – not reporting as accurately as it should be reported because it’s a massive story – business is coming back to the United States so that they don’t have to pay tariffs, and I think also because of November 5th, the election, they’re very happy. Donald Trump: AI is coming back to levels that nobody’s ever seen before. It’s a new – sort of a new business, I guess, when you think about it. But it’s – plants are going up all over the United States and many of them have already been started. We’re getting early electricity taken care of. We’re getting permits very quickly for them, and we’re going to make their life very happy. Donald Trump: They’re coming in with tens of billions of dollars. Individual plants will cost $10 billion, $15 billion, even $20 billion. We’re going to let them build electricity generating plants along with their plant, and they can’t even believe it. And we’re going to get them very quick permits as I’ve done always. Donald Trump: I did that in Louisiana with two LNG plants. I got them one permit in one day after waiting 14 years and the other one in one week after waiting for 12 years. But this is very exciting to me, this is the automobile industry, and this will continue to spur growth like you haven’t seen. Before I was elected, we were losing all of our plants that were being built in Mexico and Canada and other places. Donald Trump: Now those plants largely have stopped and they’re moving them to our country. And Indiana, the great state of Indiana, I love Indiana – Honda is building one of the biggest plants anywhere and they’ve just started. They wouldn’t have done it without this. In all cases, they wouldn’t have done it without what we’re doing. Donald Trump: So, we’ll effectively be charging a 25 percent tariff, but if you build your car in the United States, there is no tariff. And what that means is a lot of foreign car companies; a lot of companies are going to be in great shape because they’ve already built their plant. But their plants are underutilized, so they’ll be able to expand them inexpensively and quickly. Donald Trump: But others will come into our country and build and they’re already looking for sites. They’re looking for mostly sites. They don’t want to take the old buildings that are empty and falling down, they want to build new. And there’s tremendous action. There is likewise for other companies and countries like the chipmaking process. Donald Trump: Your CHIP bill was a disaster done by Biden. All he does is give tremendous amounts of billions of dollars to chip companies that will do nothing with the money. They’re not going to use the money here. They’re going to just keep it. They have plenty of money. The one thing they have is they have a lot of money. Donald Trump: In our case, all we’re doing is saying you can’t come in unless you build here. And the largest chip company by far is manufacturing – from Taiwan is building here and it’ll give us almost 40 percent of the chip market just with that. They’re spending almost $200 billion in the United States to build a plant, and they’ve almost started – they’ll be doing much of the work in Arizona. Donald Trump: So, we have a lot of exciting things, but to me this is one of the most exciting. Now outside of one specific day and that’s Liberation Day. That’s the real Liberation Day of America and that’s going to be on April 2nd, and I look forward to it. We’ll have a little news conference. We’ll talk about it, but this is very exciting. Donald Trump: So, we’re signing an executive order today that’s going to lead to tremendous growth in the automobile industry. As you know, the electric mandate that we did allows you to buy a car now if electric or gasoline powered or hybrid. You can buy any car you want. We had it so that within a short period of time you had to buy all electric and the country could never get – they could never provide the money necessary to build all of those power plants that you would need all over the country. Donald Trump: As you know, in the Middle West, they built eight power stations. That’s like the size of this desk or smaller. And they ended up spending $9 billion on eight and of the eight, four of them didn’t work. And we’re not doing that. So, you can buy electric, or you can buy gasoline or you can buy hybrid or you can buy whatever you want to buy. Donald Trump: And that’s the way it should be. The market’s going to determine that and you’re going to see prices going down, but it’s going to go down specifically because they’re going to, by what we’re doing, incentivizing companies to – and even countries, but companies to come into America and build. And we’re already setting records for new plants. Donald Trump: I think the new plant number, the tally is – just within a period of a few weeks it’s very large. I want to be accurate. It’s very large. And I’d like to ask Will just to come and give some of the basics and then I’ll sign it and it’s off to the races. I think our automobile business will flourish like it’s never flourished before. Donald Trump: Yes, please, Will. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. As you stated, we’ve prepared for your attention a proclamation imposing a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made cars and light trucks. This is in addition to tariffs that are already in place on those goods. In addition to, as you said, spurring increased domestic manufacture of cars and trucks, we expect that these tariffs will result in over $100 billion of new annual revenue to the United States of America, in tariff revenue. Donald Trump: I think ultimately, we could probably – anywhere from $600 billion to $1 trillion will be taken in over the relatively short term period, meaning a year from now. But starting right away, starting right away, I think we’ll go from $600 billion to $1 trillion within two years. And I think we’ll be very – I mean, right from the beginning, we’re going to be at a very high number, right from the beginning. Donald Trump: And right from the beginning, you’re going to have a lot of construction jobs, but you’re also going to have a lot of automobile jobs. So, this is very exciting, but it’s also exciting because of what’s happening with other aspects. We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back. Donald Trump: We don’t make anything here for – in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need, medicines. It’s in other countries, largely made in China, a lot of it made in Ireland. Ireland was very smart. We love Ireland, but we’re going to have that. We’re going to have lumber; we’re going to free up some of our land and you’ll be able to make a lot of other standards like fire cuts – if Los Angeles had fire cuts which they didn’t have. Donald Trump: That’s a gap of half a football field between areas. You wouldn’t have had the fires; they would have been contained. But you’ll have fire cuts. And by the way, you sell that wood for a lot of money, a lot of profit is made from that. But we’re going to be doing lumber, we’re freeing up our land so that people can – so that we don’t have to use outside sources of lumber. Donald Trump: Energy we’re doing fantastically well at. The energy prices have been coming down rapidly as we increase supply and we’ve already done that. We have – Chris and Doug are doing a fantastic job on that. That’s Department of Energy and Department of Interior. And they’re working together hand in hand because Interior has the land, and Energy has the ability to do the drilling and do what they have to do. Our coal areas are going to be open up for clean, beautiful coal. Donald Trump: Germany is opening up many coal plants now. They tried the wind, and it didn’t work. They almost went out of business. They almost went bankrupt. They tried wind, which is a disaster because it’s too expensive and it doesn’t look good. It kills all the birds, a lot of problems. But Germany is now building a lot of coal plants. Donald Trump: China is building one a week, think of that, and they’re using coal, which is very powerful. Coal is a very powerful energy. And we’re opening up our coal mines again and we’re going to do, I call it, beautiful clean coal. The technology is so good now that coal can give you tremendous power, at the same time it can be very clean. Donald Trump: But we’re also obviously doing oil and gas and various other things. You can do pretty much whatever you want. We don’t like the wind because we think it ruins the landscapes, the plains, ruins them, and it’s got a lot of problems. It’s also the most – by far the most expensive energy. It looks horrible in the oceans. Donald Trump: It’s dangerous in the oceans in terms of navigation. And if you look at what’s happening with whales, you know, in one area they lost – two whales like in 20 years washed ashore, and this year they had 17 wash ashore. So, something happened out there. There’s something driving the whales a little bit loco, but they lost two in 20 years and now they lost 17 in a short period of time. Donald Trump: So, it’s something wrong out there. So, this is very exciting. This is going to lead to the construction of a lot of plants, a lot, in this case, auto plants. And you’re going to have – you’re going to see numbers like you haven’t seen both in terms of employment – takes a little while. You’re going to have great construction numbers initially and then you’re going to – ultimately, you’re going to have a lot of people making a lot of cars. Donald Trump: And one other thing, we are trying – we have the speaker of the House with us who’s doing a fantastic job. And where’s Mike? And we’re trying to get approved – Mike, thank you very much for being here. We’re trying to get approved, if we can, if you borrow money to buy a car, you’re allowed to deduct interest payments for purposes of income tax, but only if the car is made in America. Donald Trump: So, if the car is made in America, you get a loan, you can deduct the interest, that’s a big savings. A lot of people in that part of the world, in terms of buying cars, a lot of them don’t think in terms of deductions. People that think in terms of deductions are very wealthy people. But people are going to start understanding what a good deduction is all about. Donald Trump: So, when you get a loan to buy a car, and I think it’s going to pay for itself, I don’t think there’s any cost. I think that’s going to – you’re going to have so many cars built, but you’re only going to get that deduction of interest if the car is made in the United States of America. So, I’m going to sign this. Donald Trump: And Mike, I hope you can get that because I think it’s going to be amazing in terms of the number of cars that are going to be made because of it. And I want to thank Howard Lutnick, our fabulous commerce chairman. That’s what he is. He’s a chairman. He’s a very successful guy, a great guy and we have a big day, Howard, coming up next week. Howard Lutnick: Liberation Day. Donald Trump: That’s Liberation Day, that’s going to be on the 2nd and that’s going to be reciprocal, and I think people will be impressed. We’re going to be – we’re going to be very fair. We’re going to be very nice, actually. We have not been treated nicely by other countries, but we’re going to be nice. So, I think people will be pleasantly surprised, but it’s going to make our country very rich, because we’re the piggy bank that everybody steals from and they’ve been doing it for many years, for decades and we’re not going to let it happen. Donald Trump: So – but we’re going to treat people very nicely. We’re going to treat other countries very, very nicely. And I think it’s going to have a very positive effect on everybody, including those other countries. So, I’ll sign this, and we will see you again on April the 2nd in terms of this, it’s going to be another round. Donald Trump: And it’s about making America great again, making it strong and prosperous again. Thank you very much. Question: Can I ask you about tariffs, Mr. President? On the car tariffs, how do you assure that a car coming into the country is fully built? Could an automaker in Germany say leave the tires off a car? Donald Trump: No, we’re going to have very strong policing and it’s pretty easy to do. If parts are made in America and a car isn’t, those parts are not going to be taxed or tariffed. And we’ll have very strong policing as far as that’s concerned. For the most part, I think it’s going to lead cars to be made in one location. Donald Trump: Right now, a car would be made here, sent to Canada, sent to Mexico, sent all over the place. It’s ridiculous. So, this is a very simple system and the beauty of the 25 – it’s one number. It’s not up or down; depending on the cost of the car, it’s one number. And that number is going to be used to reduce debt greatly in the United States and to build things, reduce taxes. Donald Trump: I mean, basically I view it as reducing taxes and also reducing debt. And within a fairly short period of time, I think we’re going to have a balance sheet that’s going to be outstanding. Question: Mr. President, how do you assure Americans then that this will not cause a long-term increase in prices? Donald Trump: Well, look I think we’re going to have a market the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before, not in this country. You know, we had the best market ever in my first term. It was the strongest market ever, the best economy ever. And I think you’re going to – I think this blows it away. But this is something that people have wanted to do. Presidents have wanted to do for a long time. Donald Trump: A lot of them didn’t understand it. It wasn’t a priority for them. But foreign countries understood it very well and they’ve really ripped us off at levels that nobody’s seen before. But that’s not going to happen. Question: Mr. President, this is for today or on April 2nd, the auto tariffs? Donald Trump: Say it. Question: These auto tariffs go into effect today or on April 2nd? Donald Trump: They go in effect on April 2nd. We’re signing today. It goes into effect April 2nd. We start collecting on April 3rd. Question: Mr. President, do you have any more sectorial tariffs that are coming in on April 2nd? Donald Trump: What is that, Mick? Question: Any more tariffs on any other sectors on April 2nd, for example, chips or pharmaceuticals [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Not then, but we will be putting a tariff on lumber. We, as you know, have a tariff already on steel and on aluminum of 25 percent. And we’re taking in tremendous amounts of dollars. More importantly, our steel factories and aluminum factories are roaring. They’re starting to roar. They’re building new ones. Donald Trump: I just heard from Nucor, which is a big company, a very big steel company, and they’re building a massive plant for steel that they wouldn’t build without this. So, we’re going to – you’re going to see things that are going to be actually amazing. And I think you already have. You know, we’ve had some news conferences where – I can’t have enough. Donald Trump: They want to do news conferences where they announce they’re going to spend $20 billion, $30 billion, $40 billion. But Apple, as an example, is spending $500 billion. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – on the Signal chat, Senator Roger Wicker – Donald Trump: Hold on one second. Go ahead. Question: Reciprocal tariffs next week, will those be immediately effective April 2nd on all countries or will you focus on the worst offenders? Donald Trump: No, we’re going to make it all countries and we’re going to make it very lenient. I think people are going to be very surprised. It’ll be, in many cases, less than the tariff that they’ve been charging us for decades. So, I think people are going to be very, very surprised. Question: Why is that? On these auto tariffs – Donald Trump: I think – I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised. I don’t know. I think we’re trying to keep it somewhat conservative. Question: And on these auto tariffs, we saw obviously the Nasdaq 100 go down 2 percent and close, S&P 500 down 1 percent. What are you [Crosstalk]? Donald Trump: Is that today – Question: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: I didn’t say that. I want to see the jobs, I want to see – that’ll all take care of itself. That could take care of itself in one day, two days or one week. Question: Are there any conditions under which you’d remove these auto tariffs, sir? Or is this permanent for the rest of your term in office. Donald Trump: Oh, this is permanent, yeah, 100 percent, yeah. Question: Does Elon Musk advise you at all on these auto tariffs? Donald Trump: No, because he may have a conflict. So, we don’t talk – I’ve never talked to him. Elon’s amazing. He’s never asked me for a favor in business whatsoever. I’m actually a little surprised by it. I might do it; I might not do it; I do what’s right. And he’d want me to do what’s right. No, he’s a patriot. He has never – you know, these are big deals we’re talking about. Donald Trump: This is probably nothing like this. And I’ve never had Elon come and say would you do me a favor with the mandate or the electric mandate or anything? He’s never asked me for anything. Question: Sir, what’s your response to Republican lawmakers who have said today that your administration should take more accountability and not downplay what’s happened with Signal that we’ve seen in these messages today? What is your response? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know about downplaying. The press up plays it. I think it’s all a witch hunt, that’s all – I think it’s a witch hunt. I wasn’t involved with it. I don’t – I wasn’t there. But I can tell you the result is unbelievable because the Houthis are looking to do something. They want to know how do we stop – how do we stop – how can we have peace? Donald Trump: The Houthis want peace because they’re getting the hell knocked out of them. It’s been very, very strong. The Houthis are dying for peace. They don’t want this and they’re bad. Look, they were knocking ships out of the ocean. You know, we had – in the Suez Canal, they only have about 20 percent of the ships going through. Donald Trump: They have to go through a different way, which takes weeks of travel and that really affects commerce. But the Houthis have been hit hard, and they want to negotiate peace. But I don’t think they – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Do you still believe there was nothing classified that was shared? Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Do you still believe nothing classified was shared? Donald Trump: Well, that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know. I’m not sure you’ll have to ask the various people involved. I really don’t know [Crosstalk]. I can only tell you this – you know, you don’t want to talk about it. The Houthis have been horrible to the world, what they’ve done, killed a lot of people and knocked down a lot of ships and planes and anything else. Donald Trump: You know, it’s not just the ships. And they have been hit. They have been hit harder than they’ve ever been hit, and they want us to stop so badly, and they’ve got to stop. They’ve got to say no mas. But I can only say that the attacks – you know, it’s attacks every day every night. It’s not just the one; you’re talking about one. Donald Trump: The attacks have been very successful, even beyond our wildest expectations. We’ve hit them very hard, very successfully, and we’re going to do it for a long time. We’re going to keep it going for a long time. Question: On the European Union – Senate Republicans have asked – said that they have formally asked the administration for an inspector general report on the Signal issue? Will you agree to that? Donald Trump: It doesn’t bother me. I don’t know. You know, I want to find if there’s any mistake or if Signal doesn’t work, it could be – that Signal is not very good. You know, it’s a company, maybe it’s not very good. I think we’d rather know about it now. There was no harm done because the attack was unbelievably successful that night. Donald Trump: And it has been unbelievably successful every single night for the last four or five nights, so – Question: Mr. President, the European Union – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: That’s the thing that you should be talking about. This is something that should have been done by Sleepy Joe Biden, but he was asleep at the wheel other than when it came to stealing money, of course. Joe Biden should have done this attack on Yemen, which is basically a certain group within Yemen, the Houthis, and this should have been done by Joe Biden and it wasn’t. And that’s caused this world a lot of damage and a lot of problems. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – he’s responsible, but he’s also overseeing the investigation to find out what went wrong. Maybe – Donald Trump: Who’s responsible? Question: Mike Waltz says that he’s responsible. Donald Trump: Well, yeah, Mike Waltz, I guess – he said – he claimed responsibility. I would imagine it had nothing to do with anyone else. It was Mike, I guess, I don’t know. I was told it was Mike. But again, the attacks were unbelievably successful and that’s ultimately what you should be talking about, I think. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Mike did – he took responsibility for it. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Say it. Question: Should Secretary Hegseth consider his position over the Signal – Donald Trump: Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do with this. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do. Look, look, it’s all a witch hunt. Here we are talking about some of the greatest business deals ever made. The greatest companies in the world are moving into the United States, and you want to ask about whether or not Signal works. I don’t know that Signal works. Donald Trump: I think Signal could be defective, to be honest with you. And I think that’s what we have to – because you use Signal, and we use Signal and everybody uses Signal. But it could be a defective platform and we’re going to have to find that out. Question: Mr. President, have you been briefed about soldiers – Have you been briefed about the soldiers in Lithuania who are missing? Donald Trump: No, I haven’t. Question: Mr. President, have you spoken, sir, with the Big Three automakers about these tariffs? What was their reaction? Donald Trump: I have. Question: What was their reaction? Donald Trump: It depends on whether or not they have factories here. I can tell you, if they have factories here, they are thrilled. If you don’t have factories here, they’re going to have to get going and build them because otherwise they have to pay tariffs. Very simple. And most of those have pretty big factories here like General Motors has big factories here. Donald Trump: They’re going to move their parts divisions back to the United States because some of them were made in Canada, some of them were made in Mexico and other places. They’ll be moving their parts division back to the United States – in factories where they may be at 60 percent capacity, so they don’t even really have to build too much of a factory. Donald Trump: But you know, generally speaking, if they have factories here, plants here where they make their cars and equipment, but they make their cars here, they are thrilled. Same thing with the steel industry. The steel industry is now paying a 25 percent tariff, as you know, I put it on last week. And the business is roaring in the United States. Donald Trump: And we can’t – because of military, we can’t lose the steel industry. If I didn’t put the initial tariffs on steel in my first term, you wouldn’t be able to have a military because we wouldn’t have – every steel company, every steel company would be bankrupt in the United States and every plant would be closed. Donald Trump: But now they’re booming. And putting this tariff on – this additional tariff for steel and aluminum, it’s making them thrive and it’s already happened. Question: Mr. President, on the deadline for the TikTok sale. Will you extend that deadline if you don’t have a deal? Do you support – Donald Trump: Well, we will have a form of a deal. TikTok is very popular, very successful, very good. We’re going to have a form of a deal, but if it’s not finished, it’s not a big deal we’ll just extend it. I have the right to have the deal and to extend it if I want. So, we’ll see whether or not we have a deal. We have a lot of interest in TikTok. Question: Is there a way for a US company to operate it and ByteDance to still have a share of the algorithm – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, it’ll be – there are numerous ways you can buy TikTok, and we will find the one that’s best for the country – for our country. I’m worried about our country more than anything else with respect to TikTok. And China is going to have to play a role in that possibly in the form of an approval maybe. Donald Trump: And I think they’ll do that. Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done. Because every point in tariff is worth more money than TikTok, if you think. Every point – tariff is a much bigger world and TikTok is big. But every point in tariffs is worth more than TikTok. So, in order to get China to do, maybe I’d give them a reduction in tariffs as an example. Donald Trump: Sounds like something I’d do. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – tariffs are going to be good for Tesla, sir? Donald Trump: Good for who? Question: Tesla which makes its cars in the United States. Donald Trump: Well. He makes – he is a fantastic – Tesla, will tariffs be good? I think they may – it could be a net neutral, or they may be good. He has a big plant in Texas. He has a big plant in California. And anybody that has plants in the United States, it’s going to be good for, in my opinion. Question: Mr. President, the European Union has – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – education control to the states. How would you handle it if a state like California were to put in place education – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: You know, I haven’t seen a mask in so long. You’re wearing a mask. So nice of you. I haven’t seen anybody wearing a mask in a long time. It’s good. You feel more comfortable, right? Good, that’s good. So, go ahead. Question: You said you want to return education control to the states. How would you handle it if a state like California were to put in place education policies you disagree with? Donald Trump: Well, I think that California is going to be tougher because they are – they’re doing badly on everything they do. Everything they touch turns bad. So, a place like California would be tougher for education. But what I would see with California is you’d have a Los Angeles department, and you’d have Riverside, you’d have – you know, you’d go to various places. Donald Trump: And I think you’d have some great areas in California and then you’d have some like everything else, it doesn’t work so well. But ultimately, I think it would be very successful. I think in New York, as an example, you’d go to Long Island, Westchester, you may have Nassau County, Queens County, you’d break it up in certain ways. Donald Trump: So, they’d have maybe five departments – you know, because of the size they’d have five departments instead of one. A state like Iowa, you’d have one. And I mean they’re just chomping at the bit to get going. So many states are chomping at the bit to get education, and it’s going to happen fast, to get the education brought back to the states. Donald Trump: And I mean, I tell you what, you have 40 states, in my opinion, that will be as good as Norway, Sweden, Denmark – you take a look at – those three are top, among the top and they’ve been there for a long time. But I think you’ll have a lot, a lot. Finland is very strong. Frankly, China is very strong, China’s top 10. And that’s something considering the size, you know, so it’s not only a size thing. Donald Trump: But, Norway, Sweden have been very good. Denmark has been very good. I think you have Iowa and Indiana, and a lot of our states will be equal to them, but they can’t be equal if it’s going to be run in Washington, we don’t want that. Question: They would interfere. Director Gabbard testified that any information that would indicate that the US or its allies are going to make an attack should be classified. The Secretary of Defense has said that the information in those messages was not classified. Are you going to ask him to review whether it should have been? Question: Should flight times and sequences – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Sure, I’ll ask him to this, sure, I would – it would be. You can view that in two ways, frankly, a lot of ways to answer that question. But I’d certainly ask him to take a look at it. Question: So, Mr. President, when you did this in hindsight, should they – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, there may be – yeah, there may be a problem with the platform, and if there’s a problem with the platform, nobody should use it. You know, they could have a basic problem. But, you know, I say it again, the attack was so successful, it was so lethal – not that I’m looking for lethality. I wish we didn’t have to do it at all. Donald Trump: But they’re shooting down our ships, they’re shooting down our planes and we can’t allow that to happen. And again, this is something that should have been done by Biden a long time ago. One or two more. Question: The Vice President’s comments that he doesn’t like bailing out the Europeans. Do you agree with that? Donald Trump: Well, I understand where he’s coming from. The European Union has been treating us very, very badly in terms of the VAT tax that they charge. They charge a tremendous VAT tax, and they don’t sell our cars in Europe. They don’t sell our agriculture in Europe. They don’t let us do very much. They treat us very badly. Donald Trump: One of the reasons I’m putting tariffs on is that reason. We take millions of their cars, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz. We take millions and millions of their cars, they take none. I don’t know if they take any of our cars. And they have non-monetary tariffs where it’s impossible for us to sell a car, almost, in Europe. Donald Trump: And so, I understand what he’s saying, same thing with NATO. When I got involved, these mostly European countries, as you know, we had 28 at the time, and only seven were paid. And most of them were not paid, 20-some-odd countries were not paid, or they were substantially less than they’re supposed to be. And the United States was literally making up the difference in Europe and it’s very unfair. Donald Trump: So, I understand, I didn’t know he made that statement, but if he did, I mean I’m OK with it. It’s – I complain about it all the time. The European Union treats us horribly on trade and NATO has treated now – I raised a lot of money for NATO, hundreds of billions of dollars. You were here last week when the secretary general said without Trump, there wouldn’t be a NATO, because I got them to pay money. Donald Trump: It was unfair. The United States was paying 80, 90, 100 percent, OK. Question: [Inaudible] to be more lenient than [Inaudible] next week? Donald Trump: I think they’ll be – yeah, I think if I was – if I did to them what they did to us, I think a lot of people would be very unhappy. Yeah, I think it’ll be much more lenient. I’m going to be much more lenient with regard to the tariffs that you’ll see on April 2nd. I’m going to be much more lenient than they were with us. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: They were really bad with us. I tell you; they’ve treated us badly. And presidents should have stepped up. They should have stepped up and done something and they didn’t do it, and hence we have $36 trillion in debt. Question: Mr. President, you’ve criticized Jeffrey Goldberg. Have you asked your national security adviser how he had his phone number in his phone? Donald Trump: We have asked a lot of questions and we’re going to try finding all those things out. No, I just know Goldberg is a sleazebag, you know, his magazine’s terrible. He’s just a guy that I never had a lot of respect for. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Are you – Are you prepared to go on Greenland? You said this morning that the United States needs Greenland. How far are you willing to go? Donald Trump: We need Greenland for national security and international security. So, I think we’ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And you know, we’ll see what happens. But if we don’t have Greenland, we can’t have great international security. Donald Trump: If you look at the ships outside of Greenland, China, Russia, places that we have to be there, if we’re not there, we can’t have national or international security. So, I view it from a security standpoint, we have to be there. Question: Mr. President [Inaudible] joined his wife instead of sending her, she was going to go solo to the dog sled race and now he’s going along on Friday. Donald Trump: Who’s going into – Question: The vice president. Usha was going to go to Greenland on her own. Donald Trump: I don’t know. I’m not sure. I think you may have J.D. going actually. Yeah. I don’t know if they’ve split that up, but Usha’s great. But I understand J.D. might be going. Question: Sir, the European Union has voted or decided against Apple and Google during the Digital Markets Act, and they’re the first US companies they targeted with that. An Apple executive told me they believe that’s politically motivated – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the tariffs on April 2nd. Donald Trump: It is. The European Union is suing a lot of our companies, like Apple, and they have a $17 billion judgment. And they’re suing Google, they’re suing Facebook, they’re suing a lot of other companies. And they use that money just like a tariff. They go before judges that are very pro-European Union, to put it mildly. Donald Trump: I have that same thing here, but I don’t think the people are going to stand for it. Question: Are they using it as leverage? Donald Trump: No, they’re just taking advantage of American companies and we’re not going to let them do it anymore. OK, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-03-27
If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!
Date: 2025-03-28
Donald Trump: It’s quite late. Uh, is everything good? Question: Yeah. Question: Yeah. Question: Yes, sir. Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: We have a lot of good things happening in our country. I hope you’re enjoying the flight. Any questions? Question: Yes, Mr. President, Canada – Question: [Inaudible] the call with [Inaudible], and then a-after the call, you seemed to be much more positive about Canada than you’ve been in the past. Donald Trump: No, I just think, you know, I’ve always loved Canada, and we had a very good conversation with the Prime Minister. Uh, they’ve got an election going on, so we’re gonna meet after the election. Question: [Inaudible] Question: On the pharma tariffs, Mr. President, you’ve been talking about the pharma tariffs and what to expect there. Are you gonna exempt lifesaving medications or what can we expect there? Donald Trump: Well, we’ll be announcing it soon, but we have to bring pharmaceuticals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, back into our country. Question: And what’s the rate you’re looking at? 15%, 25? Donald Trump: We’re looking at a certain number that will be enough to get the drugs and the pharmaceutical companies bringing their, uh, product into our country. Question: And what will China do – Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I never wanna have to rely on other countries for that. Question: And what would China – Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Like we did at COVID. Question: Sir, on the [Inaudible] – Question: Mr. President – Question: – on the, on the car tariffs and just the reciprocal tariffs – Question: [Inaudible] Question: – a lot of countries are making gestures, and including Britain, which has talked about reducing – Donald Trump: They wanna make deals. Question: – digital services. They want to make deals? Donald Trump: They do. Question: Are you, are you in a mode or, you know, would, would you – Donald Trump: Well, it’s possible if we could get something for the deal. But, you know, we’ve been taken advantage of for 40 years, maybe more. Question: Mm-hmm. Donald Trump: And it’s just not going to happen anymore. But, yeah, I’m certainly open to that – Question: Did you tell Carney [Inaudible] Question: Do you [Inaudible] Donald Trump: – if we can do something where we get something for it. Question: Mr. President, Mr. President – Question: [Inaudible] Question: [Inaudible] You were [Inaudible] – Question: [Inaudible] Question: Do you plan to – Question: Would that happen before the, uh, before the tariffs are announced? Do – Donald Trump: No. Probably later. Question: Probably. Question: So – Question: Mr. President – Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: It’s a process. Do it [Inaudible]. We’re landing right now. Question: Mr. President – Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: Sit down, I don’t want you to get hurt, ’cause I love, I love the [Inaudible] Question: Do you plan to take Greenland by force? Question: Does today’s inflation report impact – Question: Do – Donald Trump: Uh-oh. We’re landing right now. Question: Sir, we’re about to land. Donald Trump: Don’t, I don’t want to see anybody get hurt. Question: We don’t want to see you get hurt. Donald Trump: Have a good job. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Good luck, everybody. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Good luck. Sit down. Question: Thank you. Donald Trump: [Inaudible]
Date: 2025-03-28
Donald Trump: You ready? Paula White-Cain: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Let’s do it. Paula White-Cain: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. We have Paula White who’s, uh, been very inspirational in, uh, during the campaign and our friend. And Alina has requested a prayer. And Paula, if you would do the honors, please? Thank you. Paula White-Cain: It’s an honor, sir. Thank you. Um, Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus. And on this very divine appointment of Alina Habba, we thank you that you have chosen her before the foundations of the Earth. I ask that you would give your wisdom according to James 1:5. And as she moves into this new season in this divine appointment, that she will protect the innocent, that she will always rule righteously, that she will stand in your peace and reign in truth and justice. Paula White-Cain: I secure her family, her life, her calling, and her purpose. We thank you for President Trump. We thank you for this opportunity for – for all – to cure this in the name that is above all names, the name of Jesus. Amen. Alina Habba: Amen. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Paula. Paula White-Cain: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Before we begin, we have a little announcement. It’s just gonna be put out over the wires that, uh, Skadden, Arps, uh, the highly respected firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, announced the following agreement regarding a series of actions that were taken by Skadden. And it reads, number one, Skadden provide a total of at least $100 million in pro bono legal services during the Trump administration and beyond to cause that, uh, the President, uh, and Skadden both support. Donald Trump: This is something we both support in relation to the following areas, assisting veterans and other public servants, including members of the military, law enforcement, and on and on. Uh, number two, Skadden will commit to the mission of providing pro bono legal services to a wide variety, deserving organizations and individuals. Donald Trump: Skadden committed to funding, no fewer than five Skadden fellows. Uh, that’s a scholarship fund that they’ve set up. And number three, and, again, we’re gonna put this out in much greater detail, that Skadden affirms and, uh, commits it’s, uh, to merit-based hiring, promotion, and retention. Again, that will go on for a little while and you’ll read that. Donald Trump: And Skadden will not deny any representation to clients such as its members or members of politically disenfranchised groups who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms, et cetera. So this is going out now and, uh, I’m instructing my people to, uh, release it. And this just, uh, was announced so you can, uh, you’ll get it in, uh, this was e- – essentially a settlement. Donald Trump: And, uh, you’ll be able to read that in great detail. We appreciate Skadden’s, uh, coming to the table. As you know, other law firms have like – have likewise settled the case. And, uh, it’s a shame what’s, you know, what’s gone on is a shame, but we very much appreciate their coming to the table. But we’re here for right now a different, uh, reason. Donald Trump: It’s a very important one ‘cause today we’re thrilled to swear in our interim U.S attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba. Congratulations, Alina. And I wanna just, uh, congratulate along with your husband, Greg, and your children. You’re wonderful parents who I’ve gotten to know over the years. Donald Trump: Uh, great parents and a great family, so congratulations. And to Luke, Chloe and Parker. That’s great. You’re proud, right? Of your father and your mother, right? Both. Not just your mom, right? Your father, too. He’s done pretty well. He’s a good guy and very successful man. I also want to thank Attorney General, Pam Bondi. Donald Trump: She’s been incredible, by the way. She’s, uh – I don’t wanna brag, but I’ve been watching her for the last couple of weeks and she’s been incredible. Thank you very much. And a couple of others who have been really outstanding, Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick. Thank you, Howard. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: And I think I see Scott there. He has been – This is somebody – the Treasury. Nobody’s gonna out-fuck Scott, right? Nobody. And he’s waiting for Liberation Day, right? Which is, uh, April 2nd. We wanted to do it April 1st, but that has some negative connotation. And I see Sebastian Gorka there. Thank you, Sebastian, very much. Donald Trump: That’s very much – Kevin, thank you very much. We have great people. Susie Wiles, the most powerful woman in the world. Who’s at this rate the most powerful woman in the world. If you think about it, I guess it’s true [Laughs] when you think about. Anyway, thank you, Susie. And Director Kash Patel. Where’s Kash? Donald Trump: Kash is fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you, Kash. So Alina is, uh, a proud New Jersey native. She was born and raised in Summit and now lives in Bernardsville with her family. Beautiful area of our country. After a career leading a successful law practice in the state, very successful, Alina joined my legal team several years ago and helped spearhead the effort to defeat the corrupt and grotesque weaponry justice system. Donald Trump: She was very effective at doing it. Uh, and I want to thank you for doing it. You took a lot of abuse and, uh, now they’re all sort of apologizing. So anyway, but we appreciate it. Great job you did. Thank you for allowing her to do it ’cause your life wasn’t made any easier. Was it? Huh? They even came after him and they didn’t come after the kids. Donald Trump: They would’ve waited about a year or two. You’re very lucky. You’re very lucky. But through her work, Alina became a nationally recognized warrior for the fair, equal, and impartial rule of law. She also serves as a key member of my successful 2024 campaign for president. You saw her, uh, doing a lot of, uh, explaining and doing it very well. Donald Trump: And upon my inauguration, she joined the White Houf – House as senior staff. She was, uh, a senior staff member as the counselor to the president, and she counseled me very well. Alina has been named to the Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars list every year since 2014 and also earned a spot on the top 100 lawyers, uh, in America numerous times. Donald Trump: As a young person, it’s very unusual to have achieved that. As US attorney for New Jersey, Alina will work tirelessly to weed out crime and corruption and restore law in order to the garden state, as we call it. It’s the garden state. It’s a great place. Uh, I think it’s highly underrated. It’s a great place to be and to live and we all love it. Under the last administration, violent crime in New Jersey, however, rose more than 60%. And under the last administration, violent crime throughout the country rose at levels that are higher than that and unacceptable. Donald Trump: And we’re bringing it down and we’re getting rid of a lot of bad people being – they’re being taken out. And we hope this court system that’s become so active all of a sudden in trying to protect some very, very bad people of crime. They have to stop. They have to let us do the job. We were elected to do the job. Donald Trump: They shouldn’t be interfering in that. It’s a very sad thing that’s going – nobody can even believe it. They’d rather have them stay in our country. These are murderers in many cases and people about as bad as we’ve ever seen. And they have to let us do the job. They have to let Kash and Pam and everybody else do their job. Donald Trump: Alina will take on the violence and the law breaking in Newark, however, in Camden and all parts of New Jersey and she’ll be as good as it gets because there’s a lot of bad things happening there too. She’ll stop the graft and corruption in Trenton, and she’ll prosecute human traffickers, gang members, illegal aliens and criminal cartels to the fullest extent of the law. Donald Trump: And between Pam and Alina, you don’t want them after you, I can tell you. I watched Pam two days ago talking about what was so unfair to a patriot what was happening. And she said we’re watching you; we’re looking for you and you’re not going to get away with it. Now – Note: [Technical issues with audio and video] Donald Trump: – you did very well. I think a lot of that stuff has stopped. Donald Trump: They watched it and they said who needs this, right, Pam? So, thank you very much, really amazing job that you’re doing. So, Alina, I want to congratulate you now. I will ask Pam, our attorney general, to come up and do the honors of swearing in and this is a great day for law enforcement in our country. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Alina Habba: Thank you. Pam Bondi: Okay, yeah, right hand. Place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand. I do solemnly swear. Alina Habba: I, Alina Habba, do solemnly swear. Pam Bondi: That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Alina Habba: That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Pam Bondi: Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Alina Habba: Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Pam Bondi: That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. Alina Habba: That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. Pam Bondi: That I take this obligation freely. Alina Habba: That I take this obligation freely. Pam Bondi: Without any – Note: [Technical issues with audio and video] Alina Habba: – Thank you so much, President Trump. Thank you, Pam Bondi. Thank you, more importantly, to every person in this room. There are so many people that I won’t even try to start naming them. I would not be standing here today if it was not for the man to my right. As a person who’s a first generation American, with parents that came in legally, I would like to say that I do not ever, ever take for granted that every dream that I ever could have imagined I have surpassed because of this administration, because of President Trump. Alina Habba: Four years ago, he entrusted faith in me as his personal attorney and I have been on the journey of a lifetime every single day for that. But I have also been with him through some very dark days when I lost faith in our justice system when I saw things that I never ever thought I would ever see. And from being outside the courtroom steps, defending him and defending our great nation, I saw the most resilience I’ve ever seen in my life. Alina Habba: This man kept fighting for America and I’m just so honored that now I get to fight for the state of New Jersey. I will do a good job, sir. I will clean it up and we’re going to make New Jersey great again. Thank you so much. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Do you have any questions, please? Question: Mr. President, Canada’s prime minister says that they will be implementing retaliatory tariffs. You said if that were to happen that you would be responding with large-scale tariffs. Will you be following through with that promise? Donald Trump: Well, absolutely. But we had a very good conversation. Mark called me today at 10:00. We put out a statement, we had a very, very good talk. He’s going through an election now and we’ll see what happens. But we have Liberation Day, as you know, on April 2nd because – and I’m not referring to Canada, but many countries have taken advantage of us, the likes of which nobody even thought was possible for many, many decades – for decades. Donald Trump: And you know, that has to stop. We’re going to end up with a very good relationship with Canada and a lot of the other countries. Some we probably won’t, it won’t be so pleasant. But with – I think most countries are agreeing with me. They actually – many of them have actually apologized, they said, look, we have taken advantage. Donald Trump: And I don’t blame them as much as I blame the people that stood, in this case I can say the men, because so far they’ve been all men, haven’t they? But the men that sat right there and behind the Resolute desk, mostly the Resolute desk, you know. I don’t know if you know, you have a choice of seven desks. Donald Trump: The Resolute is the one I like, but some chose other ones. But they sat right behind a desk right in this location and they let our country be hurt very badly, but I didn’t do that. So – but we had a very good talk, the prime minister, myself, and I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States. Donald Trump: Yeah, please go ahead. Question: Mr. President, how are the talks with India or tariff going on? And what is the expectations from India? How much do you want them – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, you know, Prime Minister Modi was here just recently, and we’ve always been very good friends. India is one of the highest tariffing nations in the world, you know that. I know, I know, thank you for shaking your head, but it’s brutal, it’s brutal. They’re very smart and he’s a very smart man and a great friend of mine actually. Donald Trump: And we had very good talks. I think it’s going to work out very well between India and our country – very, very well. And I want to say you have a great prime minister. Question: Mr. President, there’s been a very serious earthquake in Burma or Myanmar today with some – up to several hundred killed. The military regime there has asked for help from anybody. Donald Trump: Yeah, we’re going to be helping. We’ve already alerted the people, yeah, it’s terrible what’s happened. It’s – Note: [Technical issues with audio and video] Donald Trump: – helping. We’ve already spoken with the country, OK. Please. Question: Mr. President, yesterday, you asked Representative Stefanik to stay in her seat. Can you explain your reason for that? And did it have anything to do with the tight polling in the Florida district that former Representative Waltz held? Is that – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, I think we’re doing – yeah, I think we have – as you know, we have a few elections going on and she is phenomenal, number one. She is a friend of mine and she was going to go to the United Nations. And I said, look, there’s a lot of room for doing that or something else, but she’s very popular in her district and I didn’t want to take a chance. Donald Trump: I don’t even know who else is running. I assume somebody else would have been running, but if she runs, she can’t be – you never want to say can’t be beaten, but I think can’t be beaten. She’s very, very well liked and very smart. And I said, Elise, would you do me a favor? We can – we cannot take a chance. Donald Trump: We have a slim margin. We don’t want to take any chances. We don’t want to experiment, and she polls like I do. I won her district, as you know, by a lot of points and she also does very well there. When it comes to Florida, you have two races, and they seem to be good. It’s a Trump plus 32 area. The one thing is they’re spending like $12 million on our candidate doesn’t have that kind of money, spending much less than that, like maybe 1/12, about $1 million, a little bit more than $1 million. Donald Trump: So, the airwaves are blanketed, and you never know what happens in a case like that. I won it by 32 points and it’s very, very strong. It used to be democrat. But when I came along, they liked me. For whatever reason, you’ll have to explain that. But they liked me and we’re way up, but you don’t know what happened – Note: [Technical issues with audio and video] Donald Trump: Second district, who seems to be in pretty good shape, but likewise he’s being outspent about 5 to 1. So, we don’t want to take any chances. Donald Trump: So, I went to Elise, and I said, Elise, do you mind – very highly rated person, you know, she was a real leader, and she will be again. I spoke with Mike Johnson; they’re going to put her in a high leadership position. But will you mind staying in congress because we don’t want to take any chances. And it’s as simple as that. Donald Trump: It’s basic politics, it’s politics 101. She’s very popular, she’s going to win. And somebody else will probably win too because we did very well there. I did very well there, but the word probably is no good. So, I really appreciate her doing it. She’s doing me a big favor when she does it because she was all set to go to the United Nations and she would have dealt with Putin and Zelenskyy and everybody else and she would have been very effective. Donald Trump: But we really want to – don’t – we don’t want to take any chances because it is tight. Go ahead. Question: Thank you, sir. You and your team apprehended a top three leader in the violent gang, MS-13 yesterday, just 30 minutes outside of Washington DC. What has made you and your team so effective in finding, locating, apprehending and deporting these violent illegal migrants? Donald Trump: I love this guy [Laughter], I wish more people would ask questions like that. Thank you. That’s very nice. And they happen. All you’re doing is being fair with you – when you ask a question in that way. Pam Bondi and Kash Patel and all of the rest of law enforcement, I think we have to include ICE and Border Patrol. Donald Trump: You know, Paul of Border Patrol, the whole group from Border Patrol, they’re so incredible. And – and it’s, you know, dangerous stuff. Donald Trump: Hard stuff. And it’s – it’s really an unforced error because these people were allowed into this country. And they shouldn’t have been in this country. They would have never been in this country. We’re getting rid of some of the worst criminals in the world. They came out of jails and mental institutions from all over the world. Donald Trump: But Pam and the whole group and Kash, who’s here, and it’s so good to have him. He’s – I see him all over. He’s working 24 hours a day. But the job they’ve done is incredible. And they caught one of the worst criminals in – in the world, I guess, in terms of evilness. You don’t get any worse than the MS-13 guys and the Tren de Aragua guys. Donald Trump: It’s – you could flip a coin. It’s a rough group. And you know, the big thing is they have to be able to do their job. We – I know I saw – I was watching it on television, like you, and I saw the – the home that he lived in, in a good area. But boy, they had a lot of weaponry in there, right? Highly sophisticated, really brutal stuff, so. Uh, I appreciate the question. Donald Trump: And I just want to thank Kash and Pam and the whole group for doing a fantastic job. And the local law enforcement who’s been so terrific and even first responders. So I want to thank everybody. And thank you very much. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President, how do you – I want to say first of all, happy Women’s Month. Donald Trump: Thank you. Question: Um, you do so much for women by – Donald Trump: Thank you. Question: First of all, keeping men out of women’s sports. And you platform so many – Donald Trump: That was an easy one. [Laughter] That was crazy. [Laughter] Question: You platformed so many great women like your chiefs of – chief of staff, Siouxsie Wiles. Donald Trump: That’s right. Question: You also have Karoline Leavitt doing a great job as press secretary. Now Elena will be joining as well. Since Democrats seem to struggle answering this question, I wanted to ask you. What is a woman? And why is it important that we understand the difference between men and women? [Laughter] Donald Trump: Well, it’s sort of easy to answer for me because a woman is somebody that can have a baby under certain circumstances. She can – [Laughter] She has a quality. A woman is a person who’s much smarter than a man, I’ve always found. [Laughter] Men – a woman is a person that doesn’t give a man even a chance of success. Donald Trump: And a woman is a person that, in many cases, has been treated very badly. Because I think that what happens with this crazy, this crazy issue of men being able to play in women’s sports is just ridiculous. And very unfair to women. And very demeaning to women. And that’s got to be about a 94 percent – I read today it was a 94 percent issue. Donald Trump: And I watched – the other day, I watched congressman – a Democrat congressman fighting for the fact that men should be allowed to compete essentially in women’s sports. And I say, I hope they keep that going. Because they’ll never win another election. That’s a big deal. But women are basically incredible people, do so much for our country. Donald Trump: And we love – we love our women. And we’re going to take care of our women. Yeah? Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President? What the reason – what was your reason for pardoning Trevor Milton? Donald Trump: Highly recommended by many people that was taken advantage of. He did a business deal, like in Utah as I have it, and I think he was exonerated. And then they brought him into New York where he had a rough, rough road and a road – I mean he – he was exonerated. It was a big celebration. Again, I don’t know him, but I was – they say it was very unfair. Donald Trump: And they say the – the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president. He supported Trump. He liked Trump. I didn’t know him, but he liked him. It was in Utah. And they went after him. They went after his family. They went after his businesses. Donald Trump: And he was, I believe, exonerated. And then they went after him again. And they brought him, this time into Manhattan, and he had nothing to do with Manhattan. And they got him. And I said that’s unfair. There are many people like that. They support Trump and they went after them. You don’t realize. This is a vicious group of people that were in this office before us. This was a vicious group. Donald Trump: They’re violent. What they were – what they were doing to people. And you could go story after – hundreds and even thousands of stories. And they went after this man. And when I heard about it, I said, nope, not going to happen. They persecuted – they destroyed five years of his life. He went fourth for five years of his life, and he did nothing wrong. Donald Trump: And he’s a good person. And basically, I had these fantastic recommendations about him from people that you know very well, all top of the line people. They thought it was a horrible thing. There were – there are many such cases, by the way, many such cases. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President, do Americans buy cars now if they want to avoid hiked prices? Rockets from Iran? Donald Trump: Please go ahead. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Have you spoken with Vladimir Putin about buying weapons from Iran and from North Korea? Donald Trump: Not about specifically that. No, I haven’t. Question: That seems to be an issue that you want to make important. Is – Donald Trump: Well, I’m making all issues important. You have got a lot of important issues. You also have the children issue that’s important. You know, a lot of children are living in Russia right now. That’s a horrible situation that would have never taken place if I – and the country is being decimated. But you know, they’re losing 2500, on average, young men, mostly men, almost in all cases men actually, but young men every single week, 2500. And they’re not from our country. Donald Trump: They’re from Ukraine. And they’re from Russia. But it’s human lives. And if we can get it stopped, and I think we’re making progress. But there’s a lot of ill will between the parties. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President, should – should Americans buy cars now if they want to avoid higher prices? And then just a follow on – Donald Trump: No, I don’t think so. I think you’re going to have a country that’s going to boom. I just spoke to Tim Cook of Apple. He’s investing $500 billion in the United States, which he would have never. He told me. I would never have done it if you lost the election. And I would have never done it if there wasn’t a tariff system that is an incentive for people to come. Donald Trump: And remember, there are no tariffs. All you have to do is do your work right here. If you have your company here, if you build your product, make your product, make your car or whatever it is, you’re making, no tariffs. And we’re going to have, I think, Scott, I would say we’re close to $4 trillion, even going close to $5 trillion. Donald Trump: Now we haven’t had that for years. If you add up years, they haven’t invested like that. And here we are in two months, we think we’re up to close to $5 trillion of investment. They’re going to build car plants. They’re already building some, many of them have already started. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: And if you build a car in the United States – and one thing that we just – I just spoke with John Thune about, I just spoke to Mike Johnson about, speaker, we’re going to do something that has never been done in this country before. I’m very proud to say it was my idea. And so sometimes the simple idea they say how did you think of that one? Donald Trump: It’s so simple. It was never done. If you buy a car in the United States that’s made in the United States, if it’s manufactured here, when you borrow money, if you borrow money, you have interest payments, we’re going to let you deduct the interest payments for income tax reasons. And I think that’s going to more than pay for itself. Donald Trump: I think people are going to be – they’ve never had a deduction. You know, deductions are supposed to be for like rich people. And it’s unfair to have that. But rich people are – I think I know more about deductions than any human being on earth. [Laughter] But you know, the truth is that people that are middle income people that buy a car and actually have to borrow money, they’re going to now get an interest deduction on their car if it’s made in the United States. Donald Trump: If it’s made someplace else that won’t take place. But car companies, as you know, are already expanding and building new plants. They’ve already started. And I think you’re going to see numbers. Howard, you’re seeing it. And Scott, you’re seeing it. You’re going to see numbers the likes of which you’ve never seen before. Donald Trump: Yeah, please go ahead. Question: Mr. President, the vice president is in Greenland right now. Do you have plans to expand US military presence in Greenland? Is that – Donald Trump: We get along very well with Greenland. We get along very well with Denmark. We’ve always had a good – Denmark does a lot of business in the United States. We don’t do so much there, but they do a lot of business in the United States. And I think they want to see – I think everybody wants to see that work out. Donald Trump: We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security. We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of, do you think we can do without it? We can’t. If you look at Greenland right now, if you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and Russian ships all over the place. And we’re not going to be able to do that. Donald Trump: We’re not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation. And we’re not talking about peace for the United States. We’re talking about world peace. We’re talking about international security. And right now, you look at it, you have warships all over the place going through right along Greenland. Donald Trump: We’re not going to let that happen. We cannot let that happen. Or if it’s going to happen, we have to be protective of our country. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: And more importantly, really protection not only of our country of the world. So Greenland is very important. And modern day weaponry makes Greenland. 100 years ago, less so but also – Question: Will you – Would you like to visit Greenland? Donald Trump: If you noticed – if you notice also some of those, you could call them roadways, OK? They’re water roadways, but some of those areas are opening up. And they’re opening up icebreakers out there, they’re opening them. And by just nature, they’re opening up and they’re headed right into China, right into Russia, and we have no choice. Donald Trump: The answer is he’s there with his wonderful wife, Usha, they’re there right now. They landed a couple of hours ago and they will represent us well. Donald Trump: But Greenland is very important for the peace of the world, not us, the peace of the entire world. And I think Denmark understands it. I think the European Union understands it. And if they don’t, we’re going to have to explain it to them. Question: Would you like to visit Greenland, Mr. President? Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Say it. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – Iranian drones are attacking and killing Ukrainians every day. Why aren’t you doing something about that? Donald Trump: Well, you’re going to see what happens with that. I’m getting reports on that and we’re looking at a report. You’re right, they make a lot of drones. Iran makes a lot of drones. They make very effective drones too. They do very effectively at some things. But Iran is very high on my list of things to watch. Donald Trump: And as you probably know, I sent them a letter just recently and I said you’re going to have to make a decision one way or the other. And we’re going to either have to talk and talk it out or very bad things are going to happen to Iran. And I don’t want that to happen – Note: [Technical issues with audio and video] Donald Trump: – preference. And I don’t say this through strength or weakness, my big preference is we work it out with Iran. Donald Trump: But if we don’t work it out, bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran. OK, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Date: 2025-03-28
I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Date: 2025-03-30
Question: Good morning, Mr. President. Donald Trump: I hope you had a good time this weekend. We had a lot of very interesting things happen. I think we’re making a lot of progress on Ukraine and Russia. There’s always conflict but I think we’re making a lot of progress getting it stopped. We just want to see thousands of soldiers a week stop dying because they’re dying at numbers that we probably haven’t seen since the Second World War for no reason whatsoever, it’s a shame, it’s a shame. Donald Trump: So I think we are making progress step-by-step. There’s tremendous hatred between the leaders, if you call the whole situation leaders, but I think we’ll get that done. And the Middle East, a lot of things are happening with respect to Iran. We’ll see if we can get something done and, if not, it’s going to be a bad situation, very, very bad. Question: On all the oil sanctions that you mentioned today, when will they start? Donald Trump: So we have a couple. We have the secondary tariffs on Iran. We’ll probably give it a couple of weeks and if we don’t see any progress we’re going to put them on. We’re not putting them on right now but, if you remember, I did that six years ago and it worked very well, to put it mildly. If the election weren’t rigged, you would have a situation where there would be no problem with Iran today, but it was. Donald Trump: Biden didn’t know what he was doing, obviously, and we have a very rough situation in the Middle East because of that. You ended up with October 7th, and you would have never had October 7th, and you would have never had Russia going into Ukraine, likewise. We’re going to make a decision on secondary tariffs on Iran based on whether or not they’re going to make a deal. Donald Trump: If they’re going to make a deal, then we’re never going to put secondary tariffs on, we’re going to hope they have a great, long and successful life as a country, but we’ll see what happens. Very interesting. I can’t imagine them doing anything else but making a deal. I would prefer a deal to the other alternative, which I think everybody in this plane knows what that is. That’s not going to be pretty and I do not prefer that. Question: Mr. President, on the tariffs, you said at one point that the tariffs Tuesday would be more conservative than what people might think. There’s reports that you are maybe now looking to make the tariffs higher. Are you weighing higher tariffs? Donald Trump: No. The tariffs will be far more generous than those countries were to us, meaning they will be kinder than those countries were to the United States of America over the decades. They ripped us off like no country’s ever been ripped off in history and we’re going to be much nicer than they were to us, but it’s substantial money for the country, nevertheless. Question: On the tariffs that you’re planning, so you’re expecting to hit something like 10 to 15 countries, is that right? Donald Trump: No, no. Question: All of the countries across the board? Donald Trump: Who told you 10 or 15 countries? Question: Well, we heard that so we heard that you were going to aim for the 15%. Donald Trump: But you didn’t hear it from me. Question: Okay, so how many countries will be in that initial tranche? Donald Trump: You’d start with all countries so let’s see what happens. There are many countries in the world. I haven’t heard a rumor about 15 countries, 10 or 15 countries. Question: So you’re starting with all countries? Donald Trump: Well, essentially all of the countries that we’re talking about, would be talking about all countries, that’s not a cutoff. And if you look at the history and you look at what’s happened to us, you go to certain places, go to Asia, and you take a look at every single country in Asia, what they’ve done to the United States in trade and, by the way, in military in a certain way. Donald Trump: But take a look at trade with Asia, and I wouldn’t say anybody has treated us fairly or nicely but we are going to treat them, we’re going to be much more generous to them in terms of heart but it’d be much more generous than they were to us. Question: You said you were not joking about a third term, about possibly wanting a third term. Does that mean you’re not planning to leave office on January 20th? Donald Trump: I’m not looking at that but, I’ll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which is in a way it’s a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged so it’s actually sort of a fourth term in a certain way. I just don’t want the credit for the second because Biden was so bad, he did such a bad job. Donald Trump: I think that’s one of the reasons that I’m popular, if you want to know the truth. I think I’m popular because we’ve done a great job. I think we’ve had the best almost hundred days of any president, and most people are saying that, and it’s an honor. We’re bringing back our country, we’re respected as a country again, and we’re strongly respected, and people are amazed. Donald Trump: I was with some very important people today and they said that they’ve never seen a turnaround of a country as fast as this. Even look at our border, we have nobody coming in, and you can come into our country but you have to come in legally. But we have nobody coming into our country, it’s almost shut down. Donald Trump: They’ve never seen anything like it. Question: The Constitution limits a president to two terms. Is it your understanding that they have to be? Donald Trump: Well, I even didn’t want to talk about it. I’m just telling you, I have had more people say please run again. They said, we have a long way to go before we even think about that but I’ve had a lot of people. Yeah, go ahead, did you have something? Question: Yeah, I just wanted to ask, do you think that’s an appropriate precedent to set, even if it wasn’t you in this position to see a president serve a third term? Donald Trump: I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it you’ve got a long time to go. We have a long time. We have almost four years to go, and that’s a long time but, despite that, so many people are saying you’ve got to run again. They love the job we’re doing. Most importantly, they love the job we’re doing. Question: But you said you were upset with Putin. Would you say your relationship with Vladimir Putin is at its lowest point right now? Donald Trump: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think he’s going to go back on his word. You’re talking about Putin. I don’t think he’s going to go back on his word. I’ve known him for a long time. We’ve always gotten along well despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It’s a hoax created by Clinton and Schiff and all of these lunatics, and that really was a dangerous point. Donald Trump: That was a very dangerous thing they did to this country. It was a pure, unadulterated scam, hoax. But no, I think he’ll be okay but if he isn’t — I was disappointed in a certain way, some of the things that were said over the last day or two having to do with Zelenskyy because when he considers Zelenskyy not credible he’s supposed to be making a deal with him, whether you like him or you don’t like him, so I wasn’t happy with that but I think he’s going to be good. Donald Trump: I certainly wouldn’t want to put secondary tariffs on Russia but, if they were put on, it would not be very good for them. We put secondary tariffs on, as you know, in Venezuela, and it’s had a very strong impact on Venezuela. You know that every ship just got out and they left. A lot of them left, they dropped the hoses right into the ocean and they left. Donald Trump: They didn’t want to be there for a minute because they didn’t want those tariffs to catch on or they didn’t want me to see them there. The Venezuela secondary tariffs, all secondary tariffs are very strong because essentially it says if you disobey our orders you cannot do business in the United States of America, and that’s the cash cow. Question: Will that apply to Chinese companies buying Russian oil as well, if you plan to go ahead with those? Donald Trump: In the case of Venezuela, as you know, China pulled up anchor and left. They were there, they had two ships there and they left empty, they didn’t want to take a chance. No, we’re not playing games. Okay, any other questions? Question: Sir, will you verify, are you planning to leave office January 20th, 2029 or are you saying you might not? Donald Trump: Go ahead, any other questions? Question: On TikTok, the deadline’s coming up. Donald Trump: We’re working on TikTok, we have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok. The decision is going to be my decision, as you know, through Congress. They’ve given me the power to make the decision. We have a great team of people essentially taking bids. We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok. Donald Trump: We’re dealing with China also on it because they may have something to do with it and we’ll see how that goes, but I’d like to see TikTok remain alive. I mean, I’ll be honest. Selfishly speaking, I won the young vote by 36 points. Republicans generally don’t do very well with the young vote and I think a lot of it could have been TikTok, it could have been Joe Rogan, and it could have been a lot of things, but it was also TikTok. Donald Trump: TikTok is, it’s very interesting, a lot of people want to buy it. Question: If no deal, will you extend the deadline? Donald Trump: Well, there’ll be a deal with TikTok, I’m pretty sure. We would, we would. Question: Mr. President, a deadline for Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Is there a deadline for Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to agree to a ceasefire? Donald Trump: It’s a psychological deadline. If I think they’re tapping us along I will not be happy about it. Question: Do you think they are right now? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t think so, I think he wants to make a deal and I think Zelenskyy, by the way, I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. If he does that, he’s got some problems, big, big problems. We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, “Well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.” He wants to be a member of NATO. Donald Trump: Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO, he understands that, so if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal he’s got big problems. Go ahead. Question: Mr. President, have you had any more outreach from the automakers and are you reconsidering that at all? Donald Trump: No, no. The automakers are going to make a lot of money, the American automakers, or international automakers, if you’re talking about they’re going to build in the United States. The people that are going to make money are people that manufacture cars in the United States. Outside of the United States, that’s going to be up to them, I don’t care too much about that. Donald Trump: But you have a lot of companies coming into the country to manufacture cars. As you know, the Autoworkers Union, I did great, I won Michigan by a lot. But the Autoworkers Union, they were fantastic to me but now they’re really fantastic. Even Sean Fain, who I don’t know, but he obviously wasn’t a supporter of mine, he’s a Democrat. Donald Trump: He said wonderful things about Donald Trump. He said, “I can’t believe this is finally happening.” The people that manufacture automobiles in the United States are going to make money the likes of which they’ve never seen before. But beyond that, we have the computer companies, the chip companies, the pharmaceutical companies. Donald Trump: We have lumber, we have everything, steel. They’re all going to do really well as long as they do their product in the United States. Thank you very much, everyone. Question: On this question about stagflation now, is that something that you’re worried about, given the impact of your efforts to readjust the economy? Donald Trump: I haven’t heard that term in years, I don’t know anything about it. This country is going to be more successful than it ever was, it’s going to boom. We’re going to have boom town USA, we’re going to boom at many industries and we’re going to bring manufacturing and we’re going to bring product. For instance, we need pharmaceuticals in a company. Donald Trump: We don’t want to be buying our pharmaceuticals from other countries because we’re in a war, we’re a problem. We want to be able to make our own. We have our own lumber, we have our own energy. We don’t need energy from Canada. We don’t need lumber from Canada. We don’t need anything from Canada. We don’t need cars from Canada, as an example. Donald Trump: I think we’re going to have, I call it the Golden Age of America, I believe this will be the Golden Age of America. Thank you very much, everybody. Question: Have you decided on your first foreign trip?
Date: 2025-03-31
Karoline Leavitt: It’s quite the group, yes. Question: Yes. Karoline, does President Trump have any plans – Karoline Leavitt: Nice weather. Everybody’s out. It’s – it’s Monday. We have another big week. On Wednesday it will be Liberation Day in America, as President Trump has so proudly dubbed it. The cabinet will be here for the event. It’ll be our first rose garden event of this administration. So, you all will be invited to attend and cover this historic moment. Karoline Leavitt: The president will be announcing a tariff plan that will roll back the unfair trade practices that have been ripping off our country for decades. He’s doing this in the best interest of the American worker. We also had great news this morning on the border. Our homeland security team, our national security team, continues to do an incredibly effective job when it comes to deporting foreign terrorists from American soil. Karoline Leavitt: 17 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 illegal criminal terrorists were deported from our country back to El Salvador, and they will no longer ever be able to say they can roam free in this country under this president. These were convicted felons, murderers, rapists, who are no longer in our country and I think we should all be very grateful for that. Karoline Leavitt: I’ll take some questions. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Is there anything these countries can do at this point to stave off these tariffs? And has the president decided on the scale and scope of these tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I think first of all, unfortunately these countries have been ripping off our country for far too long and they’ve made, I think, their disdain for the American worker quite clear. If you look at the unfair trade practices that we have, 50 percent from the European Union on American dairy, you have a 700 percent tariff from Japan on American rice. Karoline Leavitt: You have a 100 percent tariff from India on American agricultural products. You have nearly a 300 percent tariff from Canada on American butter and American cheese. This makes it virtually impossible for American products to be imported into these markets and it has put a lot of Americans out of business and out of work over the past several decades. Karoline Leavitt: So, it’s time for reciprocity and it’s time for a president to take historic change to do what’s right for the American people, and that’s going to take place on Wednesday. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: And what about the scope of them? He said yesterday he would be more generous. What does that mean? Karoline Leavitt: I will let the president make the announcement on Wednesday, but it’s certainly going to ensure that there’s reciprocity and the American people are treated fairly. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline, the – Has the president determined how many countries are going to see these reciprocal tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: Again, I’ll let the president get into the specifics of the announcement, but he has a brilliant team of trade advisors. You have Secretary Bessent, Secretary Lutnick, Jamison Greer, our US Trade Representative, Peter Navarro, of course and Kevin Hassett here at the white House, Stephen Miller as well. The vice president has been deeply involved in these conversations. Karoline Leavitt: All of these individuals have presented plans to the president on how to get this done and it’s the president’s decision to make and we will not get ahead of him on the specifics of the announcement. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – global stock market sell off caused the White House to rethink any of these plans? Karoline Leavitt: The president has always said that the stock market is a snapshot of a moment in time and he’s doing what’s best for Main Street and Wall Street will work out just fine in this administration just like they did in their first term. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: As you said last week, Karoline, you said there would be an investigation or a review into how Jeffrey Goldberg’s number got on that group chat. What’s the status of that review and what is the status of National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz? Karoline Leavitt: As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team and this case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned. There have been steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again and we’re moving forward. Karoline Leavitt: And the president, and Mike Waltz, and his entire national security team have been working together very well. If you look at how much safer the United States of America is because of the leadership of this team. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: How confident – the tariffs. Are there going to be sector by sector announcements this week at the event you’re alluding to? Will you be focusing on sectors or more country-based tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: The goal of Wednesday are country-based tariffs but certainly sector, sectoral, tariffs. The president has said he’s committed to implementing them and I’ll leave it to him on when he makes that decision and that announcement. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline? Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Does President Trump still plan to talk to President Putin this week and if so, when? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have a readout for you on that call, but as always we’ll provide a readout. Usually the president likes to let you guys know first especially for big calls like that. Steve? Question: Any exemptions for farmers being considered for these tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: No exemptions at this time. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline, Karoline – The validation guide that DHS is using to determine who is an enemy alien, a Tren de Aragua member and deportable under the Enemy Aliens Act, uh, it – has criteria here that require eight points to be classified as a TDA member. You can get classified by simply having certain symbols in your tattoos and wearing certain streetwear brands. Question: That alone is enough to get someone classified as TDA and sent to El Salvador. Karoline Leavitt: That’s not true actually, Andrew. Question: According to this document, it is. Karoline Leavitt: No, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the agents – have you talked to the agents who have been putting their lives on the line to detain these foreign terrorists who have been terrorizing our communities? Question: I have – I have – Karoline Leavitt: TDA is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women. Question: I’m not denying that. Karoline Leavitt: And our agents on the front lines take up deporting these people with the utmost seriousness. And there is a litany of criteria that they use to ensure that these individuals qualify as foreign terrorists and – Question: This document says all they need is eight points. Karoline Leavitt: – to ensure – to ensure that they qualify for deportation. And the president made it incredibly clear to the American public that there would be a mass deportation campaign of not just foreign terrorists, but also illegal criminal aliens who have been wreaking havoc on American communities. And shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals who have – Question: I’m not trying to cover for anyone. That’s not fair. Karoline Leavitt: – this is a vicious gang, Andrew. This is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women. Question: I’m not denying that. I’m asking the question – Based on the document the government filed in court which says, all someone – Karoline Leavitt: And you said yourself there are – there are eight criteria on that document. Question: No, they need eight points. Karoline Leavitt: And you are questioning the credibility of these agents who are putting their life on the line to protect your life and the life of everybody in this group and everybody across the country. Question: I’m not questioning their credibility. I’m asking you – Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: And their credibility should be questioned. They finally have a president who is allowing them to do their jobs and God bless them for doing it. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline, what method would the president use to potentially run for a third term as he said, there are methods there. Karoline Leavitt: Look, you guys continue to ask the president this question about a third term and then he answers honestly and candidly with a smile and then everybody here melts down about his answer. Uh, the president was – talked about this last night on the plane. He said it’s not really something we’re thinking about. Karoline Leavitt: He has four years, there’s a lot of work to do. We’ve done a lot in these nearly first 100 days, and the American people love what this president is doing; particularly when it comes to efforts to secure the border. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: How confident is President Trump that he can get a peace deal done in Ukraine? How confident is President Trump that he can get a peace deal done in Ukraine? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, the president is working incredibly hard to get a peace deal done between Russia and Ukraine, and he has expressed his displeasure with comments that have been made by leaders of both sides of this conflict. He has expressed what he believes needs to take place in order to see this conflict come to an end. Karoline Leavitt: He continues to work very hard on it and our teams continue to be engaged. Question: Karoline, can countries that don’t have tariffs on the US, but may have other forms of non-tariff trade barriers, I’m thinking in my case of Australia, can they expect to be hit on, in, Wednesday’s announcement or can they expect to be left out and dealt with another time? Karoline Leavitt: Again, I’ll let the president make the announcement on Wednesday, but I think any country that has treated the American people unfairly should expect to receive a tariff in return on Wednesday. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline, you talk about the European Union. Is the president expected to impose those tariffs in blocks or will he distinguish countries within those trading blocs? Karoline Leavitt: Again, I will let the president get into the specifics of the announcement. It’s his announcement to make. It’s going to be very exciting. We’ll see you guys in the rose garden and you will also hear directly from the president. If you have any lingering questions, 5:30 this afternoon or evening rather, although it’s really afternoon for us, that’s about midday for this president because he works all night. Karoline Leavitt: But he’ll be signing an executive order. It will be the in-house pool in the Oval Office and we’ll see you all there. Thanks guys. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Karoline, has – going to Saudi Arabia. Thank you, Karoline.
Date: 2025-03-31
Kid Rock: There he is. [Laughs] Unidentified: Hey [Inaudible] Kid Rock: What’s up Pete? Donald Trump: Uhh, Peter, ask him a lot of questions. [Laughter] Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: You all set? So it’s an honor to have you back. A friend of mine, Kid Rock, sometimes referred to as Bob. I know him as Bob, but he’s been a good friend for a long time, many years and he’s been after something that is for the good of a lot of people, including in particular the public and having to do with ticket sales and scalping and all of the gouging that you have been reading about that’s gotten worse and worse with time. Donald Trump: And I didn’t know too much about it, but I checked it out and it is a big problem. And I thought – I think you’ve been trying to get this done for 20 years or something. He said, Trump got it done in two weeks, but we came up with a very serious EO and I’m going to sign it now. And maybe I’ll ask you, Will, to explain a little bit about it, please. Will Scharf: Of course, sir. So this is an executive order, as you said, that deals with the ticket reselling business. For fans of live entertainment and for entertainers as well, the ticket reselling industry has become a huge issue. These people use bots and computer algorithms to buy up huge blocks of tickets and then jack up the price so that fans of live entertainers, like Mr. Ritchie. Will Scharf: I almost called him Mr. Rock, don’t have access to concerts the way that they should. And when they do, it’s at exorbitantly high prices. So what this executive order does, it charges the FTC and the Department of Justice with rigorously enforcing laws on the books in collaboration with state attorneys general that have power over consumer protection, and other people who have the power to really crack down on this issue so that entertainers and fans won’t be subject to these abusive and oftentimes illegal practices. Donald Trump: Good. Thank you very much. Bob, do you want to say something? Kid Rock: Yeah, anybody who’s – it doesn’t matter your politics. First of all, thank you, Mr. President, because this has happened at lightning speed. I know you put – I want to make sure, Alina Habba, Alina Habba gets her credit too, because I know she worked very hard on this, but thank you for making this happen so quick. Kid Rock: Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter what your politics are, knows it’s a conundrum. You buy a ticket for $100. By the time you check out, it’s $170. You don’t know what you’re getting charged for. But more importantly, these bots, they come in to get all the good tickets to your favorite shows you want to go to and then they’re relisted immediately for sometimes a 400 or 500 percent markup. Kid Rock: And the artists don’t see any of that money and ultimately, I think this is a great first step. I would love down the road if there would be some legislation that we could actually put a cap on the resale of tickets. And I’m a capitalist and a deregulation guy, but they’ve tried this in some places in Europe and it seems to be the only thing that’s us, as artists, be able to get the tickets into the hands of the fans at the prices we set. Kid Rock: I’ll be the first one to say and I know the president doesn’t like when I say this, but I’m a little overpaid right now. It’s kind of ridiculous. I would rather be a hero to the working-class people and have them be able to come attend my shows and give them a fair ticket price. I can’t control that right now. Kid Rock: So hopefully this is a step to really be able to make that happen. A lot of artists and a lot of fans who love concerts and music are going to be very appreciative of you taking this action, sir. Donald Trump: And I think Bob is more interested in the fans and the people that are having to pay crazy prices, than he is the artist. Maybe the artist a little bit, but the fans, a lot. I’ve spoken to him over the years about it and it bothers him. It bothers a lot of other artists too, to see the artists and they go out with a $100 ticket and it sells for $2,000 the following night. Donald Trump: And they seem to be able to sweep up the best locations too, which is pretty amazing. Kid Rock: They’ve only enforced that bots act one time, I believe. A couple years ago in New York City, I think we got a couple million dollar fine and that’s the only time they’ve enforced enforce that act. Donald Trump: And who’s the primary culprit? Who sells these tickets. Kid Rock: It’s the scalpers. It’s these bots go in, they’re automated. So you’re – Donald Trump: But is there a company involved? You might not want to say? Kid Rock: No. Well, there’s reselling markets – yeah. Donald Trump: I know, Peter. But that’s all right. Don’t get him involved. Maybe they’re more innocent than we think. Kid Rock: Well, if you think of it like if Ticketmaster sells a ticket, if you buy a ticket and go to a show, you’re in a lot of ways their worst customer because they make another 17 whatever percentage, every time that ticket resells. So they don’t want to enforce the bots act necessarily, because they’re making more money off it. The artists don’t see any of that money, but that’s not what I’m advocating for, is for me to make more money. Kid Rock: I want the fans to have fair ticket prices to be able to go and enjoy more shows. I know people that can only – they decide on a family vacation or going to their favorite concert once a year rather than, my parents used to go see multiple shows when you can afford them, back in their day. And I’d like to take my ticket prices lower, but if I set my ticket prices low, these bots immediately eat them up and they resell for hundreds of dollars more and I’m just making these bad actors rich. Donald Trump: Yeah. Well, I think this is a big step to getting it stopped. Do you have something, Brian? Question: Yeah, I do actually. I actually feel um that the consumer is going to take the money that they save and actually buy merch, which you guys have a big percentage of, or do concessions, which you guys split with the venue on that as well. So I think that their money goes further. Kid Rock: We don’t share in concessions a lot. Question: No? Kid Rock: No, we try to, but they don’t want to share it in the beer prices and parking or any of that stuff. But the bottom line is there’s money for everyone to be made. There’s plenty of money to go around. No one’s going to really lose here. Ticketmaster, if we can get a cap, they’re going to lose some money. But I’ve already talked to CEO, Michael, and he’s giving me his word. Kid Rock: He’s on board for it. Question: I was talking to Jacoby with Papa Roach earlier. And by the way, he’s a big fan of what you’re doing, President Trump, digging into this whole scalping and the bots. A lot of musicians, and you can say that, they’re with Kid Rock, sir, on this, without a doubt. Donald Trump: Good. I think so, a lot of people are. Question: President Trump? Donald Trump: Peter? Question: Would you ever wear a jacket like that? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I was thinking about doing it for tomorrow. We have a big event coming up and I was thinking about doing it, but I’m not sure. Question: So you recently bought a Tesla for White House staff to use. Donald Trump: I did. Question: But now there’s all these domestic terrorists targeting Teslas. Are the staff scared to drive it? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. I haven’t heard. They weren’t complaining. I did buy one and I let the staff use it. We have it parked conveniently and one day we give it to Margo. One day we give it to Chamberlain, give it to Natalie. We give it to everybody around, give it to Dan Scavino, but he’s got so much money, it doesn’t matter, but they love the car and it’s a great car. Donald Trump: And it’s made here and it’s made in the country. It’s got a tremendous plant now in Texas and he has one in California, does a lot of his work here. And he’s been really unfairly treated, in my opinion. Kid Rock: I drive one. Donald Trump: Yeah? Question: There’s this other story. I know it’s hypothetical right now, but if you were allowed for some reason to run for a third term, is there a thought that the Democrats could try to run Barack Obama against you for his third term? Donald Trump: I’d love that. I’d love that. That would be a good one. I’d like that. No, people are asking me to run and there’s a whole story about running for a third term. I don’t know. I never looked into it. They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that. But I have not looked into it. I want to do a fantastic job. Donald Trump: We have four years just about, almost close to four years. Time is flying, but it’s still close to four years and we’re getting a lot of credit for having done a great job in the first almost 100 days. And we have some big things we’re going to be announcing over the next two days. And you know very well, Peter, and I think it’s going to be something that’s going to bring a lot of wealth back to our country, tremendous wealth back to our country actually. Donald Trump: And other countries are understanding it because they’ve been ripping us for 50 years longer, but they’ve been ripping us off for years, right from the beginning. And I think this is going to be an amazing, I call it a lot of different names, but it’s really, in a sense, it’s a rebirth of a country because how we could have afforded to do what we did, we helped everybody and they don’t help us. The term I like best probably is the liberation of America. Donald Trump: It’s a liberation of this country because it’s incredible. Look, we have 36 trillion in debt for a reason and that accumulates over a long period of time. So I think what you’re going to be seeing over the next couple of days will be very inspiring to a lot of people. They had a lot of auto plants being built in a certain country. Donald Trump: I don’t want to mention the country because we get along great with the country, but those plants aren’t being built there anymore. They gave them up today and yesterday, day before and they’re building them all now in the United States. And we have many examples, not only auto plants, chip companies from Taiwan are coming in. The biggest, Mr. Wei, he’s big. Donald Trump: I said, you are a smart guy, aren’t you? I’ve been reading about him over the years, but he controls a large portion of the chip business, as you know, get smarter. They’re going to be investing $200 billion or $300 billion. Apple’s investing $500 billion. They always built their places in China, now he’s building here. Donald Trump: I think because of the – you speak to Tim Cook, because of the election, but maybe more importantly because of the tariffs. He’s got really an obligation to do it, but we have many, many companies that you haven’t even heard of, but I think we’ll be at $5 trillion very soon. And if you think about this, we’ve never been anywhere near that. Donald Trump: I don’t know if we’ve ever been at $1 trillion. Question: What do you mean by that by – Donald Trump: We’re $500 – what do I mean by a trillion? Question: $5 trillion, what are you referring to, sir? Donald Trump: I think that we’re going to be at $5 trillion of investment. I think you’re going to have investments very shortly. We’re already three and a half and we have commitments, verbal commitments for a lot more. And numbers like that have never been done in this country and it’s going to get harder. This is in two months. Donald Trump: It’s really in less than two months because – since we’ve really gone out with it. And we have other interesting things happening, but to me the whole tariff situation – and essentially, they’ve done that to us for many years. So, if we’re anywhere near $5 trillion in two months, this could be numbers like the country has never seen. Donald Trump: And every time you hear a dollar spent that’s another job because the jobs are coming with it. So, auto plants, chip plants, pharmaceuticals, lumber coming in – we have things happening in this country, I don’t think – I’m not sure that they’ve ever seen it. Steel, you know, we have tariffs on steel, they’ve been here for a while, steel and aluminum. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen anything like we’re witnessing now. Nobody’s ever seen. I think you – most of you agree with that. I mean, there’s nothing much you can’t agree with. We have things happening in terms of jobs and investment, the likes of which I don’t think we’ve ever seen. If you look at, let’s say $4 trillion to $5 trillion, in a period of a month and a half, that’s even more than you do with your concerts, which are always sold out, right? Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen numbers. And think of it, where Apple’s at $500 billion, as I said, but they always used to spend their money in China, now they’re spending it here. That means they’re going to build. Now, they don’t have any tariffs. Remember, there are no tariffs if you do your product here, if you build whatever it is in the USA. Donald Trump: One of the things we’re also trying to get is if you build – if you buy a car that was built in the USA, you get a deduction on interest. So, if you go and borrow money to buy a car, if it’s built in the USA – never been done before. It’s a big deduction for people that really aren’t used to deductions, frankly, because people that buy cars like that are not big into the world of deductions. Donald Trump: And now they’re going to learn about deductions. So, I think it’s going to be great. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, are you going to move ahead with the universal tariff or different individual tariff rates on a whole variety of different – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, you’re going to see in two days, which is maybe tomorrow night or probably Wednesday, you’re going to see. And they’re reciprocal. So, whatever they charge us, we charge them. But we’re being nicer than they were. We have a lot of countries, friend and foe – I always say friend and foe, but the friend in many cases is worse than the foe. Donald Trump: They took advantage of us. And we are going to be very nice by comparison to what they were. The numbers will be lower than what they’ve been charging us and, in some cases, maybe substantially lower. But we sort of have a world obligation perhaps. But we’re going to be very nice – relatively speaking, we’re going to be very kind. Question: Mr. President, you met with the chairman – Donald Trump: Somebody said that about me the other day. He said – who doesn’t know me very well. They said, you’re such a kind person. And I said, say that again. They said, you’re a kind person. I said I’ve never heard that before. It was a weird statement. I was kind. Unidentified: Who said that? Donald Trump: I’ve heard of words – I don’t know. I’d better not tell you. You know, I’ve heard of – I’ve been called a lot of things, but it’s sort of a different kind of a word. It’s like an old-fashioned word, isn’t it? Question: Mr. President, you met with the chairman of Stellantis today. Did he ask you for a pause on the auto tariffs? Donald Trump: No, no. Question: What was that meeting about? Donald Trump: Just about some of the problems they have with the environment, which we’re going to clean up. Question: Have any of the automakers – Donald Trump: We’re going to probably go back to 1926. If you – if you – look, we’re going to go back probably to a 2020 standard. So, we’ll have 2020 standard and that’s just a few years ago. Oh, they’re putting them – they’re making it so difficult, all over the world they make it – and it doesn’t mean a damn bit of difference for the environment. Donald Trump: It doesn’t matter. They make it impossible for people to build cars. So, we’re going to be doing much different. 2020 is a strong standard, but they’ve taken it to a level now that makes it very difficult to build a car. So, we’re going to be bringing it back to a standard that is a very good environmental standard, but it makes it possible to build a car. Question: Have you heard any concerns from the automakers though about the tariffs on parts that will go into effect over the coming weeks, about what that’s going to mean for the price of – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, I gave them a big break, for a month I didn’t charge them anything, for a big month, for that first month. And they brought a lot of material into this country because they could bring it in without tariff. If you look at Canada and Mexico, they were driving hundreds of thousands of cars into the market because they avoid the tariffs, by doing it before the tariffs go on, which would be Wednesday. Donald Trump: And I looked at the – I saw some of your shows where cars are lined up for miles and miles, some of them didn’t have fenders on them. Some of them didn’t have the roof on yet. They’re driving it here – brand new, they’re driving it in because they want to avoid the tariffs. I let them have that. They sort of took advantage of it because that wasn’t part of the deal, but that’s OK. They’re a great American car company – and car companies, and so, I gave them a little break on that. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Are there any countries that you’re not targeting on Wednesday? Donald Trump: Well, it depends, I said it’s reciprocal. Not everybody has made a fortune, but almost everybody has, but not everybody. And the ones that haven’t, we’re going to be very nice to them. Question: And on a separate issue – Donald Trump: Because that word reciprocal is very important – what they do to us, we do to them. OK, please. Question: Can I just ask you briefly on President Putin? You said over the weekend or indicated over the weekend some frustration with him. How serious are you about imposing oil sanctions? Donald Trump: No, I want to see him make a deal so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and other people from being killed. But mostly it’s Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, they’re losing at least 2,500 human beings, beautiful human beings a week. And I want it to stop. And some people would say why do you worry about Russian soldiers or Ukrainian soldiers? Donald Trump: I worry because it’s like they’re just like you people. They’re like us, they’re like all of us, and I seem to have an ability to do those things. And if I can do that, I think it’s a very worthwhile thing to do. And I think we will and, no, I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will. Donald Trump: I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil. But I think it’s something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job. I did it with Venezuela, secondary tariffs. And you know what happened, every boat left the harbor. Did you see that? It was a beautiful thing to see. The whole harbor emptied out. Donald Trump: My words weren’t even finished, and I have these massive – these massive ships, they’re actually taking the hoses and dumping them into there. They couldn’t get out of there fast enough because they know I don’t play games. So, I think he’s going to live up to what he told me, and I think he’s going to fulfill his part of the deal. Donald Trump: Now then you have Zelenskyy and hopefully he’s going to live up. I see he’s trying to renegotiate the rare earth. We did something because, as you know, the Europeans get paid back the money that they gave and we don’t because Biden is an incompetent president, and he should have asked for rare earth, or he should have asked for the loans to be guaranteed in some form. Donald Trump: That’s what Europe did. Europe is in for 100 – probably $100 billion and we’re in for $350 billion. So, we’re in for more than three times and – now you could make it a little bit less than that. But it doesn’t matter, whatever the number, we’re in for substantially more than Europe, we could be in for $350 billion. Donald Trump: They have no idea because Biden wasn’t a good bookkeeper except for himself. And what happens is we made a deal for rare earth; it was all done. And I heard through you – I haven’t spoken to them yet, but through you, I heard that they’re now saying, well, I’ll only do that deal if we get into NATO or something to that effect. Donald Trump: Well, that was never, number one, discussed. Number two, I think it’s going to be very – long before Putin they said you’re not going into NATO. And it could be – that’s probably the reason the war started actually. Question: Mr. President, we’re hours away from a very special election in Wisconsin and Florida. I want to share your thoughts on Republican voters to not sleep on this. These are two very important races you’ve got. Donald Trump: Well, it’s a big race, Supreme Court race in Wisconsin. It’s taking place essentially as we – it was early voting, so we’ll see what happens. It’s a big race. I love Wisconsin. We won Wisconsin. Republicans typically don’t do very well in Wisconsin, but I did – I actually won it twice. I actually probably won it three times to be exact. Question: We played their songs. Donald Trump: Not probably, I won it three times. And we had a rigged election the second time. But that’s one of those things. We had to make this one too big to rig, as he – would you agree with that, Bryan? Too big to rig? Unidentified: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: So, anyway. But yeah, it is a big race, and I hope you get out and vote for the Republican. The woman is a radical left lunatic. And let’s see who wins. But the woman will be very bad. And Wisconsin is a big state politically and the Supreme Court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin. So, if – whoever it is that’s running, including even Senate races, etc., but whoever it is in four years that runs, having Wisconsin is a very big – we won it early and big, but winning Wisconsin is a big deal. Donald Trump: So, therefore, the Supreme Court choice, that is the one you’re talking about right now? It’s a big race. It’s going to be announced fairly shortly. Question: President Trump – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – TikTok. Big week of deadlines. You got Liberation Day and the TikTok deadline is this week. Donald Trump: Yeah, we do, which I can extend if I want, but we have a lot of enthusiasm for TikTok, for buying it. I think TikTok is good. I used it very – I was a great TikTok guy and we won by 36 points, the youth. We won the youth, which Republicans don’t do, maybe it’s because Kid Rock likes Trump. I don’t know. Donald Trump: But we won the youth by 36 points and I attribute some of that to TikTok. Question: Is the TikTok deal, the negotiations now tied to a bigger tariff deal with China? Donald Trump: No. But it could be. I mean, you know I’ve used tariffs for lots of different reasons, but I could see one point in tariffs with China big country would be probably worth more than all of TikTok as valuable as TikTok is. It’s big stuff. So there’s a great example. That’s a great question, actually. I’m a very flexible person. Donald Trump: I could use that for that. Maybe I’ll take a couple of points off if I get approvals for something. I haven’t done it. Maybe I’ll do it, maybe I won’t. But it’s a very good question. Peter, you’re very good. Question: Thank you. You’ll love this one. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Question: It’s not front-page news, but I am just curious. What is your thought about Tiger Woods now becoming part of the broader Trump family? Donald Trump: Well, I love Tiger and I love Vanessa and uh, they had a great relationship. I happen to think the relationship with my son, I think – I happen to think the relationship was hurt very badly by the witch hunt that went on Russia, Russia, Russia and all the crap that they put Don through, who knew nothing about it. But Vanessa and Don had a very good relationship. Donald Trump: They have incredible children, five incredible children, all good athletes, all great students, are great. And they broke up you know quite a while ago, which was to me very sad because I think they’re both great, Don and Vanessa. And Tiger actually called me a few months ago and he and you have a very special, very good relationship with Tiger. Donald Trump: I played golf with him a couple of times over the last month and he’s a fantastic guy and a fantastic athlete and he told me about it and I said, Tiger, that’s good, that’s good. I’m very happy for both. I just let them both be happy. Let them both be happy. They’re both great. Question: To follow up on China. To follow up on China, China South Korea and Japan, say they’re going to work together in cooperation to respond to the tariffs that you’re going to put into effect this week. Donald Trump: Could be. Question: Are you concerned that this move the tariffs this week could push some of the United States closest allies to work with China? Donald Trump: No, I’m not worried about it. I’m not worried about it. Yeah? Question: Mr. President, can I ask you about something? Donald Trump: I think they have a chance of doing better actually with the tariffs. It can actually help them in a certain way and I think a lot of them will drop their tariffs because they’ve been unfairly tariffing the United States for years. And if you look at the European Union on cars, the European Union already dropped their tariff down to 2.5 percent. Donald Trump: It was announced a couple of days ago, which is a very small tariff. The United States charged very little. And I think I heard that India just a little while ago is going to be dropping its tariffs very substantially. And I said, why didn’t somebody do this a long time ago? A lot of countries are going to be dropping their tariffs. Question: About something that happened in France today, Mr. President. Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, got convicted in court and is now banned from running for office for five years. Do you have a comment on that? Donald Trump: That’s a big deal. That’s a very big deal. I know all about it and a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted of anything. And I don’t know if it means conviction, but she was banned from running for five years and she’s the leading candidate. That sounds like this country. That sounds very much like this country. Donald Trump: OK. Anybody else? Question: Mr. President, [Inaudible] been presented with a bunch of proposals for terrorists by your advisors that you can talk about – Donald Trump: Who? Question: That your advisers have presented ideas to you about – Donald Trump: They do. Oh yeah. Question: – about tariffs and what to do in the next few days. Have you settled on – Donald Trump: Well, you’re going to see. I’ve settled, yeah, a long – actually a long time ago, but we talk about it. We talk about it a lot. We want to do what’s right for the country and even the world. It affects the world, not just this country. This has been the piggy bank for the entire world, so it really does affect the world and that’s important to me also. Donald Trump: Yeah? Question: Mr. President, in the past you have said that you want the quick return of Austin Tice, a marine Corps veteran and a journalist who went missing in Syria over 12 years ago. Have efforts been made to locate Austin Tice been extended beyond Syria, including potential leads in Iran? And do you have plans to get in touch with Ms. Deborah Tice, the mother of Austin Tice? Question: And also at the same time, organizations like Hostage Worldwide have been on the ground in Syria searching for Austin Tice for many years. Can I get your comment on the future, potential future plans to locate Austin Tice and to bring him home finally? Donald Trump: So we’ve been looking, as you know, for Austin for years. I don’t know about Biden. I don’t think Biden was looking for anything, but we were. And there’s been virtually no sign. You know that. There’s been no sign of Austin, an incredible young guy, be less young now. It’s been a long time. It’s been many, many years. Donald Trump: The mother is fantastic. She is a very committed mother that her whole life is to find her son who was in Syria and just disappeared off the face of the earth. So a lot of bad things happen, but we’re always – we will never, until we find out something definitive, one way or the other, we’ll never stop looking for him. Donald Trump: But we have been and the response, it’s just a lot of dead ends. He’s been gone for a long time. The problem is there’s never been a sighting. Sometimes you’ll have somebody, you’re looking for them and there’s a sighting. There’s never been a sighting of Austin, but we are out there and we have great respect for his family and for his mother. Donald Trump: She’s been unbelievable. Yeah, please? Question: Mr. President, a question about – Donald Trump: No, behind you. Question: Oh, apologize. You’ve had outreach with the leaders of Russia and China. You made an outreach to Iran. When are you going to plan to reach out to North Korea and Kim Jong Un, anytime in the near future? Donald Trump: Well, I do. I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. Now you people hate to hear that, but it’s very important. I got along with him fantastically, as you know. It started off very rough, very nasty, little rocket man. The whole thing was a nasty deal. And then one day, we got a call that they’d like to meet. Donald Trump: We met. We have a great relationship. And yeah, we have – there is communication. Yeah. I think it’s very important. He’s a big nuclear nation and he’s a very smart guy. I got to know him very well. I remember I put my foot across the line and then I walked across the line. I don’t know if Secret Service was thrilled with that. Donald Trump: They actually wasn’t. They were not too thrilled, but I have a very good relationship with him. Yeah, I will probably do something at some point. Yeah, please? Question: Mr. President? Who’s on your short list, Mr. President, to replace Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN? Donald Trump: So we have a lot of good people that want it. First of all, Elise is fantastic and I just don’t want to take chances where you guys are saying how is the election going. We have a Congressional election that’s a little bit close. I guess the one is in good shape, but the other one’s a little bit close. But Randy Fine is a great guy. Donald Trump: They’re both good candidates. They’re very good. But it’s a little bit, we want to be careful. And Elise is very popular in her district and so am I. We won by a lot of points and so did she. And there’s a lot of people that wanted to run for it, but we have no idea, are they going to win. I think it’s just security. Donald Trump: And I said, Elise, what about going back because they love you there and she’s going to take a big leadership position with Mike Johnson and the group, the speaker. And I can tell you that for the replacement, we have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it, David Friedman, Ric Grenell, and maybe 30 other people. Donald Trump: Everyone loves that position. That’s a star-making position and so we’ll see what happens. But we have a lot of people that are interested in going to the United Nations, as you can imagine. Yeah? Go ahead. Question: [Inaudible] a quick music question. Favorite song to play live is what? And then my question for you, Mr. President, your favorite rally you did last year, 2024, what was your favorite one? Kid Rock: Favorite song to play live? Question: Yeah, favorite song to play live. Kid Rock: Oh, that’s a tough one. It’d have to be one of the hits, probably Cowboy or Ball with the Bar. There’s a song that I played every night that was never a singular hit that I probably should not say the words to in this office right now. Question: And then for you, Mr. President – Kid Rock: You never met a certain person like me. Donald Trump: By the way, his rallies are amazing. He does great and he gets big crowds. He’s really a star when it comes to that. He is a very talented guy. I would say, maybe Madison Square Garden because anybody that was there, the owner of the garden, Jim Dolan, who’s, to me, always been terrific. He said this, he’s never seen anything like it. Donald Trump: When you announced Madison Square Garden, it’s a big arena, but we sell out big arenas, we sold out of Milwaukee; we sold out every big arena. We don’t have – we never had empty seats, it’s amazing. They talk about Bernie Sanders gets 2,000 or 3,000 people. Everyone says these crowds – I get 107,000 people in New Jersey. Donald Trump: In Butler, PA we had over 100,000 the second time, we had 55,000 the first time. We have big crowds. I would say Madison Square Garden because I grew up in New York and the garden is great. Jim Dolan treated us well, but everybody said that because I think I could have filled it up 10 times. We had hundreds of thousands of people that were stacked all the way back to the Hudson River and in the other direction, back to Fifth Avenue. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen – I don’t mean with a line, I mean, like 50 deep. Like 50 deep this way, the streets were closed, the whole thing, it was crazy. And when you take that, you know, you want to do well at Madison Square Garden, you don’t want to have empty seats. But we could have sold it out, Brian, 10 times and everybody knew it. And I think we got a good indication that that’s where the election was going. Donald Trump: And we won every swing state, and we won by millions of votes. It was a great election. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, the US military transferred 17 individuals to El Salvador overnight. Did you discuss with your team whether these deportations would run afoul of any recent court orders? Donald Trump: No, I do want to thank however the president. He has been unbelievable and in relation to us. But I think that our people have done an incredible job. You know, I got elected on the basis of getting bad people out of our country that shouldn’t be here, very dangerous people out of our country, and that’s what I did. Donald Trump: And then you have a judge that wants to take over and I can’t imagine it can be allowed. If it was up to him, they’d all be put back in our country. These are killers, these are drug lords. These are really bad people. But I want to thank the president of El Salvador because he’s – he did a – he’s done an amazing job. Donald Trump: You saw it. Yeah. Question: Elon Musk’s special government tenure is coming to an end, 130 days, I think another month. Do you want him to stay longer or is it time for him to go back to running his companies in Europe – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, I think he’s amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run. And so, at some point, he’s going to be going back, he wants to. But at – Question: Don’t you want to keep him around? Donald Trump: Oh, I’d keep him as long as I could keep him. He’s a very talented guy. I love very smart people and he’s very smart, and he’s done a good job. You know DOGE has – we found numbers that nobody can even believe, like $400 billion, $500 billion, it could be close to $1 trillion by the time they end on different things, and he’s led the charge. Donald Trump: And you’ve seen a lot of his people – and these are people that joined up. I always say the high IQ people; I like high IQ people, and they’ve done a great job. No, at some point, Elon is going to want to go back to his company. I will say he’s got – despite the way he’s been treated, so he’s an American patriot, but the way he’s been treated with Tesla is just terrible. Donald Trump: It’s just terrible. In fact, you have a Tesla, and you love it, you love it. He was saying before he bought a Tesla, he loved it. A lot of people are buying Teslas, I think, and I hope they are. He should not be treated that way. He’s done an incredible service to our country. Question: Once he goes back, is DOGE going to keep operating even without Elon here? Donald Trump: Well, I can’t tell you that. I can say this that a lot of the people that are working with DOGE are the secretaries, the heads of the various agencies. And they’ve learned a lot and they’re dealing with the DOGE people. I think some of them may try and keep the DOGE people with them, but at a certain point I think it will end. Donald Trump: But they have also gotten a big education and they’re doing a really good job. There’ll be a point at which the secretaries will be able to do this work and do it very – as we say, with a scalpel and that’s what we want. Yeah, Jeff. Question: Mr. President, have you had any updates on the US soldiers missing in Lithuania? Donald Trump: I have. Question: Can you give us an update? Donald Trump: So, three are no longer with us and one is unfortunately probably in the same category, but they haven’t declared that yet. It was a very heavy truck like a toy, but I mean really heavy that lifted the heaviest equipment and it would seem that the bank of a lake collapsed. You know the weight is so big, and it was at night, and it was very cold weather and ice, a lot of ice. Donald Trump: And it’s possibly slipped, and the weight is so enormous of this thing. It’s a massively heavy vehicle. And if they slipped a little bit, it’s probably what happened, and it flipped and three are gone and one is missing. Question: On a separate topic, a follow-up on immigration. Did you see the video of the Tufts University student who was taken off the street by ICE agents last week in hoodies and masks? There’s been a lot of criticism of that. Are you comfortable with how that was handled? Donald Trump: Well, I haven’t really looked at it in any detail, but I will. I mean, I have seen it quickly, but not – I wouldn’t want to comment on – yeah, please. Question: Yeah, Mr. President, would you be able to confirm recent reporting that you are making plans to go to Saudi Arabia next month? And if so, why is Saudi Arabia so important? Donald Trump: So, I have a very good relationship with the Middle East. In fact, if you look at Michigan, I won the vote by a lot. People were a little surprised, and I have a very good relationship with Mohammed and the king. The son is Mohammed, he’s great. Crown Prince, actually he’s a Prime Minister too. He’s got a lot of good titles, but he’s great and the king has been wonderful. Donald Trump: And if you remember last time I went to Saudi Arabia, I put him first in the list because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of American goods, military and otherwise. And they did. And it was an unbelievable day. It was in this gorgeous ballroom and companies were there from many, many – probably a hundred companies. Donald Trump: And they were given anywhere from $40 million or $50 million to – less – and more actually. Some of them were given numbers that were just many times that amount. I think we had a couple of $20 billion deals and big stuff. And it’s a very rich country because of oil, and we are a very rich country, ultimately when we straighten out because of oil. Donald Trump: Oil is always good. And I agreed to do it again, but – and they’ve agreed to spend close to $1 trillion of money in our American companies, which to me means jobs. So, they’re going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, giving them to American companies that are going to be making equipment for Saudi Arabia and other places in the Middle East. Donald Trump: And for that, I think it’s worth it. I did it last time, $450 billion and the press was there. It was one of the most unique days I’ve ever seen where companies would get up and you’re getting $20 billion. They named the company the chairmen were all there, every chairman and top person in the company. You remember that, Peter? Donald Trump: I don’t know if you were there, you might be too young for that. Question: I was on the democratic campaign trail – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – so I missed that. Donald Trump: Oh, that was boring. This was a much better deal. But it was amazing actually, it was an amazing day. We sold and we partook in $450 billion worth of investment into American companies. And they’d announced a company, the amount of money, $1 billion, $5 billion, $25 billion. And the chairman of the company, many of whom are well known figures, prestigious figures, great business leaders. Donald Trump: They went up, they shook the hand of somebody, and they would sit down, and we just had a big investment made. So, it was a record, nobody ever beat it before, $450 billion worth of jobs. I view it as jobs more than anything else. And now we’re close to $1 trillion. So, it’s more than double the number that we did when I first came to office. Question: And this trip takes place next month? Donald Trump: It could be next month, maybe a little bit later, yeah. And we’re going to Qatar also and also, we’re going to possibly a couple of other countries. UAE is very important. It’s a great leader in UAE. And I had his brother here the other night, if you saw that. We had – a wonderful guy, a wonderful family. Donald Trump: So, we’ll probably stop at UAE and Qatar and, as I used to call it Qatar, nobody’s ever told me right or wrong. I always like to say Qatar, but it’s Qatar. They like to say Qatar. And Saudi Arabia, the three of them, and then we’ll go other places also. But in the Middle East, they seem to be the three. And again, tremendous amounts of jobs will be created that – in those two or three days. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. Aide: Thank you, press. Thank you, press, headed out that door right there. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Thank you, guys, wrap it up. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Donald Trump: That was good. OK, ready, everybody? Well, you better do well with this. He’s going to do it, make sure everything is nice and clean for your – Kid Rock: Make America fun again. Donald Trump: Because you’re not in a clean industry. [Laughter] Hold that up. OK. Thank you, everybody. Aide: Thank you, press. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, this way. Thank you, guys. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Donald Trump: Did Biden do news conferences like this, Peter? I don’t think so. Unidentified: No.
Date: 2025-04-01
Karoline Leavitt: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. How are we? Question: Great. Karoline Leavitt: Good. Good to see you all. I want to start today by addressing the US Army soldiers who went missing while conducting a mission to repair and tow an immobilized tactical vehicle in Lithuania in the early hours of March 25th. Tragically, three soldiers were found deceased in Lithuania – Lithuania yesterday, and it pains me to confirm that today the fourth soldier was also found deceased. Karoline Leavitt: The president, the secretary of defense, and the entire White House are praying for the victims’ friends and family during this unimaginable time. This is another stark reminder of the selfless sacrifice of our brave military men and women, who risk their lives around the world every day to keep us safe. Karoline Leavitt: God bless them. On another note, at our southern border there is more massive news. Southwest border crossings in March fell to the lowest level in American history, down 94 percent from March of last year under President Biden, when 137,000 illegal aliens poured across our wide open southern border. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, Border Patrol agents are now back to doing the jobs they signed up for, securing the border, rather than serving as travel agents for illegal aliens. Karoline Leavitt: The Los Angeles Times captured the Trump effect on the border with a recent article. Their headline read, “California-Mexico border, once overwhelmed, is now nearly empty.” With so few migrants coming into the US, they wrote, shelters that once served migrants have completely closed. Deportations of illegal aliens who threaten the safety of the American people are also continuing at a rapid pace. Karoline Leavitt: Over the weekend, the United States military transferred a group of 17 violent criminals from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorist organizations to El Salvador. And an illegal alien, who was released by the Biden administration into our country, was just arrested in Georgia and charged with the horrific killing of Camelia William – Williams, a mother of five and grandmother. Karoline Leavitt: The suspect has now been indicted on charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, rape, aggravated sexual battery, and necrophilia, which for those who don’t know, necrophilia is a sexual obsession with a coarse – corpse. This suspect was ordered to be removed in July 2023, but the Biden administration allowed him to stay. Karoline Leavitt: This case represents the ruthless murderers, rapists and pedophiles who Joe Biden and Democrats let into our country over the past four years through our southern border. They should have never been here in the first place. Keep this in mind the next time you see Democrats protesting future illegal alien removals from our country. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump is focused on fulfilling his greatest obligation, to keep the American people safe and to defend our country from violent invaders. Looking ahead to tomorrow, April 2nd, 2025 will go down as one of the most important days in modern American history. Our country has been one of the most open economies in the world, and we have the consumer base hands down – the best consumer base. Karoline Leavitt: But too many foreign countries have their markets closed to our exports. This is fundamentally unfair. The lack of reciprocity contributes to our large and persistent annual trade deficit that’s gutted our industries and hollowed out key workforces. But those days of America, beginning tomorrow, being ripped off are over. Karoline Leavitt: American workers and businesses will be put first under President Trump, just as he promised on the campaign trail. The president’s historic action tomorrow will improve American competitiveness in every area of industry, reduce our massive trade deficits, and ultimately protect our economic and national security. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump’s economic vision is rooted in common sense. America will offer companies the lowest taxes, energy costs, regulations if they make their products right here in the United States, and hire American workers for the job. It’s simple. If you make your product in America, you will pay no tariffs. Karoline Leavitt: We have already seen a number of the largest companies in the world respond to this economic approach. For example, Project Stargate, led by Japan based SoftBank and US based OpenAI and Oracle, announced a $500 billion private investment in the United States based artificial intelligence infrastructure. Apple announced a $500 billion investment in US manufacturing and training. Karoline Leavitt: Nvidia announced it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years in US based manufacturing. And the Taiwan semiconductor – semiconductor manufacturing company TSMC announced a $100 billion investment in US based chips and manufacturing. These are just a few of the investment announcements that have already been made, and it is clear that President Trump’s America first approach has – is already working. Karoline Leavitt: In our new media seat today is Mark Halperin, the co-founder and editor in chief of 2WAY, a new live video platform that builds communities around interactive conversations with leaders and content creators from every subject area. They have over 37.5 million video views, over 3.6 million watch time hours since the platform began just last year. Karoline Leavitt: This is new media in its truest sense, allowing the people to ask questions, make comments, and be an active part of engagement on the most important issues facing the country and our world. With that, Mark, please kick us off? And welcome to the Briefing Room. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Appreciate it. I wanna ask you a question about tariffs and then one from our – one – members of our community – Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: About education. It’s perceived by some that companies or countries, if they change their policies either before tomorrow or after tomorrow, can have the president alter what he’s planning for that country or that sector. Is that a possibility? And if so, what factors the president consider in making those changes? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the ultimate change for these companies in these countries, Mark, will happen when they decide to do business in the United States of America. And as I just laid out, they will face no tariffs at all if these companies choose to invest here in the United States and to move their production and their manufacturing here to the United States as well. Karoline Leavitt: As for tomorrow, the president will be addressing the decades of unfair trade practices that have ripped our country off and American workers off. It has hollowed out our middle class. It has destroyed our heartland. And the president is focused on re-shifting our global economy to ensure that America is once again the manufacturing superpower of the world. Question: So if they do something today or later in the week that’s a pledge for future activity, would that be good enough, potentially, to alter the policy? Karoline Leavitt: Again, the president has been looking at a very unfair trade practices of the past. Certainly, the president is always up to take a phone call, always up for a good negotiation. But he is very much focused on fixing the wrongs of the past and ensuring that American workers have a fair shake. Question: So if someone calls after tomorrow and says, hey, I’m ready to make a change, he’d be open to that? Karoline Leavitt: The president is always open to taking calls. Question: OK. A question from one of our community members. Katie Reeves is a school teacher in Wisconsin. She’s taught K through eight in public, independent private, and private schools. And here’s what she wants – wanted me to ask you. She says I see the elimination of the Department of Education as an excellent first step in the improvement of our school system. Question: Do you see any further role the federal government can take beyond this, possibly in promoting the expansion of voucher programs or reducing the influence that teachers unions hold over our schools? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all, I want to thank Katie for her service to our country and our nation’s children. Being a teacher is the most noble profession that we believe one can have. And the president said in his remarks when he signed the executive order to dismantle the Department of Education that he loves our teachers. Karoline Leavitt: And in part, this order is to empower our teachers to have greater decision making in the classroom. Nobody knows our nation’s children and our students better than our teachers, who are with them every single day. As for the federal government’s role, to get to the heart of Katie’s question, the president has made it clear to Linda McMahon that we need to find other places within our federal government for critical programs regarding education. Karoline Leavitt: Pell Grants, Title 9 lawsuits, etc., civil rights lawsuits, all of that are critical functions, special needs programs, nutrition programs, but there are other places throughout the federal bureaucracy where those things can happen in work. The Department of Education has been a very bloated bureaucracy. Karoline Leavitt: We’ve spent trillions of dollars on this department and for what? Our children are worse off as far as education goes today than they were when this department originated, and that’s very concerning to the president. Question: Two issues she cited are those priorities for the president, school education choice vouchers and diminishing the role of teachers’ unions. Karoline Leavitt: The president is very supportive of both of those things, particularly when it comes to school choice. He has said that school choice is the civil rights issue of our time and he wants every child regardless of zip code, socioeconomic status, how much money their parents have, to be able to go to the school of their choosing that best suits their educational needs. Karoline Leavitt: And he is going to empower state and local leaders to make those decisions on behalf of our nation’s children. Thanks for being here, Mark. Jeff. Question: Just changing subjects for one second. The administration has expressed a complete confidence in how all the deportation flights to El Salvador were conducted. But now that the administration has conceded that there was an error of one Salvadoran national, will there be any reviews conducted? And does the president express any thoughts on the one error that was disclosed in court last night? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all, the error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error. The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang. That is fact number one. Karoline Leavitt: Fact number two, we also have credible intelligence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking. And fact, number three, this individual was a member, actually a leader of the brutal MS-13 gang, which this President has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Fact number four is that foreign terrorists do not have legal protections in the United States of America anymore and it is within the president’s executive authority and power to deport these heinous individuals from American communities. Karoline Leavitt: It is a promise he campaigned on. It is a promise he is keeping and every single person in this room should be grateful for that considering, especially MS-13 is very prevalent and prominent here in the District of Columbia in Maryland and in Virginia and the president, the attorney general, everyone who has been involved in these operations is focused on eradicating these criminals and terrorists from our communities. Question: The vice president said he was a convicted member of MS-13. What evidence is there to back that up? Karoline Leavitt: There’s a lot of evidence, and the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have that evidence and I saw it this morning. Steve. Question: Has the President fully made up his mind on the level of tariffs imposed tomorrow. We keep hearing about a 20 percent flat rate. Karoline Leavitt: The president said last night, he has made a decision and a determination. I was with him in the Oval Office earlier and he is going to announce that decision tomorrow. I don’t want to get ahead of the president. This is obviously a very big day. He is with his trade and tariff team right now, perfecting it to make sure this is a perfect deal for the American people and the American worker. Karoline Leavitt: And you will all find out in about 24 hours from now. Question: And are the car tariffs going to go into effect on April 3rd as scheduled? Karoline Leavitt: Correct. Yes, they will. Question: OK. And last thing, would you like to respond to the Chinese military drills around Taiwan? Karoline Leavitt: Yes, I would. As a matter of fact, the National Security Council briefed me on this this morning. And they said that the president is emphasizing the importance of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait, encouraging the peaceful resolution of these cross-strait issues, reiterating our opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion. Karoline Leavitt: That is directly from the National Security Advisor, just for you, Steve Holland of Reuters. Monica. Question: Thank you so much, Karoline. Elon Musk this week revealed that DOGE found that the Biden administration issued over two million Social Security numbers to illegal aliens, found 20 million dead people marked as alive in the Social Security system. Has the White House confirmed these numbers with Elon? And is the white House looking into correcting this? Karoline Leavitt: I’m not sure about those specific numbers that Mr. Musk cited. I can tell you what the Social Security Administration has said themselves according to an inspector general’s report that was conducted last year, showing there was nearly $80 billion worth of fraud in this program. We know for a fact there are individuals who should not be receiving benefits on the Social Security rolls. Karoline Leavitt: And this administration is focused on cleaning out the waste, fraud and abuse in every agency, but particularly in Social Security to make it stronger for our taxpaying, law-abiding citizens who deserve these entitlements and programs. Because you did bring up DOGE, I do want to tout the incredible efforts that have been made at the Environmental Protection Agency and administrator Lee Zeldin is just doing a tremendous job. Karoline Leavitt: Just yesterday and today it will be going into effect, he announced that taxpayers will be saved $8 million in annual lease costs by moving staff out of the 323,000 square feet of space that the EPA currently occupies, which is completely unnecessary. Yesterday, Administrator Zeldin also announced he will be shutting down a museum that the Biden administration built to tell a selective story about the EPA’s history and climate change. Karoline Leavitt: It was a real pat on the back to President Biden. And guess how much American taxpayers paid for it, $4 million for this museum that I think only 1,000 visitors saw last year alone. And it would cost American taxpayers $600,000 per year to operate this museum. Well, it’s not going to exist anymore. We’re going to save taxpayers those critical funds and Administrator Zeldin is very proud to announce that. Karoline Leavitt: And just at EPA alone and the cuts that they have made, they’ve saved taxpayers more than $22 billion in wasteful grants and spending. Peter? Question: Thank you, Karoline. When the president goes down to Florida on the weekends, does he ever hear from – there are so many retired folks down in Florida. Does he ever hear from any retired Americans who are stressed about these wild swings in the stock market because of the tariff uncertainty and they’re sitting there on fixed income or living off of 401-K and they don’t know how much money is going to be left? Karoline Leavitt: Well, certainly they are legitimate concerns and the president takes those concerns very seriously and he’s addressing them every single day. And tomorrow’s announcement is to protect future generations of the senior citizens you mentioned. It’s for their kids and their grandkids, to ensure that there are jobs here In the United States of America for their children to live the American dream, just like they presumably did. Karoline Leavitt: And as for their worries about their 401-Ks, their Social Security, I just addressed Social Security, this president is always going to protect it for our tax-paying senior citizens. As for their 401-Ks, look at what President Trump did for you in his first term. He is working on implementing that economic formula every single day by lowering inflation, lowering energy prices, massive deregulatory efforts while simultaneously effectively implementing tariffs. Karoline Leavitt: And they’ll hear more about that announcement tomorrow. Question: And you said that the president right now is with the trade and tariff team. They are very confident that this is all going to work, but what if they’re wrong? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. They’re not going to be wrong. It is going to work, and the president has a brilliant team of advisers who have been studying these issues for decades. And we are focused on restoring the golden age of America and making America a manufacturing superpower. And again, Peter, I would point you to the investments that have already trickled into this country. Karoline Leavitt: And the president hasn’t even made his tariff announcement yet tomorrow. There have been billions of dollars in private investments from around the world pouring into American communities. What does that look like for those watching at home, for the people you mentioned, worried about their own economic circumstances? Karoline Leavitt: It means more jobs in your communities, which means more money, more investments, more money in your pocket. That’s what the president is committed to. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the president’s commitment to tax cuts, which we are counting on Congress to do, especially on Social Security. Question: And one more. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Are the special elections today a referendum on the President? Karoline Leavitt: I think the – first of all, as you know, I’m a government employee now, so I’m not very much allowed to comment on elections that are taking place. That’s something to get used to, having just been on the campaign trail for quite some time. But the president is the leader of the America First movement and the MAGA movement and that was made very clear on November the 5th when he received nearly 80 million votes. Karoline Leavitt: I could also say that it is the constitutional right of every law-abiding American in these places where these elections are being held to vote and every American should exercise their constitutional rights. Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. A few questions about this deportation case. First, I wanted to clarify something that you said to Jeff a few minutes ago. You said you’d seen evidence that this man was a convicted gang member. In what court was he convicted and for what? Karoline Leavitt: This individual was an MS-13 ringleader. This individual was also engaged in human trafficking and I’m glad you brought up this point again because I would like to point out that if you just saw the headline from the insane failing Atlantic Magazine this morning, you would think this individual was father of the year, living in Maryland, living a peaceful life, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. Karoline Leavitt: They didn’t even mention in the title of that article or even in the first paragraph that this individual is an illegal criminal who broke our nation’s immigration laws. He is a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang and he is involved in human trafficking. And now MS-13 is a designated foreign terrorist organization. Karoline Leavitt: Foreign terrorists have no legal protections in the United States of America and this administration is going tohave continued to deport foreign terrorists and illegal criminals from our nation’s interior. Question: But a judge ordered that he should remain in this country. So, are you saying that it is ok to ignore a judge’s ruling if you don’t like it? Karoline Leavitt: Who does that judge work for? Question: He’s an immigration judge. Karoline Leavitt: It was an immigration judge who works for the Department of Justice at the direction of the attorney general of the United States, whose name is Pam Bondi, who has committed to eradicating MS-13 from our nation’s interior. And let me tell you why we’ve made this commitment. MS-13, may I remind each and every one of you, is a brutal and vicious gang. Karoline Leavitt: They raped and strangled a 20 year old autistic woman to death in Maryland. They hacked four people to death with machetes in a park on Long Island. They have kidnapped, sexually tortured, and shot a teenage girl in Texas after she insulted them, allegedly, killed and mutilated a 17 year old girl in Virginia, stabbing him 16 times and cutting off his hands. Karoline Leavitt: They beheaded and cut out the heart of a man in Washington DC. They raped and murdered a 13 year old girl in California. They sex trafficked a slew of young girls, including one who was just 12 years old, raped an 11 year old girl in Brooklyn while her brother was in the room, sex trafficked a 13 year old in Maryland and Virginia, miles away from this White House, even beating her 26 times on her backside with a baseball bat, pressured a – homeless New Yorkers to undergo unnecessary surgeries such as spinal fusion in order to bolster their fraudulent lawsuits. Karoline Leavitt: These are vicious criminals. This is a vicious gang. And I wish that the media would spend just a second of the same time you have spent trying to litigate each and every individual of this gang who has been deported from our country as the innocent Americans whose lives have been lost at the hands of these brutal criminals. Karoline Leavitt: We maintain our position, and very strongly so Jennifer? Question: One more on the tariffs. Can you say what the latest thinking is on the start date? I know you were just in the Oval. Are they all going to take effect this week on the reciprocal tariffs? And whenever they start, is that enough time for companies and everyone involved to adjust to that start date? Karoline Leavitt: My understanding is that the tariff announcement will come tomorrow. They will be effective immediately. And the president has been teasing this for quite some time, as you know. He’s talked a lot about April 2nd as Liberation Day in America. It would be taking place today if not for April Fool’s Day. But tomorrow will be the day, and he’s been talking about it for a while. Karoline Leavitt: And as a result, you’ve seen these companies make commitments to investing right here in the United States. Jasmine? Question: Thank you so much. I wonder if – back on tariffs, what, if any, market indicators is the White House looking for to see if his tariffs’ plan is successful down the line? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, the president has been asked and answered this question about the stock market and whether he’s watching it. And I’ve said and he has said the market is a snapshot in time. Yesterday, Dow futures were up. And there’s been a lot of talk about the market, and it was up yesterday. So, look, the president wants to ensure that all Americans make out well, particularly Main Street. Karoline Leavitt: That’s the focus of these tariffs. But as I’ve said repeatedly, just like they did in their – just like they were in his first term, Wall Street will be just fine. Shelby? Question: Thanks. A bipartisan pair of Senators sent a letter to the president today arguing that the recent strikes in Yemen are emboldening the Houthis and saying that Congress has not authorized war against them. Is the administration planning to consult with Congress at some point or going forward regarding the strikes? Question: And any response on the letter? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I would absolutely reject Congress’s claims. Who made those claims in Congress. Question: Senator Jeff Merkley and Rand Paul. Karoline Leavitt: Ok. Well, I would absolutely reject those claims. These Houthi strikes have been incredibly successful. Last time I was at this podium, there were more than 100 successful strikes. There have now been over 200 successful strikes against the Houthis. Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they’ve taken out Houthi leaders. Karoline Leavitt: They’ve taken out critical members who were launching strikes on naval ships and on commercial vessels. And this operation will not stop until the freedom of navigation in this region is restored, which is a critical principle. And this president stands behind our Defense Department, who’s doing a tremendous job. Question: And are they going to – is the White House going to confer with Congress going forward on this? Karoline Leavitt: I would have to ask our team here at the White House. But the president is well within his authority, as is the secretary of defense. Again, these are defensive strikes. The Houthis have been launching attacks on US naval vessels and commercial ships for quite some time. Go ahead. Question: Here? Karoline – Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. Question: The pause on the Canadian and Mexican tariffs, the fentanyl tariffs that’s set to expire tomorrow, is the president considering extending that pause? Karoline Leavitt: Look, I will let the president speak on the specifics of the tariffs tomorrow. But as for fentanyl, we have seen – this has certainly caused a national security crisis here in the United States. Fentanyl continues to be the number one killer of young people in this country, and the president is very much focused on that. Karoline Leavitt: Deanna? Question: Thank you, Karoline. The president recently signed an executive order on making DC safe and beautiful. On the campaign trail, he talked about making New York great again. Does he have any plans on establishing a similar task force? Has he been pressuring Governor Hochul in any way in his conversations about New York and lowering crime? Karoline Leavitt: Well, he has been in correspondence with Governor Hochul quite a bit on the issue of crime, also on the issue of congestion pricing and so many other issues that are facing New Yorkers. And he wants New York to clean up their streets, just as he does here In Washington, DC. He also speaks to, you know, Mayor Adams as well. Karoline Leavitt: So, he’s engaged with state and local leaders across the entire country to ensure they’re doing their part to help American citizens in each and every state, regardless of if it’s a red state or a blue state. Question: And then a question on Russia. Yesterday the Russian government said that their new goal is 160,000 conscripts for the war. Has the president seen that number? And does he have any response, given his recent conversations on peace talks? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I can tell you what the president said last night, and that is he is frustrated with leaders on both sides of this war. He wants this war to end. There are men that are dying on both sides, and it’s been going on for far too long. Our team continues to be engaged with the Russians as we are with the Ukrainians. Karoline Leavitt: And the President continues to be very, very much engaged on this topic every single day. Question: Karoline? Karoline? Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Sure. Question: Karoline, the – the president said over the weekend that he couldn’t care less if prices went up on foreign cars because people would buy more American cars. There’s been consensus from a lot of economists that these tariffs could raise prices on other goods as well. Is the president comfortable with Americans on Main Street paying more because of these tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: The president is doing everything he can, and this entire administration is doing everything we can to bring down the cost of living in this country, an inflation mess that was fueled by the previous administration’s reckless spending, overburdensome regulations that this administration is focused on slashing every single day. Karoline Leavitt: I just read you a statistic. Just from the Environmental Protective Agency alone, we’re saving taxpayers money. That’s ultimately going to drive down inflation. And we’re unleashing the might of our energy industry, which will bring down prices as well. To the heart of your question, because this is very important to the American people, you should trust what this president did for you in his first term. Karoline Leavitt: He effectively utilized tariffs while driving down inflation. It was a record low 1.4 percent when he left office, and he’s focused on getting back to that. It’s unfortunate that the previous administration left us in this mess. Question: Karoline? Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Representative Anna Paulina – Anna Paulina Luna left the Freedom Caucus over their lack of support for her bill that would allow new parents to proxy vote around 12 weeks around the birth of their baby. Does the president support that bill? Karoline Leavitt: I’m not sure. I haven’t actually talked to the president about that, bill. But I certainly can and can get a take on if he supports it or not. Question: Thank you, and one more. The DC circuit ruled last week that – the DC circuit ruled last week that the president can fire holdover Biden appointees at independent agencies. Will this ruling empower President Trump to dismiss more federal employees? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has given the responsibility to his cabinet secretaries to hire and fire at their respective agencies, and they reserve that right. You saw the secretary of Health and Human Services announced more layoffs today. This is all part of the administration’s effort for a mass reduction in force in the federal bureaucracy here in Washington, DC to save American taxpayers money. Karoline Leavitt: As for agencies within the president’s executive authority, the president retains that right. And we’ve seen there have been bureaucrats at some of these agencies that have been trying to act independent. They need to remember who they work for. It’s the executive of the executive branch. You look at the United States Institute of Peace, for example. Karoline Leavitt: There was a little bit of a standoff with bureaucrats over there who didn’t want to realize who they work for, and that is Donald Trump. And President Trump is focused on streamlining these agencies to save American taxpayers money, and he has every right to do that. Question: Karoline. Karoline? Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Go ahead. Question: Thanks, Karoline. The – in Gaza, the bodies of 15 rescuers have been found in their ambulances where they were apparently killed by Israeli forces. Just wondering if the White House is going to be calling on Israel to investigate that and to try and avoid similar casualties involving rescue workers in the future. Karoline Leavitt: Well, as for the specific situation you just mentioned, I’ll talk to the president about it and our national security team. What I can tell you is what I’ve spoken with president on. He very much remains committed to backing Israel. And it was only because of this president and his team’s leadership that we had a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, that we were able to bring many hostages home. Karoline Leavitt: And the president made it very clear to Hamas, you get the hostages out, all of them, or there will be hell to pay. And Hamas is certainly witnessing what it feels like for all hell to be paid. And the president supports Israel’s right to defend itself. Question: Any progress at all on a ceasefire at the moment, as far as the president’s concerned? Karoline Leavitt: The president and his team continue to be engaged on this every single day. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead, Tara. Question: So I’m just wondering, related to that, if you have an approximate date for the president’s first foreign trip? I think there was a little confusion yesterday about what month he was talking about. And then, will he need a ceasefire to be in place or closer either in Gaza or in Ukraine before that trip takes place? Karoline Leavitt: The president will be heading to Saudi Arabia in May. As for specific dates and details, we will be reading those out to you as soon as we possibly can. I know our teams are working on the details of that trip. And then again, as for a ceasefire, the president’s made it clear that’s what he wants to see in Russia and Ukraine and his team continues to be engaged on it every day. Karoline Leavitt: Kelly. Question: And specifically on Signal, you said case closed yesterday. As that case was closed, do you have anything that you can share about what was learned, how this can be avoided in the future, any sort of findings from that investigation? Karoline Leavitt: The case is closed and the president continues to have confidence in his national security adviser. Yes, Kelly. Kelly. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Sorry, Ed. Ed, I’ll come to you after. I’m glad you’re so eager to ask a question. Question: It’s Liberation day. Karoline Leavitt: Yes, it is. Question: Karoline, the president has said foreign – Karoline Leavitt: Tomorrow. Question: – countries and companies will eat the cost of tariffs. In his speech on Inauguration Day, he said, quote, instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. Karoline Leavitt: Right. Question: So then why did he have to tell the domestic automakers not to raise prices? Karoline Leavitt: Well, that was a private conversation that was had. I’m not sure if that comment was made or was not made. But as for what the president said in his Inauguration Day speech, he’s absolutely correct. A tariff will be a tax on these foreign nations, these foreign companies. And if they want to be absolved of that tariff, then they can come here to the United States of America to do business, bring their jobs here. Karoline Leavitt: Edward, go ahead. Question: Thank you. So Canadians have been negotiating with the Commerce secretary over the trade, the tariffs, how many companies are mutually talking with the US to – or countries are mutually talking with the US to lower tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have a specific number, but I can tell you there have been quite a few countries that have called the president and have called his team in discussion about these tariffs. But again, there’s one country the president cares most about and it’s the United States of America and doing what’s best for the people who elected him to this office, to restore their jobs, their wealth and their prosperity. Karoline Leavitt: I’m looking at the clock. I have a hard out today. Excuse me. I have a hard out today because I’m actually heading over to the State Department with the first lady of the United States. She will be delivering remarks at 1:00 this afternoon at the 19th International Women of Courage Award ceremony with our great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Karoline Leavitt: That starts at 1:00. This is the fifth year Mrs. Trump is participating and standing with brave women leaders who embody American values abroad. And the first lady in her remarks today, will highlight the profound connection between the love and courage that will be shown by this year’s honorees. I encourage everybody to tune in at 1:00 and then we’ll see you all tomorrow for Liberation Day. Karoline Leavitt: Thanks, guys. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Thank you. Thanks, Karoline.
Date: 2025-04-01
Senator Tim Kaine, who ran against me with Crooked Hillary in 2016, is trying to halt our critical Tariffs on deadly Fentanyl coming in from Canada. We are making progress to end this terrible Fentanyl Crisis, but Republicans in the Senate MUST vote to keep the National Emergency in place, so we can finish the job, and end the scourge. By their weakness, the Democrats have allowed Fentanyl to get out of hand. The Republicans and I have reversed that course, strongly and quickly. Major additional progress is being made. Don’t let the Democrats have a Victory. It would be devastating for the Republican Party and, far more importantly, for the United States. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Date: 2025-04-02
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Nice crowd. What a good-looking group of people. Well, we have some very, very good news today and a lot of good things are happening for our country. Please sit down. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Waiting for a long time, April 2nd, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again. Donald Trump: We’re going to make it wealthy, good and wealthy. For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike. American steelworkers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen, we have a lot of them here with us today. They really suffered gravely. Donald Trump: They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream. We had an American dream that you don’t hear so much about. You did four years ago and you are Now, but you don’t too often. Donald Trump: And for many years and decades, even, you didn’t hear too much about. Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years, but it is not going to happen anymore. It’s not going to happen. In a few moments, I will sign a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world, reciprocal. Donald Trump: That means they do it to us and we do it to them, very simple, can’t get any simpler than that. This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence. For years, hardworking American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense, but now it’s our turn to prosper. Donald Trump: And in so, doing use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt and it will all happen very quickly. with today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country and you see it happening already. Donald Trump: We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers and ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers. This will be indeed the golden age of America. It’s coming back and we’re going to come back very strongly. Donald Trump: We’re pleased to be joined on this momentous occasion by Vice President J.D. Vance. J.D., thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Where are you J.D.? Oh, that wasn’t too hard to find. I was looking. He likes to take a low-key attitude, usually, be sitting right in front. He’s gaining a lot of confidence, Mike, isn’t he? And nearly my entire cabinet is here, as well as speaker Mike Johnson, who’s done an amazing job. Donald Trump: And with the great success we had last night in Florida, we have a majority of seven. And seven’s like a lot where we had it at one, right? You’ve done a fantastic job and many of the members of the House and Senate are with us, Senators, Congressmen, thank you all for being with us. We appreciate it. For decades, the United States slashed our trade barriers on other countries, while those nations placed massive tariffs on our products and created outrageous, non-monetary barriers to decimate our industries. Donald Trump: And in many cases, the nonmonetary barriers were worse than the monetary ones. They manipulated their currencies, subsidized their exports, stole our intellectual property, imposed exorbitant VAT taxes to disadvantage our products, adopted unfair rules and technical standards and created filthy pollution havens. Donald Trump: They were absolutely filthy, but they always came to us and they said we’re violating, we should pay for it. It’s all detailed in a very big report by the U.S. trade representative on foreign trade barriers and I’ll just hold it up for you. It’s available and you don’t have to pay too much. As I understand it, you’ll pay nothing. Donald Trump: It’s a lot of work, a lot of work for something, actually, because it’s a special book. It’s very, frankly, it’s very upsetting when you read it, when you see what people have been doing to us for 30 years. This all happened with no response from the United States of America, none whatsoever. But those days are over. Donald Trump: Let me offer just a few examples of the vicious attacks our workers have faced for so many years. The United States charges other countries only a 2.4 tariff on motorcycles. Meanwhile, Thailand and others are charging much higher prices, like 60 percent. India charges 70 percent. Vietnam charges 75 percent, and others are even higher than that. Donald Trump: Likewise, until today, the United States has, for decades, charged a 2.5 tariff. Think of that, 2.5 percent on foreign made automobiles. The European Union charges us more than 10 percent tariffs and they have 20 percent VATs, much, much higher. India charges 70 percent, and perhaps worst of all are the non-monetary restrictions imposed by South Korea, Japan and very many other nations as a result of these colossal trade barriers. Donald Trump: Eighty-one percent of the cars in South Korea are made in South Korea. 94 percent of the cars in Japan are made in Japan. Toyota sells one million foreign made automobiles into the United States and General Motors sells almost none. Ford sells very little. None of our companies are allowed to go into other countries. Donald Trump: And I say that, friend and foe, and in many cases the friend is worse than the foe in terms of trade. But such horrendous imbalances have devastated our industrial base and put our national security at risk. I don’t blame these other countries at all for this calamity. I blame former presidents and past leaders who weren’t doing their job. Donald Trump: They let it happen and they let it happen to an extent that nobody can even believe. That’s why effective at midnight, we will impose a 25 percent tariff on all foreign made automobiles. Thank you. Brian, I’d like to have you come up here for a second, OK? I just see him sitting. He’s been a fan of ours and he understands this business a lot better than the economists, a lot better than anybody. Donald Trump: Brian, say a few words, please, would you? Brian Pannebecker: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. It’s a great honor to have you. Thanks. Brian Pannebecker: Thank you, Mr. President. I grew up just north of Detroit, Michigan, in Macomb County, known as the home of the Reagan democrats. My first vote for President was for Ronald Reagan. I thought that was going to be the best president I ever saw in my lifetime until Donald J. Trump came along. I have watched, my entire life, I have watched plant after plant after plant in Detroit and in the metro Detroit area close. Brian Pannebecker: There are now plants sitting idle. There are now plants that are underutilized and Donald Trump’s policies are going to bring product back into those underutilized plants. There’s going to be new investment. There’s going to be new plants built. And the UAW members, and I brought 20 of them with me, they’re sitting right over here. Brian Pannebecker: We support Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs 100 percent. So Mr. President, we can’t thank you enough. And in six months or a year, we’re going to begin to see the benefits. I can’t wait to see what’s happening three or four years down the road. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you so much. Thank you. What – A great guy, he got it right from the beginning, he got it before almost anybody else. This group over there, they got it too. And you know, we won the state of Michigan, we won almost all of them, but we won Michigan by a lot. And I want to just thank you all. The autoworkers were fantastic, the Teamsters were fantastic. Donald Trump: Everyone was pretty good, I will tell you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. You’re going to be very happy very soon. And you probably see what’s happening with all of the – not only car companies, but car companies in particular. You see it with all of the ones they’re moving, they’re announcing day in, day out. Donald Trump: You’re seeing it, nobody’s ever seen anything like that with today’s actions. We’re also standing up for our great farmers and ranchers who are brutalized by nations all over the world. Brutalized. Canada, by the way, imposes a 250 percent to 300 percent tariff on many of our dairy products. They do the first – the first can of milk. Donald Trump: They do the first little carton of milk at a very low price, but after that, it gets bad and then it gets up to 275 percent, 300 percent. So, when they’re figuring what’s Canada charging, they say, oh, about 2 percent, 3 percent. But take a look at what happens down the road when you look a little bit, it’s not a pretty picture and we don’t like it and it’s not fair. Donald Trump: It’s not fair to our farmers, it’s not fair to our country. And with countries like Canada, you know we subsidize a lot of countries and keep them going and keep them in business. In the case of Mexico, it’s $300 billion a year. In the case of Canada, it’s close to $200 billion a year. And I say why are we doing this? Donald Trump: Why are we doing this? I mean, at what point do we say you’ve got to work for yourselves, and you’ve got to – this is why we have the big deficits. This is why we have that amount of debt that’s been placed on our heads over the last number of years, and we’re really not taking it anymore. Through non-tariff barriers the European Union bans imports of most American poultry. Donald Trump: You understand. They say we want to send you our cars, we want to send you everything, but we’re not going to take anything that you have. Australia bans – and they’re wonderful people and wonderful everything, but they ban American beef. Yet we imported $3 billion of Australian beef from them just last year alone. Donald Trump: They won’t take any of our beef, they don’t want it because they don’t want it to affect their farmers. And you know what, I don’t blame them. But we’re doing the same thing right now, starting about midnight tonight, I would say. And China charges, American rice farmers and over quota, it’s called, a tariff rate of 65 percent. Donald Trump: South Korea charges 50 – actually they charge different, from 50 percent to 513 percent. And Japan, our friend, charges us 700 percent, but that’s because they don’t want us selling rice and other – who can blame them, Madam Secretary, Agriculture. Great job you did on eggs, by the way, the egg prices came down 50 percent. Donald Trump: You got them down 50 percent. Once we got involved, they were going through the sky, the egg prices, they were going through the sky, and you did a fantastic job. Now we have lots of eggs and they’re much cheaper, down about 59 percent now and they’re going down further. We charge 2.8 percent for so many things that other countries are charging 200 percent, 300 percent and 400 percent for. Donald Trump: If imposing tariffs and protective barriers made nations poorer, then every country on earth would be racing to eliminate these policies and China would be the first in line. They run a very strong country, but they’re not first in line. And the American people are paying a very big price. From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation, and the United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been. Donald Trump: So wealthy, in fact, that in the 1880s, they established a commission to decide what they were going to do with the vast sums of money they were collecting. We were collecting so much money so fast we didn’t know what to do with it. Isn’t that a nice problem to have? What do you think, Marco? Good problem? Donald Trump: Marco would love that problem. But we don’t have that problem anymore, but we’re not going to have it very much longer, I will tell you. But they collected so much money, they actually formed a commission to determine what they were going to do with the money, who they were going to give it to and how much. Donald Trump: Then in 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying the money necessary to run our government. Then in 1929, it all came to a very abrupt end with the Great Depression, and it would have never happened if they had stayed with the tariff policy. Donald Trump: It would have been a much different story. They tried to bring back tariffs to save our country, but it was gone, it was gone, it was too late. Nothing could have been done. It took years and years to get out of that depression, far longer than even FDR – had that office right over there for a long period of time. Donald Trump: The ramp system, that’s rather intricate, was built because of him and every time you walk up, you think of him. And he did a great job in many ways, but it lasted long beyond his terms, as you know. But it’s not too late any longer. And we’re going to start being smart and we’re going to start being very wealthy again. Donald Trump: We’re going to be wealthy as a country because they’ve taken so much of our wealth away from us. We’re not going to let that happen. We truly can be very wealthy. We can be so much wealthier than any country, it’s not even believable, but we’re getting smart. Nearly a century later in the face of unrelenting economic warfare, the United States can no longer continue with a policy of unilateral economic surrender. Donald Trump: We cannot pay the deficits of Canada, Mexico and so many other countries. We used to do it; we can’t do it anymore. We take care of countries all over the world. We pay for their military; we pay for everything they have to pay. And then when you want to cut back a little bit, they get upset that you’re not taking care of them any longer. Donald Trump: But we have to take care of our people and we’re going to take care of our people first and I’m sorry to say that. And today we’re standing up for the American worker and we are finally putting America first. In Sleepy Joe Biden’s last year in office the United States hemorrhaged 100,000 manufacturing jobs and the number was going through the roof at levels never seen before. Donald Trump: And our trade deficit reached a record $1.2 trillion, which is unheard of, since the beginning of NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made. It was a horror show I was able to term it, and they all said you’d never be able to get it out. We had to get approval from congress to get it terminated. We had to live with that deal – it was the worst deal, worst trade deal ever made by far. Donald Trump: But since the very beginning of NAFTA, our country lost 90,000 factories. Think of what that is, 90,000. Think about putting a map up and putting tacks on it, you wouldn’t have enough room. 90,000, I said, is that possible? We had it checked four different times, and it was actually somewhat higher than that. Donald Trump: And 5 million manufacturing jobs were lost while racking up trade deficits of $19 trillion. That was the worst trade deal ever made. As a result of these gigantic losses, foreign nations now own $26 trillion more of American assets than American – think of this, than the Americans own of their own foreign assets or other foreign assets. Donald Trump: The United States can no longer produce enough antibiotics to treat our sick. We have a tremendous problem. We have to go to foreign countries to treat our sick. If anything ever happened from a war standpoint, we wouldn’t be able to do it. We import virtually all of our computers, phones, televisions and electronics. Donald Trump: We used to dominate the field and now we import it all from different countries. A single shipyard in China now produces more ships every year than all of the American shipyards combined. Think of that. And it was a business that we used to dominate, we used to dominate it totally. In short, chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem, they’re a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life. Donald Trump: It’s a very great threat to our country. And for these reasons starting tomorrow, the United States will implement reciprocal tariffs on other nations. It’s been a long time since we even thought of that. We used to think about it a lot. We didn’t think about it for many decades, and you see what’s happened. Donald Trump: For nations that treat us badly, we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating. And because we are being very kind, we’re kind people, very kind – you’re not so kind when you got ripped off with your salaries, my auto worker friends and my Teamster friends and all of the unions that typically voted democrat, they’re not voting democrat anymore because worker, whether union or non-worker, they’re for the republicans now. Donald Trump: That’s what happened. But we will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us. So, the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal I could have done that, yes, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries. We didn’t want to do that. I’d like to see the chart, if you have it. Could you bring it up, Howard? Donald Trump: This is our great Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick. Thanks. So, if you look at that, China first row. China, 67 percent. That’s tariffs charged to the U.S.A including currency manipulation and trade barriers. So, 67 percent, I think you can for the most part see it, those with good eyes. With bad eyes – we didn’t want to bring – it’s very windy out here. Donald Trump: We didn’t want to bring out the big chart because it had no chance of standing. Fortunately, we came armed with a little smaller chart. [Laughter] So, it’s 67 percent. So, we’re going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34 percent, I think. In other words, they charge us, we charge them. We charge them less, so how can anybody be upset? Donald Trump: They will be because we never charge anybody anything. But now we’re going to charge. European Union, they’re very tough, very, very tough traders. You think of European Union, very friendly. They rip us off. It’s so sad to see. It’s so pathetic. 39 percent, we’re going to charge them 20 percent. So, we’re charging them essentially half. Donald Trump: Vietnam, great negotiators, great people. They like me, I like them. The problem is they charge us 90 percent. We’re going to charge them a 46 percent tariff. Taiwan, where they make – they took all of our computer chips and semiconductors. We used to be the king, right? We were everything, we had all of it now. Donald Trump: We have almost none of it except the biggest company is coming in. They’re going to have – we’re going to end up with almost 40 percent. Lee Zeldin is working to get their approvals and it’s an amazing company. Mr. Wei, of one of the great companies of the world actually, they’re coming in from Taiwan and they’re going to build one of the biggest plants in the world, maybe the biggest for that. Donald Trump: But 64 percent, we’re going to charge them 32 percent. Japan, very, very tough, great people. And again, I don’t blame the people for doing it. It’s – I think they’re very smart in doing it. I blame the people that sat right in that Oval Office right over there, right behind the Resolute Desk or whichever desk they chose. Donald Trump: Japan 46 percent, they would charge us 46 percent, and much higher for certain items like cars. You know, little items like cars. 46 percent, we’re charging them 24 percent. India very, very tough – very, very tough. The prime minister just left and he’s a great friend of mine. But I said you’re a friend of mine, but you’re not treating us right. Donald Trump: They charge us 52 percent. You have to understand, we charge them almost nothing for years and years and decades. And it was only seven years ago when I came in, we started with China in charge, and we took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China in tariffs and they understood honestly. President Xi understood. Donald Trump: He said, look, I understand, and the other countries – and they all understand, we’re going to have to go through a little tough love maybe, but they all understand. They’re ripping us off and they understood it. Prime minister of Japan, Shinzo, was Shinzo Abe. He was a fantastic man. He was unfortunately taken from us, assassination. Donald Trump: But I went to him and I said, Shinzo, we have to do something, trade is not fair. He said, I know that, I know that. And he was a great gentleman. He was a fantastic man, but he understood immediately what I was talking about. I said Shinzo, we have to do something. He said, I know that, and we worked out a deal and it would have been a much better deal. Donald Trump: But frankly, there were many years left on the deal that was made previous to my getting there. But it was something. If you look at Switzerland, 61 percent to 31 percent. Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia – oh, look at Cambodia, 97 percent. We’re going to bring it down to 49 percent. They made a fortune with the United States of America. Donald Trump: United Kingdom, 10 percent and we’ll go 10 percent. So, we’ll do the same thing. South Africa, oh, 60 percent, 30 percent. And they’ve got some bad things going on in South Africa. You know, we’re paying them billions of dollars and we cut the funding because a lot of bad things are happening in South Africa. Donald Trump: The fake news ought to be looking at it. They don’t want to report it. Brazil 10 percent, 10 percent. Bangladesh is 74 percent. So, you see what’s going on. Pakistan, 58 percent. Sri Lanka, 88 percent. So, what we’re doing is we’re taking not the full – we could take the full 88 percent. Thanks a lot. He’s doing a very good job. Donald Trump: How is he doing? All right? I think you better take it with you, it’s not going to last very long. He’s going to put it – it’s going to follow you down with the wind. I brought a hat just in case it got too windy, but here, would anybody like a hat? I’m not giving it to a cabinet, I’m giving it to the auto workers. Donald Trump: Come here. Thank you, fellas. Get it. That’s it. That’s it. They deserve it more than our cabinet [Laughter]. Our cabinet has plenty of hats. But you see the numbers, the numbers are so disproportionate, they’re so unfair. At the same time, we will establish a minimum baseline tariff of 10 percent. You notice that on the chart. Donald Trump: And that’ll be on other countries to help rebuild our economy and to prevent cheating. So, we’re going to have a minimum of cheating and we’re going to be very severe on the people that – at the gate that watch the tariffs and watch the product coming in because there’s been a lot of bad things happening at the gate because the money is so enormous that you’re talking about. Donald Trump: There’s never been probably anything like it in terms of the enormity. And there are a lot of bad things happen at the people that do the check-in. And they’re looking at 10-year jail sentences if they do play. We’re going to treat them so good. But if they cheat, the repercussions are going to be extremely strong. Donald Trump: Foreign nations will finally be asked to pay for the privilege of access to our market, the biggest market in the world. We’re right now the biggest market in the world. We had a great country four years ago in terms of the economics. We were doubling up on China, we were doing so well. Nobody was going to catch us, but so much of it slipped away over the last four years under Biden. Donald Trump: I campaigned on this policy throughout last year and today that promise was made and it was also a promise, as you know, that was kept. Promises made, promises kept. To any company that objects to our commonsense reciprocal tariffs – again, reciprocal, back and forth, back and forth. And we – I call this kind reciprocal. Donald Trump: This is not full reciprocal; this is kind reciprocal. But what we do is we cut it in half, we charge them. My answer is very simple if they complain, if you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America. Because there is no tariff if you build your plant, your product in America. Donald Trump: And we’ve seen companies coming in like we’ve never seen before, likewise to all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors and everyone else who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs. I say terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don’t manipulate your currencies. Donald Trump: They manipulate their currencies like nobody can even believe which is a bad, bad thing and very devastating to us, and start buying tens of billions of dollars of American goods. Tariffs give our country protection against those that would do us economic harm. And many people were looking to do us economic harm. Donald Trump: Maybe not so obviously, but they were doing tremendous economic harm, but even more importantly, they will give us growth. These tariffs are going to give us growth like you haven’t seen before, and it will be something very special to watch. I am so looking forward and, Brian, it’s going to happen even faster than you said. Donald Trump: You know, you might say, but it’s already started. It’s already started. Work’s already begun on plants all around the country and you see that it’s before – these are big, rich companies. We have $61 billion started on a big plant going up. It’s going to be announced over the next two days, and they already started work. Donald Trump: Many of these biggest – the biggest companies in the world, they’ve committed to build, build, build. We’re going to build, build, build, sir. And they came here to see me and they came – wanted to know if they could have a press conference. I do as many as I can. I’m pretty busy trying to stop Russia and Ukraine and the Middle East, we’ve got to stop that. Donald Trump: We’ve got to stop the Houthis, which we’re making tremendous. They like shooting ships down and out of the water seeking ships, they get a kick out of it. But they’re not getting such a kick out of it now. Are they, Mr. Secretary? They’re not getting such a kick out of that now. But here’s just a short list of some of the companies that have already announced and committed to investment. Donald Trump: And this is a company that built its factories and its plants in China. Apple is going to spend $500 billion. They never spent money like that here. They’re going to build their plants here. SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle, great, great companies. – are investing $500 billion almost immediately. Nvidia, a hot company, is investing hundreds of billions of dollars, they just announced. Donald Trump: TSMC, the biggest, most important company in the world of chips from Taiwan, with no investment from us, is investing $200 billion. And they said the reason was number one, the election of November 5th and number two, the tariffs. They don’t want to pay the tariffs and the way they’re not paying it is to build their plant here. Donald Trump: So we’re going to go from almost no percentage. We used to have 100 percent of the chip market. Now it’s all in Taiwan. Almost all of it’s in Taiwan, a couple of other countries, but mostly in Taiwan. And think of it, we had 100 percent. We lost it because of people in that office that didn’t do their job. Donald Trump: They allowed it to be stolen from us. Johnson & Johnson, great company $55 billion. Eli Lilly, $27 billion. Meta is investing $500 billion. Wow. DAMAC is investing $20 billion. CMA CGM, $20 billion. And then you have Merck and Clarios, Stellantis, General Motors, GE Aerospace, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, are all putting in billions and billions of dollars and they’re committed 100 percent. Donald Trump: And we’ve never had – And this is after two and a half months. This is after just a short – this all took place as soon as we came out with what everybody wanted to do. I watched a gentleman today on television, used to work with Lee Iacocca, very respected automobile person. And he said, because they’re asking people are they try and get as many negative people as they can, but they can’t find them too much. Donald Trump: It’s pretty hard to find in terms of what we’re doing, especially when they see all this investment. They said, so tell me, what do you think of what Trump is doing from the automobile standpoint? He said, I can’t believe it. Somebody is finally – he’s an older guy, real pro, really top guy with Lee Iacocca, he said, I never thought I’d see the day when this would happen, where somebody had the courage to go and do what has to be done. Donald Trump: This is transforming our nation. Our entire nation is going to be transformed, not only with the cars, but on every single other item that’s built. And we’re going to become an industrial powerhouse. And he said that so beautifully today. In fact, I’m going to find out – I’m going to get a tape and Bruce, I’m going to get that tape and I’m going to send it to you out in Long Island and you’re going to play it for the people, and all your union workers and your nonunion workers out there. Donald Trump: You got a pretty even split. But we have, so far, it looks like we’re going to have about $6 trillion of investments. And you wouldn’t do that in years in this country, over the last number of years, $6 trillion. And that’s going to be much higher by the end of the year. And think of what $6 trillion is. You wouldn’t have even a small percentage of that under this other system. Donald Trump: We’re going to be an entirely different country and it’s going to be fantastic for the workers. It’s going to be fantastic for everyone. There will never have been a transformation of a country like the transformation that’s already happening in the United States of America. It’s an incredible thing to watch and it’s incredible to meet with the top people, people that you read about, very wealthy people or people that are great managers and executives and presidents of big public companies. Donald Trump: And to watch the enthusiasm they have now that they didn’t have. They gave up on our country, they went to foreign countries and they built. Companies are pouring into our country at levels never seen before, with jobs and money to follow and it’s really beautiful. In the coming days, there will be complaints from the globalists and the outsourcers and special interests and the fake news. Donald Trump: The fake news will always complain. But never forget, every prediction our opponents made about trade for the last 30 years has been proven totally wrong. They were wrong about NAFTA. They were wrong about China. They were wrong about the Trans-Pacific partnership, which would have been a disaster if I didn’t terminate it. If I didn’t terminate that, United Auto Workers, you would have had no jobs in this country. Donald Trump: You would have had no jobs. It was all going to other countries. In my first term, they said tariffs would crash the economy. Instead, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. And again, I have great respect for President Xi of China, great respect for China. But they were taking tremendous advantage of us. And I commend them for that. Donald Trump: I say, hey, if you can get away with it, that’s OK. But they understand exactly what’s happening and they probably, most of them are saying it’s about time. They did something, and they’re going to fight and they’re going to fight fair. Everyone’s going to fight. I say to the leaders, look, you got to take care of your country, but we have to start taking care of our country now. Donald Trump: We can’t do what we’ve been doing for the last 50 years. From the day of my election, the stock market went up in my first term, 88 percent, with Nasdaq going up 155 percent, more than any president has ever had in any term in office by far. And I think we’re going to blow that away and maybe the numbers won’t show, but I think they’re going to show much better than even those numbers. Donald Trump: But what you’re going to see is you’re going to see activity that empty, dead sites, factories that are falling down, those factories will be knocked down and they’re going to have brand new factories built in their place. And not only talking about renovating, they’re talking about brand new, the best anywhere in the world, the biggest anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: I have a friend who builds car plants and I said I want to see the biggest and the best he said, well, we have to go to Mexico. I said, no, I want to see it in the United States. He said, we’re not building them in there. This is a year and a half ago. During the campaign, he said, we’re not building, you’d have to go to Mexico. Donald Trump: When I was starting to decide to run and I went to number one in the polls, very rapidly, I want to say. I want to say, like, let’s say in the first hour and then shortly thereafter it looked like I was going to win. And the fake news was saying, oh, no, don’t do this. What they don’t know is, if I didn’t win, they would have really been in trouble because nobody wants to read them anyway. Donald Trump: But I tell you what, when it looked like I was going to win, I announced that I was going to be doing exactly what we’re talking about today. Great consistency, actually, because I’ve been talking about it for 40 years, because I saw what was happening 40 years ago. If you look at my old speeches when I was young, very handsome, my old speeches and the people would say, I’d be on a television show. Donald Trump: I’d be talking about how we were being ripped off by these countries. I mean, nothing changes very much. The only thing that changed were the countries, but nothing really changes, but it’s why it’s such an honor, it’s such an honor to be finally able to do this. If you look at China, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in my term, hundreds of billions. Donald Trump: They never paid $0.10 to any other president and yet they paid hundreds of billions. So much so that Biden couldn’t do anything. They wanted to try and terminate it because he had a very special relationship with China. You know what the relationship was, he had a special relationship – but the numbers were so big. Donald Trump: The numbers were so big that they couldn’t do it, so they did ease it up. They did things that they shouldn’t have done. They made it a lot more comfortable for them, but they couldn’t do it because the numbers were hundreds of billions of dollars. And I did that and we were on our way to doing something like incredible. Donald Trump: And then we had a very bad election happened, a very bad election. A lot of bad things happened. So when I said we got to do it again, I said, we have to make it too big to rig. And we made it too big to rig and we won in records and it was a monumental win. And it was such an honor to see so many of you, like Brian and your friends here with us to celebrate, and to more importantly celebrate what we’re doing. Donald Trump: Because that wouldn’t be a full celebration if we didn’t do this because this would be an entirely different country in a short period of time. It will be something the whole world will be talking about. And the critics made the very tired predictions earlier this year. But in February, core inflation dropped to the lowest rate in four years. Donald Trump: And the price of eggs, as you know, just in a month and a half, we were there for four weeks and the first week, I got blamed for eggs. I said, I just got here. They said, eggs have gone up at like 250 percent and you can’t get eggs. And they were going crazy. And I said, I just got here. And then we got to work on eggs and we got to work on everything and our great secretary of agriculture, you did a fantastic job, Brooke Rollins. Donald Trump: She did a fantastic job. And as I said before, the price of eggs dropped now 59 percent, and they’re going down more and the availability is fantastic. They were saying that for Easter, please don’t use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs? I said, we don’t want to do that. And you really came through. It’s an amazing job. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Brooke. You did great. But likewise, an old-fashioned term that we use, groceries. I used it on the campaign. It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term, groceries. It sort of says a bag with different things in it. Groceries went through the roof and I campaigned on that. I talked about the word groceries for a lot. Donald Trump: And energy costs now are down. Groceries are down. Gasoline is way under $3 and people are beginning to – – to be able to buy things and live again. We brought prices way down. We created 10,000, already in a few weeks, new manufacturing jobs and that took place in one month, numbers that they haven’t seen in a long time. Donald Trump: We had virtually no inflation under my term. We had virtually no inflation for four years. But after transitioning over to Sleepy Joe, it went from almost nonexistent to the highest in the history of our country. They had the highest inflation in the history of our country, brought up by energy and bad spending and bad policy, and a lot of bad things happened. Donald Trump: How about allowing millions and millions and millions of people to pour into our country with open borders where the – it’s so sad to see even now. And I see our great secretary. You have done – stand up, please, Kristi. Stand up. Kristi Noem and Tom Homan. These people are doing a great job, but uh gotten them out in records. Donald Trump: And we have problems with judges that don’t want them to go out. They want Tren de Aragua and they want MS-13, the most vicious gangs ever. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it, absolute killer gangs. They kill people, they don’t even think about it and we put them out and we have judges now, radical left judges that they don’t want them to go out, they want them to even be brought back. Donald Trump: Let’s bring them back. You’ve done a fantastic job. And please thank everybody. Homeland security, thank everybody, appreciate it. And we now have a border that’s the best border that we’ve ever had, even better than it was my first term. My first term, we did good, but this one we really specialized in. We’ve done really well and we had records then, with the best safest border. Donald Trump: Four years ago, we had the best border there ever was and now we have – you’ve actually matched it and done even better and we’re going to get it down the right way. And we want people, by the way, to come into our country, but we want them to come in through a legal process. We want them to come in legally. Donald Trump: We need more people. We need people to run these plants and to help the auto workers and the Teamsters and the nonunion people and everybody else, but we need people, and the farmers. And we’re going to let people come in, but they want to come in. We want them to come in legally. They have to have the capability of loving our country, not people that hate our country. Donald Trump: We don’t want them in our country. And now we’re going to pass the largest tax cuts in American history, and that’s where we’re relying on Mike and John Thune. And we will not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits and the democrats will because if they got in, the entire economy would collapse. Donald Trump: This country was heading for a collapse under the people that you saw. They were horrible. I think one of the reasons people like the job – I had my highest approval ratings because I think they’re comparing me to the worst administration in the history of our country. So I appreciate that at least. But speaker of the House, Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader – Appreciate it, Mike. Donald Trump: John Thune have been fantastic, by the way, but they’ve been working tirelessly on taking the next step to pass the plan for our one big beautiful bill. I’d like to name it that, if you can. I made that statement about six months ago and everybody calls it one big beautiful bill. And it will be that. It will have everything, the big tax cuts and every incentive there is and it will be a fantastic. Donald Trump: And by the way, for the cars we’re asking for an interest deduction on a loan. So if you build the car – only in America, we do it, Brian. If the car is not built in America, you don’t get the interest rate deduction. But if you build the car in America, if you buy a car, if it’s built in America, then you get an interest rate deduction, tax deduction. Donald Trump: And that’s a big thing. It’s going to be a big thing. I think that’s going to pay for itself very quickly, that deduction, never happened. We’ve never had anything like that before. Somebody said where do you get the idea, because it’s so basic you would think that would have happened a long time ago. It never did, and I’m very happy it didn’t because now I can say that was my idea. Donald Trump: But we’re going to get us closer to the debt extension. We have to get the debt extension passed and I know you’re going to be able to do that, Mike, and it’s very important that you do that. And all of the other things that the Senate budget plan gives us along with working – because I know they’re working together, John and Mike, and the two bills are going very well together. Donald Trump: We need to get our shared priorities done, including certain permanent tax cuts. We want the tax cuts to be permanent, spending cuts energy and historic investments in defense border and so much more. We’re covering everything. These will be phenomenal. There’ll be no, bill like this. It’s going to straighten – one bill is going to straighten out our country for many, many years to come. Donald Trump: And we said, let’s just do it and let’s get it done. And some guys will love it and some guys will like it a little bit less because they’re not getting what they were exactly looking for. But they’re getting a lot. If we get this done, it will be the most incredible bill ever passed in the history of our Congress and Senate and Congressman, the Senators and the Congressmen, many of whom are here today will be very proud of themselves. Donald Trump: I really believe that. It’s going to set us on a whole new prosperous path. We’re going to cut spending and right size the budget back to where it should be. We’re going to do that very strongly. Thank you, Rick. Thank you, John. Thank you. Oh, look, look at all of our Senators over there. Oh, boy, that’s a nice group of people, but I won’t like them so much if they don’t get this bill done. Donald Trump: That’s a great group. And Congressman, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Tremendous people. The Senate plan is my complete and total support and the House plan, likewise, is very similar. They’re moving along pretty much at the same clip. And as soon as you’re ready, you’ll show it to me and I’m sure it will have my support, Mike. Donald Trump: Every republican Congressman and Senator must unify. We have to unify. We can’t be separated, we have to get it done. We have to get absolutely everything we can and we have to take care of the American people. That’s the only thing that matters. We have to take care of the American people first. We need to pass this bill immediately. Donald Trump: Get it done, including debt extension. From this day on, we’re not going to let anyone tell us that American workers and families cannot have the future that they deserve. We’re going to produce the cars and ships, chips, airplanes, minerals and medicines that we need right here in America. The pharmaceutical companies are going to come roaring back. Donald Trump: They’re coming roaring back. They’re all coming back to our country, because if they don’t, they’ve got a big tax to pay. And if they do, I’ll be very happy and you’re going to be very happy and you’re going to be very safe. We’re going to build our future with American hands, with American heart, American steel and we’re going to build it with American pride like we used to. We’re approaching our 100th day as president and have been given credit by a lot of people, actually, even some of the fake news. Donald Trump: Can you believe it? Which in this case, hopefully isn’t fake, for having done more in that time than any other administration in the history of our country in the first 100 days. I think we’ve had an amazing, in terms of what we’ve done, what we’ve gotten accomplished. I’d like to see if we can get that war ended and another war from not starting in the Middle East. Donald Trump: We have to get Russia, they’re losing 2,000, on average, 2,500 people a day, young people, soldiers, Russians. Think of that, 2,500 through some days but on average, probably over about a one-week period, it’s 2,712. They say they’re losing those soldiers. They’re dying. They’re being decimated. And they’re not from our country, but they’re from other countries. Donald Trump: But they’re human beings. They’re from Russia, they’re from Ukraine in this period, most of them. And we’re going to get it stopped. It’s a senseless war that would have never happened if I was president and it shouldn’t be allowed to go on. And I think we’re being given good cooperation by Russia and by Ukraine. Donald Trump: But we have to get it stopped. It’s humanity. It’s humanity. It’s a terrible thing. This will be a very big moment. I think you’re going to remember today. It’s going to be a free nation that we’re dealing with. We’re going to have a very free and beautiful nation. It’s going to be Liberation Day in America and it’s going to be a day that hopefully you’re going to look back in years to come. Donald Trump: And you’re going to say, he was right, this has turned out to be one of the most important days in the history of our country. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. This is Will, everybody. He’s going to just give you a little bit – he’s going to give you a little bit of a briefing on what we’re signing. Will Scharf: Good afternoon, you all. We have two documents prepared for the president’s signature today. One closes what’s referred to as the de minimis loophole, with respect to imports from the People’s Republic of China. The other is – is the big one, is the reciprocal tariff executive order that the president just spoke about at length. Will Scharf: This is obviously a huge deal and it’s been an honor to be a part of your team getting this ready for you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Will Scharf: Yes sir. Note: [The documents are signed] Donald Trump: This is big stuff. That’s a 10. It’s a good one. Look. [Inaudible] That’s a good one. Thank you. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Okay, thank you very much. I’m going to hand out these pens now if I can. Come on over, yeah. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-04-02
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy. They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels. The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it. Why are they allowing Fentanyl to pour into our Country unchecked, and without penalty. What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS? Who can want this to happen to our beautiful families, and why? To the people of the Great States of Kentucky, Alaska, and Maine, please contact these Senators and get them to FINALLY adhere to Republican Values and Ideals. They have been extremely difficult to deal with and, unbelievably disloyal to hardworking Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Party itself. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Date: 2025-04-03
Donald Trump: Hello everybody. Question: Hi, Mr. President. Question: How are you, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Nice to see you. Question: Nice to see you. Donald Trump: We haven’t – [Inaudible] I haven’t seen you in a while. Question: Nice to see you as well. Donald Trump: 5 million. For $5 million, this could be yours. That was the first of the cards. See that? Do you know what that card is? Question: Gold card. Donald Trump: It’s the gold card. It’s the Trump card. Gold card. Question: Who’s the first buyer? Donald Trump: Me. I’m the – Question: Who’s the second? (laughs) Donald Trump: – first. I don’t know, but I’m the first buyer. It’ll be out in about less than two weeks probably. Pretty exciting, really. Question: You ready for some questions? Donald Trump: Anybody wanna buy one? Huh? Okay, let’s go. Question: First, we’d love to get your reaction, sir, to what’s going on in the financial markets today. Donald Trump: Well, I mean, it’s to be expected. We’re, uh, this is a patient that was very sick. We inherited – we really inherited a terrible economy, as you know, with a lot of problems including, uh, loss of manufacturing and plants closed up all over the country. You know, we’ve lost 90,000 plants since NAFTA, if you think of that. 90,000. It’s not even believable, and about 6 million jobs. Donald Trump: And so, it’s a sick – it was a sick patient that went through an operation on Liberation Day. And it’s gonna be, uh, it’s gonna be a booming country, a very booming country. It’s gonna be amazing actually. And we see it because we have, uh, trillions of dollars committed to come in. Trillions. Question: Sir, can I ask you, when you say that it was an operation and the patient’s healthy now, does that mean you see us as kind of towards the – the high-water market – Donald Trump: Yeah, I think the operation – Question: – in terms of how high? Donald Trump: Sure. Uh, the operation’s over and now we, uh, let it settle in. You see the plants are starting to construction already. We have many plants. Uh, Indiana, massive auto plant. The Honda. And we have so many, uh, so many plants and they’ll be under construction. And as they start to build, you’re gonna see a lot of construction jobs and you’re gonna see a lot of jobs when they open. Question: Does that mean chips and pharma tariffs are not – Donald Trump: No, they’re – Question: – on the table? Donald Trump: – starting very soon. Uh, the chips, uh, are starting very soon. Uh, the, uh, pharma is, uh, going to be, uh, starting to come in, I think at a level that you haven’t really seen before. We are, uh, looking at pharma right now, pharmaceuticals. It- it’s a separate category, and we’ll be announcing that sometime in the near future, not too distant future. Question: Are you negotiating – Donald Trump: That’s under review right now. Question: Are you negotiating with partners currently? Donald Trump: Uh, what we have is we have a set of tariffs based on, uh, what they’ve been charging us. That’s reciprocal. And those, uh, tariffs have come in, and many, e- every country’s called us. That’s the beauty of what we do. Uh, we put ourselves in the driver’s seat. If we would’ve asked, uh, some of these country, almost most of these countries to do us a favor, they would’ve said, “No.” Now they’ll do anything for us. But, uh, we have, uh, tariffs. Donald Trump: They’ve been set and it’s gonna make our country very rich. Question: Are you open to deals with these countries if they’re calling you? Donald Trump: Well, it depends. If somebody said that, “We’re gonna give you something that’s so phenomenal,” as long as they’re giving us something that’s good. For instance, uh, with TikTok as an example, we have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, “We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariff?” The tariffs give us great power to negotiate, always have. Donald Trump: I’ve used it very well in the first administration, as you saw. But now we’re taking it to a whole new level because it’s a worldwide situation and it’s, uh, it’s very exciting to see. And what it’s done is driven a lot of great companies to our country. And you’re gonna see construction starting all over. Donald Trump: I already got a couple of calls from Lee Zeldin from Environmental. He’s got some big plans to approve, like really big ones. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: How long will it – how long will it take to get manufacturing, American manufacturing to where you would like to see it? Donald Trump: Well, let’s say it’s a two-year process. You know, they start a plant and they’re big plants. We’re giving them approval to also, in many cases, to build the electric facility with it. So you have electric generation and the plant, and they’re big plants. Now, the good news is a lot of money for ’em, and they could build them fast but they’re still very big plants. Donald Trump: So I’d always say it would take a year-and-a-half to two years. Question: Mr. President, can I ask you about the MSA? Question: Mr. President, I’m curious. Have you – Donald Trump: We’ve already started some of them. Question: Where’s that? Question: Have you been following the New York City mayor’s race? And specifically, Andrew Cuomo is now the front-runner according to the polls. How do you feel about that? Do you think you could have a good relationship with a Mayor Andrew Cuomo? Donald Trump: Well, I’ve always gotten along with him. We had our ins and outs a little bit. We did a great job for him. Remember we built, uh, the convention center rooms for him. He didn’t use them unfortunately. And we sent the Mercy Ship. We sent the really magnificent hospital ship and they didn’t use it. But we always had a pretty good relationship. Question: Are you going to make an endorsement in that race? Donald Trump: Oh, it’s not something I’m thinking about yet. Is he thinking about running? Yeah? Question: On Russia, Ukraine, there’s a Russian envoy in town for some meetings. Can you give us an update on how that’s going? Donald Trump: We do. We have an envoy from Russia. We’re talking about it. We’d like to see that stop as soon as possible. Because uh, thousands of people are being killed a week. Soldiers, mostly soldiers. And Ukrainian soldiers and Russian soldiers. And you’re losing 2000, 3000 sometimes a week. So we – we’re, you know, spearheading the drive to get it done. Donald Trump: Uh, Europe has not been successful in dealing with President Putin, but I think I will be successful. Question: Sir, can I ask you about the NSC? How many staffers were let go and why? Your National Security Council? How many staffers we let – Donald Trump: Oh, there were some. There were some. Always we’re gonna let go of people. People that we, uh, don’t like, or people that we don’t think can do – do the job or people that may have loyalties to somebody else. You’ll always – you’ll always have that. Question: So you mentioned on Yahoo recently, Israel has now talked about staying in Gaza during long-term occupation. Has anything changed in regard to the US-Gaza-Israel plans? Donald Trump: I spoke to him today, as a matter of fact, and I think he’s gonna be coming to our country sometime in the not-too-distant future, maybe next week. And we’ll speak about Israel and we’ll speak about what’s going on. That’s another thing we’d like to get solved and I think we will get it solved. But I think – Question: So can I – Donald Trump: I think he very well may be coming next week. Question: Who – who’s going to be coming? Donald Trump: Benjamin Netanyahu? Question: Sir, can I follow up on your earlier comment about TikTok? You said that the Chinese might be willing to agree to a- approve that sale in exchange for tariff relief. Is that something that you’ve floated to them or you’ve heard from them, or? Donald Trump: No. No. I’m just using that as an example. Let’s say we had a problem with TikTok and let’s say China wasn’t going to approve and we could use tariffs in order to get it approved. You know, you- you give them something in return. Question: What’s the update on the deal negotiations for TikTok? Donald Trump: We’re – uh, We’re very close to a deal with a very good group of people for TikTok, Question: Larry Ellison and all. Is it multiple investors or just – Donald Trump: Multiple. Question: And then did the last-minute bids kind of throw things into disarray for you or do you have your strategy completely locked up on who’s gonna – Donald Trump: Which last minute? Which – Question: On – on – on acquiring TikTok? Donald Trump: No, I think – I think – Question: Like you said, last minute – Donald Trump: – that they could – they could – uh, China maybe will call and say, well, we’re upset with the tariffs and maybe they want to get something a little bit in order to get TikTok approved. Who knows? Question: But is there any plans underway for you to share? Donald Trump: That’s – I have no knowledge of that. But that’s the kind of thing – Question: On Israel, can you give us any update on the Palestinian relocation plan? Are there – are we talking to any countries that – Donald Trump: Well, we’re gonna try and solve the Gaza problem? It’s been a problem for many years. For many, many decades. It’s been a big problem. We have – I’ve met with, as you know, a lot of the hostages. It’s a terrible situation. But uh, if you notice, hostages are being released now, and that’s happened only since I got involved. Donald Trump: So we have hostages being released. Quite a few actually. Question: Are you still committed to the relocation? Donald Trump: I’d like to get as many hostages as we can. And then Gaza – Gaza is a very, uh, very important thing. It’s, uh, it’s been under siege for many, many years and it’s a shame. It’s a shame. A lot of people die in Gaza. Gaza’s been a place we have and a lot of people die. A lot of bad things happen in Gaza. Donald Trump: We’ll see what we can do about it. Question: The dinner tonight, can you tell us about it? Who’s going to be there? Any leaders? Donald Trump: So dinner tonight is, uh, sort of a – I have a couple of them actually. But, uh, a lot of it’s based around charity. It’s at Dural, and we raised a lot of money for charities. Uh, we’re gonna also have to having one of the big golf tourn- professional golf tournaments they, LIV, and that’ll take place over the next few days at Dural from, uh, I guess tomorrow until they have – I think they have a pro app right now. Donald Trump: But I’ll be speaking tonight, I think I’m making a speech to the players, great players. Some of the best players in the world. And ultimately, hopefully the two – the two tours are going to merge. That would be good. I’m involved in that too. Uh, but hopefully we’re going to get the two tours to merge. Donald Trump: You have the PGA Tour, you have the LIV Tour, and I think having them merge would be a great thing. Question: Mr. President, uh, about the tariffs. Do you have any message for the American far – American businesses that might feel the impact of any reciprocal tariffs coming from the EU, for example, or from other countries? Donald Trump: I think it’s going to all work out. Remember, there are no tariffs if you build your plant or you build your product, make your product in the US. And so, a lot of people, I mean, there’s going to be a transition period because they’re gonna be building instead of paying tariffs to some other place. And, but there are no tariffs. Donald Trump: You know, if you think there are no tariffs, all you have to do is build and make your product in the United States. So it’s, uh, and a lot of people are doing that. The, uh, they’re moving, like, the auto companies. I know I spoke to two of the four or five that are really active, and they’ve already started moving their parts, making things out of Mexico, out of Canada and into the United States. Question: Sir, did you speak to any CEOs today? Question: Sir, do you have a sense of how, how long, uh, Elon Musk’s mission will last and when he will depart? Donald Trump: Well, Elon is fantastic and I think it’s, you know, he’s a patriot and I think it’s a shame what they’re doing with, uh, his car company and a great car. It’s a great car, a great product, uh, and it tells you what a patriot he is. He’s amazing. No, I mean, as long as he’d like, I like, I like smart people and he’s a smart person. Donald Trump: I also like him personally. When he endorsed me, that’s when I really got to know him. I knew him a little bit before that, but not much. And then he endorsed me, and it was a very strong embracing endorsement as we all know. And, uh, I would say, Elon will stay for a certain period of time, and then he’s going to want to get back to his businesses full time. Donald Trump: But, he’s done a fantastic job. We found 100s of, think of it, just 100s of, we’ve had millions of dollars of fraud and abuse and waste and, uh, they’re still going. I mean, they’re going strong. They’re finding, they found something today that’s horrible. It’s horrible. Question: So, what was it? So, what – Donald Trump: So what they found, you’ll find out very soon. What they found is incredible, and, uh, I give him a lot of credit. He’s got some very smart people with him. Question: Do you think he could finish – Donald Trump: – and they’re working very closely with our secretaries, and our, the people that are the heads of the [Inaudible] Question: Do you think he could finish – Do you think you would appoint him to another position once his 130 days – Donald Trump: Well, I would, I would. I think Elon’s great, but he also has a, a company to run, or a number of companies to run. That he can do this, that he can find the time, he loves the country, that’s why he does it. But, uh, we’re in no rush, but there’ll be a point at which time Elon’s gonna have to leave. Question: Sir, you mentioned the auto companies – But then, do you know what date, the specific date on when he’s out? Donald Trump: No, but I, I would think a few months. Question: Even when he, uh, even when Elon leaves and goes back to being CEO, um, will DOGE stick around in some kind of capacity? Donald Trump: Yeah, it’ll still, uh, DOGE, DOGE yourself? Yeah, a – at some point – Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: – uh, just so you understand, and I know you’re getting it wrong, I want Elon to stay as long as possible. Number one, I like him. Number two, he’s doing a great job. Number three, he is a patriot, that’s why he’s doing this. And he’s, you know, it’s very costly for him. But, uh, so I want him to stay as long as possible, but there’ll be a point where he’s gonna have to leave. Donald Trump: And when he does, the secretaries will take totally over and DOGE will stay active. Uh, we have a lot of smart people. A lot of those people I believe are gonna go into the agencies, and they’ll work on it from the inside. Question: You mentioned auto companies that you’ve been speaking with. Have you spoken to any executives today? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Who? Donald Trump: I don’t want to say who, but I speak to a lot of the auto executives. But, we have much more than autos. We have chips coming in. We have steel coming in. Question: But, did they call asking for exempt status? Donald Trump: The steel factories, the steel factories are opening up and expanding at levels that people have not seen also. Question: Can you tell us a little bit about your meeting with Laura Loomer and, uh, Mike Waltz today and how that came about? Donald Trump: So, Laura Loomer is a very good patriot. She is a very, uh, strong person, and I saw her yesterday for a little while. She has re- she makes recommendations of things and people, and sometimes I listen to those recommendations like I do with everybody. I listen to everybody, and then I make a decision. But, uh, I saw her yesterday, she was at the ceremony and uh, she has, she’ll always have something to say, usually very constructive. Question: What did she recommend? Donald Trump: Uh, she recommended certain people for jobs. Question: Adding, adding to the administration, and not – Donald Trump: Adding. Question: Who, who did she recommend? Question: – but not firing? Donald Trump: Well, she’ll recommend that too – Question: But, who – Donald Trump: – but yesterday she recommended some people for jobs. Question: Did she have anything to do with the NSC aids who were ousted? Donald Trump: No, no, not at all. Question: Do, do you know how many, sir? Do you know how many from the NSC? Donald Trump: Not many, very few. Question: Was it five, a dozen? Donald Trump: I really don’t know. Question: Who does Loomer want – Donald Trump: There were, there were – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Who did, who did Laura recommend hiring? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t wanna say that, but she’s, uh, she’s recommended some good people over the years. She’s been, she’s been in the party a long time. She’s done a good job. Question: Do you trust your national security staff is, is doing what you want them to do? Donald Trump: Yeah, I, I, yeah, sure. I do. We’ve, uh, done very well. We’ve had big success with the hoodies, as you probably know. Uh, nobody’s been able to do it like us. And uh, they were shooting the boats out of the water, they were sinking ships. That’s what they do. They’re getting a big charge out of sinking ships. Donald Trump: And unfortunately they’re associated with Iran very close, so they have to stop that. But we’ve hit them very hard and we’ve been hitting them very – Question: Sir, did you talk to Congresswoman Luna about her resolution to get maternity – Donald Trump: Congresswoman who? Question: For Congresswoman about her resolution to allow proxy voting for new mothers? Did you speak to [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I did. I did. And I would say this, I guess there’s two sides to it, right? It’s a little controversial. I don’t know why it’s controversial. I think she’s great. Uh, Anna. Question: Do you support her? Donald Trump: I, I, I – Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I think, uh, that, and I’m gonna let the speaker make the decision, but I like the idea of being able to – if you’re having a baby, I think you should be able to call in and vote. I, I’m in favor of that, but I understand some people aren’t. I’m not involved in the issue, but I did, I spoke to Anna yesterday and she and some people feel strongly about it. And uh, I would agree with them, yeah. Question: Sir, you mentioned Iran. They have come out and said if they’re gonna sit down with the US, they wanna use an intermediary, and I believe the US wanted direct talks. Would you still be willing to talk to them by an intermediary? Donald Trump: I, I think it’s better if we have direct talks. I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries. Question: Did you – Donald Trump: They wanna use, they wanted to use intermediaries. I don’t, I don’t think that’s necessarily true anymore. I think they’re concerned. I think they feel vulnerable and I don’t want them to feel that way. And I think they wanna meet, yeah. Iran, they’re talking about Iran. Question: You said you don’t think they wanna use intermediaries anymore. Did they send another letter? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Did the UAE let you know about this? Donald Trump: Yeah. I, I, I know for a fact. I think they’d like to have direct talks. Question: Can you say anything about what the letter said from Iran? Donald Trump: No, I just think they, I’m just telling you, I think they wanna have – forget about letters, I think they wanna have direct talks. Question: On Pete Hegseth and this IG investigation, do you want to weigh in on that one? Donald Trump: Wh- What is it? Question: There’s an IG investigation into the Secretary of Defense’s use of, of some – the Signal app. Donald Trump: Oh, I don’t know. Is that – you’re bringing that up again, don’t bring that up again. Your editors probably. That’s such a wasted story. So what else? Question: Chinese farmland. Um, do you have some plans for Chinese ownership of, of farmland in the, the US? Donald Trump: Oh, we look at that all the time. And look, I have a very good relationship with China and with the president, do have a lot of respect for President Xi. So, you know, we look at that all the time. Question: Yeah – Donald Trump: Farmland, it’s been an issue for years. It’s been, people have talked about it for years, but I have a lot of respect for China and I have a lot of respect for President Xi. Question: When’s the last time you talked to President Xi? Donald Trump: I speak to, uh, doesn’t matter when, but I speak to him. Question: Sir – Have you talked to Zelenskyy recently? Donald Trump: Not too long ago, yeah. Question: How did that go? Donald Trump: Good. I think he’s ready to make a deal. Question: New progress though, other than that? Donald Trump: I think a lot of progress. No, he’s, he’s ready to make a deal and I think that President Putin is ready, ready to make a deal. And then you’ll stop the killing of thousands of young people a week. Question: Did Kirill Dmitriev say that to your, uh, counter, to his counterparts in the US? Donald Trump: Who? Question: Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian negotiator that’s in Washington right now? Donald Trump: I don’t talk about specific people. I just will tell you that there’s a lot of good conversation going on about Ukraine and Russia. Question: Sir – Have you given your approval for the UK’s deal over the Chagos Island that Prime Minister Starmer and you discussed? Donald Trump: I’m talking to the Prime Minister about it and we’ll see how that turns out. He’s uh, we have a very good dialogue going. Question: Sir – Donald Trump: And I think he was very happy about how we treated them on tariffs, so – Question: Sir, there a lot of people were upset about how – Donald Trump: Who are you with? Question: They Daily Mail. A lot of people were upset today about how their 401K’s were doing. Do you have investments, were you looking at them? Are you worried? Donald Trump: Uh, I think the, I think our markets are gonna boom. Gotta give it a little chance, but we’re taking in jobs and we’re taking in industry and we’re taking in trillions of dollars. I think, I think our markets are gonna boom, try to give it a little bit of time. Uh, but they’ve already started construction on numerous plants. Donald Trump: Soon it’ll be many, many plants. All over the country, they’re going. So, so you got to give – Question: Are you [Inaudible] your 401K? Donald Trump: You got to give that, you got to give that a little. I haven’t checked my 401K. (laughing) Thank you very much everybody. Question: Sir, sir. One question on the Fed. A lot of money markets are now [Inaudible] Fed cuts this year. Donald Trump: Well, one thing I like is interest rates going down, you see that happening. And interest – Question: The 10 year yield is right below 4%. Donald Trump: You know what’s beautiful is interest rates go down. I like, uh, I like groceries going down, I like eggs going down. If you look at it, and, uh, very importantly, the gasoline prices are going down. So a lot of good things are happening. Thank you very much. Question: Thank you for your time, Mr. President.
Date: 2025-04-06
Donald Trump: Hello, everybody. Question: How’s your [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Are there any questions? Question: How was the golf tournament? Donald Trump: Uh, very good because I won. [Laughter] Donald Trump: It’s good to win. You heard I won, right? Did you hear I won? Just to, uh, back it up. You were there. I won. And I like – Question: What’s your handicap these days? Donald Trump: Very low, have a very low handicap. Okay, let’s go. Question: Sir, uh, Chinese foreign – Donald Trump: Back up a little bit. Question: Sure. Chinese Foreign Ministry said, uh, that the market is spoken when asked about the tariffs. What do you make of that? Donald Trump: The market has spoken? When they look at the fact that we have a billion dollar trade deficit, when you look at, at the trade deficit that we have with certain countries, way over a billion per country, but with China it’s a trillion dollars, and we have to solve our trade deficit. We try, we have a trillion dollar trade deficit with China. Donald Trump: Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I’m not gonna make a deal. Now I’m willing to deal with China, but they have to solve their surplus. We have a tremendous, uh, deficit problem with China. They have a surplus of at, of least a trillion dollars a year. Donald Trump: I think it’s like a trillion [Note: Trump either said “yuan” or “one”] , and I want that solved. And no other president has taken it on. I had to take it on the last time, and then we had a rigged election. No other president has taken it on. And so China is, you know, they say the market has spoken. The market – China is right now taking a big hit because everyone knows we’re right. Donald Trump: We, they have to pay tariffs because, otherwise, we have a surplus, that they have a surplus with us that is not sustainable. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: And we’re talking about a trillion dollars, you know that, right? We’re not gonna lose a trillion dollars for the privilege of buying pencils from China. Question: On the idea of crashing the market on [Inaudible], there’s been some speculation, partly because of the video that was posted on Truth Social, that there was some sort of deliberate effort on your part to have the market sell off. Can you just talk about that one? Donald Trump: No, that’s not so. But I do wanna solve the deficit problem that we have with China, with the European Union and other nations. And they’re gonna have to do that. And if they wanna talk about that, I’m open to talking. But otherwise, why would I wanna to talk? And as you know, because of the tariffs, we have $7 trillion already committed to be invested in the United States, building auto plants, building, uh, chip companies, and all sorts of companies are coming into our country at levels that we’ve never seen before. Donald Trump: Biden had nothing coming in. It was, this was a dead company with – this was a dead country with Biden. He didn’t know what he was doing, and that’s now been proven, at least. Question: You talked to a lot of leaders this weekend. Can you tell us, sir, were there any deals made? Donald Trump: I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world. They’re dying to make a deal. But I said, we’re not gonna have deficits with your country. We’re not gonna do that. Because to me, a deficit is a loss. We’re gonna have surpluses who are at worst gonna be breaking even, but China would be the worst, uh, in the group, because the deficit is so big and when – it’s not sustainable, and you know, I was elected on this, this was one of the biggest reasons I got elected. Donald Trump: It’s exactly because of this that we’re gonna put tariffs and we’ve already put ’em on. It’s not a question of we will, we’re gonna put ’em on. And those tariffs next year will make us $1 trillion. In addition to the $1 trillion, thousands of companies are gonna relocate back into the United States. In North Carolina, already furniture people are starting to move back in. In, uh, Detroit and Michigan, which I won because of what I said, what I’m telling you, uh, car companies are starting to open up in Indiana, a big one is under construction, as an example, Honda, but they’re moving in like nobody’s ever seen this before. Donald Trump: So, it’s unsustainable for us to allow China to have surpluses of $1 trillion. We will be taking in over $1 trillion over the next short period of time with the tariffs that I’ve already instituted. They’re already in place. Now, what’s going to happen with the market? I can’t tell you, but I can tell you our country has gotten a lot stronger, and eventually it’ll be a country like no other. Donald Trump: It’ll be the most dominant country economically in the world. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: Which is what it should be. Question: Is there Trump put though? Is there a mark – is there pain in the market at some point you’re unwilling to tolerate this idea of a Trump put. Is there a threshold? Donald Trump: I think your question is so stupid, but I mean, I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something. And we have such a horrible – we have been treated so badly by other countries, because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen. They took our businesses, they took our money, they took our jobs, they moved it to Mexico, they moved it to Canada. Donald Trump: They moved a lot of it to China. And it’s not sustainable. We’re not going to do it. Now, we have hundreds of billions of dollars is pouring into our country on a monthly basis. It’s pouring in. It’s already started because I put tariffs on and eventually it’s going to straighten out and our country will be solid and strong again. Question: Elon Musk has said he hopes for zero tariffs between the US and Europe. Is that a place you’d like to also get to? Donald Trump: Well, the problem is that Europe has made a fortune with us. You know, Europe also has had a tremendous, uh, surplus with the United States. Europe has treated us, it’s a little smaller, but it – they’ve treated us very, very badly. China has, but Europe has also. Europe has been very, very bad to us. Europe has, uh, taken our leaders for a ride. Donald Trump: They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our food products. They don’t take anything. And we take their cars, Mercedes, Volkswagen, BMW. You know, we take their millions of cars. They take no cars. They don’t take our farm product. They don’t take anything. Europe’s treated us very badly. We put a big tariff on Europe. Donald Trump: Uh, they are coming to the table. They want to talk, but there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis, uh, number one for present, but also for past, because they’ve taken a lot of our wealth away and we’re not gonna allow it to happen. Question: Sir, have you talked to any tech leaders over the weekend about the tariffs? Donald Trump: Yeah, I talked to the biggest in the world. I talked to the biggest of them all. Uh, many of them, but I’ve talked to, uh, I would say four or five that are considered the biggest. They don’t – you know what they said? “We don’t blame you. Question: Who did you talk to? Donald Trump: Uh, I don’t want say. I – I’ll put it out. I may give it to you. Question: [Inaudible] NVIDIA CEO? Donald Trump: I have to find out if they mind. You know, I don’t know if that was a confidential goal or not. But we had five or six. Uh, I’ve spoken to many countries. They all wanna do it. Just so you understand the power of what I’m doing, every country is calling and being very solicitous of us. Very, very nice. They’re being very nice and – and we have to be able to justify. Donald Trump: We – this is not sustainable. The United States can’t lose $1.9 trillion for trade. We can’t do that and also spend a lot of money on NATO in order to protect European nations. We cover them with military, then we lose money on trade. Uh, it’s the – the whole thing is crazy. And I got elected on that basis. Donald Trump: We explained it. You know, the American people understand it a lot better than the media, but the media understands it, and much of the media writes correctly about it, I must say. Question: Sir. Donald Trump: Okay. Question: Sir. When do you – when are the next set of talks with Russia and who will participate? And where are we in terms of making progress in terms of peace? Donald Trump: We’re talking to Russia. We’d like him to stop. I don’t like the bombing. The bombing goes on and on and every week people and thousands of young people are being killed. And, uh, it’s a horrible thing that should have never started, would’ve never started if I were President, 100%. Question: On the tariffs, is it a negotiation now? Donald Trump: Who are you with? Question: Bloomberg, sir. Is it a negotiation or rules of the road? Donald Trump: Go ahead. Another question, please. Question: Sir, about – about TikTok. Donald Trump: She asks too many questions. Question: Sir, about TikTok. There was a report that there was bout to be a deal, but China changed its mind because of the tariffs. Donald Trump: I’d say it was largely true. The report is that we had a deal pretty much with TikTok, not a deal, but pretty close, and then China changed the deal because of tariffs. Uh, if I gave a little cut in tariffs, they’d approve that deal at 15 minutes, which shows you the power of tariffs, right? Question: Mr. President, former New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu is saying that he’ll win the open Senate seat in New Hampshire and that he has no doubt you’ll support him if he runs. Is that true? Donald Trump: True. I told him. He came to my office, came to the Oval Office, and met with Chris Sununu, and I support him fully. I hope he runs. He’s been very, uh, nice to me over the last year or so. But, uh, no, I hope he runs. I think he’ll win that seat. Question: Sir. When – when we get into – to late summer, early fall, and people are doing their back-to-school shopping, do you think they’ll have inflation to worry about at that point? Donald Trump: I think there’s not gonna be – I don’t think inflation is gonna be a big deal because, if you look at me, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars. This is not new to me. I took in, during my four year, hundreds of billions of dollars from China. And we also took in a lot of money from other countries, but in particular China because it was just getting started. Donald Trump: And there was – we had no inflation. Who had inflation was by Biden. Biden had the worst inflation in the history of our country. I had no inflation. We had a perfect country. We had no wars. I ended them all. I defeated ISIS. Everything was good. And then when this numbskull got in, as they really call themselves now, numbskulls, but, uh, when he got in, bad things happened to our country, including our – our open border, that now we’re doing very well with. Donald Trump: You know, we – uh, we have the best numbers on the border that we’ve ever had. Question: Speaking of the border, have you talked to Attorney General Pam Bondi recently about the cases going on with the deportations? Donald Trump: Yeah, sure. It’s really sad when you think that Biden allowed millions of people to come in and if they find one, now, I will tell you the one, somebody said he’s a member of MS-13, not Tren de Aragua. He’s a member of MS-13, and therefore he should immediately be brought back. Well, MS-13 is just as bad as Tren de Aragua, so they say,”Oh, we’ve made a mistake.” Because he’s not with them, he’s with MS-13. Bring him back, bring him back. Donald Trump: MS-13’s a very bad group. Question: Sir, how co – Donald Trump: Maybe as bad actually. Question: How concerned are you about the measles outbreak, there was another fatality today, and what else would you like to see in terms of the response? Donald Trump: Well, I think they, uh, they’re doing reports on it. It’s so far a fairly small number of people relative to what we’re talking about. Something that people have known about for many, many years. I mean, measles has been, you know, this is not something new, and, uh, we’ll see what happens, but certainly, uh, if, if something, if it progresses, we’ll have to take action. Donald Trump: Very strong, action. Question: El Salvador’s president said on exit, he’d been invited to the White House on April 14 for a working visit to discuss Tren de Aragua and MS-13, and other ways we can support each other, the US and El Salvador. I was curious if you could expand more on what some of these other ideas you have for El Salvador. Donald Trump: Well, I think, yeah, I think, you know, you’re in the way of that camera, by the way. Am I, you should at least say that, the camera operator should probably say that he, she’s shooting the back of your head. You know, I don’t know why she doesn’t say it, I have to say it instead. I have great respect for him, I know him. Donald Trump: Uh, I’ve known him for a long time, he’s young leader and he’s very tough on crime, very, very tough on crime. And in their system, their prison system, they spend a tiny fraction of the money that this country spends, so, uh, but he is coming in, I don’t know when, but he is coming in sometime over the next couple of weeks. Question: What are you and Prime Minister Netanyahu going to speak about tomorrow? Donald Trump: Uh, we’re going to talk about trade and we’re gonna talk about the obvious subject. You know, what the obvious subject is. Question: Do you have any news for us on the obvious subject? Donald Trump: I’m trying, trying to do trade just to keep it down. No, look – Question: Will there – Donald Trump: There’s a, there’s a lot of things going on with the Middle East right now that have to be silenced. You know, uh, we had no problem with the Middle East, everything was done, we had, uh, no problem with Iran, we had no problem with anybody. And then you had October 7th, and that was all because Iran, as you know, was not giving money to anybody because they had no money, now they have a lot of money. Donald Trump: So we’ll see what happens. Question: To go back to El Salvador, the president there said he would be willing to take American citizens in the federal prison population, is that one of the ideas you’re gonna be discussing? Donald Trump: Well, I love that. If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways, and that hit people over the back of the head, and that purposely run people over in cars. Uh, if he would take them, I’d be honored to give ’em, I don’t know what the law says on that, but I can’t imagine the law would say anything different. Donald Trump: If they can house these horrible criminals for a lot less money than it costs us, I’m all for it, but I’d only do according to the law. But I have suggested that, you know, why should it stop just at people that cross the border illegally? We have some horrible criminals, American-grown and born, and if we have somebody that bops an old woman over the head, and we have somebody that is in jail 20 times and goes back and shoots people all over the place and then has a bad judge or a bad prosecutor that do nothing about them, all they worry about is politics and don’t worry about that, I think if we could get El Salvador or somebody to take them, I’d be very happy with it, but I have to see what the law says. Donald Trump: Okay. What else? Question: Mr. President, did you say, did you agree to lowering tariffs for any of the countries that you spoke to today? Donald Trump: Oh, no. What you understand, Jennifer, you have to understand this. We have massive surplus countries that we’re dealing with, we have massive deficits. We’ve got to straighten that out because you can’t continue to be that way. It’s been that way for years now, and it can’t go on any longer. And we’re the piggy bank, we have all the advantages. Donald Trump: Forget markets for a second, we have all the advantages. We’re going to straighten that out, we’re gonna become a wealthy nation again, wealthy like never before, and we’re not gonna let other nations that have been ripping us off, whether it’s China or the European Union, with all of the European nations that have just made, it’s been like a feast. Donald Trump: Look, the European Union was formed for one reason. You know what that was? To rip off the United States. So put that in your bonnet. Uh, I hope you had a good flight. Have a good time. Question: Thank you for your time, Mr. President. Question: Thank you, sir. Question: Thank you. Question: We’ll see you tomorrow.
Date: 2025-04-07
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. It’s an honor to have a very, very special person. I’ve dealt with him for a long time, Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel. And we had lunch together. We had meetings together along with his very capable staff. And I think we’ve come up to some pretty good solutions and conclusions. Donald Trump: And we’ll be working a little bit after this, and then I assume you’re going back home? Benjamin Netanyahu: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: This is a quick stop, in and out, but we appreciate you being here and we are a friend of Israel, as you know. I would say that I’m, by far, the best president that Israel has ever even thought of seeing and it’s an honor to be so – and to be so thought of many friends in Israel, they are not in an easy area, it doesn’t go easy, but we are helping them and, likewise, they’ve been helping us very much. Donald Trump: And so, we’ll see how it all works out. But we had great discussions today, I think, on the obvious subject of Iran and also the less obvious of subject with respect to Israel and that’s trade. And I think the prime minister is going to tell you a little bit about trade and what they’re doing for the United States. Donald Trump: So, I want to thank you all for being here. Thank you very much and, Benjamin, thank you very much. Benjamin Netanyahu: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Donald. Thank you. Mr. President, I want to first thank you for inviting me again to the White House. You’ve been a remarkable friend of the State of Israel. You stand by us. You’re standing with us. You are a great, great champion of our alliance and you actually do the things that you say you do, and I think that people respect that enormously. Benjamin Netanyahu: I certainly do and the people of Israel do, and I think the Jewish people do as well. We just saw your representative in the Department of Justice fighting anti-Semitism, standing up for Israel in international forums. I just want you to know from the heart, it’s deeply, deeply appreciated. As you said, we had the opportunity to talk today about many subjects. Benjamin Netanyahu: First, if I can mention tariffs, it’s a subject of some interest today. I can tell you that I said to the president a very simple thing. We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States. We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do. And we’re going to also eliminate trade barriers, a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily. Benjamin Netanyahu: And I think Israel can serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same. I recognize the position of the United States, it says, you know, we’re allowing other countries to put tariffs on us, but we don’t put tariffs on them. And you know, I’m a free trade champion and free trade has to be fair trade. Benjamin Netanyahu: And I think that’s basically the position that you have put forward, Mr. President. We are going to eliminate the tariffs and rapidly. I had the opportunity to speak to Secretary Lutnick yesterday. We talked about how we could affect this quickly and I hope to bring a solution very quickly. We’re not talking about intentions. Benjamin Netanyahu: We’re not talking about just words; we’re talking about results, and those results are going to come in. So, that’s the first. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. That’s very nice. Thank you. Question: Mr. President, what about the hostage deal? Donald Trump: Let him – let him finish. Benjamin Netanyahu: I’m finished [Inaudible]. We spoke about not only the hostages but about Gaza. The hostages obviously is a human story of an just unbearable agony. I speak to the families; I spoke to them yesterday. I spoke to another one when I was in Hungary before I came here. I speak to them every day and they’re in agony. Benjamin Netanyahu: The hostages are in agony, and we want to get them all out. Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s very able representative, helped us get a deal that got 25 out. We’re working now on another deal that we hope will succeed. And we’re committed to getting all the hostages out but also eliminating the evil tyranny of Hamas in Gaza and enabling the people of Gaza to freely make a choice to go wherever they want. Benjamin Netanyahu: I mean they should have that choice. And the president put forward a vision, a bold vision, which we discussed as well, including the countries that might be amenable and are amenable to accepting Palestinians of their free choice if they choose to go there. And I think that’s the second thing that we discussed. Benjamin Netanyahu: But the hostages came right on top. We also discussed the situation in Syria. We’ve had neighborly relations with Turkey that have deteriorated. And we don’t want to see Syria being used by anyone, including Turkey, as a base for attack in Israel. Turkey is a country that has a great relationship with the United States. Benjamin Netanyahu: The President has a relationship with the leader of Turkey. We discussed how we can avoid this conflict in a variety of ways, and I think we can’t have a better interlocutor than the president of the United States for this purpose. And of course, we also discussed Iran. Look, we’re both united in the goal that Iran does not ever get nuclear weapons. Benjamin Netanyahu: If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing. But whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons. That’s the end of my speech. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: We are – we’re having direct talks with – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, we’re having direct talks with Iran. And they’ve started – it’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen. And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with or frankly that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it. So, we’re going to see if we can avoid it, but it’s getting to be very dangerous territory. Donald Trump: And hopefully those talks will be successful, and I think it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful. We hope that’s going to happen. And we had just a lot of good talks on a lot of things. I appreciate very much what you said about the tariffs. We’ve been ripped off and taken advantage of by many countries over the years and can’t do it anymore, just can’t do it anymore. Donald Trump: We can’t be the stupid people anymore. And it’s all because of the people that sat in the seat right here, not your seat, but this seat, they allowed things to happen to our country that they shouldn’t have allowed to happen on trade and other things. Many other things. I mean look at what’s happened with our last president where he allowed millions of people to come into our country with an open border. Donald Trump: Who would want an open border? How stupid is that? But he allowed millions and millions of people. And of the millions, and I think it was 21 million people, but let’s say three of them were serious criminals, serious murderers and drug dealers and gang members and people from jails, all the jails emptied out right into our country right along the open border on Mexico, generally the Mexico border. Donald Trump: They came in from Canada too, by the way, a lot. But generally speaking, on the southern border. And what a shame it is that we are now working very hard to get them out, get the criminals out, get the murderers out, the drug dealers, the mentally insane, get them out. They dropped the mentally insane in our country too. Donald Trump: And this was all done by the Biden administration. It’s a disgrace that we have to work so hard. And then we have judges that try and protect these people, but they didn’t protect us when the people were being let in. But to get them out is never easy with these people. So, I think we’re doing a great job. Donald Trump: The border is the best it’s ever been, even as strong as it was. I had a great solid border. I think it might even be tougher right now and stronger. So, people are coming into our country, but they’re coming in legally. We have a legal process, and we have that moving along properly because we need people to come into our country, but we want people that can love our country and cherish our country. Donald Trump: So that’s where we are and, with that, any questions? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the market today and would you be open to a pause in tariffs to allow for negotiations? Donald Trump: Well, we’re not looking at that. We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us and they’re going to be fair deals. And in certain cases, they’re going to be paying substantial tariffs. They’ll be fair deals. As you know, I spoke this morning with the prime minister of Japan, and we had a very good conversation. Donald Trump: They’re coming. And I said one thing – you’re going to have to open up your country because we sold no cars, like zero cars, in Japan and they sold millions of cars into our country. They don’t really take our agriculture, a little bit of it, just to keep us slightly happy, but they don’t take what they’re supposed to be taking. Donald Trump: So, we have a great relationship with Japan. We’re going to keep it that way, but they’re coming in to meet and other countries are coming in. With China, as you know, against my statement, they put a 34 percent tariff on above what their ridiculous tariffs were already. And I said if that tariff isn’t removed by tomorrow at 12:00, we’re putting a 50 percent tariff on above the tariffs that we put on. So, they’ve gone for years, they’ve become a rich country because of people again that were in the White House that allowed this to happen. Donald Trump: Hundreds of billions of dollars a year they’d make on us on trade, and it shouldn’t be that way. And I have a great relationship with President Xi, I hope it’s going to stay that way. I have great respect for China, but they can’t do this with just – we’re going to have one shot at this, and no other president is going to do this, what I’m doing. Donald Trump: And I’ll tell you what, it’s an honor to do it because we have been just destroyed, what they’ve done to our system. Donald Trump: You know, we have $36 trillion of debt for a reason and the reason is that people are allowed it to get that way, so we’ll be talking to China. We’ll be talking to a lot of different countries. And I think, if we can make a really fair deal and a good deal for the United States, not a good deal for other – this is America first. Donald Trump: It’s now America first. And we didn’t put America first. We put America last. The people that were in the Oval Office, put America last and we’re not going to stand for it. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Question: Two questions. Do you expect any of these deals to be made before April 9th? And secondly, there have been some mixed messages from your administration. You’re talking about negotiations and yet others in your administration are saying that these tariffs are actually permanent. What is the actual – Donald Trump: Well, they can both be true. Question: There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations, because there are things that we need beyond tariffs. We need open borders. We almost had a deal with China, where we were going to open up China. It was almost done. Some of you remember it during my first term. And it was very disappointing. Question: We ended up making a great deal, $50 billion worth of product was sold, $50 billion. You’d like that in Israel. And I made that deal, but it wasn’t the deal that I wanted. The deal that I wanted was that, plus they were going to open up China so that our companies could go into China and compete with other countries and China for a large number of people. Question: And at the very end, that deal was terminated and we went to a piece of the deal. And so there are a lot of things outside of tariffs, but tariffs are very important. But there are a lot of things like opening up countries that were totally closed. China’s essentially a closed country. In fact, it is a closed country. Question: And what they do is they charge tariffs so that if you sell cars or if you sell anything, nobody’s going to buy it because the price is out of control. But that’s true with a lot of other countries also. So we’re going to get fair deals and good deals with every country. And if we don’t, we’re going to have nothing to do with them. Question: They’re not going to be allowed to participate in the United States. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Hold it. Hold it, hold it, hold it. Relax. We have time. This gentleman has all day long. Question: Mr. President, many of – thank you for the – Donald Trump: Go ahead. Question: Many Palestinian Americans who voted for you voted for you and not for Biden because you’ve promised them to end the war in Gaza. Donald Trump: Correct. I’m very honored by that vote too. Question: The war is still going on and there’s no hostage deal. Do you have any update on that? Donald Trump: Well, I’d like to see the war stop, and I think the war will stop at some point that won’t be in the too distant future. Right now we have a problem with hostages. We’re trying to get the hostages out. We’ve got quite a few of them out, but it’s a long process. It shouldn’t be that long. We have a big problem that we’ve done – I think I’ll ask Pete to maybe talk about it for a second, because a lot of people are asking – the Houthis, we’ve been very tough and very successful militarily. Donald Trump: We’ve really damaged them badly. These were people shooting down ships and other things, by the way, flying objects like airplanes and we’ve put a major hurt on the Houthis, which nobody’s been able to do. We’ve really hit them hard, and they know it, and they don’t know what to do. And it’s every night, night after night, and we’ve gotten many of their leaders and their experts, their experts on missiles. Donald Trump: I mean, they actually make missiles. Nobody thought that, but they make missiles. It’s highly sophisticated and they’re very tough, but they’ve been very badly damaged. Nobody else was able to do that, but us. Pete, do you want to discuss that, please? Pete Hegseth: Yes, sir. It’s been a bad three weeks for the Houthis and it’s about to get worse. It’s been a devastating campaign, whether it’s underground facilities, weapons manufacturing, bunkers, troops in the open, air defense assets. We are not going to relent and it’s only to get more unrelenting until the Houthis declare they will stop shooting at our ships. Pete Hegseth: And we’ve been very clear with the Iranians as well. They should not continue to provide support to the Houthis, and that message has been made very clear. So we have a lot more options and a lot more pressure to apply. And we know, because we see the reports, how devastating this campaign has been in them and we will not relent. Donald Trump: We have a great military. There’s no military like our military. And despite Biden having given a lot, but nevertheless a pretty small piece, but it was a lot of our military away in Afghanistan. And one of the dumbest situations I think and maybe the most embarrassing situation We’ve ever been involved in, that short period of time in Afghanistan. Donald Trump: What a disgrace that was, but left a lot of our military behind. You see them in their annual parades, where they’re parading trucks that are armor plated and different things that they can – but it’s many billions of dollars we left behind. But despite that, we have a tremendous military. That was a very small portion because we rebuilt the military during my first term. Donald Trump: And we have great things happening with our military. We also, essentially, approved a budget, which is in the facility. You’ll like to hear this, of $1 trillion, $1 trillion. And nobody’s seen anything like it. We have to build our military and we’re very cost conscious, but the military is something that we have to build and we have to be strong because you got a lot of bad forces out there now. Donald Trump: So we’re going to be approving a budget. And I’m proud to say, actually, the biggest one we’ve ever done for the military. We’re cutting other things that were, under DOGE, but under a lot of other – when you look at a woman getting $2 billion for environmental and it had nothing to do with environmental and they had $100 in the bank and they give her $2 billion. Donald Trump: Many, many of those cases, all that stuff is going to be cut out, but we are getting a very, very powerful military. We have things under order now, the likes of which we’ve never had before. We’ve never had the kind of aircraft, the kind of missiles, anything that we have ordered. And it’s, in many ways, too bad that we have to do it because hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it. But the military is very, very powerful and it’s going to remain that way. Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Please. Yes [Inaudible] Question: Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask you about Iran because this is the first time we hear that the US is having a direct contact with them. Is it possible to get some more information, at what level is the US – Donald Trump: High level, very high level. Yeah. We’re dealing with the Iranians. We have a very big meeting on Saturday and we’re dealing with them directly. Question: A lot of people say, oh, maybe you’re going through surrogates or you’re not dealing directly, you’re dealing through other countries. No, we’re dealing with them directly. And maybe a deal is going to be made. That would be great. It would be really great for Iran, I can tell you that. But hopefully, we’re not going to have to get into that. Question: We are meeting very importantly on Saturday at almost the highest level and we’ll see how it works out. Please. Question: How do you assure, Mr. President, that these tariffs don’t drive US trading partners into the hands of the Chinese? Donald Trump: I’m not worried about it. I’m not worried about it. If they want to be in the hands of the US, they don’t want to be in the hands of the Chinese. And the Chinese have turned out to be really, not very good at that. People that are with us, they’re with us, but we cannot be taken advantage of any longer. I used to watch these deals for years. Donald Trump: I’ve been talking about it for years. I’ve been talking about it for 35 years, how our country is being ripped off. I mean, 30 years ago, it was Japan, then it was something else. Then it was another group. Then it was China. China’s doing the best job of it, frankly. And it’s just not going to happen, not going to happen. Question: Mr. President, [Inaudible] has said that they have offered zero for zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods. Is that not enough? Donald Trump: Well, the EU – no, it’s not. The EU has been very tough over the years. I always say, it was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade. That’s the reason it was formed. It was formed with all of the countries from Europe. I guess, most of them, not all of them, but most of them and they formed together to create a little bit of a monopoly situation to create a unified force against the United States for trade. Donald Trump: So they have NATO, which is largely the same countries and they took advantage of us dollar wise and militarily until I got there. I was able to get $600 billion from NATO, where they paid NATO. Because most of these nations weren’t even paying. We were paying for NATO. So we’re paying them to guard them militarily and they’re screwing us on trade. Donald Trump: So that’s not a good combination. So now, it’s really turned around. It’s the opposite. And the European Union’s been very bad to us. They don’t take our cars, like Japan in that sense. They don’t take our agricultural product. They don’t take anything practically, and yet they send millions of cars in a year, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, BMWs. Donald Trump: They’re sending millions and millions of cars into the US, but we don’t have a car that’s been sold to the European Union or other places, but let’s go for the European Union and it’s not going to be that way. It’s got to be fair and reciprocal. It’s got to be fair – it’s not fair. We have a deficit with the European Union of $350 billion and it’s going to disappear fast. Donald Trump: And one of the reasons and one of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly is they’re going to have to buy our energy from us because they need it. They’re going to have to buy it from us. They can buy it. We can knock off $350 billion in one week. They have to buy and commit to buy a like amount of energy and we have that – you know, we have more energy than any country in the world. Donald Trump: I don’t know if you know that. He knows everything, but the one thing he may not know we have more energy than any country in the world. We have more of every kind of energy, every form of energy from oil and gas to coal. And people talk about, I call it beautiful clean coal. As you know, Germany is opening up a coal plant a week. Donald Trump: They tried the windmills, and it didn’t work. They tried all the other solutions, and they were ready to go out of business. Now they’re doing a coal plant a week. China is now up to two coal plants. They’re opening two major coal plants every single week in China, all over China and then we’re not allowed to use coal. Donald Trump: Well, we have clean, beautiful coal more than anybody else. We have oil and gas, more than anybody else. We have the most energy of any country in the world including Saudi Arabia, including everybody by a lot. And I took it to number one – we were number three and I took it to number one during my administration. Donald Trump: And the reason that we were hurt so badly and the reason that we went into such incredible inflation during Biden is energy. It was also their bad spending. But energy because they played around with this incredible thing that we had built, this administration had built, and the energy costs went through the roof. Donald Trump: And when that went up, everything else followed. Now if you look at what’s happening, you’re going to see this today, I said we’re going to try and get groceries down, right, an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term – eggs. So, when I got in the press went absolutely crazy the first week. They said eggs have quadrupled in price. Donald Trump: I said I just got here, tell me about it. And Brooke Rollins and our team did a great job and eggs are down now 79 percent and they’re all over the place. And this was a problem that somebody else would have taken a long time to cure. We have – energy is down, we have interest rates are down, we have groceries, meaning food is down. Donald Trump: We have – everything is down at levels that nobody ever thought possible. Wnergy looks like it’s going to be in the $2.50 a gallon range and maybe below that for a car. So, for gasoline. So, we’re really doing amazing. I mean, we’re cutting prices because prices got so high, people couldn’t live. I mean the prices for groceries, the prices for standard – standard groceries, standard things were going through the roof, they couldn’t live. Donald Trump: And now those prices are coming down, so call them groceries, but that’s down. Energy is down and interest rates are down, everything’s down. And the interest rates, the beauty there is when we refinance debt – you know, debt has become such a big factor in this country. We’re going to get – we’re going to start paying debt off with tariffs and other things. Donald Trump: But it’s such a big factor because the interest rates so high. Well, now that’s coming way down. So, our budget’s going to look a lot better because interest costs are way down, and I guess I’ve done that. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Many Israelis are watching you now on live show. Donald Trump: Good. I hope they like me. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – to getting the hostages out from the horrific captivity? Donald Trump: We are trying very hard to get the hostages out. We’re looking at another ceasefire; we’ll see what happens. But we want to get the hostages out. The Israeli people want the hostages out; more than anything they want the hostages out. This man is working very hard with us to do that. I mean, I don’t know. Donald Trump: I hope he’s being appreciated because he’s been a great leader. He’s working very, very hard on the hostages and many other things. And there are plenty of things you have to work on. It’s a tough place in the world, isn’t it? Benjamin Netanyahu: I have a good partner. Donald Trump: Yeah, you do have a good partner and so do we. We’re working very hard on the hostages. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: If you’re going to negotiate a new deal with Iran, can you elaborate how it’s going to be more effective than the JCPOA? Donald Trump: Well, I can’t really say that, but I think it will be different and maybe a lot stronger. But they were so happy when we made that first deal because we did get a lot out. You know, I had people right in this office, this beautiful Oval Office. They came in, 10 people, hostages, you know that. And I said to them, so how was it? And the stories they told me. I mean as an example, I said to them, was there any sign of love? Donald Trump: You were there, 10 people, it’s only 10, but it’s pretty representative. Did the Hamas show any signs of like help or liking you? Did they wink at you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like you know, you think of doing – like what happened in Germany, what happened elsewhere. Donald Trump: People would try and help people that were in unbelievable distress. They said no. I said all of them. I said, did they ever wink at you like you’ll be OK, you’re going to be OK? No, they didn’t do that. They’d slap us. The hatred is unbelievable. And the lives – you know, they lived in a pipe, not really a tunnel, it was a pipe and they always thought they were suffocating, they were going to suffocate. Donald Trump: And then they’d open up the pipe and it was like 3.5 feet high. This isn’t – you know, we hear tunnel is bad, but pipes are worse and the stories I heard were incredible. But I just said, was there any sign of potential love or affection? And there were none whatsoever. It was amazing to me. There was nothing like, here, take this, it’s a little extra meal or something. Donald Trump: They lived like hell. I don’t know. They seem to be – they were amazing to me because they seemed to be pretty normal. They weren’t scarred, but I guarantee underneath they have to be scarred. And one was there for 356 days, another was there for about 180 days, you know, a long time. These are people that have been really, really horribly treated. Donald Trump: I’ve never seen anything like it actually. I was very surprised to hear the answer. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Are there two or three countries that are on your list that you feel are farther along in getting their tariffs lowered? Donald Trump: I think – well, I think there are many that want to get rid of tariffs right now. European Union, I mean, as badly as they’ve treated us – you know, they’ve brought their car tariffs essentially off. I guess they brought it down to 2.5, and I hear maybe to nothing. But it’s not only tariffs, it’s non-monetary tariffs. Donald Trump: It’s tariffs where they put things on that make it impossible for you to sell a car. It’s not a money thing. It’s – they make it so difficult, the standards and the tests. They drop a bowling ball on the top of your car from 20 feet up in the air. And if there’s a little dent, they say no, I’m sorry, your car doesn’t qualify. Donald Trump: When the same car from Germany or anything would dent likewise, unless you can have an army tank, it’s going to dent. So, they come up with rules and regulations that are just designed for one reason, that you can’t sell your product in those countries. And we’re not going to let that happen. Those are called non-monetary barriers. Donald Trump: They make barriers that are so tough that it’s impossible to qualify. So, tariffs are a big part of it, but there’s another big part of it and that’s barriers. They also do something else. They manipulate their currency, and they drive it down. They want to drive it – they want to have low currencies. You know, it sounds better to have a high currency, a strong dollar or whatever, but they bring their currency down. Donald Trump: And when it competes with our currency, it’s very hard to sell a tractor, it’s very hard to sell product because their currency is low and ours is much higher, relatively. And so, it makes it very hard. I speak to a lot of companies that do business – tractor companies, and they say it’s so hard to sell because what they’ve done is they’ve lowered the yen, or they’ve lowered the wan or they’ve lowered their currency so that it’s very hard to compete. Donald Trump: We don’t want that either. So, we have a lot of things that we’re talking about, but we’re going to fix it properly and it’s going to be fair to everybody. And in the end, I think we’re going to have a world that does a lot better, you know. But they have to respect the United States – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – and nobody but me would do this. Nobody but me would do this. You know, it would be nice to serve a nice easy term, but we have an opportunity to change the fabric of our country. We have an opportunity to reset the table on trade. We lose billions of dollars. We lose close to $2 trillion a year on trade. Donald Trump: We lose $1 trillion a year to China, a trillion. We lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year on trade to China. We lose hundreds of billions of dollars overall, probably close to $2 trillion. Why would we do that? Number one, why would we do that? And then you have to say is it sustainable? Then you hear about all of the people that say, well deficits, if we have a deficit with the country or if the country has a big surplus with us, like China has a massive surplus that they take and they spend on their military. Donald Trump: Well, we don’t want that. I don’t want them to take five – $600 billion a year and spend it on their military, I don’t want them spending money on their military. And I shouldn’t have to spend money, we shouldn’t have to spend it either because hopefully, and I said this to President Xi, hopefully it’s money that we’re never going to use. Donald Trump: In other words, because we’re not going to use those incredible weapons that we have and that they have. We don’t want that. So it’s going to be very interesting. It’s the only chance our country will have to reset the table because no other president would be willing to do what I’m doing or to even go through it. Now, I don’t mind going through it because I see a beautiful picture at the end, but we are making tremendous progress with a lot of countries. Donald Trump: And the countries that really took advantage of us are now saying please negotiate. You know why, because they’re getting beaten badly because of what’s happening. They’re getting beaten badly. They’re being devalued as countries. But it’s the only chance we’re going to have to reset the table on trade. And when we do, we’re going to come out unbelievably well. Donald Trump: We’re going to have a strong country economically again and we’re going to have those factories that are empty all over the United States. We’ve lost 90,000 plants and factories. Think of this, 90,000 – you wouldn’t think it’s possible, 90,000 plants and factories since NAFTA. Which was, by the way, the worst trade deal ever developed, ever had by any country, anywhere, NAFTA. And I terminated NAFTA. Everybody said it would be impossible and I terminated, through Congress. Donald Trump: We terminated it. You had to get it through Congress. It was a trap. It was a horrible thing and we got it done, and we went to the USMCA, which was much better. The problem is they cheat. They cheat like crazy. Canada cheats. Mexico cheats. Just one of those things. But we are resetting a table and we’re going to have great trade and we’re going to have a very strong country. Donald Trump: Our country is going to be at a level that it has maybe never been or maybe – our country was the strongest, believe it or not, from 1870 to 1913. You know why? It was all tariff based. We had no income tax. Then in 1913, some genius came up with the idea of let’s charge the people of our country, not foreign countries that are ripping off our country. Donald Trump: And the country was never, relatively, was never that kind of wealth. We had so much wealth, we didn’t know what to do with our money. We had meetings. We had committees. And these committees worked tirelessly to study one subject. We have so much money. What are we going to do with it? Who are we going to give it to? And I hope we’re going to be in that position again. Question: Do you plan to reduce the tariffs that your government put on Israeli goods? Donald Trump: On where? Question: On Israeli goods, the 70 percent. Do you plan – Donald Trump: Well, we’re talking about a whole new trade, maybe not, maybe not. Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot. We give Israel $4 billion a year. That’s a lot. Congratulations, by the way. That’s pretty good. But we give Israel billions of dollars a year, billions. Question: It’s one of the highest of any – we give a lot of countries money. You wouldn’t believe if I said we give Afghanistan a lot of money, because that was a Biden deal, another Biden deal. Not only did he embarrass us with that, but they give them billions of dollars, Afghanistan, right? But no, we take good care of our friends and we don’t take care of our enemies. Question: We’re not taking care of our enemies anymore, but we do take care of our friends. Question: [Inaudible] from the Times of Israel. The IDF is fighting again in the Gaza Strip. I myself might be called up in a month. Do you think that’s the way to pressure Hamas to get to a deal? And do you think blocking humanitarian aid is also an effective pressure? Donald Trump: Well, you know how I feel about the Gaza Strip. I think it’s an incredible piece of important real estate and I think it’s something that we would be involved in, but having a peace force like the United States there controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing. Because right now, all it is, is for years and years, all I hear about is killing and Hamas and problems. Donald Trump: And if you take the people, the Palestinians and move them around to different countries and you have plenty of countries that will do that, and you really have a freedom zone. You call it the freedom zone, a free zone, a zone where people aren’t going to be killed every day. That’s a hell of a place. You know what I call it, a great location that nobody wants to live in, because they really don’t. And when they have good living, real living, where Hamas and all of the problems they have, the level of death on the Gaza Strip is just incredible. Donald Trump: And I’ve said it, I don’t understand why Israel ever gave it up. Israel owned it. It wasn’t this man’s – I can say it. He wouldn’t have given it up. I know him very well. There’s no way. They took oceanfront property and they gave it to people for peace. How did that work out? Not good. Question: Sir, Mr. President, is the immigration plan still on the agenda? Donald Trump: Which immigration? Question: Gaza. In Gaza. Donald Trump: All it is, is a concept that I had that I think is good and now people are copying it. Bibi, do you want to tell – people are talking about the Trump plan. Gee, why don’t we do that? Would you like to answer that question? Benjamin Netanyahu: I think what the president talked about is first of all to give people a choice. Gazans were closed in. In every other place including in arenas of battle. I mean, whether it’s Ukraine or Syria or any other place, people could leave. Gaza was the only place where they locked them in. We didn’t lock them in. They are locked in. And what is wrong with giving people a choice? Benjamin Netanyahu: Now we’ve been talking over lunch about some countries, I won’t go into them right now, that are saying, if Gazans want to leave, we want to take them in. And I think this is the right thing to do. It’s going to take years to rebuild Gaza. In the meantime, people can have an option. The president has a vision. Benjamin Netanyahu: Countries are responding to that vision. We’re working on it. I hope we’ll have good news for you. Donald Trump: I will say, people love – excuse me. People really do love that vision. It’s a long-term vision, but so importantly is to have that be a safe field because you’re right smack in the middle of the Middle East. You’re right along Israel. It should have never ever been given away. It shouldn’t have been given away by Israel. Donald Trump: I don’t know why they did it. I mean, I do know why, because they were promised peace, but that didn’t work out too well because it’s one of the most dangerous pieces of land anywhere in the world. Gaza is one of the most dangerous places in the world, so they gave it away for good intention and it didn’t work out that way. Donald Trump: And a lot of people like my concept, but there are other concepts that I like too. And there are some concepts I don’t like. You know what I don’t like, the way it is now, because right now it’s a dangerous death trap, Gaza. Yeah. Question: Thank you, sir. Can you talk a little bit about your meeting, potential meeting with Vladimir Putin? Do you still plan to meet with him? Could that happen in Saudi Arabia? And maybe you could elaborate as well a little bit on not providing tariffs on Russia, sir. Donald Trump: So the reason we’re not talking about tariffs with Russia is because we’re not doing business, essentially, with Russia because they’re in a war. And I’m not happy about what’s going on with the bombing because they’re bombing like crazy right now. They’re bombing. I don’t know what’s happening there. That’s not a good situation. Donald Trump: So we’re meeting with Russia. We’re meeting with Ukraine and we’re getting sort of close, but I’m not happy with all the bombing that’s going on in the last week or so. Horrible. It’s a horrible thing. It’s a horrible thing. Yeah. Question: Can countries negotiate to get below 10 percent? Donald Trump: In terms of tariffs? Question: In terms of tarrifs, yes. Donald Trump: Look, we’ve been ripped off and taken advantage of for 40, 50, 60 years. And the reason we got ripped off and the way they did it was tariffs. They would charge tariffs, massive numbers of dollars. And when you look at China, when I took over, it was at $507 billion they were making. I call it, making a lot of people say, oh, it doesn’t mean anything. Donald Trump: Having a surplus means a lot, in my opinion. It’s almost like a profit or loss statement. And when I took over, it was $507 billion that China – this is originally first term, and we were very, very tough on them because they were taking that money and they were building a military with it. Then when Biden came in, he let them get away with murder. Donald Trump: He had no idea. I’ll tell you what, that man had no idea what was happening, whether it was the border or China or anything else. He had no idea what was going on, and they went wild. China went wild and the money they make is ridiculous. OK? It’s just not going to happen and hopefully we’ll get along with China. Donald Trump: If we do, that’s great. And if we don’t, that’s Ok too, but we can’t let that continue because that’s an abuse – they abused the poor people that sat in the seat, that poor Biden. He was abused by them. They took advantage of him. And I’m surprised. They have smart people. They were radical left lunatics, but they’re smart. Donald Trump: I’m surprised they’d allow that to happen, but we are going to bring great trade, and we’re going to be fair to other countries. And I will say this, virtually every country wants to negotiate. If I didn’t do what I did over the last couple of weeks, you wouldn’t have anybody who wants to negotiate. We would have gone to these countries – you want to talk, and they were – well, we don’t want to talk. Donald Trump: Now they’re coming to us, they’re offering things like – even Bibi, and this is unrelated because it’s a different kind of a relationship. But he started off our conversation today that he’s cutting all of the tariffs, he’s cutting everything, he’s going to get down to a free base. He’s going to do things that, in all fairness, other countries, if they said that, would have never even thought about doing it. Now they’re offering things to us that we would have never even thought of asking them for because they’re experiencing a lot of hurt. Donald Trump: And the hurt is that they’ve taken advantage of us and we finally fought back. Tariffs will make this country very rich. We’re rich anyway, but we’re rich in a certain way. We have $36 trillion in debt; I want to get rid of it and we can do it quickly with proper deals. So, when countries don’t allow us to sell our product, but we allow them to sell their product, when they charge us massive amounts of money for the privilege of going into their country. Donald Trump: Those days are over. Ok. Yeah. Go ahead, sir. Question: Me? Donald Trump: Yeah, he sounds so surprised. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. On Iran, two questions please. First, can give us more details about where the meeting on Saturday is going to take place? Donald Trump: I can’t tell you that. I can just tell you there’s a major meeting going on between us and Iran and that will take place on Saturday and it’s at top level. Question: And second question about this, a lot of people think that those talks are not going to lead anywhere because the Iranians will never give up their nuclear program. Donald Trump: You may be right. I think that’s a possibility. Question: It fails if diplomacy fails, is the United States, under your leadership, ready to take military action to destroy the Iranian nuclear program and remove this threat? Donald Trump: I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger. And I hate to say it, great danger because they can’t have a nuclear weapon. Question: So, is that a yes? Donald Trump: You know, it’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, that’s all there is, can’t have it. Right now – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – we have countries that have nuclear power that shouldn’t have it, but I’m sure we’ll be able to negotiate out of that too as part of this later on down the line. But Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran if that’s the case. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Mr. President, on manufacturing – Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, was October 7th, the deathblow of the two-state solution? And would you consider classifying the Palestinian Authority as a terrorist organization for its continued pay-for-slay terror financing payments? Donald Trump: So, October 7th, was a horrible day that some people, they deny it. Now, I can’t believe they deny it from the standpoint of they do it because they think it’s good politically. But October – I’ve seen the tapes. I’ve seen things that you don’t want to see. October 7th, was a horrible day and it will go down as one of the really bad days in the history of the world. Donald Trump: It was a horrible, horrible thing that happened. And they grabbed some of these people – I’ll give you an example. When I was with the 10 hostages a few weeks ago, I said, so how many are there? 59? I said, oh, so 59. So, we can get 59. They sort of knew the territory pretty good and I said, how are they doing? Donald Trump: They said, well, only 24 are living, the rest are dead. And these are young people, largely. Young people don’t die. You know, young people have an amazing ability to live. They can live through horrible things. But these are young people and when they said that 24 are living and the rest are dead. And you know, I’ve had parents come up, Israeli parents largely, we have some Americans. Donald Trump: And we had – I guess we have one left, Alex, we have the one left. But I’ve had Israeli parents come up to me at events and say my son is there. I said, well, how’s he doing? Well, he’s dead. But would you do me the biggest favor ever? Could you bring his body back home? They talked about a young dead boy and a young dead girl like they were living. Donald Trump: And that could have something to do with religion that could have something to do with – I guess maybe any parent would be. But I was surprised. They said, sir, my son is dead. It is just as important to bring that body back home. I asked that question as if he were alive. So, you have a lot of them dead and we’ll be able to bring them back. Donald Trump: But it’s a horrible thing that’s happened. These are young – largely young people, some old ones too, frankly. And those people have lived in hell when they came off. The second group that came out, they looked like they just got out of a concentration camp. They looked exactly like the pictures that I see from the 1940s, the concentration camps. Donald Trump: And then they got a little bit better, you know, but that second group, those people came out and I said this is unbelievable. We’re going back into a chapter in history that is one of the worst ever. It’s really very bad. OK? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, you said it could take two years to get American manufacturing fully up to speed in response to these tariffs. What happens in the meantime? Should Americans be prepared for years of disruption? Donald Trump: We have now $7 trillion – think of this, $7 trillion of commitments from companies wanting to go in from Apple to – many, many companies. Question: But that takes time. Donald Trump: Many from Taiwan. What? Question: It takes time to – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, are you asking me a question or are you telling me? Yeah, it takes time. You know, you’ve got to build a thing called a factory, you have to build your energy. You have to do a lot of things. I’m giving them energy. You know, we’re going to let them build their own power plants, they’ll be their own. Donald Trump: Essentially, they’re going to be in charge of the power plant because our power is not reliable enough. You have a grid that’s old and susceptible to a lot of things, including bombing and weather and a lot of other things. And we’re going to give them record timing in terms of approvals of electric plants. Donald Trump: Most of them want to build electric plants. We need massive amounts of electricity if we’re going to compete with China and others. And interestingly, we’re way ahead right now in the AI race with China. But the way we lose that race is if we can’t give them electric. But we have more plants being built. Donald Trump: We have everything – we’re doing so great, and we want to keep it that way. And tariffs will be an important part of it. But one of the other things, Lee Zeldin has done a fantastic job, head of environmental protection. And he’s doing very rapid approvals for people to get – for big companies that are going to build a plant that’s going to cost billions of dollars. Donald Trump: And we’re going to get them their approvals. They have to be environmentally perfect, everything good, but they’re going to be in record time, a matter of months versus a matter of many, many years. Question: But in the meantime – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Go ahead. Question: Yeah, [Inaudible]. Turkey claims it will stabilize the situation in Syria. Donald Trump: Turkey? Question: Yeah. Israel doesn’t want Turkey to influence in Syria. What do you think? Do you think Turkey’s influence in Syria can actually make it a better, more peaceful country or vice versa? Donald Trump: Well, I have a great relationship with a man named Erdogan. Have you heard of him? And I happen to like him, and he likes me, and I know the press will get very angry. He likes Erdogan. But I do and he likes me, and we’ve never had a problem. And we’ve gone through a lot and we’ve never had a problem. We’ve always got – as you remember, we got our minister back from Turkey. Donald Trump: You remember that. And this was a big deal at the time, and we got him back. And I told the prime minister, I said just, Bibi, if you have a problem with Turkey, I really think I’m going to be able to work it out. You know, I have a very, very good relationship with Turkey and with their leader and I think we’ll be able to work it out. Donald Trump: So, I hope that’s not going to be a problem. I don’t think it will be a problem. Now with that being said, I believe it was Turkey, and I said that to him. I said it, I said congratulations, you’ve done what nobody’s been able to do in 2,000 years, you’ve taken over Syria with different names, but same thing. Donald Trump: I said, you’ve taken it over. He’s taken it over through surrogates. He goes no, no, no, no, no, no, it was not me. I said it was you, but that’s OK, you don’t have to say – well, it sort of maybe was me, OK. But what he did – look, he’s a tough guy and he’s very smart and he did something that nobody was able to do. You’ve got to hand it to him. Donald Trump: Any problem that you have with Turkey, I think I can solve, I mean as long as you’re reasonable. You have to be reasonable; we have to be reasonable. Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-04-08
Donald Trump: Wow. Thank you very much. This is a great room. And uh, you know, we’ve done very well in this room before, but right now, we broke every record. I just heard from Mike Johnson, he said, we broke every record, sir. There is over $35 million. That’s not bad for an evening. For an evening, that’s not bad. I wonder if you ever turned the room this way. Donald Trump: You know, it’s interesting because I love real estate. I love ballrooms. They have nice ballrooms, a lot of them. I wonder if they ever turned it this way instead. So it might be interesting. This way, I’m not talking to a wall. They think they get a better view, but actually, I’m not sure. But next time maybe we won’t have to worry about that next year. Donald Trump: Well, we’ll do $45 or $50 million, right? I mean, a lot of people you broke your record attendance. And you broke your money record. And that’s a great tribute to the Republicans and the party and everything it stands for. And it’s wonderful. And I want to thank especially speaker, Mike Johnson, because he’s been incredible. Donald Trump: And we have some unbelievable supporters of our House Republican majority with us, as you know. And with the help of everyone in this room, the next year’s Republican Party is going to defy history. We’re going to really defy it. And we already are. We’re getting things done. It’s going to be very interesting to see. Donald Trump: This is going to be a very interesting year. We have an interesting time. We’re making a fortune with tariffs. $2 billion a day. Do you believe it? I was told $2 billion a day. You know, I got hit by the press about tariffs. We’re making $2 billion, billion. This isn’t $35 million. That’s peanuts. $2 billion a day. Donald Trump: And then they say, gee, they don’t know. You know, this is only the enemy can be talking this way. In addition, we have a lot of countries coming to see us, they want to make a deal. And we’re doing – we’re doing things that nobody’s ever even thought about doing. And we’re going to defeat the radical left Democrats who are out there complaining about everything. Donald Trump: All they do is complain and then they want to put men in women’s sports and things like that. They want men in women’s sports. They’re still fighting for that. I saw this poor guy. You all know him. I won’t mention his name. He’s sort of a nice guy. He’s a loser. He’s a Democrat, but he’s a loser. And he was fighting on a big show this morning. Donald Trump: We’ve got to have that. It’s not fair that – essentially that men aren’t allowed to compete against women. Can you believe this guy? But uh, let them do it. I say we shouldn’t be fighting a lot of these things. Just let them go. And then just before the next election, we’ll unleash on them. Because this – it would be very sad if they actually changed their policies. Donald Trump: We don’t want that to happen. But we’re going to win the midterm elections, and we’re going to have a tremendous thundering landslide. I really believe that. And it’s so important that we pass the big, beautiful bill because that’s going to be – And I really think – and I really think we’re helped a lot by the tariff situation that’s going on, which is a good situation, not a bad. Donald Trump: It’s great. It’s going to be legendary, you watch. Legendary in a positive way, I have to say. Uh, it’s going to be legendary, but I really think it actually puts pressure on those few Republicans that just can’t get there. Do you know what the alternative is? A Democrat bill or a chapter for the country. Donald Trump: You know, we have the debt continuation. And they have to do – they have to do this. They have to get there. And I think we are there. We had a great meeting today. I think we are there. But just in case there are a couple of Republicans out there, you just got to get there. Close your eyes and get there. Donald Trump: It’s a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding. Just stop grandstanding. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. You know their policy, the Democrats is horrible, it’s horrible. Think of it, open borders, just all of the horrible, stupid things they have. You don’t have energy. You don’t have anything. They’ve lost their confidence. Donald Trump: Everything is bad. But the one thing they always vote in unison, you don’t see somebody that’s holding up, I’m going to hold up and the alternative is – is hell. You know, the alternative is hell, so the Republicans just have – one little thing the Republican Party has to do is get together and damn vote. Donald Trump: If you’re a single guy or a second guy, you fight like hell for what you get. And then in the end you have to vote because the policy is phenomenal. You know, they don’t get every little ounce. It doesn’t work that way. And this – uh, this bill that we’re working on now is the best I think we’ve ever passed. Donald Trump: Uh, Mike, wherever you may be, it’s the best. I think it’s the best thing we’ve – we’ll get it passed. But I think it’s going to be the most important thing we’ve ever passed. It’s the best thing we’ve ever passed. And I do think that the war with the world, which is not a war at all because they’re all coming here, Japan is coming here as we speak. Donald Trump: They’re in a plane flying, lots of them. All tough negotiators. But things that people wouldn’t have given us two years ago wouldn’t have even thought of it two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, seven, they’re giving us everything. They don’t want tariffs on themselves. And it’s very simple. We’re making deals. Donald Trump: And people are paying tariffs. Countries are paying tariffs. Right now, China is paying a 104 percent tariff. Think of it, 104 percent. Now it sounds ridiculous, but they charged us for many items 100 percent, 125 percent. Many countries have. They’ve ripped us off left and right. But now it’s our turn to do the ripping. Donald Trump: That’s OK. We’re going to make our country even stronger, stronger than it ever was. In 2026, Republicans will fight for every state, every seat and every single vote. We’re going to fight like hell. I intend to personally campaign for candidates all across the country. And we just won’t – You’re right about that. Donald Trump: We won’t just keep our majorities. We want to expand our majorities by a lot. You know, there’s this thing about midterm elections that you have a president and the president – they never seem to win. I don’t understand. They never seem to win the midterm elections. And I have no idea why. You know, we’re not going to let that be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Donald Trump: I have no idea why. We’re setting records right now. We’re getting more things approved than any president has ever done in the first 100 days. It’s not even close. I had somebody say the most successful month – first month in the history. Now they said the most successful 100 days in the history of our country. Donald Trump: And I believe that’s right. And we’re going to continue that way, if not more so. And we’re going to do tremendously in midterms. There’s no reason, we should do great in the midterms. There’s this thing that for some reason, the president, whoever the president is the midterms are tough. Why would they be tough? Donald Trump: If we’re doing great, they should be easy. And I’m telling you. We’re going to – we got to win a lot more. But as Mike said before, I happen to listen to him, he was on C- SPAN 1. That’s a big upgrade, right? I was listening as I was putting on the tie, how does it look? He was on C- SPAN 1, and we – and they were talking about that. Donald Trump: And I thought to myself, because people love him and they love your leaders, they love really the party is just doing well. A couple we could do without to be honest with you, but – but the party is doing well. And there’s no reason we shouldn’t just get together and win these midterms. And win them by a lot. Donald Trump: Because seven that I heard Mike talking about before. And seven is not really enough. But we lived for one for a period of time. You know, the only thing good about seven when you have one and now all of a sudden you have seven, it sounds like it’s like a landslide. It’s so good. It’s like, uh, the most amazing thing. Donald Trump: Seven sounds so good when I hear that. It sounds like we can’t be beaten. And uh, we should be 50, 60 up. Honestly, we should be 100 up. Because based on policy, these people have the worst policy that anybody has ever seen. There’s something wrong with them. Honestly, there’s something wrong with them. All this crap. 13 House Democrats currently represent districts that voted for Trump and voted for Trump big. Donald Trump: And in 2026, we’re going to tell them, all 13, that you’re fired. Get out, out. Get out. There’s no reason for that, 13. But 13 is a small number compared to some of these stats. Uh, we are going to work very hard. I’m going to do tele rallies. You know tele rallies. I’ll do rallies for a lot of you, but I’ll do tele rallies at a minimum. Donald Trump: And we just had two great elections, by the way. And I heard everybody is introducing our two new Congress – where are they, please, stand up? I want to look you in the eye. I want to look you in the eye, Randi. I’m looking at the two of them. Where’s – what a job you did, man, huh? You were never in doubt. Donald Trump: Where the hell – where is our second person here? I know he’s – oh, there, he is. Boy, they gave him a lousy seat. He’s behind. Good, great job. We’re proud of you, man. Great job. Great job. Thank you. And you know, those – both elections, they were saying it’s going to be close. It’s going to be close. Donald Trump: And I was listening. And they won by like – you won by what, 17 points, 18 points? I don’t think that’s close. I don’t think it’s close. So we won by 15 and 18 points. And they’re saying it was a terrible evening for Trump. Can you believe it? Terrible evening. They only won by 18 points and 15 points. Anyway, good job both of you. Donald Trump: Good job. But in addition to our fantastic House speaker, we’re pleased to be joined by Majority Leader Steve Scalise. And I watched you, too, Steve. I watched you on C- SPAN 1. And Steve has suffered greatly. I mean, I was there the night that it looked like he wasn’t going to make it. He’s very brave. He suffered greatly. Donald Trump: And I tell the story about the baseball game where, I mean, he was really – the doctor told me, sir, I’ve never had anybody lose so much blood. It’s not looking good. And his wife loved him. She was such a disaster that night. She was crying. She was crying. Because I’ve been with people that were in serious trouble and their wives couldn’t care. Donald Trump: They couldn’t care less. In fact, after they recovered, I said, do yourself a favor, get rid of the wife. She said – No, I’m only kidding, of course. I’m only kidding. I like to say I’m only kidding that way that cleans it up a little bit for the – for the press. I say I was only kidding. No, I’ve seen some wives that were truly not bothered too much. Donald Trump: I had one where the dog died and the husband died on the same day. And I said it’s too bad about Harry. No, no, but Lucy died. Lucy, oh my God. Harry didn’t mean – he left her a fortune, too. Can you believe it? Harry didn’t matter. The dog mattered a lot. But I – I was with Steve. And he was really, you know, that was a tough thing. Donald Trump: And then, amazingly, he was like a year later he was in the baseball game against the Democrats. And he was playing second base. And he was having a hard time. You know, it’s a hard time getting around. And with his luck, a shot was hit to him on the ground, a ground ball. And he got down. And that ball was – no way that ball was – it was right at him, but really it was whacked. Donald Trump: I don’t know who the hell hit. It looked like a major league ground ball. And Steve went down and blocked that sucker. And got on his knees and threw it to first base. It was the most unbelievable thing that it could happen. This was God watching. This was God watching a game. I’m telling you. Does everybody remember that? Donald Trump: He blocked it or knocked the hell out of his foot, not his glove. It was his foot. And he got down and grabbed the ball, threw it out and got the runner by quite a bit. And uh, they then took him out of the game. And I said what a great move. That was a good manager. They took him out of the game because you can’t improve on that. Donald Trump: Let me tell you. But he – he had great courage. And amazing how he’s done. And he’s been very special. And all of us know it. He’s really done great. Another man I’ve really gotten to know a lot and I think he’s fantastic is Tom Emmer, the majority whip. I think he’s fantastic. Where’s Tom? Where’s Tom? Donald Trump: Where is our Tom? Unidentified: Right here. Donald Trump: Because I want to see his wife. You know, his wife is better than him. She – he admits it. Unidentified: Right here. Donald Trump: Oh, that’s good. Hi, Tom. So where is she, Tom? Oh no. She’s not – she’s home. She’s watching C-SPAN. Yeah, I know. Thank you, Tom. Great job you do. And Lisa, you were up talking about Donald Trump tonight. And Lisa McClain conference chair. She was talking about Trump. And I appreciate it, Lisa. Lisa, where are you? Donald Trump: Lisa? Unidentified: Over here. Donald Trump: Just like a roast. Thank you, darling. I saw your whole speech. I watched you and Steve and Mike. I watched the whole thing. Then they said, sir, we have to leave. You’re going to be late. I said, I want to watch these speeches. And we have Richard Hudson, the NRCC chairman, who set the record tonight. Richard, great going. Donald Trump: That’s a great – that’s a great job. And uh, Brian Jack, who was with me from day one of my political career. He was so fantastic. He was so fantastic. And he came to me, he said, do you think it would be OK? He wanted to run for Congress, he always wanted to run for Congress. It was the most important thing, but he was with me, knows so much about politics and boxing. Donald Trump: He knows a lot about boxing, too, but he loves politics. But he really just wanted to run. I think his ambition was to be a congressman. And the seat came due, a good member of Congress actually retired. And Brian – in Georgia, and Brian said uh, what do you think, sir? I said, well, you got my endorsement. Donald Trump: And he won by a lot. And he’s never looked back. He’s a fantastic guy and a great political leader, a great politician. Brian Jack. Where are you, Brian? Where are you, Brian? Hi, Brian. Great job. I’m proud of you, Brian. And more than 160 members of Congress, and I’d like to really – you’ve done incredibly well. Donald Trump: They’re really looking back. And you know, I said before the Democrats have taken a lot of beatings. They have lost their confidence. They’ve gone crazy, they’ve gone crazy. How about this new one they have, their new star, Crockett, how about her? Is she – is that real? Are they serious about that? That’s their new star? Donald Trump: If that’s their new star, they’re in serious trouble. I mean, this is Crockett. Oh, man, oh, man. But we have – uh, we’ve done a job, but they’ve totally lost their confidence. And it’s a hard thing when you lose your confidence, but they have. They’ve taken a lot of beatings. And now they’re going to rely on Crockett to bring them back. Donald Trump: Crockett is going to bring them back. You ever watch this? Last November, all the leaders here tonight were given a mandate from the American people. And at the presidential level, we won, think of this, all seven swing states. We won the Electoral College 312 to 2 26. That’s not bad. Remember? The fake news was saying it’s going to be tough because people like Trump, but he should be able to get 270. I actually went to Nebraska and campaigned for one vote. Donald Trump: I went to New Hampshire. I campaigned. Because they said that it could be where a 270, 269. So I’m going to all the places and I’m trying to get one. We won Nebraska big. But there was one area, and I went there. I went all over the place campaigning. And then we get 312. But we won in a landslide too because we won the popular vote for the first time of a Republican in decades. Donald Trump: And now I think that’s going to be done routinely. We won 85 percent of all counties in America, 525 for them and 2725 for us. That’s that map that you see. It’s all red except for the two corners. They have a little blue, a little line of blue. For the first time in history, all 50 states shifted toward the Republican Party. Donald Trump: First time in history, it’s never happened. It’s a shift. It’s shifted republican. And today, there are more registered Republicans than at any time in the history of our country. How good – how about that? Meanwhile, approval ratings for the Democrat Party have plunged to the lowest level ever recorded. Donald Trump: They’re at 26 percent. So you tell me about the midterms, right? 26, the lowest level ever for either party. The Republican Party is a much bigger party now than it was ever before. And I must say that it’s the biggest now since you heard the name Donald J Trump running as a politician. You heard the name before, but not as a politician. Donald Trump: I said to my wife, “You know, I think I’m going to do this thing. Do I have your approval?” “Yes, darling, I think you’ll win.” See, she’s a supportive first lady. I don’t know if she believed it or not, but she said it. She said “yes, darling, I think you’ll win.” How do you think I’ll do? Oh, darling, you’ll win very easily. Donald Trump: Even though I’ve never done it before. I said I have one problem. I’ve never done it before. She said, “that doesn’t matter. You’re so talented.” I said, “thank you very much.” This is why we get along. It’s easy to get along like that. But we have far more people and far more enthusiasm than the parties ever had. Donald Trump: I think I could almost say than any party has ever had. I don’t think any party’s ever had more enthusiasm than us and spirit. A lot of that’s our leadership. The Democrats are a broken party with bad policy. They’ve lost so much. And uh, look, both as politicians and as people they’ve lost. The stage is set for a monumental victory for the Republicans in the midterms. Donald Trump: And many of you, I guess most of you so many great congressmen and women here, got some Senators here also. But many of you are – all of you are up. We’ve got to – we’ve got to win. We’ve got to work really hard and we’ve got to win because there’s no way they should be winning based on policy. And it’s ultimately about policy. Donald Trump: We simply have to keep our promises to the people. And we have to very simply put America first. Put America first. And I said I ran on common sense. You know, I ran on common sense. It sounds like a phrase that would have been used. I don’t know, nobody tells me it was used in politics before. Now everybody’s used it. I see the Democrats, some Democrat guy who’s a real sleazeball, got up. He said, yeah, I ran on common sense. Donald Trump: That’s what I did. Common sense. Yeah. And I said, gee, yeah. But the problem in politics, you come up with a little slogan and they copy it. But you know they copied no tax on tips. Remember, I said no tax on tips? Nevada hadn’t been won for many years by a Republican. And the state of Nevada, and don’t ever call it Nevada, you’ll lose 25 percent. Donald Trump: Just call it Nevada. It’s true. It seems almost nicer the other way. You know, Nevada sounds like Brooklyn. Doesn’t that make sense? I come from Nevada, but don’t ever call it Nevada. Call it Nevada. But as you know, the corrupt globalist establishment that ruled our country for decades is now complaining that I’m doing exactly what I pledged to do in the campaign. Donald Trump: All of these things, tariffs, the men in women sports, everything, the borders. Strong borders. We have the strongest border we’ve ever had. Today, it was just announced. The strongest border. They don’t want to write that. You know, they forget. They forget. Eggs. I came in eggs, not a very glamorous thing to talk, but eggs. Donald Trump: I was in for one week and they said egg prices are soaring. I said I’ve just been here, I didn’t know this. Please, I didn’t know it. The – the fake news, they’re going egg prices are soaring. And I said, man, I just got here. You know, let me know about it. What’s going on with eggs? Tell me. So they gave me a little bit of a thing. Donald Trump: And it’s true. Under Biden, they soared like double, triple, quadruple. You couldn’t even get them. They were not available. They said don’t use eggs for Easter. Use the plastic alternative. Plastic. We got – at Mar-a-Lago, we’ve got plastic eggs all over the place. They said don’t use it for Easter for – if you’re doing an Easter egg hunt do not use eggs. Donald Trump: Well, we have a wonderful secretary of Agriculture, as you know, Brooke Rollins. She’s here someplace, I think. And she got – she went after it. And when she goes after something, we don’t play games. Right, Brooke? And eggs, egg prices are down now 87 percent. And you have all the eggs you want. 87 percent. Donald Trump: And they didn’t write about it. They don’t talk about it. I go up, I make speeches about eggs all the time. I never get a reporter or writing about it because we were successful. If you’re a Republican, when you’re successful in something you have to toot your own horn. Talk about it because you’re the only one that’s going to. It’s a pretty rough – it’s a rough business I will tell you. Donald Trump: But the shrill voices that you’re hearing this week about tariffs are the same scoundrels and frauds who never thought twice about when the United States lost 90,000 factories and plants. Think of that, 90,000. How do you do 90,000? If you had a map, a big map, the size of that wall and you had a pin for each factory, you wouldn’t have enough room. Donald Trump: If you think of it, 90,000 factories since NAFTA, the worst trade deal in history by the way. And we had it terminated. Everybody said you’d never be able to. It had to be terminated by Congress. And it was not easy. It was so bad. You know, the people have a lot of – it’s very interesting, they have a lot of power, they have a lot of political power. Donald Trump: It’s hard to get even a bad deal terminated. But we did do it. And we got US – USMCA and that’s – that’s been really great, but when they cheat, it’s not so good. And they cheat, they do cheat. You know, I respect Mexico, I respect Canada, but they cheat like hell. You know, Canada charges for our dairy products 270 percent. Donald Trump: Nobody knows that. They charge you two percent for the first two cartons of milk. And after that, you go up to 270. And the press says they’ve only charged two percent. No, that’s for the first two cartons. So it’s – uh, you know, we can’t have that. And we have to be wise to it, and get along with everybody, but we have to call people out. 6 million manufacturing jobs were lost since NAFTA when 21 million illegal aliens poured across our borders, think of that, many of whom were violent criminals, murderers, drug lords and the mentally insane. Donald Trump: Insane asylums were closed. They used to go crazy when I talk about Hannibal Lecter, the late, great Hannibal Lecter, right, Silence of the Lambs. The fake news would say, why does he talk about that? He’s a fictional character. He’s actually not. We have many of them that came across the border. It’s actually not. Donald Trump: But when the people went to the voting booth then we understood why he talked about that. Because they voted for us. They said we don’t want Hannibal Lecter in our country, the great Hannibal Lecter. He was – uh, he was a very important force. But the press would go absolutely crazy if I mentioned Hannibal Lecter’s name, because they said he’s a fictional character. Donald Trump: No, but it was making a point. And the point is they’re emptying mental institutions and insane asylum, not anymore they’re not, insane asylums into our country. We had, uh, numbers the likes of which nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Other countries – I deal with other countries all the time. I am right now on tariffs where they want to make a deal with us. We don’t necessarily want to make a deal with them. Donald Trump: We’re happy the way we are taking our $2 billion a day. But they want to make a deal with us. And they talk about it. And they say we cannot believe that they had open borders. These are countries. They have – you know, they have borders. And they don’t let people into their country. They can’t understand how – they did it because they’re sick or they’re crazy. Donald Trump: There’s something really wrong with these people. But the same people now telling me about how to deal with China are the ones who sold out America for decades to China. For decades, they gave up to China. I’m the only one that – do you how much – China has paid almost $700 billion in tariffs under me. And then they say Donald Trump hasn’t been tough on China. Donald Trump: They say Trump hasn’t been tough on Russia. OK, here’s the story. Nord Stream 2, did anybody ever hear of it? It’s the biggest pipeline in the world. I closed it. Russia had it. And I closed it. Putin told me that’s the worst thing. You’re supposed to be friendly with me. I’d hate to see you as my enemy. Donald Trump: And I closed Nord Stream 2. When Biden got in, he opened it up immediately. It serviced all of Europe going to Germany. It’s service to all of Europe. We closed it. And they say, oh, he wasn’t tough on Russia. I was very tough with the sanctions and everything else. And by the way just for your information, we’re trying like hell to get the fighting stopped between Russia and Ukraine. Donald Trump: A thing that never would have happened if the election wasn’t rigged. We had a rigged election. And we can say it and say it loud and say it proud because the election was rigged. And we can’t let that stuff happen anymore. Go to paper ballots. Go to same day voting. Go to voter ID. Go to citizenship. You have to prove your citizenship with little piece of paper. Donald Trump: Then you won’t have it. It’s sort of disappointing because a lot of Republican governors, they could do that same day voting, paper ballots. Very sophisticated paper, actually. It’s all watermarked. You can’t cheat. It’s very hard to cheat. France went that way. They were like us, and they were, you know, having very bad elections, very crooked elections. Donald Trump: They had 37 million people. They voted. They had a winner. They had a loser. They went home. That was it. 10:00 in the evening it was over. With us, did you ever see, we have these machines that cost a fortune. And they say we think we’re going to have the final vote tally in two and a half weeks. And wait a minute, this is Election Day. Donald Trump: Did you ever see where in California they were counting votes four weeks later? And then they say – and – and by the way, all paper costs eight percent of the machines. Why is it that Republican governors aren’t going to it, OK? What’s going on with our Republican governors? If nothing else, you say even if it was just the same and it’s not, it’s, you know, it’s – nothing’s foolproof when it comes to voting, but it’s pretty close. Donald Trump: But it costs eight percent. In other words, you can have your election eight percent the cost of the machines and you get an accurate count. So it’s pretty amazing. They gave us NAFTA mass illegal immigration, the Democrats did. The fake Paris Climate Accord and the China’s entry into the World Trade Organization. Donald Trump: That was a wonderful day for us. China entered the world trade. They’ve done pretty good. And you know, they didn’t do things exactly by the books. And they were a developing nation. They still are. They say we are a developing nation. We should be entitled to more. And our people say, oh, that’s right, they’re developing. Donald Trump: They’re not developing. We’re developing. Look at some of our inner cities. We’ve got to develop them. But uh, we can’t let the Democrats get away with this stuff. But we’re developing more than they are. The globalists have been wrong about everything. And so I wear their attack on me because nobody has ever been attacked like a man named Donald J. Trump. Donald Trump: In the history of our country, nobody has ever, but I wear it as a badge of honor. Nobody has ever been attacked. I was under more investigations than the late great Al Capone. He was the most violent criminal. He was the most violent mob boss in history. And I was under investigation far more than him. It wasn’t even close. Donald Trump: Our opponents are not afraid that our America First policies will fail. They’re terrified that our strategy will succeed. And we’re going to get bigger and stronger and better as a party. And that’s what’s happening. And that is what’s happening. It’s going to be something. And I’m actually looking forward to the midterms. Donald Trump: I really are. We’re going to prove that all of their treasonous years of betrayal will not be forgotten. Because it’s treason. What they did is treason. When they allowed millions of people to pour in through open borders from all over the world, they came. To me, that’s treason. What they’ve done to our country is unthinkable. Donald Trump: The money we have to spend to take people out. And then we have judges that say no let Tren de Aragua come back into our country. They want – they want them to come back in. Killers. They cut off a man’s fingers because he – did you cut off – did you, sir, make a phone call to the police in Colorado? Yes, I did. Donald Trump: I did. You’ve attack – you’ve attacked us, and you’ve taken over our building. They took over real estate all over Colorado. Uh, you did right? Give me your hand, put the hand down. Boom, cuts off his fingers. And they want him back. And how about the mix up with the MS-13 where it wasn’t a Tren de Aragua, it was an MS-13 killer. Donald Trump: And they said, oh, they got it mixed up. Let’s get them back into our country. Nah, we got to – we need people that are going to love our country. I’m proud to be the president for the workers, not the outsourcers. The president who stands up for Main Street, not Wall Street, who protects the middle class, not the political class. Donald Trump: And who defends America, not trade cheaters all over the globe. They’re trade cheaters. They cheated on us. They cheated with tariffs on us. They stole our money. They stole our jobs. And now people are going around saying, oh, we’re not treating them right now. We’re treating them very good, actually. They’re lucky, we’re treating them so good. Donald Trump: And you know, when I have tariffs and I say, well, we’re going to charge what they did. We’re going to charge what they did. And then I say I’m going to charge much less than they did. Believe me, we’re actually being nice about it. But we’re doing very well, better than we’ve ever done before. My job is not to maximize the profits of outsourcers and foreign – I mean, these foreign corporations are horrible. Donald Trump: It’s horrible what they’re doing, but we’re catching them. We’re catching them by the dozens. My job is to defend the – I have to defend the American dream, and I have to defend the American citizens. That’s my job. I have to defend that. The American dream is never mentioned. It was mentioned for four years and now it’s being mentioned again, but it was never mentioned when we had Sleepy Joe in office. Donald Trump: I used to have a big – the hardest thing I had to do with Joe Biden is the nickname, do I call him Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe? Could we take a vote, please? Who wants to call him Crooked Joe? Who wants to call him Sleepy Joe? That’s my problem. It’s like the same. They both work. They both work beautifully. Donald Trump: Joe had one ability that I didn’t have. You know, he said he was a good golfer, he’s terrible. Somebody said the only time I got angry during our debate when he said he was a six handicap for he’s not a six, he’s not a 36, OK? But he had one ability that I don’t have, he was able to go to a beach, bathing suit in tow, because it looked like it was actually falling off. Donald Trump: But he’d go. He had a hard time walking through the sand because you know, sand is heavy on your feet. Carrying one of those six ounce chairs that are made out of aluminum that if you weigh a little bit too much, it just cracks in the middle when you sit down. And he could sit down in a beach with photographers on the beach, you know, he’s the president, so he had a minimum of photographers, but he still had photographers. Donald Trump: And he could fall asleep. Who the hell could do that? Who could fall asleep? And he turned around and drool would be coming out. He didn’t care. His wife didn’t care. It’s an ability that I could never fall asleep under those circumstances. I’d be very conscious of my body and what we look like. I’d be sitting up like this. Donald Trump: And I’d say darling, it’s time to go, let’s get out of here. Well, would it most people? I mean, this guy could go to the beach, and he was out in seconds. Guys are shooting him. He’d be in the papers the next day, eyes closed, mouth open. The United States has been getting ripped off for 50 years. And we’re simply not going to take it anymore. Donald Trump: And that’s what’s happening right now. In 1950, the United States dominated global auto production producing more than 75 percent of all of the cars on Earth. Think of that, 75 percent, and even higher before that. Today, we produce 11 percent, while China produces three times more than we do. Let me tell you something. Donald Trump: With the tariffs that we’re doing, as you know, we have tariffs on automobiles, aluminum, steel, separate from the other tariffs. The baseline, we call it. Companies are pouring back into our country with plants. There’s a run on sites. There’s a run on old plants. Most of them are being ripped down for new plants. Donald Trump: Uh, they stopped building in Mexico, four or five plants. And they come – they’re all coming into the United States. I know what the hell I’m doing. I know what I’m doing. And you know what I’m doing, too, that’s why you vote for me. And the chip makers are coming in. They’re all coming in. We’ve never had anything like this. Donald Trump: We have investment they think of about seven – think of this, $7 trillion. And that’s been in a month and a half. Think of that. For the first – like, you got to give me a little time to get warmed up with that, so let’s take the first couple of weeks off. For about a month and a half we got seven – almost $7 trillion spoken for. Donald Trump: Trillion. We’ve never had that. I don’t know if we’ve ever had it at any time, but if you go back and look at Biden and these other campaigns, any of them, they had – they didn’t have those numbers for the year. These are the biggest chip makers in the world, the biggest auto manufacturers in the world, $7 trillion of investment. Donald Trump: And that means jobs. I look at it differently, not investment, I look at it as jobs. And they’re coming in at levels that we’ve never seen before. And it is true that Mexico, they’ve stopped building plants. And those plants are now going to be built in the United States of America. That’s pretty exciting. Donald Trump: All because of two things. They say – they want to be nice to me. They say, sir, because of November 5th, the election and because of tariffs. I said in that order? And the smart ones say, yes, sir. First was that you got elected, and second, was tariffs. And I’ll accept that, you know, but I will tell you because of tariffs. Donald Trump: But I’m the only one that would have done the tariffs because everybody was afraid. They were afraid of being criticized because the globalists will go after you. For seven decades, American ships have patrolled the seas, American troops have kept the pace and peace, and American wealth has enriched the globe. Donald Trump: But despite all we have given to them, you will not find an American car in Berlin, in Tokyo, in Seoul, in Shanghai. Not a car. I used to say to Angela Merkel, Angela, how many Chevrolets do we have in Berlin? Why, none, Donald, none. That’s right, Angela. You got it. How many Chevrolets do you think we have in Munich, Angela? Donald Trump: None, Donald. I said you sent us 7 million cars last year, so we’re going to start buying American made cars or cars that are manufactured in America. And if you can do it, not part of what I was going to say, but one of the best things that I think I’ve come up with is interest deductions. If you buy a car that’s made in America, you get an interest deduction on the money you borrow. Donald Trump: And I love it. I hope you can do it, Mike. I hope you can do it. Because I haven’t bugged you about that. I’ve been talking about no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime. And I haven’t really been as strong on this one, but it’s only because it gets a little bit long, you know. Uh, but if you think of it, you buy a car, you borrow money, and you get a deduction on that money if the cars made in America. – I think that that will not cost you $0.10. You’ll make money with that one. Donald Trump: I think you’ll make money actually in a certain way with the other three also. I think they’re very important and they were a part of our campaign. I was going to say before that in Nevada that when I came up with the no tax on tips, I think that’s why we won by a massive amount. And interestingly, they came up about a month and a half later and she was making one of her few speeches. Donald Trump: She didn’t speak too much for a reason, a good reason. She was making a speech, and the middle she said, oh, and by the way, we will have – and everyone’s falling asleep. We will have no tax on tips. That place booed the hell out of it. They said you’re a little late on that one. Because I was worried they’d copy me. You know, it was so good. Donald Trump: Do you know how it actually happened? Maybe I should tell the story quickly. I was in my building in Las Vegas, we have a great restaurant there. And this young, beautiful waitress – and you’re not allowed to say beautiful because that’s the end of your political career. If you call the – if you call a young woman beautiful, that’s the end of your career. Donald Trump: But what the hell, she was beautiful, so she came up to me. And she said, uh, hello, sir. It’s so nice to have you at the hotel. I said, thank you. I had a group of people, some political people actually. It was very interesting. And I said how’s everything going? She said, oh, it’s so tough. They’re after my tips. Donald Trump: Who’s after them? The government. They’re after my tips, constantly after my tips. They’re after all of us for the tips. She said, sir, we should have no tax on tips. I said, say it again. What? We should have no tax. She said, this was my consultant, a waitress from my hotel. Most people go out and spend millions of dollars to come up with an idea. Donald Trump: I said she just said no tax on tips. That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. So I went outside. There were a lot of – we finished our wonderful meal, steak, went outside, and there were a lot of cameras as there always are, unfortunately. I say, ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to have a new policy all over the country, but specifically in Nevada, there will be no tax on tips, right? Donald Trump: And the cameras went wild. Click, click, click, click, click. And we won the state by a lot. So I don’t know. So I owe – I have to find that waitress and thank her. She was my consultant. Except I didn’t pay her $2 million like the other consultants that we all get screwed by. Even worse than the tariffs, other countries impose are the non-monetary barriers. Donald Trump: That’s a non-monetary. These are not financial. These are other things, what they do so that you can’t get your product in that country. And China, as you know, is one of the big offenders. And it’s not all China. Look, I get along with President Xi. I have over the years, but you know, you just – uh, when COVID came, that was the end. Donald Trump: That was it. That was called The Bridge Too Far. But I’ve always had a good relationship with a very smart guy who loves his country. I love our country. So you know, we love our country, he loves his. I tell that to other leaders. You’ve got to fight for your country. It’s – you’re not going to fight for us, but we can’t fight for you. Donald Trump: We’re fighting for other countries. We’re trying to make them great without making us great. But those days are over. They steal our intellectual property. They rob our trade secrets. They manipulate their currency to levels that have never been seen before. Today, it was announced that China is reducing it’s currency. Donald Trump: Did you see that? Big, big. In other words, they’re going to make up for it. They got every trick in the book. I’ll tell you they are great. You got to hand it to them. You got to hand it to them. They – they’re manipulating their currency today as an offset against the tariffs. You’re not supposed to do that, the game isn’t supposed to be played that way. Donald Trump: It makes it very hard for us. But in the end it – it’s not good because they have to buy oil. See, we don’t need oil. We don’t need oil and gas. We have more than any other country. They have to buy it. That’s where it hurts them. When they do that, it costs them twice as much. And they ship their products through every one of our trading partners, running up our deficits with these countries. Donald Trump: They sell a lot. You know, when you put a tariff on them, they sell it. Like with steel, they were dumping tremendous amounts of steel into our country curing my term. I saved every steel mill, every – we only have steel mills because of what I did. I put a high tariff on them, 25 and then 50 percent. And it stopped. Donald Trump: It stopped. They were dumping so much steel. We would have lost every single steel mill. The people that like me best are the people in the steel business. But I think the auto business is going to be right there. I think chips are going to be there. I think pharmaceuticals are going to be there. Because you know, we don’t make our own pharmaceuticals drugs and other things to get better. Donald Trump: They’re made in other countries. And you pay a number – I mean, the same package in our country compared to like London and other places is sometimes 10 times more. Ten times more. Something that sells for $88 in London sells for $1,300 here. Made in the same factory by the same company. And that’s over. Donald Trump: I told them all that’s over. They put all of their research and development into it. They put everything. But what they don’t tell you is that these other countries are smart. They say you can’t charge more than $88, otherwise you can’t sell your product. And uh, the – the drug companies listen to them. Donald Trump: But we’re going to do something that we have to do. We’re going to put – we’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals. And once we do that, they’re going to come rushing back into our country. Because we’re the big market. The advantage we have over everybody is that we’re the big market. So we’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals. Donald Trump: And when you – And when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places. Because they have to sell. Most of their product is sold here. And they’re going to be opening up their plants all over the place in our country. We’re going to be announcing that. So that’s breaking news. Ladies and gentlemen, we have breaking news. Donald Trump: That’s what’s going to happen. What other presidents allow China to get away with is absolutely criminal, but I’m not like the other presidents. And it’s not going to happen under President Trump. It’s just not going to happen. After all of the abuses they’ve perpetrated, China is attempting to impose additional unjustified tariffs. Donald Trump: Just so you understand, they all got rich because of tariffs. You know, now when we do it, oh, it’s so terrible what Trump is doing. It’s so terrible. They got rich. And not only China, many countries. I mean, you look at Vietnam, you look at so many, I could name 50 right now. Biden couldn’t do that. He couldn’t name any. Donald Trump: Name one country? Name any country? What’s the name of our country? He doesn’t know. That’s why additional tariffs on Chinese goods are in place effective midnight tonight at 104 percent. Until they make a deal with us, that’s what it’s going to be. I think they’ll make a deal at some point. China will. They want to make a deal. Donald Trump: They really do. They want to make a deal. They just don’t know how to get it started. Because they’re proud people. China will now pay a big number to our treasury. This is all taxes. And don’t let them keep telling you that this is a tax on our people. I hate that. You know, they say it’s a tax. No, often, much of it is paid. Donald Trump: And hey, look what happened during my first term. We had no inflation, and yet I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and taxes from China. No other president got $0.10 in tariffs or taxes from China. I got hundreds of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars. And I still got along with them. Donald Trump: Because they understood what they were doing was wrong. They understood it. Uh, it’s – uh, when you explain it, they sit up and they say – I’ve had numerous leaders tell me, you’re right, sir, I was waiting for you to bring this up. Because some of the trade deals that were made by predecessors as president was so bad, you almost wonder who did these deals? Donald Trump: They were either crooked or stupid. There can be nothing else. They were either stupid or crooked. It’s terrible, but it’s all being changed. I change a lot of it in the first four years, but it’s all being changed. You know, in the first four years we had the most successful country in history in terms of economics. Donald Trump: We had a 88 percent increase in the stock markets. We had an 88 percent increase. There has never been any president that had an 88 percent increase. We had 88 percent. And uh, there were a lot of happy people. And I think we’re going to do much better than that this time. Because this time, I’m doing what I want to do with respect to the tariffs. Donald Trump: I think we’re going to do much better. And just remember the numbers. When you get up to $2 billion a day, $2 billion a day. They say, sir, it can’t be that can it? I said, yeah, it can. It’s the biggest – the biggest transaction ever made. This is bigger than any deal you guys – some of you work for companies. Donald Trump: Your companies are peanuts, I don’t care how big they are, compared. This is the largest transaction in the history of our country. And don’t let some of these politicians go around saying, you know, because I’m telling you these countries are calling us up kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal. Donald Trump: Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir. And then I’ll see some rebel Republican, you know, some guy that wants to grandstand say, I think that Congress should take over negotiations. Let me tell you, you don’t negotiate like I negotiate. Unidentified: Facts. Donald Trump: If Congress takes over negotiating, sell America fast because you’re going to go bust. You know, I just saw it today a couple of your congressmen, sir, I think we should get involved in the negotiation of the tariffs. So that’s what I need. I need some – some guy telling me how to negotiate. Aye, yi-yi. I tell you the happiest people in the world would be China. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t be paying 104 percent, I tell you. They’d be paying no percent. We’d be paying them 104 percent. That’s the beauty with these guys we got to be careful. And even the concept of it hurts your negotiation. When they see a little story like that, the other side, you know, it hurts your negotiation. Donald Trump: And then the fake news wants to build it up and it has no chance anyway. But uh, we have to remain united. As I defend workers from unfair trade, House Republicans have a chance this week to bring trillions and trillions of dollars pouring back into America by pushing forward with the largest tax cuts in American history, which is what you’re working on right now, the largest in American history. Donald Trump: And you know the reason we had – because we had a great first term and uh, an amazing first term, but I saw that the other day that we had the most successful – I mean, I knew it anyway, but I saw that we had 88 percent increase. That’s a tremendous increase. Think of that. And that’s with all of the – the difficulties and all of the fake investigations and the Adam Schiff shifts. Donald Trump: Can you believe this guy? He’s got the smallest neck I’ve ever seen and the biggest head. We call them watermelon head. I’d say, how could that big fat face stand on a neck that looked like this finger? How can it? It was the weirdest thing. It’s a – it’s a mystery, nobody can understand it. But he’s one of the most dishonest human beings I’ve ever seen. Donald Trump: And you know, how we can allow people like that to run in office is a shame, but we did. He was in charge of the witch hunt. You know, he was in charge of the fake witch hunt with Russia, Russia, Russia. It was a made up story. Made up. Think of it, they make up a story. They know it’s made up. It’s gone on for a year and a half, two years. Donald Trump: Russia, Russia, Russia. I knew nothing about it. The only thing I knew was that I taxed the pipeline that I told you about that I put all sorts of sanctions and everything else. I never – no – they never had a problem like they had with me. But it was Russia, Russia, Russia constant as a method of – that was what they did is that was the complaint about why she lost an election. Donald Trump: Because Crooked Hillary was expected to win the election. But they didn’t. They didn’t see what we saw. We saw the biggest crowds in history gathering only superseded by the crowds we just had. But here’s a guy that goes out and he goes to an intelligence hearing or whatever you might call it, and it’s supposed to be secret. Donald Trump: He’d walk out. He’d either make a call off the record. Off the record, this is Crooked Adam Schiff, Shifty Schiff. He’s a shifty Adam. Or he would just go out blatantly and have a news conference. And because it had to do with me and my family, he’d go out and have a news conference. And he said, now you’ve got to remember, he knows it’s a hoax because he made it up with Crooked Hillary, so he knows it’s a hoax. Donald Trump: Because we’re dealing with human beings on the other side. He’d say Donald Trump, Jr., the son of the President of the United States will spend many years in prison because of what he’s done with Russia. Now think of that statement. On a human basis, I have a son, a young son who was being told that he’s going for prison on something he has – he doesn’t even know what they’re talking about. Donald Trump: He said, dad, I don’t know what’s going on. They keep talking about I’m involved with Russia. I don’t know anything about Russia. I swear to you, dad. And yet, Adam Schiff goes out and makes a statement about a hoax that he made up that he knows is false. How of bad a human being do you have to be? They put my son and my family through that kind of trauma. Donald Trump: These are bad people. These are sick degenerates. And I used to be much nicer to them. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but I’ve just seen too much. They make up a story about Russia. It was a hoax. And eventually – now they’ve all admitted it was a hoax. On to the next one. That’s Russia, Russia, Russia. Donald Trump: But they know it’s a hoax. And they say about a young man that he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison because of what he’s done with Russia. He knows it’s a hoax. How bad do you have to be to have that happen to your son? And you know, it has a bad effect on a family, a bad effect. You know, are you OK, Don? Donald Trump: I am, dad, but I don’t understand. They keep tying me to Russia. I don’t know anything about Russia. He didn’t know a damn thing about Russia. It’s a disgraceful situation. That’s why we got to kick their asses in the midterms. And we got to kick their asses again in four years. If we slashed taxes on American workers and producers, our economy will soar, jobs will surge, manufacturing will boom, and our country will prosper like never ever before. Donald Trump: We’ve got to get this big, beautiful deal done. We got to get it done. And get it done now. Don’t wait two weeks, don’t wait two weeks. Bad things happen, crazy things happen in politics. Just get the damn thing done and stop showboating. A couple of people want to, sure, we’re going to get a little bit more. Donald Trump: A little bit more, do you know what you’re going to get? You end up getting nothing. You end up getting a Democrat bill or worse. In the past 11 weeks, we’ve already created 350,000 jobs. It’s unprecedented, including 10,000 manufacturing jobs. And we haven’t even started yet. Gas prices. You know, when I came in, they said he campaigned on prices coming down. Donald Trump: And prices are going up. They’re not going up, they’re going down. Gas prices are way down. In fact, they had something $2.50 a gallon I saw on television a little while ago in between my watching my great friends on C-SPAN. I saw that the prices are down to $2.50, $2.60, $2.75. It was – when I came in office it was $3.50, $3.75. But prices are coming down. Donald Trump: Prices on groceries are coming down. Prices of eggs are down like 87 percent, 87. You know, they got me with that. I told you. Before I even got an office, they would tell me about – they’re down close to 87 percent. And core inflation has dropped to the lowest levels in four years. And as I said, we had no inflation in four years despite the fact that I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. Donald Trump: And we hadn’t even started yet. Nearly $6 trillion of new investment. And that number is now revised up to about $7 billion. Apple, a great company, is spending $500 billion because of tariffs. $500 billion, not $500 million, that’s a lot. $500 million. You know, when I first heard the number I said you mean $500 million, you can build a lot of plants for $500 million. Donald Trump: No, sir, $500 billion. $500 billion? TSMC, the biggest, most powerful chip maker in the world. This is without that stupid CHIP Act where they say here’s billions of dollars to a company that doesn’t need it. These chip companies are loaded. They give these companies billions of dollars to build a plant in the United States. Donald Trump: They don’t build them in the United States. They keep the money. It looks good. They give them billions. No. TSMC, I gave them no money. A great company, most powerful in the world, biggest chip company in the world. They’re spending $200 billion in Arizona, building one of the biggest plants in the world. Donald Trump: And that’s without money. All I did is say if you build – if you don’t build your plant here, you’re going to pay a big tax. 25, maybe 50, maybe 75, maybe 100 percent. Nvidia is investing hundreds of billions of dollars. Johnson and Johnson is investing $55 billion. Eli Lilly is investing $27 billion. DAMAC is investing $20 billion. Donald Trump: We have billions and billions being invested by Merck, Clarios, Stellantis, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai. All are putting in billions and billions and billions of dollars. They’re buying sites all over. They’re building because they don’t want to have to pay 25 and 50 percent tariffs. They’re all doing it. And I think they also have confidence in the country. Donald Trump: They have a president that they have confidence in. I know many of them. With the help of people in this room, we are one big, beautiful bill signing away from the greatest economy in the history of the world. And it’s an overhang. You know, this bill is an overhang. Because if it doesn’t get signed, we will have imposed the biggest tax on the people of this country in our country’s history by 40 percent. Donald Trump: The biggest tax because we gave you the biggest tax cut in history. Now we’re giving you another, which is one of the reasons that – there are many reasons why we were so successful. But that’s one of the big ones. The other one is that one year deduction, all-in one year deduction. That’s so big. And I know they’re working on that, the big deduction. Donald Trump: It makes people invest. But now we’re working on something that’s going to, I think, blow it away. This bill is unbelievable. It’s going to bring a lot of money back into our country. But if we don’t do it, it’s going to be a disaster. And you just better hope that people believe that it was the Democrats fault. Donald Trump: Because you know, they’re very good at saying it was our fault. It’ll be the biggest tax increase in history. And all my life, as I watch politicians, I wasn’t a politician, but I watched them, and I contribute to them a lot. Contributed a lot of money over the years. But I watched it. But all my life, I hear politicians saying we are going to give you a tax cut. Donald Trump: I will cut your taxes. We will cut your taxes. I never heard – they’re the only party that says we are going to increase your taxes vote for me. Who the hell ever heard this? Only these people. We’re in a strange time. These lunatics go out and they tell everybody how you’re going to have a big tax increase. Donald Trump: So maybe they want the bill to fail so that we can have a tax – maybe they’ll take credit for it. But I’ve never heard that said. I’ve watched politics all my life. I’ve never seen politicians – politicians campaign on we’re going to increase your taxes, except these crazy Democrats. As part of this legislation, I am committed to spending cuts. Donald Trump: And I will fight hard to include the elimination of hundreds of billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in the bill. We’ve already found hundreds of billions of dollars through DOGE. And Elon has been terrific. He’s been really terrific. But we found hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse. Donald Trump: But now, we need to get the budget resolution. And we have to get it passed in the Senate. We have to bring it through the House. It’s going to pass in both. One thing I’ll say is that Thune has been great. John Thune has been great. And he’s worked with your great leader hand in hand. Those two bills are coming up together. Donald Trump: And they’re very similar. And I didn’t know if that would happen. Because you have a lot of different rules, procedures, complicated stuff. But Mike has been amazing, and John Thune. And they’ve worked like amazingly well because they’ve just been going on at the same time. And we’re ready to get this thing done and beyond and get rid of the debt hangover ceiling. Donald Trump: That’s a disaster for our country and for everybody. And to give people the biggest tax cuts they’ve ever had. Because we’re going to add them both up together. It’ll be the biggest tax cuts. It’ll blow away the tax cuts that we got them four years ago. If we follow through on this agenda, we will be rewarded with a phenomenal economy and a massive victory at the ballot box in 2026 because we will have a record of triumph like no president has ever had like no Congress has ever had. Donald Trump: They will not be able to even touch your seat. Your seat is secure. And we’ll pick up 40 or 50 or even 60 seats. And we’ll have something that’s going to be smooth sailing for years to come. If we don’t get it done because of stupidity or a couple of people that want to show how great they are, uh, you just have to laugh at them or smile at them or cry right in their face. Donald Trump: In less than three months, our new administration has already accomplished more than most administrations achieve in four years or eight years. And everybody says it. And we have to have this stuff documented and approved. In a matter of weeks, we’ve achieved the lowest level of illegal border crossings in American history. Donald Trump: In history. They have a plaza in front in Tijuana. Tijuana, Mexico. I wouldn’t advise going there on a trip, but nevertheless. They have a plaza, a big plaza. It held hundreds of thousands of people. Yesterday morning, there were none. There was a man sweeping this massive plate of concrete, massive. And he was sweeping the concrete. Donald Trump: And there was nobody there. During the same period last year, Joe Biden released more than 184,000 illegal aliens into our country. Think of it. Many of these people were from jails and mental institutions, as I said. Since my inauguration, we’ve released a grand total of nine, nine, nine. And they were all in all cases medical emergencies. Donald Trump: We did that for medical emergency reasons. Last month we officially designated Tren de Aragua, MS-13 and the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And thanks to the Supreme Court yesterday, and today we had a big ruling, too. We had a very big ruling today. But we will continue to deport these monsters under the Alien Enemies Act. Donald Trump: Think of that. The Alien Enemies Act. Can you believe it? All things we wouldn’t have had to do if the election weren’t rigged. Now in reconciliation, we need Republicans in Congress to give us the full funding to permanently secure the border and to carry out. That’s part of what we’re asking for. Who could fight that? Donald Trump: We want to permanently secure. Without a border or without fair elections and without a good press, you don’t have a country. Well, we have a lousy press. We now have a good border. And uh, we’re going to get good elections pretty soon. There’s a lot of clamor for it. I think it’s something that you – you should work on. You should go out and put a bill in demanding. Donald Trump: You demand, you know, because the states are just an agent of the federal government of you. You ought to demand paper ballots. You ought to demand one day elections. Do you know what they do when it’s longer than one day? All of a sudden, well, we’re fixing the room up. Move those boxes. We’re putting in an air conditioner. Donald Trump: Oh, really? We’ll move the boxes back in a few days. Or we’re painting the room, please move the boxes. And you notice the boxes go out and then they get – they move back in about half the number. Oh, it’s so sick. One day election, you don’t need any more than that. One day election, paper ballots. It’s – I think you should put a bill in. I mean, I don’t know, who’s in favor of a bill? Donald Trump: Who could not want it, who could not want it? But I think you should do a bill on that. And I think it would be so popular. And more importantly than popular, it’s so necessary. You have to have great elections. You have to have fair and free elections. And you’ve got to have borders. Otherwise you don’t have a country. Donald Trump: To quickly bring down the cost of energy and lower the price of everything on day one, I declared a national energy emergency to drill, baby, drill. We’re drilling. Oh, we’re drilling. I withdrew from the unbelievably expensive, for us, parrot – the Paris Climate Accord. So we were paying – it would have cost us $1 trillion. $1 trillion. Donald Trump: China doesn’t come into it till like 2035. Russia is based on a 1992 standard when it was – there was dirty. Uh, everybody was – India was based on a very low standard. Except the United States. We had to pay immediately. We would have spent trillions of dollars on that scam. And it sounds so nice, the Paris Climate Accord, what a beautiful name. Donald Trump: It’s it beautiful? It was a rip off of the United States. Well, don’t forget, you know, I mean, I’m negotiating with these people, but if you really look, the European Union, why was that set up? It was set up to screw the United States of America. It was – they formed – a group of countries got together and let’s make life miserable for the United States of America on trade and other things. Donald Trump: And they have done that. They’ve done that. They’ve treated us very badly. We don’t sell cars into the European Union. We don’t sell – they won’t take our agriculture. They want their own. But we take their agriculture. We take their cars by the millions. I terminated the green new scam, one of the great scams, one of the great hoaxes in the history of our country. Donald Trump: Only superseded by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. I canceled Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate where everybody had to have an electric vehicle in a very short period of time. Everybody was forced to have an electric vehicle. You know, they built some power stations in the Midwest. They look like gas pumps with electricity, right? Donald Trump: They spent $8 billion. And four of the nine of them don’t work. Four of nine. They built nine or eight, but half of them don’t work. They spent $8 billion bringing the cables, bringing the wires. What a great investment that was, billions of dollars they spent. And now people can go out and buy a gasoline powered car, a hybrid. Donald Trump: They can buy whatever they want. We don’t want hydrogen because they have some big problems. They blow up and you never see who is driving the car. You’d not recognize them. That’s a big problem. They were telling me about, sir, I’m really liking hydrogen cars. I said, but isn’t there a problem? Yes, they tend to blow up on occasion. Donald Trump: I said, how bad is it? Well, we found body parts 250 yards away from the car. We think it was Mr. Jones, but we’re going to go to see his dentist and see if we can – So if you have one of those incidents, let’s forget it, right? It’s a bomb, it’s a bomb. I don’t want them to work. I actually said don’t work on it. Between that and windmills, you can have windmills, too. Donald Trump: The most expensive form of energy ever. Anybody have a windmill by your house? Congratulations, you’ll never sell your house. And today, I signed historic executive orders to unleash coal production to the highest levels ever. Because you know, coal is the most powerful thing. We have more of it than – we have more liquid gold under our feet, oil and gas, and we have more coal than any other country, any other. Donald Trump: No other country has as much as we have. All different forms of coal. And take a look at China. They’re building two coal plants a week. Think of that. Two a week. We are screwing around with wind. Oh, wind. These people are crazy. They say, oh, it’s great for the environment. It kills all your birds. You want to see a bird cemetery? Donald Trump: Walk under a windmill some time. You’ve got birds all over the place. They’re screaming for help. They got whacked. The environmentalists, it’s an environmental dream. Do you know why? Because you’re never going to have energy. They’re the most expensive form of energy there is, 10 times more expensive than clean natural gas, 10 times – much more expensive than coal. Donald Trump: And not – They’re very unreliable. Like if they wanted to watch us tonight on television, Alice, Alice, I want to watch the president tonight. I’m sorry, darling, but the windmills aren’t blowing. We’re going to give them confidence to do what they have to do long into the future. Because coal is going to be a big factor in our country now. Donald Trump: You know, it – it does give us our electricity because there’s nothing like coal in terms of power. But it’s going to be clean, beautiful coal like our bill. It’s going to be clean and beautiful coal miners. And by the way, they’ve made tremendous progress with also coal in terms of clean coal. But the coal miners standing understanding alongside of me this afternoon in the White House, they were incredible. Donald Trump: They were a beautiful sight to behold. These are really great American patriots, beautiful guys. I didn’t want to have any arm wrestling contests with any of them. I can tell you that. They’re good strong guys. That’s what they want to do. They love to dig coal. That’s what they want to do. They don’t want to do gidgets and widgets and gadgets. Donald Trump: They don’t want to build cell phones with their hands. They’re big strong hands. They’re doing a little thing. Remember when Hillary Clinton went to West Virginia? And she had decimated them three weeks before in like some state where they make little tiny circuit boards. And she said we’re going to teach the miners in West Virginia how to make a circuit board with little, tiny things. Donald Trump: He said we’re going to teach them. And then she went to West Virginia. She was going to – she was in the campaign. And she had to go there. Do you remember that stop? It was memorable. It was one of the worst. Did they go after her? And one of the miners said, I don’t want to do anything else, but dig coal. Donald Trump: I want to dig coal. There’s so – they said it today. That’s what they love. They love doing it. It’s like that in a lot of industries. People love doing what they’re doing. They want to dig coal. That’s what they want. They don’t mind going deep in earth. They feel comfortable there. Me, I could do without it, but they feel, uh, comfortable. Donald Trump: They’re incredible people actually, hardworking incredible people. And we’re giving them their lives back. We’ve also begun the largest deregulation campaign in history. For every one new regulation, I have directed that 10 old regulations must be eliminated before the first one can go into effect. And we’re working tirelessly to restore peace through strength and bring back the hostages held captive abroad. Donald Trump: We’ve brought a lot of them back already, but what a sad situation it is. What a sad situation that is. That would have never happened if I were president. October 7th would have never happened. And I said Russia-Ukraine would have never happened. All this stuff. Inflation would have never happened. Afghanistan disaster would have never happened. Donald Trump: The most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Not leaving. I was going to leave. I’m the one that got him to a point where they could leave, but I was going to keep Bagram, the air base, the biggest – one of the biggest in the world. I was going to keep it. Not for Afghanistan, but because it’s one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. Donald Trump: Wouldn’t it be nice to have it? Do you know who occupies it now? China occupies it now. Can you believe how stupid this guy was? On top of that, they get blown up at the airport leaving the wrong airport. They didn’t leave from Bagram. They left from a local little airport which was crowded and like crazy with the people from the towns and cities. Donald Trump: And the bomb went off and decimated hundreds of people, killed hundreds. We lost 13 soldiers, but we also had 42 or 48 horribly injured. Arms, legs, face horribly injured, all because we had a stupid leader. It should have never happened. We should have never been involved in that. We’re also joined tonight by a number of brave souls who were recently released from – they were recently released from Hamas captivity. Donald Trump: Hamas is just a disaster. The level of hatred. Where are the people? Hamas, they understand what that’s all about. Where are you? That’s great. How does it feel to be out? How does that feel to be out, huh? Do you want to come up here for a second? Do you want – come on up here. Come on, come on up. Yeah, let – let them up, please. Donald Trump: That’s great. That’s great. I’ll tell you, these people, what they had to go through. I’ve – I had 10 hostages in my office two weeks ago. What they had to go through is just horrible. Come on up. That’s great. That is so nice to see you. That is so nice. [Inaudible] fantastic. [Inaudible] Note: [Three former hostages come to the podium and each spoke individually. There were not initially identified.] Unidentified: Thank you. Thank you very much. President Trump, I’m here and I’m alive. President Trump, you saved my life. You saved the life of 33 hostages, that because of your efforts and your setting the hostage crisis at the high priority of what you are doing among all of the enormous issues and things that you’re dealing with since you came into your position as president of the United States, you set the hostage crisis at the highest priority. Unidentified: You got 33 of us home alive. We all owe our lives to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And please – Please continue your tremendous efforts and your tremendous actions and your tremendous accomplishments. Continue and we will get with your help all of the remaining 59 hostages still in Gaza back home. Unidentified: Thank you. Thank you, President Trump for bringing my Keith home. Keith’s grandchildren are the happiest. Keith’s children are the happiest. Keith’s family is the happiest. But I am the most happiest. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Note: [The second former hostage comes to the microphone.] Unidentified: We need you. We need you to bring all the hostages home. There’s 24 that are alive and 59 to – to come home to their families. Just like I received Keith, they need it, too. We have [Inaudible] standing here with us. And Eitan, his brother is underneath the ground now begging to get out. So I’m begging you all to help us. We need your help. Unidentified: Thank you. Note: [The third former hostage comes to the microphone.] Unidentified: So my name is Yahir. I’ve been in hell for 498 days. I’ve been held in hell with Hamas terrorists. When we didn’t see the light, but we feel when we heard President Trump get elected, we knew, we knew that is now someone who makes the things happen. We need – We knew that – I’m sorry about my English, I am half Argentinian, half Israelian. Unidentified: I’m sorry. We knew we needed someone who could do the things. That’s President Trump. We are here because of President Trump. Thank you. Thank you for your efforts. It’s really surreal to be here. You know, we – I – I’m a simple man. I’m – I’m running the bar in the kibbutz in the – in Knidos where I was lived. Unidentified: And – and now I’m here with President Trump who’s running the world. We are thankful. We are really thankful, but humbly, we – we ask – we ask for more, the last push, the last 59 people, the last 59 hostages, among them, my brother, Eitan and what is [Inaudible] brothers Zeevi and Gali and Eviatar. All the brothers, all the families. Unidentified: In a few days, we mark the Passover, right? Pesach. It’s a family – family time, so I expect that in the next [Inaudible] I – when my mother made the [Inaudible] the matzo balls that my brother Eitan, my little brother who I call little, but he’s 38, but it’s my little brother. I hope it – he can sit with us in the Seder in – of Passover. Unidentified: And wow, it’s overwhelming. I – I just want to tell you again. Thank you. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. There’s a story for everybody and nobody knows. My heart is broken. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I’ll mention it. Unidentified: [Inaudible] OK. Be strong for us. Donald Trump: I – I just want to say I said of the 59 people that you want to bring home, how are they? And how are they doing? Do you have any idea? Because they left that whole scene not long ago. And they said well, of the 59, 24 are living, the rest are dead. I just heard that. And um, I was told that before by somebody else, but 24 are living, the rest are dead. Donald Trump: These are young people, largely young people. Young people don’t die. Young people are killed. They don’t die. But the conditions were so horrible. But think of that, so of the 59. And I’ve had, uh, Israeli parents tell me that, uh, my son is dead, but please bring him home as though he were alive. She wanted him brought home more than – it just seemed almost more than if her child was living. Donald Trump: Amazing. She just – they wanted – the mother and father, in three other cases, they wanted to have them brought home. I said, how is he doing? He’s dead. It’s only his body, but we want him home. So there’s an amazing thing. But – but the 59 that you mentioned, um, you said that 24 were alive and the rest are dead. Donald Trump: This is a terrible thing that’s going on with Hamas. Terrible. The hatred is so incredible. It’s unbelievable. And the way they were made to live was not even, uh, understandable, I think, by anybody in this audience. And you have great people in this audience that love you and they’re going to fight for you. Donald Trump: And I just want to thank you very much. Thank you. Note: [Trump steps away from the microphone to speak to the three former hostages.] Unidentified: [Inaudible] Thank you. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] You take care of yourself, OK? Unidentified: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. We’ll get them back. Be careful. It’s incredible what they’ve been forced to live with for 450, 500 days. Incredible. Nobody in this room could really understand it. And I found it hard to understand. But we’ll not rest until your loved ones have been returned home. And hopefully we can do it the right way. Donald Trump: The – we want to get those 24 out really fast. And we’re working on it very hard. There was no chance before. This is something that should have been done right at the beginning during the past administration. On day one, we ended the so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies across the entire federal government, the private sector. Donald Trump: And it’s just not even allowed. I also signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. We want to keep it simple. As you know, in a very important executive order, I banned men from competing in women’s sports. That was done. Donald Trump: And I hope – I hope all of these executive orders can be codified, can be voted on by Congress. I can’t imagine any Republican that’s not going to vote for him. Many, many of them, over 100. And I think every single one of them is just common sense, good – it’s good politics, but the word politics doesn’t matter to me so much. Donald Trump: It’s good for our country. If Democrats retake the House next year, they will try to reverse all of the progress that we’ve made, which is record setting progress. Instead of House committees run by Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, James Comer, Ronny Jackson and so many other of our friends in this audience, the House will be run by the same band of radicals and lunatics you saw at my address to Congress, including Hakeem Jeffries, AOC, Ilhan Omar, Nancy Pelosi and weird Al Green. Donald Trump: He’s a weird dude. He should have been treated very badly for the way he behaved that night. Think of it. They didn’t stand up. They didn’t pay respect to anybody, including – think of it. Uh, you take a look at Laken Riley, you take a look at any of the people there, the parents of these incredible people, the young boy with cancer, serious cancer wanted to be in a police department, would give anything to be a policeman someday. Donald Trump: They refused to even applaud or acknowledge him. They’re sick. There’s something wrong with them. They sat as the stories were explained, two young ladies killed by, killed, savagely killed by illegal aliens. They came into our country and they killed these two young ladies. And the Democrats sat there. They didn’t smile. Donald Trump: They didn’t clap. They didn’t do anything. I think you frankly win the midterms, just all you have to do is show a picture of these grieving parents, uncontrollably grieving. And they didn’t get one clap out of the whole group of them. They just sat there like stoic and disgraceful. And you show that in your commercials that you’re going to be putting on and you’ll win every race that we have in this room. Donald Trump: That was a bad night for them. And now they know it. They’re trying to make up for it. But they’re just, I don’t know, there’s something wrong with them. That’s why every day from now until November 2026, we’re going to fight, fight, fight to elect and expand the Republican majority of the House and save our country from these radical left lunatics. Donald Trump: We will not be deterred. We will not stop. We will not yield. And we will never ever back down. We’re not going to back down. They would lose respect if you back down. They’re the ones that backed down. They’re the ones that have lost their confidence. They’re no good anymore. I saw politicians that were good politicians four years ago. Donald Trump: They’re not good politicians anymore. They’ve lost their confidence. They’ve totally lost their confidence. But they can get their confidence back. So you can’t rely on that too much, I guess. Together, we’re liberating our country, reclaiming our wealth, unleashing our energy, protecting our children, rebuilding our military, repelling the invaders, deporting the criminals, destroying the gangs and unlocking what history will know as the Golden Age of America. Donald Trump: This is going to be the Golden Age of America. With your support, your commitment and your help to elect more Republicans, we will finish the job that we have really brilliantly started. It’s been a brilliant period of years. And we go back to 2016. It was brilliant. Then they stole it from us by illegally rigging the election. Donald Trump: And we did great in that election, but we had to write it off. And we all went through hell. I went through hell, in particular. Indictments. We – what we had to go through was hard to believe. Impeachments, two impeachments over nothing, over a phone call that was perfect. They knew it was perfect. And they found out after they realized that the calls were essentially taped by the government because you were talking to a foreign leader. Donald Trump: When that was played back, they didn’t know what the hell to do, but they went forward with it anyway, because there are sick people. The American dream will come roaring back in our country. Together, we’re going to make America greater than it’s ever been before. And I just want to thank you. And congratulations on your record evening. Donald Trump: And I’m with you all the way. And I’m going to be campaigning with you. And we’re going to win, win, win like we’ve never won before. And thank you to your leadership. And Mike, great job. You’re doing a fantastic job. Thank you all very much.
Date: 2025-04-08
Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. They’re strong and they’re great. These are great people and thank you very much. This is a very important day to me because we’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned despite the fact that it was just about the best. It is certainly the best in terms of power, real power. Donald Trump: And I’m very honored to be doing this. Other countries went to beautiful clean coal, and they’ve stayed there for many years like China. China is opening two plants every week. Germany went green, very green. They went so green they almost went out of business. Germany was finished; they went to wind. The wind wasn’t blowing too much, and they went to all sorts of other things. Donald Trump: You know, the green new scam hit Germany too and guess what? Now they’re back to coal. They’re opening up coal plants all over Germany. We’re the ones that aren’t doing it. I call it beautiful clean coal. I tell my people never use the word coal unless you put beautiful clean before it, right Doc? So, we call it beautiful clean coal, beautiful clean coal. Donald Trump: Thank you. Today we’re taking historic action to help American workers, miners, families and consumers. We’re ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal once and for all. And it wasn’t just Biden, it was Obama and there were others, but we’re doing the exact opposite. And all those plants that have been closed are going to be opened if they’re modern enough or they’ll be ripped down and brand-new ones will be built, and we’re going to put the miners back to work. Donald Trump: And I said I was going to do this and I’ve said it loud and clear and it’s time to do it and we need it. And I look at these people behind me. I don’t want to have any arm-wrestling contests with any of them, but they’ve had a little more practice with lifting things, I will say, but they are great people and I know them indirectly and directly for a long time. Donald Trump: That includes you guys, for a long time and they’re great people and with great families and come from areas of the country that we love and we really respect. And I want to thank Secretary Doug Burgum for doing such an incredible job. From the day I met him, I knew I wanted to have him in my cabinet. He took a shot at running and he was so good and so solid that he made no news and that was good. Donald Trump: But I saw him and I saw his beautiful wife, Catherine, and I said that they’re going to be a team. They’re a great team and they’re going to be working for this country someday and one of the first people I called after I won. So thank you very much. And along with the Energy Secretary Chris Wright. And I was going to make Doug, actually, the energy secretary. Donald Trump: And he said, sir, you have one person who’s much better than me at this, Chris Wright. I said, who the hell is Chris Wright? I have no idea who he is. And then I learned that he’s the most respected person in the energy business by far, far and away. For Doug to say that, Doug’s got a big ego. It was very tough for him to say that. Donald Trump: Catherine was there. Right, Catherine? You said, wow, I’ve never heard that before. But Chris, you guys are fantastic. Stand up. All three of you, please stand up. Yeah. That’s a great team. It’s no better team than that and they’re going to produce energy, the likes of which nobody’s seen before. You know, we need to do the AI, all of this new technology that’s coming online, we need more than double the energy, the electricity that we currently have. Donald Trump: You take all of the electricity in the country right now for houses, for buildings, for everything. We need to more than double it to be number one. We’re now way ahead of everybody at AI. China’s in second place, but way behind, and they’re going to be producing a lot of energy and a lot of electricity for this. Donald Trump: And so are we, and we’re going to get approvals very fast. And I would say the man that’s almost comparable to you in terms of the importance to this, maybe he’s even more comparable. I hate to tell you, a guy named Lee Zeldin, who’s a friend of mine for a long time. He was a great – Yeah. Lee was a great lawyer and he ran for office and he won immediately. Donald Trump: I gave him a very important endorsement. He won for Congress in an area that was unwinnable. They were all saying, why is he wasting his time, that’s Democrat territory. And I like Lee and knew Lee and he ended up winning a seat in a massive upset. Nobody knew what happened, actually. And then he was there for a long time. Donald Trump: How many years were you there? Eight. Eight years did was very popular and then he almost won the governorship of New York, which is very – lost by a few points, which was an amazing run. And I said, we got to get you in with us in some form, and we did. And he’s head of the environmental agency, EPA, and doing a great job. Donald Trump: And I said, if we have a nuclear power plant leak, can you get it approved in less than a month? He said, what – he said, I’ll do it faster. And by the way, he’ll do a fast job, but he’s going to do also a great job. It’s going to be an important job. We don’t even smile about it, but I’ve been involved in the approval process for a long time, having been in real estate, and you go years and years and years for absolutely nothing. Donald Trump: And even in those days, they used to say, this whole thing could have been approved in a week or two weeks or three weeks and it would have been just as good, but they’d take you down the path and you’d spend years waiting. And then sometimes you get rejected. I wasn’t rejected too much. I was the king of zoning. Donald Trump: I did well, but it was such nonsense. It was so terrible. The process was so terrible. But this is the big leagues now, and he’s the head person in the whole country. And I appreciate it and I appreciate you doing it. And already, they’re respecting you very greatly. So thank you very much, Lee. Great job. Donald Trump: So we have a lot of Senators and Congressmen and women and I’m going to just introduce the ones that I see here because it’s always a problem when I do this because I leave one or two out and that’s the end. I never get their vote again. I never get their vote. It takes years to recover, but we’ll give it a shot because Senator John Barrasso, who’s my friend and a great gentleman. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, John, for being here. Thank you, John. Cynthia Lummis, fantastic woman who believes like I do and she believes like I do in these people, right? She believes in them maybe even more than I do. That’s pretty good, from day one. Thank you, Cynthia. You’re doing a fantastic job. Kevin Cramer, my friend. Donald Trump: Where is Kevin? Because Kevin, I think he was here because he had a problem and I just will pay my respects. He wanted to be here so badly. But he had a difficult problem that he’s working through and we all love Kevin. John Hoeven. John, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Steve Daines. Thank you, Steve. Donald Trump: Steve is a picker of great candidates, like he picked a guy named Tim Sheehy, who’s here. Where’s Tim? Where is Tim? Thank you, Tim. And Tim Sheehy has turned out to be a wonderful senator and that was your pick and we went with it and you were right and we have a great one in Tim. So thank you, Tim, and thank you, Steve. Donald Trump: Shelley Moore Capito? Shelley, thank you very much. West Virginia, from West Virginia. She has to like – you have no choice. Even if you didn’t like it, you have to like all, right, but they were doing a number on you. They were doing a number on you with the coal stuff and you have not only cold but you have among the best coal anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: So thank you very much. A friend of mine for a long time. I’m the one that got him to change his religion in a sense. He changed the party. He went from a Democrat, I said Jim, you’re not a Democrat, but he changed to Republican. He’s one of the most popular Republicans and one of the most popular political leaders in the country, Jim Justice. Donald Trump: I call him Big Jim, Big Jim Justice. You look good, Jim. And he was in the business and so am I doing the right thing? You would know better than anybody in this room. Am I doing the right thing, Jim? Jim Justice: You’re doing the right thing. Donald Trump: I think so, right? Jim Justice: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Jim. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Cindy, thank you, hun. Very good, good job. People are going to be happy. And all friends of mine, Mike Lee. Mike, thank you very much. We have a lot of people from Congress, Congressmen and women, representatives, Morgan Griffith. Morgan, thank you. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Bruce Westerman. Bruce? Thank you, Bruce. Bob Latta. Bob Latta. Thank you, Bob. Good job. Troy Balderson. Troy, haven’t seen you in a long time, since that early race. I endorsed him before anyone knew who he was and he ended up winning. That was another surprise, right, and that was a long time ago. Yep, you’re doing a great job. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Troy. Carol Miller. Carol, thank you. Carol, West Virginia. Riley Moore. Riley? Hi, Riley. Thanks. Mike Bost. Mike, thank you very much. Troy Downing. Troy, thank you. Oh, he has something. What is that Coal? Is that coal in that bag, huh? Troy Downing: Even better, it’s clean coal. Donald Trump: I like it. I’ll take it right now. Thank you very much. Hal Rogers. Hal? Hal, thank you. Thank you, Hal. Andy Barr. Thank you, Andy. Good luck with everything. I hear good things. Troy Downing. Troy, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Troy. Donald Trump: Hal Rogers – oops. Harriet Hageman, Harriet, hi. How are you, Harriet? We just left Harriet. This is one of the finest attorneys you will ever see. I have seen her in action and she is brutal [Laughter]. I never want her against me, that I can tell you. Dan Meuser. Dan. Thank you, Dan. Thanks, Dan. Good job you’re doing. Donald Trump: Wesley Hunt, my friend too. Wesley, great, I love your commercial. Pete Stauber. Pete. Thank you, Pete. Great hockey player he was, right? Great hockey player and a great gentleman – just broke the record of Wayne Gretzky. The great one is Wayne Gretzky. But we have another great one too, huh, just broke the record. Donald Trump: It was great. Governor Greg Gianforte. Greg, nice seeing you. Good, Greg. Thank you very much, Greg. Bill Lee. Bill, thank you very much. Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia, just got elected. Mark Gordon. Mark, thank you. Thank you very much. And we have a lot of others and I’m in trouble because I can’t – I don’t know. Donald Trump: I’ve got five or six others that I see quickly, but I’m just not going to do it. Don’t hold it against me because we have to get back to the most important people in the room, these people, you know that, right? So, the energy workers and the coal miners in the area that I’m standing on, and there’s a lot of weight on this platform. Donald Trump: So, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I hope it’s structurally designed for you guys. I don’t know. But we have just really well-deserving great American patriots. And it’s such an honor to be here and doing – making such a big move, such a bold move in energy. Because you know, for years people would just bemoan this industry and decimate the industry for absolutely no reason, because with modern technology and all of the other things that we do, it’s one of the great, great forms of energy. Donald Trump: That’s why other countries – leading countries are using it, some exclusively. For four long years Joe Biden and congressional Democrats tried to abolish the American coal industry. They did everything in their power, while he was awake, which wasn’t much [Laughter], shutting down dozens of coal plants, banning coal leases on federal lands and putting thousands and thousands of coal miners out of work – destroying their lives actually destroying their lives. Donald Trump: I’ll never forget when I went to West Virginia, which I won by 48 points, I think, right? Big Jim, I won by 48 points. But in the first campaign where Hillary Clinton was about four states too early, and she was talking about how bad coal was and how they were going to teach coal miners how to make widgets and gadgets and technology which they didn’t want to do. They want to mine. Donald Trump: One thing I learned about the coal miners, that’s what they want to do. You could give them a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of a job, and they’d be unhappy. They want to mine coal. That’s what they love to do. And she was going to put them in a high-tech industry where you make little cell phones and things. Donald Trump: I don’t know. Do you think he’d be good at that? I don’t know. Unidentified: I wouldn’t be. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t – you don’t want to be. And she was brutal about three weeks before, but then she had a problem. She went to West Virginia looking for votes and that was a bad – that was a bad situation. You remember that. And there was a coal miner around the table with his family and he was in tears because of what they had done to him and his family. Donald Trump: And I hope he’s still around, but that man made quite an impression on the world and the public. And we ended up winning in a great election. But we ended up winning by a lot. The Democrats’ Green New Scam killed jobs and sent prices soaring here in America, but meanwhile China opened two coal plants every single week. Donald Trump: And other countries likewise went very strongly back into coal. Some of them never got off. Those are the ones that didn’t have the problems. The Biden energy policy was to put America last. We want to be last. We’ve got to be last. Not a good policy. Under my administration we’re putting America first. It’s very simple. Donald Trump: America is always going to be first. On my first day in office, I terminated the Green New Scam. I declared the national energy emergency and withdrew from the unfair, one-sided and extremely costly to the United States only Paris Climate Accord. You know, under the Paris Climate Accord, we had a terrible situation. Donald Trump: We would have paid over $1 trillion – think of it, over $1 trillion. And Russia was paying almost nothing. Russia had a 1992 standard. China was paying nothing. China didn’t kick in until 2035. This was five years ago. So, they didn’t kick in for many years. India had no standard whatsoever, but we had the highest standard you could imagine, and we had to start paying from day one and we had to pay lots of money. Donald Trump: We paid for everything. So, I was not a big fan of the Paris Accord, and I let it be known and I got out of it early. Then they went back into it and now we get back out of it. And hopefully we can be there for a long time, OK? A long time, because it was a scam to take money away from the United States and hurt – and actually hurt us very badly with coal and with other things. Donald Trump: Now under the executive order that I will sign in a few moments, we’re slashing unnecessary regulations that targeted the beautiful clean coal. We will rapidly expedite leases for coal mining on federal lands. And these two gentlemen are going to do a real job of it. You’ve already started. And we’ll streamline permitting. Donald Trump: We will end the government bias against coal and we’re going to unlock the sweeping authorities of Defense Production Act. The Defense Production Act to turbocharge coal mining in America. They made it impossible to – impossible. You actually – I know a friend of mine has a plant. He said, you know, it’s a shame, I’m ripping it down and I’m replacing it with another form of energy. Donald Trump: I won’t tell you because it’s also very good, but it’s not as powerful as this. He said, you know the plant I’m building, the new plant is literally half as good. It’s no less – you know, it’s not probably even as good environmentally, but he said it produced half the power for more money, much more money. Donald Trump: It will never compete with that beautiful plant I have down the road, which was really a modernized coal plant. Well, he’ll be happy to know that he can open that plant up very quickly and it’s going to produce a lot. But he was complaining. He said this is so much better. He wasn’t doing that as politicking me, he was doing that because that’s what he felt. Donald Trump: And he knew every form of energy, we talked about that. He knew every form of energy. But our government is going to do something that’s very different. And I don’t think even you two know about this. This was my idea from about 15 minutes before I got up here [Laughter]. We’re going to guarantee that we have a strong business for many years to come. Donald Trump: That your coal companies and your miners don’t get all excited about their jobs and then should a radical left, liberal become president, they end the business right away and somebody’s built a plant and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in building a plant and the plant is going to be closed because a Democrat got in or a liberal got in, they’re opposed to coal and Republicans are very much for it – clean coal. Donald Trump: And we’re going to give a guarantee that the business will not be terminated by the ups and downs of the world of politics. So, should somebody come into this very important office and say, oh, well, you spent hundreds of millions of dollars and you guys have given up your life because you want to be in coal. Donald Trump: And then all of a sudden you don’t have a life anymore because it’s what you know the best. That’s not going to happen. We’re going to give a guarantee that it’s not going to happen so that if somebody comes in, they cannot change it at a whim, they cannot just going to go – they’re going to have to go through hell to close you up. All right, so that’s pretty good. Donald Trump: We’re going to give that in the form of a guarantee that we’re riding on right now structurally and from a legal standpoint. So, your investments are going to also be protected. And you’re going to have no reason to be concerned about your future, your life or your investment if you’re a miner, as this great governor was a miner, actually. Donald Trump: He was one of the larger coal miners. He could fit up here very easily, you know, Big, Jim. But he was a great success. But they were very, very tough on him, and he did a beautiful job with a beautiful product. Already under our leadership, the Department of Interior has approved the expansion of the Spring Creek Mine in Montana, supporting 280 coal mining jobs and unlocking over 40 million tons of coal, and there’s more to come. Donald Trump: Spring Creek is big one and there’s more to come in the states of Wyoming, Alabama, Utah, North Dakota and many others. West Virginia, I can’t believe they didn’t put West Virginia down. It’s lucky I mentioned that right. Can you imagine if I didn’t mention West Virginia? I would have been in big trouble, they didn’t mark it down here. Donald Trump: It’s good to have a president like that, that can pick that up, right? You think Joe Biden would have picked that up? I don’t think so. Gee, they didn’t mention West Virginia. I don’t think so. I don’t think he’d be standing up here either. The value of untapped coal in our country is 100 times greater than the value of all the gold in Fort Knox. Donald Trump: And we’re going to unleash it and make America rich and powerful again. Under this order, I’m also directing Secretary Wright to use billions of dollars in federal funding to invest in the next generation of coal technology, which is an amazing technology in terms of getting the full potential of coal and also doing it in a very clean environmental way. Donald Trump: Pound for pound coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy there is on Earth today. It’s a big statement. You never hear those statements. You know? You’ve never heard that before from a politician, have you? Well, maybe from that politician, but not too many, but that’s the way it is. I’ll say it again. Donald Trump: Pound for pound coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy. It’s cheap, incredibly efficient, high density and it’s almost indestructible. You could drop a bomb on it and it’s going to be there for you to use the next day, which you can’t say with any other form of energy. Donald Trump: Virtually indestructible. Most importantly, we have more of it here in America than anywhere else on Earth. We have more coal than any other country. You go to Australia, they have fantastic amounts of coal. You know who they sell it to, China. They sell it to China. They’re nearby. They sell a lot of it to China. Donald Trump: But we have more than anywhere else on Earth. We also have more liquid gold than anywhere on Earth. So we’re really an energy behemoth, but we’re unleashing that also. That’s going to be another part. But I didn’t even want to mention that. It’s not down here because I didn’t want to mention, today is about clean, beautiful coal. Donald Trump: So I’m going to give this to you. It’s this big guy. Should I give it to him? You take that. Unidentified: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: OK. For example, we believe it’s possible to extract enormous amounts of critical minerals and rare earths, which you know we need for technology and high technology and the process of coal mining, making America the mineral superpower of the world, actually. In addition, I’m instructing the Department of Justice to identify and fight every single unconstitutional state or local regulation that’s putting our coal miners out of business. Donald Trump: And we are withdrawing all of those objections from our government today. It’s all being withdrawn. So all of you people that have been fighting for your lives, we are withdrawing all of that today. We have excellent lawyers, excellent. Have you noticed that lots of law firms have been signing up with Trump? $100 million, another $100 million for damages that they’ve done, but they give you $100 million and then they announce that but we have done nothing wrong. Donald Trump: And I agree they’ve done nothing wrong. But what the hell, they give me a lot of money considering they’ve done nothing wrong and we’ll use some of those people, some of those great firms. They are great firms, too. They just had a bad moment. But we’re going to use some of those firms to work with you on your leasing and your other things. Donald Trump: And they’ll do a great job. I think they’re going to do a fantastic job. And for those of you that want to know, the tariffs, you’ve been hearing about tariffs. We’re taking in almost $2 billion a day in tariffs, $2 billion a day and we’re doing very well. And we’re doing very well in making, I call them tailored deals, not off the rack. Donald Trump: These are tailored, highly tailored deals. Right now, Japan is flying here to make a deal. South Korea is flying here to make a deal. And others are flying here. I mean, my only problem is I’m not sure I have enough – we’re going to have to use those great law firms, I think, to help us with that. But we’re going to probably do that. Donald Trump: Actually, we’re going to use them and we’re getting them for the right price because we need a lot of talent. We have a lot of countries coming in, they want to make deals. If I told them about making those deals two years ago or three years ago or five years ago, they’d be laughing at us. Now they’re all signing up. Mike, you know that. Donald Trump: So it’s going to be a great thing, but we’re taking – think of that $2 billion a day. That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of money even in the coal business, isn’t it, huh? It’s a lot of money. And America’s going to be very rich again very soon. You’re going to see that happening. You see it all along. Donald Trump: So that whole situation, it was somewhat explosive. But if we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be talking the way we’re talking right now. It’s been amazing what’s happened. Sometimes you have to mix it up a little bit, but we’ve had great consideration. We’ve had talks with many, many countries, over 70. They all want to come in. Our problem is, you can’t see that many that fast. Donald Trump: But we don’t have to because as you know, the tariffs are on and the money is pouring in at a level that we’ve never seen before. And it’s going to be great for us and it’s going to be great for other countries. We’ve been ripped off and abused by countries for many years with the tariff situation. They’ve used tariffs against us. We didn’t use tariffs against them or in any way. Donald Trump: I mean, we just didn’t use them of any monumental proportion and so we are doing it now. We have tariffs on cars. We have tariffs on lumber, tariffs on steel and aluminum. Steel plants are going up because of it all over the country. We have 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum. And I think the steel workers like me, even more than the coal miners like me. I’m pretty sure that that’s true. Donald Trump: Instead of having no steel business, I put them on, originally, in my first term, we wouldn’t have had one steel mill in the United States if I didn’t do that and now we upped it. And not only are we taking in a lot of money, but we’re protecting our workers, our steel workers. We’re were protecting our steel industry and one thing you know, that steel and things like steel you need because you need it from a defense standpoint. Donald Trump: You need steel for your tanks and your planes and your everything. And certain industries you can get away with not having, but others you need and steel is one you need. So I want to let you know that’s in full force and effect. And literally, as we speak, I spoke to executives in the steel industry over the last few days and they’re all coming in to build plants in the United States of America, because if you build them in the United States, you have no tariffs to pay. Donald Trump: There are no tariffs to pay, zero. If you build them outside using outside labor and hurting our businesses and you send your product in, you have to pay a price for that. And they will be having, they will be having tariffs, as you know. It’s an amazing thing. This has been something used against us for many years by other countries, China in particular, but others, not just China, others. Donald Trump: And taken advantage of us ripped us off and left us for dead, frankly. And I believe if I didn’t become your president, I believe that this country would have had problems like they’ve never had before because it was a serious damage in so many other ways. Not only the border where people came rushing into our country from prisons and jails and mental institutions, murderers, drug dealers and some vicious, vicious criminals. 11,088 murderers came into our country. Donald Trump: We have to get them out. We’re getting them out. 11,088 of that number, half committed murder on more than two people, more than two people. And this is what they allowed into our country with their open border policy of lunacy and we’re taking care of that. Just like we’re taking care of you today, we’re taking care of that. Donald Trump: I want to thank Kristi Noem and Tom Homan for doing an unbelievable job. The whole thing, the job they’re doing is incredible. It’s really an unforced error. It should have never happened, that we have to be spending such time and resources, Mr. Senator, right, on getting people out of our country that shouldn’t be here. Donald Trump: I mean, literally from mental institutions. Insane asylums were opened up and emptied into our country, prisons from all over the world, not just South America, prisons from, think of this, from Africa, the Congo, a lot of people from the Congo, prisons in the Congo. Prisons from Asia, from all over were opened up and I knew that when I heard it was an open border policy. Donald Trump: I said, if you do that, every country is going to be dumping people that they don’t want into our country. And that’s what’s happened, but we’re cleaning it out. And the courts, we had a good decision, as you know, from the Supreme Court, allowing us to do that. We have judges that didn’t want us to do it. Donald Trump: We have judges that wanted the very evil gang members from Tren de Aragua and MS-13, they didn’t want them taken out of the country and put in very powerful prisons. When you look, you’ve seen – you’ve all seen those clips – pretty amazing clips. But I want to thank El Salvador, they’ve done an incredible job, but we’ve been fortunately winning those cases. Donald Trump: But we have judges that are out of control that say, oh, bring them back, bring them back. We don’t want them back. We don’t want them back. Can you imagine, you spend all of that time, energy and money on getting them out. And then you have a judge that sits there, local judge who sits there, federal judges sit there and say, no, no, bring them back. Donald Trump: One was brought back, or they want to bring them back because he wasn’t a member of Tren de Aragua. He was a member of MS-13, which is just as bad. So, they misidentified him. But it sounds to me like he was a member of MS-13. So, they want him them brought back because he wasn’t treated properly. It’s – we’ve got to be smart. Donald Trump: Our country’s got to get a lot smarter than it is, but we have to get the people that are in power to do this kind of work, and it’s not pleasant work. We have to give them – we have to give them the option of making our country great again and that’s what they’re doing. And I have great respect for those people and they’re doing it out of love. Donald Trump: They could get a much easier job. They’re doing it out of love for our country. It’s so important, just like I’m doing this with coal today for love for our country. Earlier this afternoon, I signed another executive order to strengthen our electric grid by ensuring that coal fired power plants are always available to meet surging demand for electricity. Donald Trump: Unlike wind and solar, coal plants can run 24 hours a day in rain sleet or snow. And you will not be subject to the incredible blackout situation that’s taking place in California where they have blackouts all the time. It’s an amazing thing with California; they have blackouts and brownouts at levels that nobody’s ever seen before and all they want to do is keep going the way they’re going. Donald Trump: And they’re doing a very poor job. As you probably heard, I released billions of gallons of water going in from upstate California from the most northern parts of California, probably comes in from Canada to a certain extent. Thank you very much, Canada, we appreciate it. And I released it. It was being sent out to the Pacific Ocean. Donald Trump: I’ve been working on Gavin and some of the politicians for years and they didn’t want to do that because they were protecting a smelt, a fish that was perhaps in trouble. But it’s not unique to that area. And because of that, you had numbers – you had fires. Nobody’s ever seen anything like what happened. Donald Trump: Think of what it would have been like if you had fire hydrants that had water in them, if you had sprinkler systems in houses, a lot of these luxury houses where they had beautiful sprinkler systems, there was no water. They had no water to put out the fires. Water is very good for putting out fires. You know, they just didn’t learn it. But we now have millions of gallons – billions, actually they say of gallons of water pouring into California from the Pacific Northwest, I guess they would say, mostly Pacific Northwest, but other parts of the northern sections of California and beyond. Donald Trump: And it’s a beautiful thing to see. I saw a picture of it this morning. The water is just flowing down there. I said, why didn’t they do this? I told them to do it. My first term, I said, do it. And I don’t know. I think the second term is just more powerful. They do it – when I say do it, they do it, right? Donald Trump: And we actually had to do some pretty strong things to get them to open it up. They had – think of this. They had all that water pouring out right into the Pacific. They had a big valve, like a giant valve as big as this room and they turned the valve, takes one day to turn it, and they face it toward the Pacific Ocean and the water, all that was coming down, all millions and millions of gallons coming down. Donald Trump: They put it into the Pacific Ocean, which for the Pacific Ocean is like a drop of water. But for California, it would have been unbelievable. So, we did it. I’m very proud of the fact that we did it. We did that against a lot of heat and a lot of environmental nonsense. From now on we’ll ensure that our nation’s critically needed coal plants, as an example, remain online and fully operational. Donald Trump: They’re always going to be operational. And again, we’re going to have guarantees that government cannot close them down, close you down and destroy your lives. To that end, I’m also instructing Secretary Wright to save the Cholla coal plant in Arizona, a big plant, which has been slated for destruction. Donald Trump: We’re going to keep those coal miners on the job, going to tell them to just remain calm because we’re going to have that plant opening and burning the clean coal, beautiful clean coal in a very short period of time. You know all about that, right? That’s a big one. As part of our historic deregulatory efforts, this afternoon, I’m also granting immediate relief to 47 companies operating 66 coal plants, very big ones, all over the country, recusing and making them available for coal production almost in the immediate future. Donald Trump: But we’re going to be crushing Biden era environmental restrictions. These are restrictions that made it impossible, impossible to do anything, having to do frankly with energy even beyond coal. It’s really beyond even coal. We have clean air; we have clean water and now we have clean coal. And at the same time, we’re going to do other things and other forms of technology and also energy like our country has never really seen before and never been known to do before because of all sorts of restrictions having to do with the Green New Scam, which by the way was devised by somebody that never even studied. Donald Trump: You know that – they never even studied anything to do with the environment. It’s a young congresswoman; she came up with the idea. And based on that, I guess we only have – well, actually we should have all been gone because they gave us only a few years left on earth, right? Right, Greg? We were going to be gone. Donald Trump: We were all going to be gone. The environment – now what they have to worry about is the nuclear – nuclear heat. They don’t have to worry about environmental heat. They have to worry about nuclear heat. And if we’re smart, we’re working on that right now with others having to do with Iran and some other countries. Donald Trump: But that’s the heat you’re going to have to worry about. You don’t have to worry about the air is getting warmer. The ocean will rise one quarter of an inch within the next 500 to 600 years, giving you a little bit more waterfront property. They say this is going to – these guys can handle that. The nuclear we have a bigger problem with, right? Donald Trump: So, we’re going to make sure that that’s safe. We’re going to make sure that that’s safe. With us today are some of the amazing workers who will benefit from these policies, the policies that we’re doing and so proud of doing including Jeff Crowe, a miner from West Virginia. Jeff? Would you come up and say a few words, Jeff? Donald Trump: Jeff, come on up here, Jeff. Jeff Crowe: Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. President. I want to first thank you for having me and my fellow miners here. It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of today’s events. I believe this past November that America clearly spoke about what we wanted for our country. It is reassuring for Americans to have a president in office who will truly put the United States of America above all else. Jeff Crowe: Thank you. With putting America first, you have spoken numerous times about energy independence. I believe most don’t understand the importance of that. Coal is one of the major factors in energy independence and accounts for a large portion of America’s energy. Coal is one of the most reliable and cheapest forms of electricity. Jeff Crowe: For too long coal has been a dirty word that most are afraid to speak about. Most of those that would speak negatively about coal do so from an uneducated standpoint. Many are unaware of the engineering and technology that are used in today’s mining to create a clean, energy efficient product. All of this is done while using the safest practices in the industry. Jeff Crowe: Speaking for West Virginia, coal provides approximately 50,000 jobs for those that work in the mines and the businesses that support them. It also accounts for over 50 percent of West Virginia’s export product. To name a few, we employ engineers, teachers, physical therapists, accountants, truck drivers, high school and college graduates. Jeff Crowe: All of these occupations and graduates have turned to the coal industry to provide a better way of life for them and their families. Everyone in our industry works long hours and days to provide a reliable energy product and too many times it goes unnoticed. I’ve personally worked in the industry for 23 years. Jeff Crowe: I choose to do this daily to my wife and children with the life that they deserve. Prior administrations have done all they could to eliminate the coal industry. Sorry, one second. I’m getting there. In my opinion, they have done so with an unethical and uneducated approach, but we are still strong, we are still here and we are still needed in order to make America great again. Jeff Crowe: Having a president and an administration that understands the need and importance of coal is more than appreciated. It gives the industry a form of reassurance to know that we have a president in place that supports us. For my family, to the over 3,000 employees of ACNR, and for the coal companies, miners and businesses throughout our great country that rely on the coal industry, we say thank you for your continued support. Jeff Crowe: I personally thank you for what you do for our country and for our industry. It has been my pleasure to be here today, to help you usher in the Golden age of America. Donald Trump: That’s great. Thank you. Jeff Crowe: Thank you. Donald Trump: [Inaudible]. Jeff Crowe: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: You did a good job. Let me have that speech. I want to have that. Jeff Crowe: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: He had a couple of good lines in there. I want to keep them. No, actually, what I want to do, I’m going to sign it for you because I think – I mean, he worked hard. Look at it and look how good his eyes must be to read that. Jeff Crowe: I lost it once. Donald Trump: We’re going to do that. And hopefully, you can sell it tonight for a lot of money. Jeff Crowe: Nor, sir. I’ll keep that one. Donald Trump: That’s great. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Jeff. And also with us is Tony Campbell of the East Kentucky Power Cooperative. And Tony’s quite a quite a gentleman and very respected in the industry. Come on up, Tony. Thank you. Tony Campbell: Mr. President, on behalf of East Kentucky Power Cooperative, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and electric cooperatives across this America, thank you for your leadership to restore American energy dominance. Electric co-ops keep the lights on for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the land mass. Tony Campbell: We are owned by the communities and businesses we serve and provide electricity to growing communities, new data centers and manufacturing plants. Mr. President, electric co-ops are powering America and we are proud to partner with you and your administration to power America into the future. Our electric cooperatives in Kentucky understands the importance of reliable, affordable and American made energy, especially coal and natural gas. Tony Campbell: Coal fuels most of the electricity generated by our cooperative. America must keep coal plants open and running to ensure reliable electricity when we need it most. To meet growing demand over the next decade and ensure fuel security, America will need more, always available electric generation power, such as coal. Tony Campbell: And we want to recognize the hard-working American men and women that support our mission. To all America’s line workers, our coal miners, thank you for your dedicated service to our country. Affordable and reliable electricity is the cornerstone of our economy, especially American manufacturing. However, too many government leaders have pushed policies that have made our electric grid significantly less reliable and our energy too expensive. Tony Campbell: That begins to change now. Your actions today will prevent the premature closing of essential power plants and help us meet tomorrow’s energy needs and they will help us continue to deliver reliable, safe and affordable electricity. Mr. President, thank you, in particular for providing immediate much needed relief from the Biden EPA regulations that would force the shutdown of critical coal units. Tony Campbell: Finally, I want to say congratulations on the all-star energy team you’ve assembled. Electric co-ops have already been working with Secretaries Bertram, Wright and Rollins and Administrator Zeldin and we are excited for all we can accomplish together. Mr. President, thank you again for your actions today and for your support for the electric cooperatives as we work to keep the lights on in America. Donald Trump: Thank you. Tony Campbell: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you, Tony. Thank you very much, Tony. Appreciate it. Every day under the Trump administration, we will continue to lower costs for American families, create jobs for American workers and very importantly, unlock unlimited amounts of affordable American energy, including, as I said and I’ll say for the last time, beautiful, clean coal. Donald Trump: Our country is blessed. Our country is blessed with the most abundant natural resources on earth as nobody has what we have and we’re going to use it too. We’re going to use it in a very responsible way. Together we’re going to tap that magnificent potential to give our people the glorious future that they deserve, better than they’ve ever had in the past. Donald Trump: I mean, they had a good future, if you look, 20 years ago, they thought they had a good future and it was ripped away from them, torn away from them with nonsense and we’re not going to let that happen. This is going to be a glorious future for them. And I want to thank everybody for being here and I want to thank you and you and you and that whole group and our senators, by the way, and our great Congressmen and women for being here in such a large number, because you’ve been helping us make these decisions. Donald Trump: These are big decisions and this is a really big one and this is one that’s going to be – I think we’re going to look back with great pride at what we’ve done today, not just in putting people to work, but it really reawakening our country. And thank you very much and thank you all for being here. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Come on up. Will Scharf: Mr. President. Donald Trump: Yes, first one. Will Scharf: We have four items prepared for your signature this afternoon, sir. The first of these executive orders maybe one of the most significant executive orders of your administration thus far. This directs all departments and agencies of the federal government to end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry. Will Scharf: This ends the leasing moratorium that prevents new coal projects on federal land and it’s going to accelerate all permitting and funding for new coal projects to allow the coal industry to flourish under your leadership, sir. Donald Trump: That’s great. Thank you. OK. Will Scharf: Sir, there are currently dozens of coal plants in America that are in imminent danger of being forced to close based on unscientific and unrealistic policies enacted by the Biden administration. What we’re going to do is essentially impose a moratorium on those policies, taking effect to protect coal plants that are currently operating to ensure that they’re able to continue producing power and continue providing jobs to Americans in the coal industry. Donald Trump: Great. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Ok. Will Scharf: Sir, you’ve made grid reliability and security a key focus of this administration. This executive order is going to promote grid security and reliability by ensuring in part that our grid policies are focused on secure and effective energy production and energy transmission, as opposed to woke policies that discriminate against secure sources of power like coal and other fossil fuels. Donald Trump: Ok. Will Scharf: Lastly, sir, one of the biggest problems we have in this space is Democrat states, radical leftist states enacting policies and enacting an agenda that discriminates against coal, against secure sources of energy. Many of these policies are unconstitutional and illegal. And with this executive order, you’re going to be instructing your Department of Justice to vigorously pursue and investigate these state policies that we believe are illegal or unconstitutional. Donald Trump: Good. Thank you. Thank you. Unidentified: The congressman from Illinois thanks you [Laughter]. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Great job. He went to Harvard when Harvard was good [Laughter].
Date: 2025-04-09
Question: Hi, Secretary Duffy. Can we ask you a few questions? Sean Duffy: Yeah, hey, guys. I’ll make a quick comment. So I couldn’t be more delighted about President Trump and his EO on American shipbuilding. Uh, we don’t build ships in America anymore. They come from South Korea and from China. In 2022, uh America built five commercial ships. China built 1,800 commercial ships in 2022. And so, the president understands that if you’re going to be a global power, you actually have to build ships in your country. Sean Duffy: And so this EO is incredibly important for that, as well as you need sailors, you need mariners, to sail these ships. Uh. So, uh, we’re, uh – we have, uh, the Merchant Marine Academy at DOT up in Kings Point. Some of the most amazing young men and women at this academy, uh, who are working on, uh, the mechanical engineering side of shipping, but then we also have the sailors of ships. Sean Duffy: And we have not as a country invested in Kings Point. This is a facility that’s dilapidated. They have mold in their buildings, uh, in their dorm rooms, uh, for four months they didn’t have hot water for showers. Um, the president understands the importance of mariners and he wants to reinvest in this academy and not just this academy, expand it to make sure we have a whole new crew of young people who are going to sail around the world. Sean Duffy: And by the way, if uh, if you’re – if you’re – if your kids are 18 and you want to have them think about going to the Merchant Marine Academy, these – these young people get out of the academy at 22 years old and they make $150 grand a year, uh, working six months a year. It’s great. So, maybe some of you guys want to take that job. Sean Duffy: It’s great. It’s a great job and so – but a lot of people don’t know about it. But it’s going to get better because this president’s going to invest in it. A lot of this is going to come around DOT, um, but with that I’ll take a couple. Yes? Question: On congestion pricing in New York City, um, what are your plans, uh, should the MTA, you know, keep moving forward with pulling vehicles? Um, would you take legal action against the city, the state? What’s your next step here? Sean Duffy: So, congestion pricing in New York City, again, I’m not opposed to congestion pricing, uh, this White House is not opposed to congestion pricing. But when you pay for the roads in New York City, which we have, they’re already paid for, and you’re going to charge an additional fee to use the road that you paid for, what you’ve done is you’ve priced poor and middle income families out of using, uh, American roads. Sean Duffy: And so it’s – if you’re rich in New York and you have the money, you love congestion pricing because everyone else is off the roads and you just drive right in. But the American philosophy is that we don’t have roads for rich people, we have roads for Americans. And the problem with what the governor has done is she hasn’t allowed a free pathway into the cordoned area in New York. Sean Duffy: And they never did a study, by the way. If you’re concerned about congestion pricing, what you would do is you would do a study that says how – how much do I have to charge to reduce congestion by how much? Question: But they did have to do the environmental assessment. Sean Duffy: She never – she never did that. The reason was, this was never about congestion. This is about raising money for MTA. And we have never, at DOT, allowed all the money to go from road tolling to transit. You’ll have some money that goes from tolling to transit, but not all the money to transit. And so, this is elitist. Sean Duffy: This looks out for the rich people of New York and, by the way, then she sends people onto the subways that are dirty, that are violent. And so, clean your act up. Um be fair to people. And if you’re going to make them – want them to ride the subway, make it clean, make it beautiful, make it safe. Question: Question about the auto industry? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: So, I understand that the president is trying to revive the shipbuilding industry in the US, but how long do you think this process will take for the US to effectively have the ability to have the strength to counter China when it comes to shipbuilding? Sean Duffy: So, China did it really fast, right? It’s going to take us some time, right? We have – we have years we have to – we have to, uh, de-mothball, some of our shipyards. Uh, but we have great locations around the country. We can make these investments in and start to produce ships right away. And again, what the president is thinking about is the cost, right? Sean Duffy: And so, how can we be helpful in the federal government to drive down the cost of ships and make them competitive, uh, around the world. And – and again, this EO, which by the way it’s a – it’s a – it’s a really, um, expansive EO, and it’s great and he’s thoughtful on how we can make this happen. So, thank you. Sean Duffy: Yeah. Question: [Inaudible] Sean Duffy: What’s that? Question: Mr. Secretary, are you concerned that the tariff pause that’s going into effect is not going to extend to the auto industry or there’s the vehicle tariff and there’s also the parts tariff, uh, that’s supposed to take effect next month. Sean Duffy: So, when we produce a car in America and we send it to Europe, uh, we are charged a 10 percent tariff on the American made car. When you have a European made car that comes to the US, we charge them 2.5 percent in a tariff, right? So, why is that fair? Why do they charge us more for the American made car than we charge them for the European made car? Sean Duffy: And so, the president understands fundamentally that it’s unfair. And so, I think if you listen to reciprocal trade, reciprocal tariffs, the effort is to bring tariffs down, bring barriers down. But no one wants to do that because they all access the biggest market in the world, ours, without paying anything and we want to sell our great American products by our great American manufacturers overseas. Sean Duffy: They put barriers up. And that’s fundamentally unfair. And by the way it’s – you can see, um, it rattles the market, but the president has the heart and soul to go, you know what, I’m willing to take a little bit of that rattle and make sure that we, uh, we stand up and fight for the American worker, the American company, and we’re going to bring fairness back to trade. Sean Duffy: And if you’re not going to be fair to America or our workers, you’re not going to access our market, or if you do, you’re going to pay a lot of money. And so, with that, thank you all. God bless. Question: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Have a good day. Oh, Victor, do you want me on that side? Yeah, please. I got the iPhone. Thank you. Howard Lutnick: At least it’s a beautiful day, right? Question: Thank you for your time, Mr. Secretary. On Sunday, you said the tariffs would stay in place for days and weeks. What changed between then and now? Howard Lutnick: No, no, no, the reciprocal tariffs stay in place. They are 10 percent across the board on all the countries, right? We – we paused on any numbers that are above 10 percent, and – except for China, of course, who retaliated and then of course you know what’s going on with China because they’ve retaliated. Howard Lutnick: And the president was very clear, if you retaliate, you will feel what he thinks and – and they feel what he thinks. So, there’s 10 percent reciprocal tariffs across the board, but we are not going above that. We’re letting each country come in and let’s negotiate fully and completely. And you may have heard the president in the Oval Office, he talked about that. Howard Lutnick: He really wants to put military spending on the table. He wants to do – you know, let’s have a full conversation with each country and let’s really discuss it together and the lead negotiator is going to be Donald Trump. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. Secretary, can you say definitively that it wasn’t the direction of the market that turned Trump to make this 90 day pause? Howard Lutnick: It was not. I will happily say definitively, it was not. Donald – Donald Trump is in charge of these policies and this direction. He is the greatest negotiator and the greatest person who understands these are his goals and his objectives and he is executing them. And so, he said, uh, yesterday, or the day before yesterday was the first day he said, and he put out a Truth that said he was willing to negotiate. Howard Lutnick: And then yesterday, he told us all he’d be bespoke and then we had so many calls after he said he would do – do bespoke negotiations. I mean, it just became crazy, the amount of calls we got that it was just – it was impossible to be respectful to all these wonderful allied countries, and to do that. So, how can you be respectful when a country says I want to come and talk, I will do it. I will be reasonable. Howard Lutnick: I’ve analyzed it and we will come and talk. How do you deal with that when you have so many countries that deserve our time and our respect. So, he decided he would pause it, start at 10 percent for everybody, right? And let’s go negotiate with all of these great countries and let’s see if we can do great deals for America. Howard Lutnick: Much better deals for America, but that’s the model. So, it was just this incredible influx of calls, I mean more than 75. I mean I can’t – it was incredible the scale and scope of the calls that we received. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Those calls were coming in – at all with Chinese officials, you or other cabinet members. Trump said that he would expect a phone call from Xi. How soon do you think that’s coming? Howard Lutnick: I am not engaging with him. Scott has not engaged with him and the president, you know, he – he does expect to have conversations with President XI, but that is between them. If we get a contact, we will just pass it to the president and this is really about him. He has said publicly that maybe they don’t really know the best way to go through. Howard Lutnick: But the answer really is, it’s a phone call between the two leaders of these giant countries that they can work it out together, but it’s really – that’s what’s going to happen and that’s what we all expect to happen. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. Secretary, is the president trying to build a coalition against China? And second question, are members of the EU calling the administration singularly to cut a deal? Howard Lutnick: So, the answer is the president is focused on America, OK, and he’s going to try to negotiate the best deals for America with each of these great countries that are calling us that want to talk. So, he’s not trying to build a coalition or any kind of thing like that. He’s just focused on making the American farmer, the American rancher, the American fisherman, right, our manufacturers, our people, let them have a better chance at the world. Howard Lutnick: And that’s what he’s focused on. And the answer is we’ve spoken to the EU and we’ve spoken to the member states as well. They are all just – those member countries are calling as well. So, it is – busy would be the understatement for Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick and Jameson Greer, the three of us, it is just – wow. Howard Lutnick: I don’t know. That’s the only way to say it. It’s just – we have so many great countries who want to talk, who are willing to talk, who are finally, finally, willing to make what we expect to be a fair deal for America. And we’re really excited to talk to them. Note: [Crosstalk] Howard Lutnick: Yes. Question: Lots of countries, sir? Canada is just imposing retaliatory tariffs in the auto industry. How do you react to that and are you considering a pause maybe also for the auto industry? Howard Lutnick: No, the president was very clear, the sector tariffs, those on steel and aluminum and those on autos are going to remain as he put them out. So, that is unchanged, right? What he said was the reciprocal tariffs would go to 10 percent and if Canada decides to keep their retaliatory move, which I would suggest having watched how it went with China would be a really, really bad choice – you know Europe put out some retaliatory tariffs, but they said they don’t start for a couple of weeks, right? Howard Lutnick: And I think what’s going to happen is they are going to be pushed out for the 90 days so they have time to negotiate with the president without having something hanging over their head. So, that’s – that’s certainly my expectation that all these countries will realize, let’s just wait. Let’s go negotiate, let’s see what we can accomplish together, but they have to understand their rules. Howard Lutnick: It’s not just tariffs. You know tariffs are one thing, but you have to realize why can’t we sell a car in Japan? Why is 94 percent of cars driving around in Japan, Japanese? Do you think it’s their tariffs which are actually really low? No, there are other things that they do to make it impossible, right? Howard Lutnick: They have – they have subsidies, they have non-tariff trade barriers. They just make it impossible in Japan. They make it impossible for anybody. Korea, similar, Europe, similar for us. And these things just need to change. So, Canada – Canada needs to understand things are changing, OK? The things are changing. Howard Lutnick: We – we made a deal with them. We put out tariffs on autos that protected their auto parts industry. They should understand that that was a balanced move by the president with respect to Canada and Mexico, right? You see how Mexico has dealt with it? Mexico has been restrained and being pragmatic. And her ratings in Mexico are 75 percent positive, right? Howard Lutnick: Now Canada, they’re in an election so you never know. Maybe it’s all election – uh, you know, uh, bluster. But we don’t know. But the fact is if they put those tariffs on, we’re going to be talking in the Oval Office and he is going to respond. So, I hope they choose to refrain. Yes? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: The pharmaceutical tariffs – Would you say that the markets had no impact on the president’s decision to pause the tariffs? Howard Lutnick: As I said, the president two days ago, put out a Truth that said he would negotiate. Yesterday, he said he would do it bespoke, country by country. And the inflow of countries asking to negotiate with us on a bespoke fashion became overwhelming. It was, you know – and so, he decided this morning that to be respectful to all of these countries who want to negotiate with the United States, right, that he should put a pause on so, that we can negotiate with them for 90 days. Howard Lutnick: He said 90 days. He made it clear that it was 90 days, right? But that’s the policy that he set today and he is – he thinks resetting American trade policy is fundamental, right? It’s fundamental. He said it during the campaign trail, he said it after he was elected, he said it leading up to Liberation Day. Howard Lutnick: He announced Liberation Day and he did not bend. Howard Lutnick: But what happened is the scale of those countries who want to come and negotiate with us is so great that it’s the incredible respect and kindness of the president that says I want to treat these countries with great respect and I’m going to. So, let’s put a pause on and then let’s negotiate with them. But you saw also how he dealt with China. Howard Lutnick: So, he wasn’t worried about the market per se. What he’s worried about is that China is retaliating and has no interest of treating American fairly. That’s how they’ve acted and he is acting accordingly. He said he would act accordingly and, of course, he is. He tends to be incredibly consistent to what he says. Howard Lutnick: Amazing. A president who does what he says he’s going to do. It’s amazing. Note: [Crosstalk] Howard Lutnick: Yes? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: The day after the announcement – Stephen Miller said on X that the president’s strategy here is not only fixing the broken trade system globally, but also to isolate China economically and politically as China is the architect of global trade aggression. Is that the administration’s stance here to build a coalition to really counter such unfair trade practices by China? Howard Lutnick: Well, the president of the United States was asked that question about an hour ago and he said no. He said, I want to reset trade country by country for the benefit of America. The president said it, he said it in his own words, you can go see those words and that is what he feels. That’s what he said because that is true. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. Secretary, the day after the announcement, the calls started pouring in. Two days ago, the president said he was not considering a pause. Those countries were already begging to negotiate. So, what changed in the last 24, 48 hours, if it wasn’t the market? Howard Lutnick: Well, remember people calling and saying, I’d like to talk but offering up the same old, same old was not going to move the needle. What happened is the Prime Minister started calling, their heads of trade, and they started calling making offers that were the right kind of offers, the right kind of thinking, the right way of addressing how things are going to change. Howard Lutnick: And it became very, very clear that we can get there. I’m not saying we’re going to get there with every country, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that many, many countries have offered a path to actually getting to reasonable and fair trade for the benefit of the United States. Because the reason I say it’s for the benefit of the United States is because we have a $1.2 trillion trade deficit, which means we are buying net $1.2 trillion more of other people’s goods than the other way around. Howard Lutnick: So, they have the greatest deal in the world and it’s time for someone to say, oh, come on. We can’t keep this up. Eventually this is going to break. So, that’s what changed was that these countries decided it was time to get real with the United States or this was just going to go forward. That’s why he rolled it out, that’s why he has this, uh – the policies he has and I think it’s going to result in exactly what he said, a great growth for America. Howard Lutnick: Anyway, I got to go. Thanks very much everybody. Note: [Crosstalk] Howard Lutnick: Mr. Secretary, when can we expect – Sorry, thank you. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – the pharmaceutical tariffs? Did you get any concessions, sir? What happens after 90 days?
Date: 2025-04-09
Karoline Leavitt: – put out a statement announcing an additional tariff on China, the tariff on China will now go up to 125 percent because China imprudently decided to retaliate against the United States. And as I said at the podium yesterday, when you punch at the United States of America, President Trump is going to punch back harder. Karoline Leavitt: In that same vein, we have had more than 75 countries from around the world, reach out to President Trump and his team here at the White House to negotiate better trade deals for the American worker. We have been overwhelmed with the amount of requests from countries around the world, I’ll let the secretary speak to that, we will continue with the tailor made negotiations that I spoke about yesterday. Karoline Leavitt: In the meantime, there will be a 90 day pause on the reciprocal tariffs as these negotiations are ongoing and the tariff level will be brought down to a universal 10 percent tariff. The Secretary here has been a huge part of the president’s trade team of course and will continue to lead these negotiations moving forward to look out for the American worker, which is always President Trump’s goal. Karoline Leavitt: So, I’ll kick it over to our great Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent. Scott Bessent: Good, thank you. And we saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today. It has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate. It took great courage, great courage, for him to stay the course until this moment and what we have ended up with here, as I told everyone a week ago, they’re in this very spot, do not retaliate and you will be rewarded. Scott Bessent: So, every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you. We’re going to go down to a 10 percent baseline tariff for them and China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation. Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Ed, go ahead. Question: Secretary, thank you for doing this. Let me ask you three quick things just for the sake of clarity, because the markets are open and they’re wondering, first of all, Mexico and China, are they part of this 10 percent universal? Scott Bessent: Well, China – no, China. Question: Canada and Mexico, Mexico and Canada, are they part of the 10 percent? Scott Bessent: Yes. Question: OK. Second, given then that you have the rest of the world essentially calling it, it’s not China, is this not just all about China? Scott Bessent: Well, it’s about bad actors and, you know, what we will see is some of the very early countries are China’s neighbors that we’re going to see. I’m seeing Vietnam today. Japan is at the front of the queue, South Korea, India. So, you know, we will see. And as I’ve repeatedly said, and President Trump has been saying it for years, China is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world and they are the biggest source of the U.S. trade problems. Scott Bessent: And indeed, they are a problem for the rest of the world because what we’ve seen is that as the U.S. announced a tariff wall last week, many of those goods have already started flooding into Europe. Question: As you see it now, this trade war is China versus the rest of the world? Scott Bessent: Well, I’m not calling it a trade war, but I am saying that China has escalated and President Trump responded very courageously to that and we are going to work on a solution with the – our trading partners. Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Excuse me. Excuse me – excuse me, Raquel, if I could just add to what the secretary said, many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You – you tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China when in fact we’ve seen the opposite effect. Karoline Leavitt: The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets, they need our consumers and they need this president in the Oval Office to talk to them. And that’s exactly why more than 75 countries have called because the United States of America is the best place in the world to do business. Karoline Leavitt: And as the president has shown great courage, as the secretary has said in choosing to retaliate against China, even higher. Elena, go ahead. Question: Hi, thank you, Treasury Secretary Bessent, can you explain more of the decision making on what feels like a reversal here? I mean just these went into effect less than 15 hours ago, these tariffs, why the pause now? What led to that? Scott Bessent: No. Again, President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself and the – which tariffs went into effect 15 hours ago. The ones that we have lowered went into effect a week ago. The – or they were announced a week ago and we have just been overwhelmed, overwhelmed, by the response from mostly our allies who want to come and negotiate in good faith. Scott Bessent: So, we are expecting them to come with their best deal. As I said a week ago today, don’t retaliate, hold your ground, let’s see what happens. And China, they kept escalating and escalating and now they have 125 percent tariffs that will be effective immediately. Question: Mr. Secretary – Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead. Question: Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for doing this. The 90 day pause on the reciprocal tariffs, is that because of the whiplash that we’ve been seeing across the financial markets? How much was what we saw in the stock markets, you know, a part of this decision? Scott Bessent: Uh, no, it’s because it’s going to – because of the large number of inbounds, we’ve had more than 75 countries contact us. And I imagine after today, there will be more. So, it is just a processing problem. Each one of – each one of these solutions is going to be bespoke, it is going to take some time and President Trump wants to be personally involved. Scott Bessent: So, that’s why we’re getting the 90 day pause. Question: Mr. Secretary? – secretary, there was a tweet that you and Secretary Lutnick were in the Oval Office with the president talking about this. Can you talk about what that conversation looked like and what you guys said to one another that led to this decision? Scott Bessent: Good. Look, it’s all the president’s decision and we were – the president had a level in mind to raise the China tariffs and then he had the three month, you know, essentially the three month pause in mind and we were discussing the exact wording. Question: Mr. Secretary? Note: [Crosstalk] Scott Bessent: Sorry? Question: [Inaudible] Scott Bessent: Of course. Karoline Leavitt: It was the president’s decision, always. Scott Bessent: It was the president’s decision. It was the President’s decision to wait until today. And again, as I’ve said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like President Trump. Question: Mr. Secretary? Karoline Leavitt: Shelby? Shelby, go ahead. Question: Mr. Secretary, what does the president want to see by this, I think it’s July 9, deadline to keep things paused? Is it just trade barriers coming down or is it more than that? Scott Bessent: Well, that these are trade negotiations, but if countries want to come and offer other things, you know, I talked about yesterday that we are thinking about a big LNG project in Alaska, that Korea – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan are interested in financing and taking a substantial portion of the offtake. But again, in essence that is trade because it will decrease the trade deficit that we have with those countries. Scott Bessent: So, everything’s on the table. Question: Mr. President – Karoline Leavitt: Raquel, go ahead. Question: Mr. Secretary, a clarification on the 90 – on the pause. What happened to those countries who just had a 10 percent baseline tariffs, like Brazil and others? Are they still going to have this 90-day pause because you were saying that there will be a tariff of 10 percent for others. So, what happened to those who just had a 10 percent? Scott Bessent: Yeah, that’s going to remain. Question: Mr. Secretary? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Do you call this an embargo to China? Scott Bessent: Pardon? Question: Do you call this embargo to China? A trade embargo? Scott Bessent: Well, they – I’m not sure what you mean by the word embargo. Question: 125 percent tariffs, like those that – and that includes imposed 84 percent. Isn’t this an embargo? Scott Bessent: Well, it’s not – look, it’s China’s decision that we have the deficit with them. They sell us almost five times what we sell them. So, again, I think it’s an own goal by China. Question: Mr. Secretary? Karoline Leavitt: Meredith. Question: Mr. Secretary, with this – does this signal that you’re confident that you’re going to be able to strike a satisfactory deal with all these 75 nations that approached you? Scott Bessent: It signals that President Trump cares about trade and that we want to negotiate in good faith. And as I said, each one of these is going to be a separate bespoke negotiation. So, we are confident that the, you know – having seen the other side of where this could go – And it was like I said last week, that the market didn’t understand those were maximum levels. Scott Bessent: The countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down their tariffs, their non-tariff trade barriers. We’re going to discuss currency manipulation, subsidy of labor and industry. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. Secretary – will the pause also to the sectoral tariffs that the president has announced; pharma, lumber, anything else? Scott Bessent: No, it’s on the reciprocal. Question: So, those will still be coming here soon, right? Karoline Leavitt: Correct. Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Andrea, go ahead. Question: Mr. Secretary, I want to ask you about the – the – what you’re doing here. So, the market is reacting crazily, right – Scott Bessent: I haven’t seen it. Question: Do you think that this move is going to change, calm down the market reaction? Karoline Leavitt: What? Question: Do you think the market – the markets have tanked, right? You – there’s been a lot of volatility in the market, um, not just in terms of stock markets but also in terms of price. So, will this move in your – in your – in your mind, do you anticipate that this is going to calm the markets down? Scott Bessent: Well, I think what we’ve seen – I think the willingness by more than 75 countries to come and negotiate. I think now the market understands that everything they saw last Wednesday was a ceiling and now we have a 10 percent – the temporary floor. And I think the market, in my 35 years in the market, I always wanted certainty. Scott Bessent: So, I think we’ve got more certainty. Question: But Mr. Secretary – Karoline Leavitt: Maggie. Maggie, go ahead. Question: Mr. Secretary, why do people assume this is the last word? The president began this morning saying we cool, five hours later, he announces a new policy. Why will investors in the market assume that this is it? Scott Bessent: Because again, as I said, we’ve given 90 days and the only certainty we can provide is that the US is going to negotiate in good faith and we assume that our allies will too. And in terms of certainty, we will see what China does. But what I am certain of, what I’m certain of, is that what China is doing will affect their economy much more than it will ours because they have an export driven, flood the world with cheap export models, and the rest of the world now understands because when we put up our tariff wall, those exports were already flowing to the rest of the G7 and to the global South. Question: Mr. Secretary – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. Secretary, how much of this decision was driven by the bond market cratering overnight? What is happening? Is China selling their bonds? Scott Bessent: I have nothing that says that and we actually had quite a good tenure auction today and all this was – again, this was driven by the president’s strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday and this was his strategy all along and that, you know, you might even say that he goaded China into a bad position. Scott Bessent: They – they responded, they have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors. And we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate. It wasn’t a hard message; don’t retaliate, things will turn out well. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: There’s an article saying that the countries weren’t getting calls back – These negotiations with these 75 countries, how long will that take? Will it be a matter of weeks? Will it be a matter of months? Do you expect financial markets to be stable during that time period? Scott Bessent: Well, we’ve started with a 90 day pause and we will see if more countries turn up, what will happen. But the – we have a meeting with Vietnam today and we have one of the largest trade deficits with them. So, I’m hoping it will move in a good direction. I was at the Japanese ambassador’s house last night for the Cherry Blossom Festival, which was quite festive, and they – he and I had a good chat. Scott Bessent: They are going to send a deal team over, so we’ll see. These are complicated negotiations. These are imbalances that have taken decades to create and – but I think having seen the maximum level that Donald Trump is willing to go to, President Trump has created this negotiating leverage. Question: Can you say – Karoline Leavitt: Excuse me, everybody. Excuse me? Note: [Crosstalk] Karoline Leavitt: Excuse me, the secretary – Excuse me, the secretary is obviously a very busy man. As he has said, he’s had more than 75 countries that the trade team has to respond to. I’d just like to end with this, for decades, Republicans and Democrats have said that these unfair trade practices are ripping off the American people, are ripping off our country, but nobody has ever done anything to address it. We finally have a president here at the White House who is playing the long game, who is doing what is right for the American worker and our industries here at home and he has put together a fantastic team and Secretary Bessent, Secretary Lutnick, the entire trade team who will be focusing on negotiating these good deals to put the American workers first, and we’re going to get to work to do that. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you, guys. Question: What about the EU, What about the EU?
Date: 2025-04-09
Donald Trump: You all set? Unidentified: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We just had a wonderful meeting with the greatest race car drivers in the world, and some really spectacular people that won the Indy 500 for the last, I guess, for the last four years or last two years. And Roger Penske is so incredible. And the Daytona winners and the Daytona 24-hour champions. Donald Trump: So it was really great to see him and to see those cars. Those cars are incredible. So there’s a lot of winning out there and we’re having a good day in the stock market, as you can see, an all-time record day and hopefully it continues. I think it should. Our country is stronger than it’s ever been and somebody had to do that. Donald Trump: We had to take the medicine. We had to go through the operation and that’s what we’ve been through. And a lot of presidents would not have done it. No president would have done it, I think, but it had to be done and I just want to thank my team. This team here and lots of others and Scott and Howard have been incredible. Donald Trump: And for energy, there’s nobody like this man and for the roads and highways, you’ve done well, Sean. So we appreciate it very much, appreciate it. And if we could, let’s see, we’re signing a lot of executive orders and some ambassadors have been approved. And we’re going to start that process right now. We’re honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, great state of Michigan, and she’s really done an excellent job and a very good person. Donald Trump: And we’re working on the Selfridge, as you know, the air base. We’re trying to get the air base open, keep it open. I think, Gretchen, if you’re there and Matt Hall, the speaker of the House of Michigan and he’s been fantastic as the speaker. I appreciate it. We won the state, Matt. Matt Hall: We did. Donald Trump: And you helped me a lot. Matt Hall: I did. And you made me many speaker, so thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: That’s good too. And Gretchen, I think everybody knows. So we’re working on that very hard and I think we’ll come home with a winner for Michigan, OK? I just spoke with the secretary of defense, sometimes we call him the secretary of war. It used to be called the secretary of war. They changed it when we became a little bit politically correct. Donald Trump: But I think we’re in great shape. We’re going to be in great shape. So thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much, Matt. Congratulations, great job. So we’ll start with the first orders and I think we have one for a man named Mike Huckabee. Does anyone know Mike Huckabee? Unidentified: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: He’s going to be a great ambassador to Israel and they’re thrilled to have him, that I can tell you. Go ahead. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. So the Senate confirmed Governor Huckabee to be your next ambassador to Israel earlier today. That’s his commission as ambassador. And then we also have a transmittal letter to the president of Israel, requesting that he accept Governor Huckabee’s, or excuse me, Ambassador Huckabee’s credentials. Donald Trump: He’s going to be fantastic. He’s going to bring home the bacon, even though bacon isn’t too big in Israel. Will Scharf: This is the third letter – Donald Trump: I had to clear that up. Unidentified: Well said. Donald Trump: OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Congratulations to Mike. Will Scharf: To Mike Huckabee. Yeah. Next, sir, this is a big one. As you’ve consistently identified, restoring our maritime dominance as a nation is very important, from shipbuilding to having a merchant marine that’s capable of supporting American military efforts really up and down the line, restoring maritime dominance has been a priority of this administration. Will Scharf: This executive order, which was prepared primarily by your National Security Council staff and National Security Advisor Walt, has a number of very significant policy steps, all aimed at restoring American maritime dominance and ensuring that we have the shipbuilding capacity and ability to compete globally, both militarily and in the civilian space as well. Donald Trump: And that could be a good one for Michigan too because we’re going to be spending a lot of money on shipbuilding. We’re way, way, way behind. We used to build a ship a day and now we don’t do a ship a year, practically, and we have the capacity to do it. So we’ll talk to you about that, OK, Matt? Think about that. Donald Trump: Matt’s a natural. OK. Shipbuilding, that’s a good one. OK. Thank you. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. The next executive order relates to defense procurement. Our current defense procurement process has been criticized by many folks on both sides of the aisle as being too slow, too slow to adapt to new and changing technologies, not delivering the sorts of weapons and systems that our warfighters need in order to compete on the battlefields of the future. Will Scharf: So with this executive order, we’re going to be modernizing the procurement structure the department of defense uses to allow it to more quickly adapt to changing circumstances around the world. And we’re also going to be launching a review of existing procurement programs to ensure that we’re getting value for the money and to ensure that we’re getting the best possible systems in the field. Donald Trump: And which are currently horrible, I’ll tell you. They’re horrible. That process is ridiculous, what they do. They get the highest price and not even good-looking equipment and we’re changing it. We’re going to change it to the best, so this is very important. And I want to say hello to Brooke. Brooke Rollins: Hi, sir. Donald Trump: Well, look at Brooke. She got the cost of eggs down 87 percent, 87 percent, Governor. We have somebody that’s done a great job at Department of Agriculture. And Kristi Noem, who perhaps a few of you have heard of. She has done the most unbelievable job as somebody that’s watching over our country at the border, and with Tom Homan and your whole staff of tremendous people. Donald Trump: So thank you. Kristi Noem: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Who would think that she’s – she is meant for that job, huh? She’s meant for it. I just saw you there, both. Thank you very much. Kristi Noem: Thank you. Donald Trump: OK. We’ll do it later, please. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Lastly, in the defense space, one persistent issue that we’ve had, in terms of the issue of foreign defense sales that we’re unable to provide weapon systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies of ours. And a key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which we approve foreign military sales. Will Scharf: So this executive order is going to direct your Department of Defense, Department of State and other relevant departments and agencies to rework our system of foreign defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment, creating American jobs and providing obviously revenue to American defense manufacturers, but provide key military equipment to our key allies in a reliable, effective way. Donald Trump: OK. That’s good, all very important. OK. Because our budget is just about approved and it’s a big budget and we want to spend the money properly, get the best equipment in the world. We rebuilt our military during my first term, rebuilt it entirely, beautiful, and then some was given away to Afghanistan so stupidly, the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, I think. Donald Trump: But we have to fix it up a little bit and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do a good job of it too. Thank you. Will Scharf: Next up, sir, we have a series of executive orders and a memorandum all relating to deregulation, which has obviously been a major priority of your administration. The first of these is an executive order. The Biden administration launched what you’ve called a war on showers. They had certain regulations that basically killed the water pressure of showers and other water appliances. Donald Trump: You can say it, go ahead. What are the appliances? Will Scharf: I mean, it’s everything, sir. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Will Scharf: Dishwashers toilets sinks, um, but the showerheads are a huge deal. Donald Trump: There’s no water. You don’t get water. It’s ridiculous. Will Scharf: So with this executive order we’re effectively going to be reversing that set of regulations to ensure that Americans have choice in the consumer market. If they want a low flow showerhead, they can buy one. If they want a real deal showerhead, they should have the ability to get one. Donald Trump: They don’t. Nobody wants it. You buy a new house. You pay a lot of money and the developers, you’re not allowed to do anything more. They put restrictions on. They used to have a restrictor where you could take it out, but now they weld it in and you take a shower or wash your hands, whatever you do, including dishwashers where no water comes out, but you wash your hands, and in my case, I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair. Donald Trump: I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet, it comes out, drip, drip, drip, it’s ridiculous. And what you do is you end up washing your hands five times longer. So it’s the same water and we’re going to open it up so that people can live. And we’re going to hopefully have Congress approve it, so it’s memorialized. Donald Trump: We’re going to try and get all of these things, including straws, a little things like straws. We did straws a month ago, where the paper straws were melting, they were dissolving. They weren’t working well and we went back to the plastic straws. We’re going to get Congress to memorialize just about everything we’ve done here because most of it is common sense. Donald Trump: But the water is horrible. When you go into a new – anytime you see a new faucet, you know it’s going to be a long wash of the hands and so we’re changing it. It’s a big deal. I did it in the first administration. Biden came in and his first week, and he had no idea what he was doing but somebody told him to do it. And his first week he put the restrictions on all the bathroom utilities. Donald Trump: Even in areas that have so much water, they don’t know what to do with it. You see those areas all the time with the flooding. So we’re doing that and we’re going to get all of the things that you’ve seen. I think we set a record. We’re up to almost 205 hundred amendments. Nobody’s ever done that. We’re going to get them approved by Congress, so they’re memorialized and we look forward to doing that, very important. Donald Trump: And Congress is going to start working on it as soon as we get the big beautiful deal done. The big beautiful deal is important. The biggest tax cuts in the history of our country, that’s important. OK. OK. Is that OK? Good. [Inaudible] Unidentified: [Inaudible] a good shower. It’s amazing. Donald Trump: We rate the signatures. That was a 10 [Inaudible] Will Scharf: This is another executive order relating to deregulation, sir. There are a lot of regulations on the books that either promote monopoly directly or prevent new market entrants from entering into a given market. The net effect of that is very negative for consumers. So what this executive order is going to do is direct your departments and agencies to work with the FTC, with the attorney general, with the department of justice to ensure that the regulations we have on the books don’t function as anti-competitive barriers to new market entrants. Will Scharf: The net effect of all of that is going to hopefully be market forces that that redound to the benefit of consumers and ordinary Americans as opposed to monopolistic businesses. Donald Trump: I said yesterday, he was a great, great student at Harvard before it went bad. It’s gone really bad now. I heard they’re teaching their students, mathematics, basic mathematics, can you believe it? So what does that mean? They’re allowing people in, they can’t add two and two? What’s going on at Harvard? Will Scharf: I went to law school there, sir, and it was pretty liberal when I was there, but it’s gone way off the deep end in recent years. Donald Trump: I don’t know if you read that. They’re teaching them basic mathematics, people that got accepted to Harvard. How come they got accepted, they don’t have mathematics? And we’re holding back $8 billion. Can we believe? We give Harvard $8 billion and we’re holding back Columbia, we’re holding back a lot of the schools because they were woke and they’ve hurt a lot of people. Donald Trump: OK. Thank you. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: OK. Will Scharf: There are a large number of regulations on the books. These are regulations that are currently in effect that we believe blatantly violate the law, blatantly violates Supreme Court precedent that otherwise are just blatantly illegal. So what this presidential memorandum does, basically just directs the heads of your departments and agencies to follow the law and to cease enforcing regulations that are blatantly illegal or unconstitutional. Donald Trump: That’s a big deal. It’s really very important that we get these memorialized. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Congress, very important for the long haul, right? Will Scharf: Yes, sir. This is the last of our deregulatory EOs for the day. This is zero based regulatory budgeting. The idea here is that over time, regulations accumulate on the books and in the Federal Register and people aren’t taking a close detailed look at what’s on the books and clearing them out as times change or as regulations become dated or ineffective. Will Scharf: What this executive order is going to require is each of your departments and agencies to scrutinize on a continuing rolling basis, all of the regulations they actually have on the books and sunset those that either no longer serve a purpose or the departments and agencies can’t identify a specific reason for keeping them active. Donald Trump: OK. OK. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Sir, you’ve taken action against a number of law firms that have in one way or another been involved in the weaponization of government or actions of lawfare. One of those law firms is Susman Godfrey. Similar to what we’ve done previously with other law firms, this is an executive order that takes certain measures against Susman Godfrey to ensure that they can’t access government resources, government buildings, scrutinizing certain aspects of their practices as a law firm, given their previous activities. Donald Trump: And we’ve signed with many law firms, the ones that we thought were inappropriate and they’ve all agreed to pay, let’s say $1 million. They went for some pretty big numbers. I guess we have a total – what do we have? What’s the total about? What’s the total right now, Steve, about would you say? Unidentified: Getting close to probably $600 million, $700 million now, I would think, multiple at $100 million, some at $125 million. So the numbers are adding up. We’re going to be close to a billion soon. Donald Trump: One at $40 million, $40 million. Millions of dollars an hour, but they don’t admit guilt. Remember that, they don’t admit guilt. And we have another five to go, I think five of them. And this one is just, we’re just starting a process with this one. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: All right, because there were some very bad things that happened with these law firms. Will Scharf: And this firm was very involved in the election misconduct. Donald Trump: Weren’t they all involved in the election misconduct? I think they were all involved. Will Scharf: Yes. Donald Trump: Anyway, so they went from $40 million to $125 million. And most of them were at about $100 million, right? All right. Thank you. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. The next presidential memorandum we have for you relates to Miles Taylor. You may recall that Miles Taylor served in the Department of Homeland Security during your previous administration. In his capacity with the Department of Homeland Security, he leaked classified information. He wrote a book under the pseudonym, Anonymous, making outrageous claims both about your administration and about others in it. What this presidential memorandum is going to do, one, it’s going to strip any act of clearance that he has in light of his past activities involving classified information. Will Scharf: It’s also going to order the Department of Justice to investigate his activities to see what else might come up in that context, given his egregious behavior during your previous administration. Donald Trump: And I had no idea who this guy was. I had no idea. I saw him on CNN, or one of them, I guess CNN, a lot. He’d be on all the time saying that the president this, the president – I had no idea. It’s like, in this office, you have a lot of young people and they’re here. I’ll see them for two minutes and I assume he was in the office, but I barely remember him. Donald Trump: I barely remember him. It was somebody that went out and wrote a book and said all sorts of terrible things that were all lies. And it was like he was this gentleman or that gentleman, like I dealt with him all the time. I had no idea who this guy – I said who the hell is, Miles Taylor? And he made a living on going on CNN, talking about the president. Donald Trump: And I think what he did, he wrote a book, Anonymous, said all sorts of lies, bad things. And I think it’s a traitor. It’s like spying. He walks into the office, he’s supposed to be sitting here – a lot of people, I’ll be here and they’ll be 20 people standing in the room. They’ll be oftentimes young people in the office. Donald Trump: I assume he was one of them, at least, but I didn’t know anything about him and he wrote a book, Anonymous, and I always thought it was terrible. And now we have a chance to find out whether or not it was terrible, but it was a work of fiction. And a lot of publicity, he got himself a nice job with CNN, or one of them. Donald Trump: And I think we have to do something about it. You can’t have that happen. If that happens to other presidents, it wouldn’t be sustainable for other presidents. I seem to be able to sustain, but if that happened to other presidents, I mean, it’s just unfair. And if it was a democrat president, I’d say that’s a terrible thing. Donald Trump: A thing like that can happen, that’s a terrible thing. And it’s time to find out whether or not somebody can do that. Can they write a book about very confidential meetings, because they happen to be one of a lot of people in a room and they go out and write a book, and worse than that, call it Anonymous, like it’s a big deal? Donald Trump: And everybody saying, who is it, who is it, who is it? Then it was found out who he was a long time later and he got a lot of publicity off that one. He’s like a promoter. But we’re going to find out whether or not somebody is allowed to do that. I think it’s a very important case and I think he’s guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth, but we’ll find out. Donald Trump: And I assume we’re recommending this to the Department of Justice? Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: OK. Good. Terrible guy. Will Scharf: Similarly, sir, Christopher Krebs, the former head of CISA, this is a man who weaponized his position against free speech in the election context and the context of COVID-19. This is another, it’s a similar presidential memorandum to the one you just signed. It addresses his access to government existing clearances he might have and further instructs your Department of Justice, other aspects of your government to investigate some of the malign acts that he participated in, while he was still head of CISA. Donald Trump: This is another one. I don’t know that I met him. I’m sure I met him, but I didn’t know him and he came out right after the election, which was a rigged election, a badly rigged election. We did phenomenally in that election. Look, what happened to our country because of it, open borders millions of people coming into our country. Donald Trump: Russia and Ukraine, that would have never happened. October 7th would have never happened. Afghanistan, the way that they withdrew with 13 dead, but so many killed, actually. I mean, so many killed outside of the 13 soldiers, hundreds of people killed and maybe, I don’t know, never mentioned, but I mentioned it 42 or 43 people so badly injured, the legs, the arms blown off, the face. Donald Trump: And this is all because of an incompetent group of people that preceded us, and that would have never happened. And this guy, Krebs, was saying, oh, the election was great, it was great. Well, it’s been proven that it was not only not great. When you look at all these lawyers and law firms that are signing, giving us hundreds of millions of dollars, it was proven by so many different ways, in so many different forms, from the legislature’s not approving to the 51 intelligence agents that worked from all of the different scamming operations. Donald Trump: It was a very corrupt election. They used COVID to cheat. And we’re going to find out about this guy too, because this guy’s a wise guy. He said, we would prove this is the most secure election in the history of our country. No, this was a disaster. And frankly, we should go to paper ballots, same-day voting, voter ID and one other thing, you should get a little certificate that says you’re a citizen of our country. Donald Trump: You get a citizen piece of paper that says you’re a citizen before you can vote. But you want voter ID and you want paper ballots and you really want same-day voting. If you don’t have same-day voting, they decide to change the air conditioner, oh, we’re fixing the air, let’s move all these boxes. We’ll bring them back in a few days and then they don’t bring back those boxes. Donald Trump: We got to have safe elections. We have to have borders. Ideally, we have to have a free press, which we don’t have. We don’t have a free press. We have a very dishonest press. It’s an honor. We’re going to find out whether or not he was right. This was a disgraceful election and this guy sat back, saying, well, I’m a member, like he’s a republican or something. Donald Trump: And almost right from the beginning and he’s tried to make the case that this election was a safe election. I think he said, this is the safest election we’ve ever had. And yet, every day you read in the papers about more and more fraud that’s discovered. He’s the fraud. He’s a disgrace. So we’ll find out whether or not it was a safe election. Donald Trump: And if it wasn’t, he’s got a big price to pay and he’s a bad guy. He’s another one. I have no idea who he is. Krebs, had no idea who he is. I’m sure he was in the room at some point, just like you’re all in the room, but I have no idea who he was. So thank you very much. Those last two are very important, I think, for the country. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. And lastly, we just have three proclamations. These are the sorts of things that most presidents use an autopen for. You obviously don’t like using the autopen much, if at all. The first of these is National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. This is one that you did in each of, I believe, each of the years of your previous administration. Will Scharf: It recognizes former prisoners of war. More generally, this proclamation is written uh to acknowledge the great steps you’ve made both in this administration and your previous administration on behalf of veterans, homeless veterans, others who have suffered in that way. And basically, stating that it’s a priority of your administration to ensure that veterans and homeless veterans are cared for properly. Donald Trump: Good. And you know what, they ought to find out who was using that autopen. Because whoever that person was, he or she was like the president of the United States and I’m against autopens. I think autopens are not a good thing, especially when you’re talking about documents like we’re signing today. If he can’t sign, then he can’t be president. Donald Trump: It’s pretty simple. Let’s see whether or not he could sign, but I think that should be tested. I really think that should be tested. It’s another one, and you may think about it, because how can a man that – did he really know that when they gave all false information on the council, I mean, the whole unselect Committee of political lunatics, they destroyed all the information. Donald Trump: You can’t get any information. They went for like a year and a half, almost two years, screaming and ranting and raving, democrats plus two worse than democrats. You had Cheney, Liz Cheney and crying Adam Kinzinger, crying Adam. Every time I looked at him, he was crying. The guy was a crier, but you can’t do that. Donald Trump: You just can’t do that. So we’re going to find out a lot. I think we’re going to find out a lot. These last three or four have been very – they’ve been very, very interesting. We’ll see what happens. Unidentified: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: But I don’t think a president should be allowed to use an autopen when they’re signing very important legislation. I think a President should sign it, not use an autopen. And we’re going to find out whether or not he knew what the hell he was doing. I’m sure at this point, he’ll say, I signed it. They’ll tell him what to say. Donald Trump: But to give pardons to people that destroyed all the information if you destroyed information on a civil case. Just a civil case, not a criminal case, a civil case, they put you in jail for that. And they found out that Pelosi was the one that was in charge of the security of the Capitol. She knew all about it and she admitted her guilt to her daughter, who was a movie documentary person. Donald Trump: I’m sure her daughter is not too happy about that. I’m sure crazy Nancy’s not too happy, but we found out all the things, everything. And we go for the information, sir, we’ve destroyed all of that information. If I ever destroyed it, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. I guarantee you that. I’d be sitting someplace else. Donald Trump: So I think it’s something that we should really look at because that’s so important. The whole concept of an autopen, because autopens are run by somebody. Whoever ran the autopen was president of the United States and I would be willing to bet that Biden didn’t know, probably didn’t know anything about any of it. Very dangerous, very dangerous. Donald Trump: So you’re going to check that out, right? Unidentified: Yes, sir. We’re working on it right now, sir. Will Scharf: This is just another proclamation, sir, declaring national crime victims’ rights week. You’ve obviously made it a major priority of your administration to track down and at times, deport criminals who have committed violence on our streets who have victimized so many people. This is an annual proclamation that hopefully gets Americans to remember that when crimes occur, there are real victims. Will Scharf: There are real people who are affected and there are people who suffer as a result. Donald Trump: OK. It’s very important. Thank you. I just want to add, so we’re working very hard with the democrats, the governor, with Matt Hall, with a lot of transportation, Sean and all of the people trying to keep Selfridge Air Force Base open, strong, thriving, and I think we’re going to be successful. Governor, I think we’ll be very successful that. Donald Trump: We’ve gotten some good feedback from Pete Hegseth and Department of Defense, and they’re talking about F-16s. They’re talking about F-35s, etc. It’s a great piece of property. It’s a great location and it’s a great state. So I think we’re going to come back with a very good answer. We’re also working on a certain fish that’s taken over a beautiful lake called Michigan, right? Donald Trump: And that’s a tough one. That’s a tough one. Do you want to just talk about that? Matt Hall: Sure, Mr. President. Yeah, first of all, I want to thank you for caring so much about Michigan. We’ve been working a long time. We couldn’t get Joe Biden to do anything about either one of these issues, particularly Selfridge Air Force Base. It’ll be critical to Michigan’s economy and our security, when you’re able to deliver us another mission there. Matt Hall: But on the Asian carp, for years when Obama was there, we could never get anyone to do anything about this invasive species that’s going to destroy our Great Lakes. You know how important recreational fishing and so much of that is to our state. Because of your work, we’re hopeful that we’ll get a solution there and we’ll get that barrier built so we can protect our Great Lakes. Matt Hall: So thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: And they’re very powerful fish. I mean, I see them. They jump out of the water. They jump at the fishermen. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it. And has this gotten into any of the other lakes yet? Because you would think it would be pretty easy because they’re all sort of connected. Governor? Gretchen Whitmer: It’s why we’re working so hard to make sure that you know, we work with the Army Corps and erect a barrier so that the Asian carp can’t get into Lake Michigan. It’ll devastate the ecosystem, the economy, tourism. And it’s 20 percent of the world’s fresh water is in the Great Lakes, Mr. President, which is why it’s so important that as a nation, we protect the pristine waters. Donald Trump: We better stop that now. Gretchen Whitmer: Yeah. Donald Trump: And you know, all of a sudden, I assume the lakes are all interconnected, right? So at some point they’re going to be in the other lakes and so we’re going to work hard on that. I spoke with the Army Corps of Engineers and they have a method. It’s a pretty gruesome method, but it’s a method, and I think they know what to do. So we’re going to work on that very hard. Donald Trump: And thank you, Governor, very much. It’s sort of a bipartisan thing when you get right down to it. It’s a very expensive thing, actually, costs a lot. I looked at the numbers. I said, wow, but we have to save Lake Michigan because these fish, they eat everything in their way, including the other fish. They eat everything. Donald Trump: Are people endangered by the fish? Matt Hall: I mean, they’re going to eat all the fish there. We won’t be able to fish anymore. And that’s a big deal in Lake Michigan. There’s a lot of fishing, recreation. So it’s going to be a problem there. But you’re right, it’s bipartisan, sir. But you’re the one taking action on these issues. Matt Hall: We couldn’t get Biden to do it on Selfridge. This thing has been delayed for, what, 15 years, where we were trying to do it. It started under Obama where we were trying to do it. He wouldn’t do anything about it. So we appreciate you paying so much attention to this and taking action, sir. Donald Trump: Well, I would – and the governor, in all fairness, called me about it. And I had seen it and she called me and John James called me and we spoke with your office. And I want to put that down, really is bipartisan. It’s great to see it, actually. It’s great to see that, and that includes Selfridge too. And we’re going to get it done and we’ll all stand there together and cut a ribbon. Donald Trump: OK? Gretchen? Good. That’s good. Thank you very much. Gretchen Whitmer: Thank you. Donald Trump: I’m glad you brought it up and I’m glad you brought it up, Matt, appreciate it. And I know you two get along pretty well, right? Gretchen Whitmer: Yeah, about 70 percent of the time. Donald Trump: All right, good. We’ll have something to celebrate pretty soon. So I’m pretty sure about that. OK? Matt Hall: Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you, Gretchen. Thank you very much. OK. Do you have any questions? Question: Mr. President, where does the TikTok deal stand, given what we’ve seen, we know the tariffs in China? Donald Trump: Well, it’s moving along, but obviously, I would say right now, China is not exactly thrilled about signing it. We have a deal with some very good people, some very rich companies that would do a great job with it. But we’re going to have to wait to see what’s going to happen with China. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: No, it’s on the table very much. I think China’s going to want to do it, actually. Question: Mr. President, can you explain more of what you believe is the end game with China? Are you waiting for President Xi to blink? How do you think this is all going to be resolved? Donald Trump: No. Look, for years, we’ve been ripped off and taken advantage of by China and others in all fairness, but by China, that’s the big one. And it’s just one of those things. You know, we’re making $2 billion a day right now in this country, $2 billion a day with tariffs, and they were making $2 billion a day. Donald Trump: We’ll be making more now when you see what happened today. I don’t know if it’s still there. I looked an hour ago, but we were up like close to 3,000 points. Nobody’s ever seen a day like that. I think that’s a record, isn’t it, fellas? Unidentified: Definitely. Donald Trump: Is that a record? Who would have thought we were going to have a record like that after watching? But because the geniuses of the world, they get it. Our country is very strong. We were left a very, very weakened country, both economically, financially because of all of the tariffs and all of the other companies just raiding us and ripping us off. Donald Trump: And also at the border, where 21 million people are allowed to come in. Many of those people were criminals, but the people that do this for a living, some of them are very smart, and some of them aren’t smart at all. But these guys are very smart and my group is very smart. My whole group is smart. And you’ve done so amazing on the boarder. Donald Trump: I read the other day that there were nine people and hundreds of thousands, two years ago with Biden, and we had nine. We had it down to nine and they were all let in for medical reasons. They were in bad shape. We let them in for medical reasons, not even for anything else. So you’ve been amazing, but that’s a big thing. Donald Trump: I think it’s one of the greatest problems. I’ve never seen anything like it, open borders. The whole world was emptied out, prisons from all over the world, from the Congo, in Africa, from Africa to Asia, a lot in South America. But it wasn’t just South America. Prisons emptied out, and I said it outside with the drivers before, but El Salvador has been amazing. Donald Trump: The job that the president has done. He’s coming to see me next week, and we look forward to that. But that’s really been amazing. Yes? Question: Mr. President, the EU also announced increases in tariffs today. Why not treat – Donald Trump: That’s bad timing for them. That’s bad timing. Question: Why not – Unidentified: They said they didn’t put them in. No, they threatened them but they picked a later, which our expectation is, it’s going to be later still. Donald Trump: OK. Good. I’m glad that they held back. Question: You said you were watching the markets. If this was the strategy all along to bring them to the table, why did you instruct, or advise, or maybe they did it on their own, some of your top aides, to say this is not a negotiation, to hold the line, that they were going to hold the line, that you were not going to change your mind? Donald Trump: Well, a lot of times it’s not a negotiation until it is and that happens. And I said outside that you have to have flexibility to do it right, and that’s what we have. We brought everybody to the table and it may not be a negotiation. It may not last. I mean, you know things may be as that I think are not fair to us. Look, we’ve been ripped off by, essentially, everybody for 35 years. Donald Trump: This is not just a new thing. And Roger Penske just left. He’s a great gentleman, a great man, actually. And he said no other president would have had the guts to do this. And I believe that’s right. They wouldn’t have done it. They should have done this a long time ago, a long time ago, they should have done – I started it with China. Donald Trump: I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and taxes from China in my first term and we had the greatest economy. We were up 88 percent on the stock market. That was the greatest ever in the history of our country, but it had to be done, something that had to be done. Question: Mr. President, thank you so much. Which countries will be negotiating first? Do you have any criteria, because, for example, Brazil and the UK, they do not have deficits with the US. They have a surplus, they do not have a surplus, they have deficits with the US. So what is the criteria? And also, would you consider talking or meeting with Xi Jinping? Donald Trump: Oh, sure, I would. He’s a friend of mine. I like him. President Xi, I like him. I respect him, but they haven’t treated our country right. Sure, I’d meet with him. On the other countries, Japan is here and South Korea is here, and others are here and we’re trying to see them. From what I hear, it’s much more than 75. I said 75 plus. Unidentified: So many. Donald Trump: Everybody wants to make a deal, actually. And we want to do what’s right for our country. We also want to do what’s right for the world. The world is important. I mean, it’s the world, right? And I think we’re going to make a lot of people very happy. And I think investing in the United States of America will be the greatest investment that anybody’s ever made. Question: Mr. President, [Inaudible] see the sectoral tariffs, so the pharmaceuticals, steel, is that something you’re still considering moving forward will? Donald Trump: Yeah, well I will be because we want them coming back. We realized during COVID, that we don’t make our drugs and our pharmaceuticals in this country. So I realized that and it was a big realization. We had to go to China to get drugs. We had to go to other places. I won’t even mention the names, but we had to go to other places. Donald Trump: We don’t make it and that’s because we let them leave. And now, if they want to come back, we’re going to put tariffs on the pharmaceutical companies and they’re going to all want to come back. They’re going to come back. I’m not going to pay them any money, like Biden with the chip deal. That chip deal was horrible. Donald Trump: They give billions and billions of dollars to chip companies. All they have is money. They have so much money and they give billions of dollars and they’re just going to keep the money. They’re not going to spend it. The only thing that’s going to bring them back is you say, we have a barrier, you have to pay 50 percent or 100 percent or 200 percent. Donald Trump: And if they have to pay that, they’re going to say, we’re not going to pay that, we’re going to build here and that’s what happened. We have the biggest, most prestigious chip company in the world spending $200 billion to $300 billion, billion. Think of that, billion dollars to build essentially one massive plant. Donald Trump: It will be one of the largest plants in the world and we’re going to get them very quickly. We’re going to get them energy. We’re going to get them the electricity they need and the energy that they need and it will be approved by Lee Zeldin, a total professional, and it will be approved very quickly. And they’ll get their zoning very quickly. Donald Trump: They’ll have everything done in a matter of months. Question: Thank you, sir. You’ve procured a record amount of private sector investments since your election, $7 trillion. You talked about the importance of all that. Can you talk about how these investments will have a positive impact on families who felt like the previous economy left them behind? And why your executive orders on coal yesterday is so important given the amount of manufacturing that you’re ushering back in? Donald Trump: Well, thank you, which is correct. We have, I would say more than $7 trillion now of investment coming in. Apple is coming in for $500 billion alone. We have other companies coming in with massive numbers. We have car companies that are coming in. We’ve never seen anything like it, maybe in the 1940s or 50s or something, but we’ve never seen anything like it. They had three plants canceled in Mexico, not that we want to hurt Mexico, but we’re for us and that’s what my job is. It’s not to take care of other countries, but I want to help other countries as much as I can. Donald Trump: But we have to take care of America first and it’s about America first. So we have many, many companies coming in that would have never come in if we didn’t win the election and then put the tariffs on. And they’re coming in because when they build in the United States, there are no tariffs. You don’t have to pay any tariffs. Donald Trump: So instead of paying 30, 40, 50 percent or 25 percent, but it could go a lot higher in some of the industries. So we have steel mills right now that are raging. The steel industry has gone – if I didn’t put the tariffs on steel, because China was dumping massive amounts of steel in my first term and I put tariffs on it. I saved the steel industry. Donald Trump: But now it’s going to thrive, maybe like never before. I mean, if you go back to US steel from 90 years ago, it’s incredible. It’s the number one company in the world for a long time. That’s why we don’t want to see it go to Japan. And we love Japan, but US steel is a very special company. We don’t want it to go to Japan or any other place. Donald Trump: So we’re working with them and I don’t know if they need any money now. I’ll be honest with you, they hit gold. They hit gold because if you look at it, they have such orders for steel now it’s incredible. What’s going on in our country is incredible, with respect to plants. So we lost 90,000 plants and factories from the beginning of NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made in the history of this world. Donald Trump: But certainly, in the history of trade. There’s never been a worse trade deal. We were able to cancel that. We had to get approval from Congress. It was like it was a disastrous curse because you you had to go to Congress to get it terminated. You couldn’t just terminate it because it was a bad deal and you had people in Congress that didn’t want to do it because they had other reasons, maybe bad reasons. Donald Trump: They’re mostly not there anymore, those people. But it’s amazing what’s happened. I appreciate that question because it’s an incredible. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it, $7 trillion. And it’s much more than that, because these are places that we know. $7 trillion is unheard of. I never looked at the Biden numbers, but you could go a whole year and it was peanuts. Donald Trump: Everybody was leaving. They weren’t coming in. They were leaving and that means jobs are leaving. And so we’re not playing games. We’re going to make this country greater than ever before. Thank you for that question. Question: Mr. President, it seems that China – Donald Trump: Let her just do that and we’ll get you. Question: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Thanks. For the past few days, we’ve heard from this administration no pause. Was this idea of doing a pause, did that just come about this morning? Can you tell us exactly what came into consideration for you and your advisors? Donald Trump: For a period of time. I wouldn’t say this morning. Over the last few days I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been dealing with Scott with Howard with some other people that are very professional. And I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning, just wrote it up. We didn’t have the use of – we didn’t have access to lawyers or we just wrote up – we wrote it up from our hearts, right? Donald Trump: It was written from the heart and I think it was well written too, but it was written from the heart. It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us. And we don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate. The only problem is you can only do so many at one time. Donald Trump: We want to do it right. We want to get it right. We want to take care of them, but we have to take care of our country. But this was something, certainly, we’ve been talking about for a period of time and we decided to pull the trigger. And we did it today and we’re happy about it. I didn’t know it would have that kind of an impact, but I think, have the biggest increase in the history of the stock market. Donald Trump: That’s pretty good. You’re almost, if you keep going, you’re going to be back to where it was four weeks ago. But it was a sick market four weeks ago, because this trade was sick. It was only a question of time. I don’t blame the tariffs. I think the tariffs just sort of magnified what was happening. It was sick. Donald Trump: Biden allowed these people to get away with murder. Biden allowed China to just take advantage of us. We had, like, $1 trillion deficit with China, trillion dollar deficit. So that was going to only be a matter of time. I think the tariffs brought it out faster and they magnified the problem. But I think this was a problem that existed far beyond tariffs. Donald Trump: This was a systemic problem and we’re going to cure that problem. And maybe to a large extent, we have because we’ve revealed it and we’ve revealed it very strongly. Yes, sir, please. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. So it seems China has made some serious missteps here in these negotiations. And Secretary Bessant said earlier, you may have goaded them into a tough position here. I’m wondering, are you in a way putting together a coalition against China in terms of trade here? Donald Trump: No, no. China, look, they’re very capable and I don’t blame China for what happened. I blame the people sitting right at this desk, right behind this desk or another desk. You get your choice of seven. I happen to pick the resolute. But I blame the people sitting behind in this chair, behind this desk for being stupid incompetent or not having courage. Donald Trump: This should have been done years ago. This should have been done before Obama, in all fairness. Not only Biden, Obama. It should have been done many years ago. This started with the World Trade Organization, which was owned by China. It was owned and paid for by China. They didn’t even have to do things. Donald Trump: They considered them a nation that was undeveloped. They said they were a developing nation. Well, we’re a developing nation too, if you think about it. Look at our inner cities, look at what’s happened. I think we’re starting from ground zero there, right? So we’re a developing nation too. No, I know a lot of people take heat for saying it, but I blame the people sitting at this desk more than I blame China. Donald Trump: If China can get away with what they got away with, with taking hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars right out of our pocket because our people here were stupid, they were stupid people, maybe corrupt. I don’t know. I don’t know how you can be that stupid. How do you get to be president and you’re stupid? Donald Trump: But they certainly weren’t courageous and they allowed this to happen. And with Japan and with many other countries that took advantage of us. I mean, we had deficits with almost every country. I used to read these things. The first time I’d read them, I’d actually read the agreements, I’d say how could anybody agree to this stuff? Donald Trump: So certainly, they were rough and they were tough and they were smart and you can blame them, but I really blame the people that allowed them to do it. Because if you could read first grade, and you could read these agreements, you’d say these are terrible deals. I actually used to say, who would allow deals like this to be made for our country? Donald Trump: And maybe it’s people that didn’t care. Maybe it’s people that weren’t courageous. Maybe it’s people that were corrupt, I don’t know. But I blame those people more than I blame anybody else. Question: Mr. President, you’ve been very specific in saying that you would like the EU to purchase US energy. Is there something specific that you would like China to do? Donald Trump: Well, you’ll be hearing about that. Yeah. There are a lot of things I’d like China to do. Question: Are there some examples? Donald Trump: There are a lot of things that I want China to do and I’ll be telling China what that is, not you. I’ll be telling China. Question: Mr. President, on Iran, you said the other day that if they do not agree to a potential nuclear deal, that it would be very dangerous for them? What specifically did you mean? Donald Trump: Well, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. Question: Did you mean military action, though, if they don’t agree? Donald Trump: Oh, if necessary? Absolutely, yeah. Question: Sir, do you have a deadline for these talks? Donald Trump: Yeah, I do. You’re talking about with Iran? Question: Yes. Donald Trump: Yeah, I do. Question: Do have something definitive this weekend or do you see this as the start of a process? Donald Trump: It’s a start. Question: Do you have a timeline? Donald Trump: We have a little time, but we don’t have much time because we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. And we’re going to let them thrive. I want them to thrive. I want Iran to be great. The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon. They understand that. Donald Trump: The people are so incredible in Iran and they’re so smart. They’re very smart people and they’re in a rough situation, rough regime, but they understand and the leaders understand. And I’m not asking for much. I just, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. And I’ve said that and I was a little bit surprised because when the election was rigged, I figured they’d get the weapon because with me, they were broke. Donald Trump: They were broke. They had no money because of the sanctions. Nobody could buy oil. We did that to Venezuela just recently and we’ll do it to other countries if we have to. I want to see Russia and Ukraine make a deal. They got to make a deal. When schools get blown up and bad things happen like I’m hearing about, it’s no good. Donald Trump: I hope we’re going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine. But with Iran, yeah, if it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. They’ll be the leader of that, but nobody leads us. We do what we want to do. Question: [Inaudible] on the talks? Donald Trump: Say? Question: When would the talks need to conclude before you might [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I can’t really be specific, but when you start talks, you know if they’re going along well or not. And I would say the conclusion would be when I think they’re not going along well, so that’s just a feeling. Question: Mr. President, on the subject of US troops stationed in Europe, do you have any plans to reduce the number of US troops in Europe or in other NATO countries? Donald Trump: Well, it could. I mean, it depends. We pay for military over in Europe. We don’t get reimbursed by much, South Korea too. So it will be one of the things we discuss. That’s unrelated to trade, but I think we’ll make it part of it because it makes sense. It’d be nice to wrap it all up in one package for each country. Donald Trump: It’s nice and clean and we have plenty of law firms. These are great law firms that we signed with, the best. And I think part of the way I’ll spend some of the money that we’re getting from the law firms, in terms of their legal time, will be, if we can do it, I think we can do it, using these great law firms to represent us with regard to the many, many countries that we’ll be dealing with. Donald Trump: We have good lawyers representing us, but we want to have good lawyers. And these are considered the best lawyers in the world, right, I mean consider the best in the world. I don’t know. They just went off a little bit. Question: Mr. President, two questions. On Iran. Do you have an update on who will be participating or conducting these conversations? Will [Inaudible] be there on Saturday for these direct talks? And on China, some economists are saying that right now is technically an embargo on China with 125 percent tariffs. Are you concerned of escalation beyond the trade war with China? Donald Trump: No, I’m not concerned. I think President Xi is a very smart guy and I think we’ll end up making a very good deal for both. But we’ve been treated so badly for so many years. Again, we allowed that to happen. We’ve been treated so badly for so many years. But no, I don’t expect that. I think President Xi is one of the very smart people of the world and I don’t think he’d allow that to happen. Donald Trump: And we’re very powerful. This country is very powerful. Let me tell you, it’s far more powerful than people understand. We have weaponry that nobody has any idea what it is and it is the most powerful weapons in the world that we have, more powerful than anybody even – not even close. So nobody’s going to do that, but I think that, if that’s what you’re referring to, maybe it’s not, but just in terms of basic escalation, which is what you said. Donald Trump: No, I think that President Xi is a man who knows exactly what has to be done. He’s a very smart man. He loves his country. I know that for a fact. I know him very well and I think he’s going to want to get to a deal. I think that’s going to happen. We’ll get a phone call at some point and it’ll be off to the races. Donald Trump: It will be a great thing for them. It will be a great thing for us. It’s going to be a great thing for the world and for humanity. Question: Do you have plans to meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia. Donald Trump: Yeah, at some point, I would. Yeah. At some point. We’ll have to see. I mean, we have to get there. Right now, we got to get there. In the meantime, they’re losing 2,500 on average, young people every single week. Think of that, 2,500 people a week. It’s not even conceivable. We got to get there fast. Just a couple more. Donald Trump: Yes? Question: [Inaudible] to increase tariffs on China even more before they come to the table or give you a call? Donald Trump: I can’t Imagine it. No, I can’t imagine it. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ll have to do it. I don’t think we’ll have to do it more. We calculated it very carefully. By the way, when you hear 100, a lot of a lot of people charged much more than that. Canada charges much more than that to our farmers, our dairy farmers. Many people charge much more than 100, or 125 in this case, but it’s still a significant number. Donald Trump: No, I don’t see that. Go ahead. Yeah, please. Question: Yeah, Mr. President, so do you think some of your tariff critics would prefer to see the United States go through turmoil than to actually see it succeed just because they are your policies? Donald Trump: You mean just leave the tariffs the way they are now and just relax, right? Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: Some people have said that. Look, again we’re making, it will be soon much more than $2 billion a day. That’s not the worst thing that I’ve ever heard. So yeah, some people say that, but we look at the other side too. I think as the United States, we have an obligation to look also at the other side. We want what’s good for everyone. Donald Trump: I mean, it’s America first, but we also want to make sure there’s a world that can live and live happily and all of that. And so that’s the way I look – no, but there are people that say look where we are now, I’ve been in worse positions in my life than making $2 billion a day plus, plus, right? It’s really plus, plus. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. Aide: Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Headed out. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Question: [Inaudible] the markets are what really changed your mind when it came to [Inaudible] Donald Trump: The markets right now are extremely good. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Aide: Thank you. Thank you, press. Thank you. Thank you, guys.
Date: 2025-04-09
Donald Trump: Hello everybody. Unidentified: Mr. President, it’s great to see you again. Donald Trump: Great to see you. Unidentified: And you know [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Good to see you again. Unidentified: Thanks again for last night. Donald Trump: How was last night, huh? Unidentified: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Oh, the sausages, boy. They really, they were fantastic. Unidentified: You were terrific. Unidentified: [Inaudible] Unidentified: Thank you, yeah. Unidentified: You got the market seeing your billions. It’s – Donald Trump: Yeah, it’s up almost seven points. 2500 points. Nobody’s ever heard of it. It’s going to be a record. Unidentified: It’s amazing. Unidentified: Yeah. Yeah. Unidentified: Are you making an announcement, the next – Donald Trump: Let’s go. Unidentified: Yes, sir. That’s smart. Donald Trump: The cameras are gonna get the cars. Unidentified: Yes sir. Absolutely. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Hello, everybody. How are you? These are nice cars. Is this the car? Unidentified: Yes. This is the car. Unidentified: Yep. Ryan from last year. [Inaudible] So, pretty, pretty amazing job he’s done. So, this is the team behind him here. Donald Trump: Pretty amazing. Fantastic. How are you? Good to see you. Unidentified: Great. Unidentified: Mr. President, thanks for having us. Unidentified: Thanks for having us. Donald Trump: Congratulations. Unidentified: Thank you for what you’re doing for our country. Donald Trump: Thank you. We had to do it. Somebody had to do it, right? Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. We have a very special day for a lot of reasons, actually, if you really think about it, but this is a day because Roger Penske is a great friend of mine. I’ve known him a long time. He received, a few years ago, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award in the country outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Donald Trump: It’s sort of the civilian version of the Congressional Medal of Honor. And I watched him win his 18th Indianapolis 500. And now, I just said, did you win 19? He said, well, actually we won 20. He won two more since then. So that was like five years ago and he won two more since then and just well deserving. Donald Trump: If you look, Germany, Japan, the countries, they spend billions of dollars trying to win Indy. And I guess they do it sometimes, but not much, but he’s done it 20 times, fellas. So he must know something about cars and racing and trucks too, by the way. He knows a lot about trucks, but he’s been a very special guy and he’s brought some of our outstanding racing champions with tremendous courage and guts and grit. Donald Trump: Hello, fellas. I didn’t see you guys over there. That’s a good-looking couple of teams too. They have a lot of courage and we’ll see you in a second. So we’re joined by the 2023, 2024 NASCAR champion, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano. That’s really fantastic, fellas. That’s great. How fast do you get that car going, like, as an example? Donald Trump: On average, how fast will you go – Unidentified: About 190. Donald Trump: About 190. You can have it. I don’t want to go – 190, that’s fantastic. And on a straightaway, you’ll go how much? Unidentified: About 190-200. Donald Trump: 190 to 200. Well, it takes a special genetic, you know that, right? It’s genes, not only – it’s genes, really. Most people couldn’t do that. Very few people could do it. The 2023 and 2024 Indianapolis 500 winner, Josef Newgarden. We’ll come see you in a second, Josef. And the 2025 champions of the 24 Hours of Daytona, Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Lawrence Ventor. Donald Trump: Thank you, fellas. This is just a celebration of racing and it’s a celebration of Roger and his great success and his life and these incredible champions, who really do what very few people could do, mentally, psychologically. It’s a big factor here like it is in all sports really, but you need a great physical ability. Donald Trump: People that do this, they don’t realize what great athletes they are. It’s just not the car. I had a friend, he’s a very successful guy, but he was a driver and started off, he wanted to be a race car driver. He wanted to be like you. He wanted to be like just like Joey Logano and he had it for business, but he didn’t have it for the – he said, I just couldn’t compete with the good drivers. Donald Trump: He couldn’t do it no matter what he did and he got lucky. He went into business, he made a lot of money, he was very successful. But he said, I couldn’t press the accelerator down all the way and the best drivers could, so there was just a difference. I never forgot that story. But these are great champions and it’s a great sport and what you’ve done in Indianapolis, also, with the track and everything has been incredible. Donald Trump: I mean, it’s really incredible. People tell me it’s been amazing. I’ll have to get there. I’m going to have to get there, maybe this year with you. Unidentified: Very good. You have an open invitation. Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. Thank you and we did Daytona. We went around the track in the beast, what’s called the beast with the thick windows and the whole thing and you’re not supposed to hear anything, but I heard the fans, they were going crazy outside. So it was a great honor. So I just wanted to welcome them to the White House. Donald Trump: It’s a special place, very, very special place and we love champions and these are the greatest champions in the world. These are the greatest champions in racing and it’s an honor to have you all. And thank you very much, all of you. Thank you very much. I wouldn’t ride in that thing if you paid me. How fast will that go? Unidentified: 240, plus. Donald Trump: 240 Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: That’s unbelievable. Unidentified: It’s a weapon. Donald Trump: Two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, consecutively, right? Unidentified: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: So what the hell are you doing? What do you eat? [Inaudible] Unidentified: A lot of milk. I drink a lot of milk, hopefully. Donald Trump: I’m going to take some. And that one is pure speed and endurance, right? Unidentified: Correct, sir. Donald Trump: Speed and endurance. Is that car a very different car than, let’s say, this one, very different? Unidentified: Very different. Donald Trump: Very different. Made for – Unidentified: They to last so many hours, and we all share the car, so three drivers. Donald Trump: Totally different engine? Unidentified: Different engine, Donald Trump: Everything is different? Unidentified: Everything. Donald Trump: And you go, is it 24 hours? Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: That’s a long time. And that car just – there’s no letup, there’s no – it’s just constant, right? Congratulations. That’s endurance. Endurance is a big factor in life and success, I can tell you. So you guys have it. Well, thank you very much. Would you like to ask Roger or any of these champions any questions while we’re here? Question: Mr. President. I have a question for you if you don’t mind? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: You started the morning saying be cool – Donald Trump: Be cool. Question: And then a few hours later there was a pause put in on the tariffs. Can you walk us through your thinking about why you decided to put a 90-day pause on tarrifs? Donald Trump: Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy. You know? They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid, unlike these champions because we have a big job to do. No other president would have done what I did, no other president. I know the presidents. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t have done it and it had to be done. What was happening to us on trade not only with, if you look at it, not only with China, but China was by far the biggest abuser in history. And others also, but somebody had to do it. They had to stop because it was not sustainable. Last year, China made $1 trillion off trade with the United States. Donald Trump: That’s not right. And now I’ve reversed it. It’s for a short period of time, but we made $2 billion. We’re making now $2 billion a day. And somebody had to do it. Roger, actually, said it, Charles Schwab was here a little while ago, one of the great financial people. And he said, he’s been waiting for 40 years for somebody to do what I did over the last month. Donald Trump: And if you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t have a country. It wouldn’t be sustainable. So I’m honored to have done it. And look, nothing’s over yet. But we have a tremendous amount of spirit from other countries, including China. China wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how quite to go about it. It’s one of those things, they don’t know quite. Donald Trump: They’re proud people and President Xi’s a proud man. I know him very well and they don’t know quite how to go about it, but they’ll figure it out. They’re in the process of figuring it out, but they want to make a deal. And we have many other countries, as you know, many more than 75, and they all want to come and they want to come here or they’ll go to Commerce or they’ll go to Treasury. Donald Trump: We have our great senators here and congressmen. They’ll call John. They’ll do somebody, they’ll go through somebody. But they’re all calling, how do we do this? They all want to make a deal. Somebody had to do what we did and I did a 90-day pause for the people that didn’t retaliate. Because I told them if you retaliate, we’re going to double it. And that’s what I did with China because they did retaliate. Donald Trump: So we’ll see how it all works out. I think it’s going to work out amazing. I think that our country is going to be, at the end of a year or shorter, but I think we’re going to have something that nobody would have dreamt possible. A man like Roger Penske, I don’t want to get him in trouble with China, so I won’t, but he would know that someday you have to cut the bow and you have to do what you have to do, right, Roger? Donald Trump: And that’s what I did and I’m very happy to have done it. Question: Mr. President, was there anyone – The prime minister of Greece just told Breitbart’s Matt Boyle that he thinks absolutely, the European Union and the United States could work out a trade deal that’s win-win and quote, mutually beneficial to both sides. Donald Trump: I agree. Question: What do you think about the prime minister’s comments and do you think a deal could be struck with the European Union? Donald Trump: First of all, I know him, he’s a good man and I appreciate his comments. Yeah, a deal can be made with every one of them. A deal is going to be made with China. A deal is going to be made with every one of them and they will be fair deals. I just want fair. They will be fair deals for everybody, but they weren’t fair to the United States. Donald Trump: They were sucking us dry and you can’t do that. We have $36 trillion of debt for a reason. We don’t have a debt for fun. They have it for a reason and people took advantage of our country and they ripped us off for decades. I’ve been thinking about this for decades. If you ever saw me on television, I was young like these guys and it was a good old days. Donald Trump: I’ll tell you, Roger, but I was like these guys, young, and I was talking about it. Nothing changed and nothing was done about it. Then I did it in my first term. I did it and did it well. We took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China and others and I started the process, but then we had to fix up from the COVID mess caused by China. Donald Trump: We had to fix up from that and we did a good job of doing it and when we handed back the reins after a rigged election and when we handed back the raids. The stock market was higher than it was before COVID coming in. So, we did a great job, but we didn’t have time to do the big thing which we’re doing now. Donald Trump: And it’s like a patient is sick. You have to do surgery, the patient is very, very sick. And Joe Biden handed us over a country that was in very serious trouble economically and in every other way. They let China run away with things. They let other countries run away with things and maybe worst of all in a certain way is what they did at the border. Donald Trump: We had people pouring into our country by the millions. Many of them were murderers and drug lords and thieves and people from prisons from all over the world. And there were people from mental institutions, insane asylums. They were taking their mentally insane and they were dumping them into our country. Donald Trump: And I’ll tell you, Tom Homan and Kristi Noem are doing a fantastic job in removing them. And now the courts, the Supreme Court just gave us numerous good rulings where we have to be able to get them out. You had other judges trying to take over the system. And think of it, they take over. They want these people coming back. Donald Trump: Tren de Aragua from Venezuela, the Venezuelan jails that cut off the fingers of a man in Colorado. They cut off his fingers because he called the police looking for help. They said, did you call the police. He said, yes, I did. Put your hand down and they cut off the fingers. This is what – they want to bring these people back. Donald Trump: No. And I want to thank the president of El Salvador for the job he’s done because that is – that’s the way it has to be done. Yeah, please. Question: Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, they’ve been talking about tariffs for decades. How come when these Democrat elites want tariffs, everything’s hunky dory, but when President Trump wants tariffs, all hell breaks loose? Do you see this double standard? Donald Trump: I love this guy. Whoever the hell that is, that’s really nice. I appreciate that question. No, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi – everybody knew you had to do it, but they never had the guts to do it. It does take guts. It even takes guts for our country to go through it. That’s why I say, be cool. They were saying about – see, just be cool. Donald Trump: It’s going to work out, it’s going to work out and it’s working out. I can tell you, working out maybe faster than I thought. But I said it’s going to take a little conditioning. It’s a transition to – it’s really – I think it’s a transition to greatness; it’s going to be greatness. Our country is going to be – there will be nothing like it. And people investing in our country, they’re going to do better than they’ve ever done before. Donald Trump: We have more car manufacturers, Roger, coming into our country now, speaking of cars, we’ve never seen anything like it. And they’re coming in because of the election, but they’re coming in because of the tariffs, because they don’t want to pay 25 or 50 or whatever it may be. They don’t want to pay that. Donald Trump: They can’t pay that. We had three cancellations in Mexico building a plant. They’re all coming into the United States. Canada they’re coming in, from China they’re coming – they’re coming in from everywhere and that’s just cars. We have chip makers coming. We have the biggest chip maker in the world from Taiwan coming in, spending $3 billion to build plants. Donald Trump: And a big – mostly a big plant. It’s a hell of a plant when you spend the kind of money there. They’re going to go $200 billion to $300 billion, not million. You know, you’d say million would be the right number. It’s not. $200 billion to $300 billion – billion dollars. Think of that, $300 billion. If you look at Apple, Apple is going to spend $500 billion building a plant. Donald Trump: They wouldn’t be doing that if I didn’t do this. They’d just keep building them in China and that’s unsustainable. It’s not a pleasant thing to do, but I appreciate the question. And you know, interestingly, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi – crazy, Nancy, they’ve wanted to do this for years, but they never had a president that had the guts to do it because it does take guts, believe me. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Was it the bond markets that persuaded you to reverse course? Donald Trump: No, I was watching the bond market. The bond market is very tricky. I was watching it. But if you look at it now, it’s beautiful. The bond market right now is beautiful. But yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy. I think everything had – well, the big move wasn’t what I did today. Donald Trump: The big move was what I did on Liberation Day. We had liberation day in America. We’re liberated from all of the horrible deals that were made, all the horrible trade deals that were made. And I was helped by people just like this, senator, congressman and friend, right? And we had great help in the Senate. Donald Trump: Our Republican senators have been amazing. They stood tall. And likewise in the House – and John Thune has done an amazing job. Barrasso has done an amazing job. I mean, I can’t think of a senator, really, we had tremendous support. We got a bill passed the other day with almost unanimous support in the Senate. Donald Trump: And I think we’re going to get that in the House too. And I have to tell you that Mike Johnson is a great speaker. He’s done a fantastic job. We had a majority of one, now we have a majority of seven. And you don’t realize how big seven is until you have a majority of one. Seven sounds like so much, but we’re doing well. Donald Trump: But Mike Johnson and John Thune have done a really great job. Question: Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – influence your decision. Did you speak with anyone, Jamie Dimon? Did you speak with anyone about – ? Donald Trump: Well, I watched Jamie Dimon on Maria Bartiromo’s show this morning and he was very good. He said that – actually made the statement to the effect that something had to be done with the tariffs and trade. He said that. He said, look, you know, at some point, but he said something has to be done with tariffs and trade. Donald Trump: He understood it. He’s very smart and very – a genius financially. He’s done a fantastic job at the bank, and he knows that. Everybody knows that. Anybody that’s even a little bit smart knows it. It wasn’t sustainable, what was happening, somebody had to pull the trigger. I was willing to pull the trigger. Donald Trump: This should have been done long ago, just like Biden should have stopped the border long ago. I mean, allowed 21 million people plus into our country, many of whom should never have been allowed out of prisons and jails. They came out of prisons and jails from all over the world and now we’re getting them out, bringing them back to their countries, but it should have never been done. Question: Where does the TikTok decision stand? Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Question: Sir, would you consider exempting some US companies, maybe some larger companies who have been hit hard in the market’s last few days during these 90 days? Donald Trump: Well, I’ll take a look at it. As time goes by, we’re going to take a look at it. There are some that have been hard. There are some that, by the nature of the company, get hit a little bit harder and we’ll take a look at that. Question: How do you determine it over the next [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Just instinctively more than anything else. I mean, you almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct, I think, than anything else. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: What is your credibility like? Because you said that these tariffs would go into effect on Monday, you said no pause. Today there is a pause. So – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – how can people believe your word today, sir? Donald Trump: I think you have to have – yeah, it’s not a question of that. You have to have flexibility. I could say here’s a wall and I’m going to go through that wall. I’m going to go through it no matter what and keep going. And you can’t go through the wall. Sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall around the wall or over the wall. Donald Trump: These guys know that better than anybody, right? You’ve got to go around them sometimes; you’re not going to go through them. So, I consider – you know, I think in financial markets, because they change. Look how much it changed today. We went from pretty moderate today, but over the last few days it looked pretty glum, to I guess they say it was the biggest day in financial history. Donald Trump: That’s a pretty big change. And I think the word would be flexible. You have to be flexible, like he’s asking the question about some companies. Some companies, through no fault of their own, they happen to be in an industry that is more affected by these things than others. You have to be able to show a little flexibility and I’m able to do that. Donald Trump: I’m going to say hello to these champions because they are great champions. I’ve got to say hello. Question: Mr. President, have you talked to Xi Jinping to avoid more escalation?
Date: 2025-04-14
Donald Trump: Well thank you very much. It’s an honor to have a friend of mine – because we, we went through this together, and got along very well for my entire period of time. So I knew him as a very young man, now he’s just a young man. He’s done a fantastic job. Mr. President, it’s an honor to have you. Nayib Bukele: Thank you. Donald Trump: You’re doing incredibly for your country, and uh, we appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime and so do we and it’s a very, very effective and I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador and say, they have one hell of a president. I know him as a very young man, Marco, even younger than you. Donald Trump: He started pretty young. Marco Rubio: I’ll always be young. Donald Trump: Young at heart. But I want to thank you for the great job you’re doing. I appreciate it very much. Nayib Bukele: It’s an honor. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Well, it’s an honor to be here in the Oval Office with the president and leader of the free world. We’re very happy and we’re very eager to – and we’re a small country, but if we can help, we will do it. And we actually – that was the journalist call it, murder capital of the world into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere – if they saw the – president, you have 350 million people to liberate. Donald Trump: But to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some. That’s the way it works, right? You cannot just free the criminals and think crime’s going to go down magically. You have to imprison them, so you can liberate 350 million Americans that are asking for the end of crime and the end of terrorism. Donald Trump: And it can be done. I mean, you’re doing it already. And I’m sure that people have seen the change in the streets, a long way to go because you’re just initiating your second term. But it’s clear that with the numbers at the border, even in Democrat-run cities, they get help from the work you’re doing. So I’m really happy to be here, honored, and eager to help. Donald Trump: Well, we had a terrible thing happen. We had an administration that allowed people to come in freely into our country, from not only South America but from all over the world, many from the Congo, in Africa, Asia, all over the world, Europe, rough parts of Europe. And they came from prisons and they came from mental institutions and they came from gangs, the gangs of Venezuela and other places. Donald Trump: And hundreds of thousands and even millions of them came. 21 million people all together, but many of the people that came just a tremendous percentage of them were criminals, in some cases, violent criminals. We had 11,088 known murderers. Half of them murdered more than one person. This was allowed by a man who, what he did to our country is just unbelievable, so we’re straightening it out. Donald Trump: We’re getting them out. But what they did and what that party did to our country open borders, anybody could come in. As soon as I heard that, I said every prison is going to be emptied out into our country. That’s what happened and we’re straightening it out. And we just had numbers. We had the highest recruiting numbers in the history of our country going into police departments. Donald Trump: And a year ago, we had the lowest numbers. You couldn’t hire a police – Nayib Bukele: Biggest change. The lowest to the highest. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen – and the military now, Marines, the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, every slot is – I mean, we have the best numbers we’ve ever had. We call it recruitment, recruitment numbers, and we’ve never had anything like it. We had records at every single level, but very important, the policemen. Donald Trump: The policemen are joining forces now that we really were having a hard time with policemen because we weren’t protecting our police. And we cherish our police. The police are great and the firemen and everybody else. But we have the highest numbers that we’ve ever had, the most enthusiasm. We have great enthusiasm. Donald Trump: And on trade and other things, we’re doing great. We’re taking in billions and billions of dollars. We made – two weeks ago, I gave him a little bit of a pause because you know you have to show a little flexibility, but we go back to what we have to do. The markets have been very strong once they got used to it, but we were losing $2 billion a day. Donald Trump: There’s no company big like this. Nayib Bukele: No. Donald Trump: This is the biggest deal ever made. Now we’re making $3 billion a day. We’re a great country, but we had stupid people running this country and I can say it, but what they’ve done to us at the border should never and can never be forgotten. It’s a sin, what they did. And you are helping us out and we appreciate it. Nayib Bukele: Thanks. Thank you. Actually, what you’re doing with the border is remarkable. It has dropped, what, 95 percent? It’s incredible. Donald Trump: As of this morning, 99 percent, 99.1 percent to be exact. Nayib Bukele: Why are those numbers not in the media? Donald Trump: Well, they get up with the fake news. You know, like CNN, CNN over here doesn’t want to put them out because they don’t like putting out good numbers. They only like putting out – because I think they hate our country, actually. It’s a shame. You’re right. Isn’t that a great question, why doesn’t the media – why don’t they put out numbers? Nayib Bukele: Yeah, 99 percent, I mean, it’s crazy, right? It’s a crazy turnaround. Donald Trump: Kristi, could you maybe say a couple of words about the border, how we’re doing? Kristi Noem: It’s just been absolutely phenomenal, what a great leader can do, clear direction. Our laws matter. We should only have people in our country that love us and the Border Patrol and our ICE officers and law enforcement officers have done fantastic work. So, we’re proud of them. Now we just need to get the criminals and murderers and rapists and dangerous gang members and terrorist organizations out of our country. Kristi Noem: So, Mr. – President Bukele, we thank you very much for your partnership. It has been wonderful for us to be able to have somewhere to send the worst of the worst and someone to partner with. And we’d like to continue that partnership because it’s been a powerful message of consequences. Mr. President, you wanted people to know that there was consequences if you break our laws and harm our people and endanger families. Kristi Noem: And this is a clear consequence for the worst of the worst that we have somewhere to put them. Nayib Bukele: Thank you very much. Yeah, we even had this gang member from Venezuela, one of the ones you sent, and we interviewed him just to get some information, etc., from them. And he said, oh, you know, I got arrested six times, but they released me there six times. So, I should be released again. And then I said, well, what’s the last thing you do. And he said, well, I shot a cop in the leg, but I didn’t kill him, I just shot him in the leg. Nayib Bukele: And we’re like this guy was arrested six times, here in the United States six times, he was released six times and in the last – no, he was released five times. And the last time he was sent to El Salvador, right, so he’s not getting released. But the last thing, he shot a cop actually and he shot him in the leg. Nayib Bukele: So, these are – Note: [Crosstalk] Nayib Bukele: – yeah, I mean, yeah, there’s something broken. Donald Trump: The liberal establishment. But they’re not running things anymore in this country. And we’re run by – and I don’t say conservative, I don’t say anything. We’re run by people with great common sense. Nayib Bukele: Yeah, common sense. Donald Trump: Because it’s all common sense, it’s not liberal, conservative, it’s common sense. And like do you allow men to play in women’s sports? Do you allow men to box your women and box – because I know you have a lot of boxers – Nayib Bukele: That’s violence. That’s abusive to women. Donald Trump: That’s abusive – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: It’s abusive [Inaudible] Nayib Bukele: Totally. Donald Trump: But we have people that fight to the death because they think men should be able to play in women’s sports. And some of those sports it wouldn’t matter much, but it still matters. But some of them are very dangerous for women. Nayib Bukele: Some years ago, I would say a decade ago or so, women’s rights movements were pressuring so that we enacted specific laws to avoid men abusing women. And I think those laws were great because there were a lot of men abusing women. But now some of the same people are trying to backtrack on that and actually trying to make new laws allowing men to abuse women in sports. Nayib Bukele: So, actually that doesn’t make sense. Donald Trump: You do it in sports. Nayib Bukele: It doesn’t make sense. It’s crazy. Donald Trump: You know they have weightlifting lifting records, right? A woman gets up, lifts weight, she’s incredible, a guy gets up and beats her by 100 pounds. What are you going to do? A record that hadn’t been broken in 18 years, they put on an ounce and an ounce, quarter of an ounce, eighth of an ounce for 18 years. Donald Trump: Now they have a guy come up, pint, the whole thing is crazy, but they continue to fight. And I don’t like talking about it because I want to save it for just before the next election. I said to my people don’t even talk about it because they’ll change, and we’ll have a – But I watched this morning, there was a congressman fighting to the death for men to play against women in sports. Donald Trump: And you say to yourself, why? What are they doing, right? What are they doing? But your country is not too big in that. Nayib Bukele: No, of course not. We’re big in protecting women. Donald Trump: Good, that’s right. That’s a very important form of protection too. Nayib Bukele: And as you can see, most of my cabinet are women, so – Donald Trump: That’s impressive. Nayib Bukele: Yeah, yeah. They’re not the [Inaudible] I hire for anything. They’re just great at what they do, right? Donald Trump: That’s right. This is very impressive. This is a first. We’ve had women, but we’ve never had three of them right here. Nayib Bukele: Four and three men. Donald Trump: Look who we have. You guys feel a little bit mistreated [Laughter]. That’s good. I like it. I like it. Well, we’ve been advanced. I’ve been very advanced in that regard too. We have Pam, who’s been so fantastic. Nayib Bukele: Yes, I know. Kristi and – Donald Trump: Kristi, and the most powerful woman they say. Nayib Bukele: I know, exactly. Donald Trump: They’re all afraid of Susie Wells. They say, oh, she’s tough. Most powerful woman in the world, according to magazines. What do I know? But I think she probably is – she probably is. Nayib Bukele: Congratulations. Donald Trump: And you know Stephen who has done such a great job. We have just – we have great people. Nayib Bukele: He’s very famous, too [Laughter] Donald Trump: But we love working [Laughter] he really lets them have it, right? Nayib Bukele: Yeah, exactly. Donald Trump: There’s no games. Nayib Bukele: No, no, no, it’s very good. Donald Trump: He knows. Do you have any questions, please? Let’s not start with CNN because they’re so – they’re just so wrong. Yeah, please. Question: Yeah, thank you. Mr. President, you repeatedly mentioned last night that Russia’s attack on Ukraine was a mistake. What is the exact mistake? And have you given Putin a deadline to actually move toward a ceasefire? Donald Trump: Yeah. The mistake was letting the war happen. If Biden were competent. And if Zelenskyy were competent – and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy over here. He just kept asking for more and more. That war should have never been allowed to happen. That war – I went four years, and Putin wouldn’t even bring it up. And as soon as the election was rigged, and I wasn’t here, that war started. Donald Trump: There was no way that war should have been allowed to happen, and Biden should have stopped. And you take a look at Putin – I’m not saying anybody’s an angel, but I will tell you, I went four years, and it wasn’t even a question. He would never – and I told him don’t do it. You’re not going to do it. And it was the apple of his eye but there was no way that he would have done it. All you had to do is lower oil prices. Donald Trump: If you lowered oil prices – Biden kept the prices so high because he made it impossible to get it. If you lowered oil prices, you would have never had the war, but you wouldn’t have had it with me anyway. That war would have never happened. And I think it’s a great abuse. So, now what do you? You get a country where 25 percent of its land is gone and the best locations where millions of people are killed. Donald Trump: You know, you haven’t reported accurately the death, and this was Biden’s war and I’m trying to stop it and I think we’re going to do a good job. I hope we’re going to do. They lose 2,500 young people a week on average. Now they’re Russians and they’re Ukrainians, but it’s 2,000 – we don’t care, it’s like whatever it is. Nayib Bukele: It’s intolerable. Donald Trump: They’re not from your country, they’re not from mine, but I want to stop it. 2,500, it’s a killing field, it’s like the Civil War. You take a look – I look at the satellite pictures. This should not be happening in our time. Of course, our time can be pretty violent, as we know, but that’s a war that should have never been allowed to start. Donald Trump: And Biden could have stopped it, and Zelenskyy could have stopped it, and Putin should have never started it. Everybody’s to blame. Question: Have you spoken to President Zelenskyy, sir, about his offer to purchase more Patriot missile batteries? Donald Trump: I don’t know. He’s always looking to purchase missiles. He’s against – listen, when you start a war, you’ve got to know that you can win the war, right? You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles. If we didn’t give them what we gave – remember, I gave them javelins, that’s how they won their first big battle, with the tanks that got stuck in the mud and they took them out with javelins. Donald Trump: They have an expression that Obama at the time – Obama gave them sheets and Trump gave them javelins. But just something that should have never happened. It’s a really shame – the towns are destroyed; towns and cities are largely destroyed. They have the spires; you know, the beautiful spires that go up. They say that were the most beautiful in the world in Ukraine for whatever reason. Donald Trump: But the most beautiful in the world, they’re mostly lying on their side shattered and broken. And most importantly, you have millions of people dead. Millions of people dead because of three people, I would say three people. Let’s say Putin number one, but let’s say Biden who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two; and Zelenskyy and all I can do is try and stop it. That’s all I want to do. I want to stop the killing, and I think we’re doing well in that regard. Donald Trump: It should – I think you’ll have some very good proposals very soon. Question: Last question, sir. Have you attributed a motive – sir, have you attributed a motive for the FBI investigation behind the attack on Governor Josh Shapiro over the weekend? Donald Trump: No, I haven’t. But the attacker was not a fan of Trump, I understand just from what I read and from what I’ve been told. The attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody. He’s probably just a whack job. And certainly, a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – good relation with President Bukele the best guarantee that this time you won’t terminate the temporary – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I have a great relationship with this man. I have the best relationship with him. We’ve known each other – I’ve known him since he was a very young man, as I said, very, very young and I was impressed. I said, look how this guy is. In fact, you sort of look like a teenager, he looked like a teenager. I said what kind of a country is this – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: [Laughter] He grew up – he grew up well in the last five years. Question: Do you support the extension for nationals of El Salvador and their – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I support him. Question: Do you plan to – Donald Trump: I support him. Go ahead. Let’s hear the question from this very low-rated anchor at CNN, low-rated. Question: Thank you, President Trump. Do you plan to ask President [Inaudible] to help return the man who your administration says was mistakenly deported? Donald Trump: Which one is that? Question: The man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Donald Trump: Well, let me ask, Pam, would you answer that question? Pam Bondi: Sir, President. First and foremost, he was illegally in our country. He had been illegally in our country. And in 2019, two courts, an immigration court and an appellate immigration court ruled that he was a member of MS-13 and he was illegally in our country. Right now, it was a paperwork. It was additional paperwork that needed to be done. Pam Bondi: That’s up to El Salvador, if they want to return him. That’s not up to us. The Supreme Court ruled, President, that if as El Salvador wants to return him, this is international matters, foreign affairs. If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane. Question: So will you return him? Donald Trump: You are doing a great job. Thank you, Pam. Pam Bondi: Thank you. Question: Stephen Miller. Wait a minute. Could you just also respond to that question, because it’s asked by CNN and they always ask it with a slant, because they’re totally slanted because they don’t know what’s happening. That’s why nobody’s watching them. But would you answer that question also, please? Stephen Miller: Yes, gladly. So as Pam mentioned, there’s an illegal alien from El Salvador. So with respect to you, he’s a citizen of El Salvador. So it’s very arrogant even for American media to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens, as a starting point. As to immigration courts found that he was a member of MS-13, when President Trump declared MS-13 to be a foreign terrorist organization that meant that he was no longer eligible – under federal law, which I’m sure you know. Stephen Miller: You’re very familiar with the INA, that he was no longer eligible for any form of immigration relief in the United States. So he had a deportation order that was valid, which meant that under our law, he’s not even allowed to be present in the United States and had to be returned because of the foreign terrorist designation. Stephen Miller: This issue was then, by a district court judge, completely inverted. And a district court judge tried to tell the administration that they had to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here. That issue was raised to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said the district court order was unlawful and its main components were reversed, nine-zero, unanimously, stating clearly that neither secretary of state nor the president could be compelled by anybody to forcibly retrieve a citizen of El Salvador from El Salvador, who again, is a member of MS-13, which as I’m sure you understand, rapes little girls, murders women, murders children, is engaged in the most barbaric activities in the world. Stephen Miller: And I can promise you, if he was your neighbor, you would move right away. Question: So you don’t plan to [Inaudible] Donald Trump: And what was the ruling in the Supreme Court, Steve, was it nine to nothing? Stephen Miller: Yes, it was a nine to zero. Donald Trump: In our favor? Stephen Miller: In our favor, against the district court ruling, saying that no district court has the power to compel the foreign policy function of the United States. As Pam said, the ruling solely stated that if this individual at El Salvador’s sole discretion was sent back to our country, that we could deport him a second time. Stephen Miller: No version of this legally ends up with him ever living here because he is a citizen of El Salvador. That is the president of El Salvador. Your questions about it for the court can only be directed to him. Question: I ask the president on this – can President Bukele weigh in on this? Do you plan to return him? Nayib Bukele: Well, I’m [Inaudible] not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States, right? I mean, how can I smuggle – how can I return him to the United States, like, I smuggle him into the United States, or what do I do? Of course, I’m not going to do it. It’s like – I mean, the question is preposterous. Nayib Bukele: How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States. Question: But you could release him inside El Salvador. Nayib Bukele: Yeah, but I’m not releasing. I mean, we’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere. And you want us to go back into releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world, no, that’s not going to happen. Donald Trump: Well, they’d love to have a criminal released into our country. Nayib Bukele: Yeah. I mean, there’s a fascination – Donald Trump: They would love it. Nayib Bukele: Yeah. Donald Trump: These are sick people. Marco, do you have something to say about? Marco Rubio: Yeah. I mean, Stephen outlined it. I don’t understand what the confusion is. This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That’s where you deport people, back to their country of origin, except for Venezuela that was refusing to take people back, or places like that. Marco Rubio: I can tell you this, Mr. President, the foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court. And no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States. It’s that simple, end of story. Question: But more specifically – Stephen Miller: And that’s what the Supreme Court held, by the way, to Marco’s point. The Supreme Court said exactly what Marco said, that no court has the authority to compel the foreign policy of the United States. We won a case nine-zero, and people like CNN are portraying it as a loss as usual, because they want foreign terrorists in the country who kidnap women and children. Stephen Miller: But President Trump, his policy is foreign terrorists that are here illegally get expelled from the country, which by the way, is a 90-10 issue. Question: Well, Mr. President, you said that if the Supreme Court said someone needed to be returned, that you would abide by that. You said that on Air Force One just a few days ago. Donald Trump: How long do we have to answer this question from you? Why don’t you just say, isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country? Why can’t you just say that? Why do you go over and over? And that’s why nobody watches you anymore. You have no credibility. Please, go ahead. Question: President Trump, thank you so much. How many illegal criminals are you planning on exporting to El Salvador? And President Bukele, how many are you willing to take from US? Donald Trump: As many as possible. And I just asked the president, it’s this massive complex that he built jail complex, I said, can you build some more of them, please? As many as we can get out of our country that were allowed in here by incompetent Joe Biden through open borders, open borders. You probably hear open borders and you can’t even understand it because nobody can understand. Donald Trump: Nobody smart or with common sense can understand it. So we have millions of people that should not be in this country, that are dangerous, not just people, because we have people. But we have millions of people that are murderers, drug dealers. They’ve been allowed to come into our country by other countries that were very smart. Donald Trump: When they heard that this very low IQ president, and by the way, I took my cognitive exam as part of my physical exam and I got the highest mark. And one of the doctors said, sir, I’ve never seen anybody get that kind of – that was the highest mark. I hope you’re happy with that, although they haven’t been bugging me too much to take a cognitive. Donald Trump: But I did do my physical and it was released. I hope you’re all happy with it. I noticed there’s no questions, so probably you are. But the cognitive, they said to me, sir, would you like to take a cognitive test? I said, did Biden take one? No. Did anybody take one? No, not too many people took them. I said, what about Obama, did he take one? Donald Trump: No, he didn’t take one either. I said, let me be the only one to take one. But I’ve actually taken them three times already. I like taking them because they’re not too tough for me to take. But we had a great physical exam, so I know you’re going to ask that. And the doctors who are total professionals, Walter Reed Medical Center, they’re great, great people. Donald Trump: And I visited a soldier that was badly wounded, incredible soldier, lost his leg. And we spent a lot of time with him. I mean, great with his mother, and it was really a very great thing. They do a phenomenal job. I just want to say, Walter Reed, I was there for, what, five or six hours You were there with me. But I took a full physical and it came out perfecto, so that’s good. Donald Trump: That means you’ve got me for a little longer. Question: Would the United States be willing to pay for those facilities to be open if [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I’d do something. We’d help them out. Yeah, we’d help them out. They’re great facilities, very strong facilities and they don’t play games. I’d like to go a step further. I mean, I said it to Pam. I don’t know what the laws are. We always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters. Donald Trump: I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country, but you’ll have to be looking at the laws on that, Steve, OK? Question: [Inaudible] and do you think more presidents should follow suit like you guys, as far as taking a hard stance on crime here in the United States? Donald Trump: Well, I do. I think everybody has to. I mean, the president said it better than anybody. He said, you have liberty and you have to have liberty, but to have liberty, not everybody is going to be good. And some are bad because they’re sick, they’re mentally deranged, they’re bad. And you have to take them – if you’re going to have a country, you’re going to have to take those people out, and we’ve been doing that. Donald Trump: But this was an unforced error, they would call it, where we had people that may hate our country or maybe they’re just stupid people. I think they’re probably stupid people, more so. A lot of people said they did it for the vote, but I did better with Hispanic people than they did because they always used Hispanic. Donald Trump: I did better. Your people love me. I saw my poll numbers in your country. I’m through the roof, right, 91 percent. No, no, they, they – some people think they do it for the vote, but they don’t have to do it for the vote. They cheat. You know, they’re professional cheaters. That’s about the only thing they do well. Donald Trump: So, we just have had a great relationship, and it’s become bigger because of a strange thing that happened. I came back; we had no war in Ukraine. We had no war with – we had no October 7th, Middle East problem. We had nothing. We had no inflation. We didn’t have the Afghanistan most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Donald Trump: The Afghanistan – not withdrawing because I would have been out, you know, I had it all set to bring people out with dignity and pride. That was the worst most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, Afghanistan. We didn’t have any of that. You wouldn’t have had the war with Russia-Ukraine, you wouldn’t have had the Middle East problem because Iran was broke. Donald Trump: They had no money because we had secondary sanctions on and lots of other sanctions. And now every single thing – got a problem with Iran, but I’ll solve that problem. That’s almost an easy one. We’ve got to solve a war that should have never started, Ukraine and Russia, and we’ll get that solved. And we have to solve problems, and we already solved inflation. Donald Trump: If you look at the numbers, the numbers are incredible actually. Stock market’s up and we’re not letting other countries take advantage of this country like they have for the last 40 years. So, thank you very much. Do you have a question, please? Question: Mr. President, thank you so much. You scored another major investment win this morning. Nvidia pledged to build its AI supercomputer for the first time ever right here in the United States. Donald Trump: That’s a question I like. That’s true. Question: What is your reaction to this announcement, sir? And how will this positively benefit Americans across the country? Donald Trump: Well, it’s one of the biggest announcements you’ll ever hear because Nvidia, as you know, controls that – almost the entire sector, which is one of the most important sectors in the world, between chips and semiconductors and everything else. And they’re the biggest and the other biggest we already have coming in and spending $300 billion, as you know, they announced two weeks ago. Donald Trump: But Nvidia is so highly respected, and this was an announcement that a lot of people – I knew it was going to happen, but not to the extent that it happened, it’s big. And the reason they did it is because of the election on November 5th. And because of a thing called tariffs, as I say, the most beautiful word in the dictionary – after love, God, relationship, the press actually hit me. I said tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Donald Trump: What about family, love, God, I got hit even on that. Do you understand? I said, OK, so now I say it’s my fifth most favorite word because they get you on anything. But no, Nvidia, it’s one of the great companies of the world, modern, super modern companies, controls segments that nobody – sort of controls the world in a sense. Donald Trump: And they’re coming in here in the biggest way with hundreds of billions of dollars, not like millions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars. And I’m honored by it. And I want to thank Jensen and all of the people that we deal with, they’re great people, they’re brilliant people. And without tariffs, they wouldn’t be doing it. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: Yeah, please, go ahead. Question: President Trump, are you considering additional sanctions against Russia after their latest attack? And do you have an update on the rate and when you might announce them? Well, I already have sanctions on Russia, I put them there. If you remember, Nord Stream 2, that’s the big pipeline that goes through Europe. Question: I stopped it. That’s Russia’s pipeline, the largest pipeline, I think, in the world goes to Germany and I stopped it. And when Biden came in, he approved it and then they say, oh, I’m friendly with Russia. No, no. Putin said, you know, if you’re my friend, I’d hate to see you when you’re my enemy. I stopped the biggest – the biggest economic job they ever had, I stopped it cold, right? Donald Trump: It was dead, you know that, right. And Biden came in and he immediately approved it. What was that – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: – all about? And it’s a pipeline that takes care of a lot of the needs. Now, you know, it was a very controversial thing, but I stopped it, and Biden approved it. Question. No, not you again, not you again. Question: Go ahead, go ahead. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – compete with pharmaceuticals – semiconductor tariffs and [Inaudible] pharmaceuticals? Donald Trump: Pharmaceuticals we’re going to do. We have – we don’t make our own drugs, our own pharmaceuticals. We don’t make our own drugs anymore. The drug companies are in Ireland and they’re in lots of other places, China. And all I have to do is impose a tariff. The more, the faster they move in. higher the tariff – it’s very [Inaudible], it’s inversely proportional. Donald Trump: The higher the tariff, the faster they come. And, yeah, we’re going to be doing that. That’s going to be like we have on cars. We have, as you know, a 25 percent tariff on cars. We have a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum and that’s what that category fits right now. Question: Do you have a percentage in mind and a timeline? Donald Trump: I have a timeline. Yeah, not too distant future. And we’re doing it because we want to make our own drugs. We’re doing it because we want to make our own steel and aluminum, lumber, other things. And they’re all coming in. We have record numbers, $7 trillion since I announced like a month and a half ago – since I came – basically since I came in, we have over $7 trillion being invested in the country. Donald Trump: We didn’t have $1 trillion; we didn’t have $0.5 trillion with some of these guys. They didn’t know what the hell they were doing. So, we have the largest investment that we’ve ever heard of and we’re only two months in. And that will continue at levels that you’ve never seen before. That’s what’s going to happen. Donald Trump: And even the stock market’s up today. We also had, you know – a lot of people didn’t say it the way it was. We had the largest gain in the stock market in history on every single category last week. That was a nice game because we got a little hit because people didn’t understand the power of our economic – our country economically if you use it right. Donald Trump: Do you have something to say on that, J.D.? J.D. Vance: Yes, sir. I mean, look, for 40 years, we have lost manufacturing capacity. Workers have seen their wages stagnate. And some of the most critical things that we need from the pharmaceuticals, the drugs that we give to our children, the antibiotics that we give to our kids to the weapons that we actually need to fight a war, if, God forbid, we had to fight a War. We don’t make enough of that stuff. J.D. Vance: And so, President Trump ran explicitly on changing that. Yes, as the president mentioned, it caused a little bit of disruption in the market. But I actually think over the long term, workers are going to benefit, stocks are going to go up, American businesses are going to benefit as we reinvest and reindustrialize our country. Donald Trump: And the auto workers and the Teamsters and all of the unions, not traditionally republican, but I’m winning those unions by – we’re up 40, 50 points on the democrats. They’re losing everything. They’re losing everything because they just have policies that are not believable. They fight for policies that are 5 percent popular, and nobody knows who the 5 percent are. Donald Trump: I mean, nobody can find the 5 percent. But if you go back to Ohio – and by the way, we have the great championship team from Ohio coming in today, right? J.D. Vance: Very big day. Donald Trump: And that’s going to be a little bit later, but – and that’ll be – if you want to stick around, I’ll introduce you to some nice people. You’ll see some very large people, right? You’ll see some people that – even you have not seen the people like this. These are big, these are six foot, seven, 380 pounds with no fat. Donald Trump: Okay, that’s pretty good, but the team, the national championship team is being honored today at the White House. So that’ll be exciting. If you’re around, want to stay around, I’ll have you up there. You can tell them all about your prison, how you have to behave when you go to prison [Laughter]. OK, any – who else is there? Donald Trump: Go ahead, please, behind you? Question: You said yesterday that you’re making a decision on Iran very quickly. What do you mean by that? Is that – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, they have to solve their problem very quickly. Iran wants to deal with us, but they don’t know how. They really don’t know how. We had a meeting with them on Saturday. We have another meeting scheduled next Saturday. I said that’s a long time – you know, that’s a long time, so I think that might be tapping us along. Donald Trump: But Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. He can’t have a nuclear weapon. Nobody can have – we can’t have anybody have any nuclear weapons. You can’t have nuclear weapons. And I think they’re tapping us along because they were so used to dealing with stupid people in this country. Donald Trump: And I had Iran perfect, you had no attacks, you would have never had October 7th in Israel, the attack by Hamas, because Iran was broke. They were stone cold broke when I was president. And I don’t want to do it. I want them to be a rich, great nation. The only thing is – one thing, simple, it’s really simple – they can’t have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump: And they’ve got to go fast because they’re fairly close to having one. And they’re not going to have one. And if we have to do something very harsh, we’ll do it. And I’m not doing it for us, I’m doing it for the world and these are radicalized people, and they cannot have a nuclear weapon. Question: Does that include a potential strike on Iranian nuclear facilities? Donald Trump: Of course it does. Question: And just a follow up question, a clarification. You mentioned that you’re open to deporting individuals that aren’t foreign aliens, or criminals to El Salvador. Donald Trump: Love it. Question: Does that include potentially US citizens, fully naturalized Americans? Donald Trump: If they’re criminals and if they hit people with baseball bats over their head, that happened to be 90 years old. And if they rape 87-year-old women in Coney Island, Brooklyn, yeah, yeah, that includes them. Why, do you think they’re a special category of person? They’re as bad as anybody that comes in. We have bad ones too. Donald Trump: And I’m all for it, because we can do things with the president for less money and have great security. And we have a huge prison population. We have a huge number of prisons and then we have the private prisons and some are operated well, I guess, and some aren’t. But he does a great job with that. We have others that we’re negotiating with too, but no, if it’s a homegrown criminal, I have no problem. Donald Trump: Now, we’re studying the laws right now. Pam is studying. If we can do that, that’s good. And I’m talking about violent people. I’m talking about really bad people, really bad people, every bit as bad as the ones coming in. And I made the statement when I heard about this a long time ago now, four years ago. Donald Trump: When I heard that this guy was having open borders, I said, every single criminal from all over the world is going to be dumped into our country and that’s what happened, jails. The jails of the Congo were emptied out. The jails of Venezuela were emptied out and you know what happened? Their crime went way down. Donald Trump: But now Venezuela has other problems. You know what the problem is? They have no money. Nayib Bukele: Yeah. Donald Trump: Because I shut off their oil and we put secondary tariffs, because they’re not doing what’s right over there. They know what to do. We spoke to them. I spoke to them. They know what to do, but they have no money. Venezuela has no money. But Iran had no money and Iran behaved so beautifully. And then Biden took all those secondary tariffs and tariffs on. I told China, you can’t buy oil. Donald Trump: If you buy oil from Iran, China, I told it to President Xi, that we no longer want you to do business with the United States of America. And those ships disappeared from that harbor so quickly. China. Get along great with China. Question: Are the talks with Iran productive? Do you want to continue that? Donald Trump: What? Question: The talks with Iran, do you believe those are productive? Do you want to continue that? Donald Trump: I think Iran could be a great country as long as it doesn’t have nuclear weapons. If they have nuclear weapons, they’ll never get a chance to be a great country. They will never get a chance. It won’t even come close. Question: Sir, on tarrifs? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Yeah, thank you. Yesterday, you mentioned short-lived product exemptions. Which specific products are you considering and how long is short-lived, weeks, months? Donald Trump: I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies, where they’re switching to parts that were made in Canada, Mexico and other places. And they need a little bit of time because they’re going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I’m talking about things like that. Question: What about any Apple products, other cell phones? Donald Trump: Look, I’m a very flexible person. I don’t change my mind, but I’m flexible and you have to be. You just can’t have a wall and you’ll only go – no, sometimes you have to go around it under it or above it. There’ll be maybe things coming up. I speak to Tim Cook. I helped Tim Cook recently, and that whole business. Donald Trump: I don’t want to hurt anybody, but the end result is we’re going to get to the position of greatness for our country. We’re the greatest economic power in the world if we’re smart. If we’re not smart, we’re going to hurt our country very badly. We lost with China over the Biden years, trillions of dollars on trade, trillions of dollars. Donald Trump: And he let them fleece us and we can’t do that anymore. And you know what, I don’t blame China at all. I don’t blame President Xi. I like him. He likes me. I mean, I think, who knows, who the hell cares? But you know what – what? Question: Do you have any updates with talks with China? Donald Trump: No, let me just tell you this. I don’t blame China. I don’t blame Vietnam. I see they’re meeting today, is that wonderful? That’s a lovely meeting. They’re meeting, like, trying to figure out, how do we screw the United States of America? Don’t forget, the European Union was formed to do just that. The European Union was formed to hurt the United States on trade. Donald Trump: And they get us on NATO because they don’t pay their bills. But now since I got involved, they have been paying their bills. I took in over $600 billion for NATO. Nobody took in anything. I mean, they were all delinquent. They had eight nations out of 28 paid their bills. The rest of them were way delinquent. Donald Trump: And I said, if you don’t pay your bills, we’re not going to protect you anymore, and the money poured in, over 600 – the secretary general last week made that statement. He said, I’ve never seen anything like it. We couldn’t get anybody to pay because the United States was footing the bill for NATO. Well, we got hurt there and we got hurt on trade, likewise, European Union. Donald Trump: And they’ve got to come to the table, and they’re trying to. They’re trying to. But the European Union has taken terrible advantage. They don’t take our food products. They don’t take our cars. We have millions of their cars, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, many others. They come in by the millions. They don’t take. Donald Trump: There are no Chevrolets in Munich, I can tell you that. I said to Angela Merkel when she was there, as she was letting millions of people infiltrate Germany, which was not so good from – we would call them illegal immigrants, but she made them legal. But I said to her, and I got along with her very well, I said, how many Chevrolets do we have in Munich or Frankfurt? Donald Trump: Why, none, Donald, none. I said, you’re right, and yet we take in millions and millions of cars. No, those days are over. OK. Thank you very much, everybody. Aide: Thank you, Press. Thank you, Press. Head out the door. Thank you, guys.
Date: 2025-04-15
Karoline Leavitt: Good afternoon, everybody. Question: Good afternoon. Karoline Leavitt: I apologize for my tardiness, but I came directly from the Oval. I have some newsy updates to share from the president, which I know you all very much value and appreciate, so let’s get to it. The president promised millions of Christians across the country on the campaign trail that he would create a White House Faith Office when he returned to the White House, and he has delivered on that promise. Karoline Leavitt: The White House Faith office has put together an extraordinary week-long celebration currently underway for Holy Week ahead of Easter Sunday. The president signed a Holy Week proclamation, filmed a special presidential video message and will be hosting a pre-Easter dinner tomorrow night and a White House staff Easter worship service on Thursday. Karoline Leavitt: The president and the first lady are honored to continue the tradition of the white House Easter Egg Roll, which will take place on the South Lawn next Monday. In other news, President Trump is turning America into a manufacturing superpower again. Yesterday, there was a monumental announcement by NVIDIA, one of the largest companies in the world. Karoline Leavitt: This is just the latest example. For the first time ever, chipmaking giant NVIDIA will produce AI supercomputers entirely in the United States as part of its pledge to produce $50 billion worth of AI infrastructure in our country over the next four years. With their manufacturing partners, they have commissioned more than one million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test NVIDIA Blackwell chips in the great state of Arizona and AI supercomputers in the great state of Texas. Karoline Leavitt: NVIDIAs founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, touted how the engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time. This is the Trump effect. Karoline Leavitt: This follows trillions in other US investments announced already, including $500 billion from Apple and US based manufacturing and training, $100 billion from TSMC and US based chips manufacturing and the $500 billion private investment led by Open AI, Oracle and SoftBank in artificial intelligence – infrastructure. Karoline Leavitt: Under President Trump, we’re going to produce the cars, the ships, the chips, the airplanes, minerals and medicines that we need right here in America, at the hands of American workers. On the border, President Trump continues to break records and protect our homeland. According to CBP, Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border for the entire month of March 2025 were lower than the first two days of March 2024, under Joe Biden. Karoline Leavitt: Incredible law enforcement officers are arresting violent, illegal aliens from American communities every day. Here are a few examples from the latest ICE report, which I received this morning. ICE Los Angeles arrested a 54-year-old citizen of Mexico convicted of rape by threat sodomy with a person under 14 years and kidnaping in San Jose, California. Karoline Leavitt: ICE Houston has arrested a 23-year-old citizen of Mexico convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in Cook County, Illinois. ICE Houston arrested a 64-year-old citizen of Honduras convicted of murder in Los Angeles County, California. ICE Chicago arrested a 49-year-old citizen of Guatemala, convicted of assault and arson in Prince William’s Virginia, not far from here. Karoline Leavitt: ICE Denver arrested a 36-year-old citizen of Mexico who was registered as a sex offender and has been convicted of sexual assault of a child in Lake County, Colorado. ICE Baltimore arrested a 50-year-old citizen of China, convicted of sex trafficking in Bel Air, Maryland. And ICE Boston arrested a 46-year-old citizen of Jamaica, convicted of three counts of rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery of a child under 14 in Boston, Massachusetts. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump and our administration will not rest until every single violent illegal alien is removed from our country. The safety of the American people is too important to settle for anything less. On that note, the Democrat and media outrage over the deportation of Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 El Salvadorian illegal alien criminal who was hiding in Maryland, has been nothing short of despicable. Karoline Leavitt: Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for father of the year. That’s because, unfortunately, many in this country care more about this, quote, unquote, Maryland father, illegal alien MS-13 gang member than a Maryland mother and an American citizen who was brutally murdered at the hands of a different illegal alien. Karoline Leavitt: Of course, I am referring to Rachel Moran. And if you didn’t see yesterday, a Maryland jury found illegal alien Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez guilty of murdering Rachel Moran in August of 2023. She was a 37-year-old mother of five who was jogging in an otherwise safe community Northeast of Baltimore, when this monster ambushed, strangled and beat her to death before stuffing her brutalized body in a tunnel drain. Karoline Leavitt: The Moran family finally got justice yesterday, but they will never get Rachel back. Our hearts go out to Rachel’s family, her five children and her mother, Patty, who has suffered the unimaginable loss of her daughter. In case you missed it last week, President Trump signed a national security Presidential memorandum, directing federal agencies administering federal land on the border to make land available to the Defense Department in a new national defense area. Karoline Leavitt: This followed the president’s day one executive order, committing his administration to marshal all available resources and authorities to stop the unprecedented flood of illegal aliens into our country and to obtain complete operational control of the borders of the United States of America. Once again, the president is fulfilling another key promise. Karoline Leavitt: This new national defense area spans more than 170 miles across our border in New Mexico. But in the coming weeks, this administration will add more than 90 miles in the state of Texas. This national defense area will enhance our ability to detect, interdict and prosecute the illegal aliens, criminal gangs and terrorists who were able to invade our country without consequence for the past four years under the Biden administration. Karoline Leavitt: It will also bolster our defenses against fentanyl and other dangerous narcotics that have been poisoning our communities. With all of this work being done to make America Great again. We continue to see a positive response from the American public. A brand-new poll published from the Daily Mail and JL Partners this morning found that President Trump’s approval rating is at an all-time high. Karoline Leavitt: That’s because the president is working tirelessly to keep his promises to the American people, as I just saw him doing today in the Oval Office. We have a reporter in our new media seat today, Matthew Foldy. I like your boots, Matt, who is the editor in chief of The Washington Reporter. Washington Reporter is a new fast-growing outlet that breaks stories about legislation and interviews leaders in Congress and across the administration. Karoline Leavitt: The publication’s readership includes the highest levels of business and government. And with that, please kick us off, Matt. Question: And we’ve interviewed you as well. Karoline Leavitt: That’s right. Question: So Karoline, thanks so much for having me here on behalf of our readership and the millions of Americans who, I think, appreciate what you’re doing with the new media seat here in making this a more accessible briefing room. I’m curious, with Harvard, we saw the Trump administration today announced it’s freezing $2 billion in funds to Harvard because the campus has serious problems with violence and with anti-Semitism. Question: We saw President Obama, former President Obama side with Harvard, which rejected the Trump administration’s demands. I’m curious, where does the administration see this going with Harvard, and with other colleges and universities in America that are refusing to reform in wake of the sort of craziness that we’ve seen take over some of them? Karoline Leavitt: Thank you, Matt, for being here and thanks for the question. When it comes to Harvard, the president’s position on this is grounded in common sense, in the basic principle that Jewish-American students, or students of any faith, should not be illegally harassed and targeted on our nation’s college campuses. Karoline Leavitt: And we, unfortunately, saw that illegal discrimination take place on the campus of Harvard. There are countless examples to prove it, particularly with the stunning confession by then Harvard President Claudine Gay, who said that bullying and harassment depended on the context. The president at that time made it clear to the American public, he was not going to tolerate illegal harassment and antisemitism taking place in violations of federal law. Karoline Leavitt: So the president made it clear to Harvard, follow federal law, no longer break title six, which was passed by Congress to ensure no student can be discriminated against on the basis of race, and you will receive federal funding. Unfortunately, Harvard has not taken the administration’s demands seriously. Karoline Leavitt: All the president is asking, don’t break federal law and then you can have your federal funding. I think the president is also begging a good question, more than $2 billion out the door to Harvard when they have a more than $50 billion endowment, why are the American taxpayers subsidizing a university that has billions of dollars in the bank already? Karoline Leavitt: And we certainly should not be funding a place where such grave antisemitism exists. Question: And I’m curious, you just mentioned Rachel Moran and I’m a Maryland man and I think most Marylanders appreciate what you were saying today. We’ve seen that Chris Van Hollen, who was Rachel Moran’s Senator, basically threatening to fly to El Salvador to press for the release of someone who was in America illegally, and not as much sort of from him about Rachel Moran’s, horrific murder and the verdict that was, I think, rightly reached yesterday. Question: What does the administration think about the priorities we’re seeing from Senate Democrats in terms of illegal immigrants instead of the work that agencies like ICE and DHS are doing with the Trump administration? Karoline Leavitt: It’s mind-boggling the priorities of the modern-day Democrat party. I think it’s atrocious that you have Democrats in Congress on Capitol Hill who swear on oath to protect their constituents and to serve them in Washington, DC spending more time defending illegal immigrant gang members than their own constituents and law-abiding American citizens like Rachel Moran. Karoline Leavitt: And I saw the president personally on the campaign trail and I continue to see him in his role as president of the United States, put American families first, reach out to the families of victims at the hands of illegal immigrant crime. And frankly, the actions and the words of the Democrat party proved they could not care less about the American public. Karoline Leavitt: And maybe if they did, they’d see a bit higher approval ratings right now. Thanks for being here with us today. Peter. Question: Thank you, Karoline. To follow up on something that you just said, why do Ivy League schools get so much federal funding? Karoline Leavitt: It’s a very good question and it’s a question the president has obviously raised in his discussions and negotiations with not just Harvard, but also Columbia and many other Ivy League Institutions. We have the anti-Semitism Task Force, which the president promised and delivered on. The anti-Semitism Task Force is across the government, representatives from various federal agencies who meet on a weekly basis to discuss the question that you just raised. Karoline Leavitt: And I think a lot of Americans are wondering why their tax dollars are going to these universities when they are not only indoctrinating our nation’s students, but also allowing such egregious, illegal behavior to occur. Question: To follow up on immigration, deporting American citizens to Central American prisons, is it legal or do you need to change the law to do it? Karoline Leavitt: Well, it’s another question that the president has raised. It’s a legal question that the president is looking into and he talked about this yesterday with his meeting with President Bukele in the Oval Office. He would only consider this if legal for Americans who are the most violent, egregious, repeat offenders of crime, who nobody in this room wants living in their communities. Question: An then there’s this CHNV thing. President Biden let more than 530,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela into the US with this CHNV program. He did it with the stroke of a pen, and now a judge will not let President Trump undo it with the stroke of a pen. So are you guys going to give all 530,000 plus people individual deportation hearings or are you just going to try to deport them? Karoline Leavitt: I spoke to The White House Counsel’s Office about this this morning. Because obviously, another rogue district court judge is trying to block the – the administration’s mass deportation efforts with this latest injunction. We will fight this in the court of law. And we will ensure that every individual who was – who illegally entered our country and was really taken advantage of by the previous administration because they abused the parole system in this country to fast track legal status, as they said, for these illegal immigrants. Karoline Leavitt: And they completely abused our legal system. Many of these paroled individuals were then given temporary protected status. Which the intention of that TPS was only supposed to be used in times of war or storm or destruction in the home countries of these migrants. It was completely abused. These migrants came here for economic reasons. Karoline Leavitt: And they are – they illegally entered our country. And the president is not going to tolerate that. And so, we will continue to focus on deporting as many individuals as we can. Jennifer? Question: One on tariffs and one on Russia, can you give us any sort of an update on which deals are in hand or are close, which countries are reaching a deal on tariffs? And then on Russia, can you give us an update on what the agreement was with Russia? The president, yesterday, said that he thinks we’ll be seeing some very good deals very soon. Question: Can you talk a little bit about what Russia agreed to? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. I don’t want to get ahead of our United States trade ambassador and secretary of Commerce, the secretary of Treasury, all the great individuals who are working incredibly hard to cut these good trade deals. And the president is deeply involved in this as well. He has made it clear to his trade team. Karoline Leavitt: He wants to personally sign off on all of these deals too. And so I don’t want to get ahead of them on announcements. But obviously, as you’ve heard from numerous administration officials, there have been many talks with countries. We’ve had more than 15 deals, pieces of paper put on the table, proposals that are actively being considered. Karoline Leavitt: And as we’ve said, consistently, more than 75 countries have reached out. So there’s a lot of work to do. We very much understand that, but we do believe that we can announce some deals very soon. Question: And then on Russia, can you say, did Russia agree to anything with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff [Inaudible] Karoline Leavitt: I don’t want to get ahead of those negotiations as well. What I can tell you is that they were – a productive conversation was had. As the Press Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff said last night, he believes that Russia wants to end this war. And the president believes that as well. There is incentive for Russia to end this war. Karoline Leavitt: And perhaps that could be economic partnerships with the United States, but we need to see a cease fire first. And the president and the Presidential Envoy Witkoff made that very clear to the Russians. Gabe? Question: Thank you, Karoline. And I also want to thank your press office for releasing that information that you cited up there regarding the ICE arrests over the last couple of days. And I have them right here. But what I might ask is why not release the same information for those who were deported to El Salvador? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all that information was released by the Department of Homeland Security. The individuals on the flights to El Salvador are foreign terrorists. And those are counterterrorism operations. They are much different than the arrests and final order of removals that you see on a day to day basis that law enforcement agents are conducting around the country. Question: That information was not to – that detail was not released by DHS. Karoline Leavitt: I just told you the reason. It was a counterterrorism operation, a deportation of foreign terrorists not illegal criminals who have been convicted of heinous crimes living in our American communities. Two different things: foreign terrorists, illegal immigrant criminal. Two different things, two different definitions. Karoline Leavitt: You should look them up. Christian, go ahead. Question: Yeah, thanks, Karoline. Does the president support raising the corporate tax rate to pay for all these other tax cuts he wants to see move through Congress? Karoline Leavitt: Look, I’ve seen this idea proposed, I’ve heard this idea discussed, but I don’t believe the president has made a determination on whether he supports it or not. Question: And then secondly, do you have any information on the status of Eden Alexander? Hamas says they lost contact with the unit, guarding him following an Israeli airstrike earlier today? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t have updates. I have not seen that report, but I can certainly check in with our National Security Council. I have spoken to the president about Eden Alexander, and he’s made it very clear to our national security team that finding him is a priority. But unfortunately, I don’t have any updates to share. Karoline Leavitt: But it’s a very important matter and certainly we can check in. Sure. Question: Hi. Karoline Leavitt: Hi. Question: Um, how concerned is the president that a federal judge could hold a Trump administration official in contempt of court for defying deportation orders? Karoline Leavitt: We are complying with all court orders, so I see what you’re trying to do there with that question. But we’re very confident that every action taken by this administration is within the confines of the law. And we continue to comply with the court’s orders. And you have seen that. And the president made that clear yesterday in the Oval Office with President Bukele. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Could you – just going back to El Salvador, could you just explain to us a little bit more about the legal basis on which you may be able to send US citizens to – to prison there? I know you said the President Trump is looking at it, but can you explain to us a little bit more about how that might be possible? Karoline Leavitt: We’re looking at it. And when I have more for you to share, I certainly will. Sure. Question: Hey, still going off the El Salvador questions. Yesterday, in the Oval Office administration officials made it very clear that El Salvador is responsible for Mr. Abrego Garcia, yet El Salvador’s president said we are – we’re not going to do anything with him. So my question is who is responsible for this man and where he’s going to end up? Karoline Leavitt: Well, no, first of all, President Bukele said that he is not going to smuggle a foreign terrorist back into the United States of America as many in this room and the Democrat Party seemingly want him to do. Abrego Garcia was a foreign terrorist. He is an MS-13 gang member. He was engaged in human trafficking. Karoline Leavitt: He illegally came into our country. And so, deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result. There is never going to be a world in which this is an individual who is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland because he is a foreign terrorist and MS-13 gang member. Not only have we confirmed that, President Bukele, yesterday, in the Oval Office confirmed that as well. Karoline Leavitt: So he went back to his home country where he will face consequences for his gang affiliation and his engagement in human trafficking. I’m not sure what is so difficult about this for everyone in the media to understand. And it’s appalling, truly appalling, that there has been so much time covering this alleged human trafficker and this gang member, MS-13 gang member, um, it’s truly striking to me. Karen? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Um, the president was posting on Truth Social today about helping American farmers. And last week, in his cabinet meeting, he was talking about a plan to work with farmers to retain workers who are in the US illegally, provided that they leave and then come back through what he said would be a legal process. Question: Can you give details on what that would look like? Um, how many workers he’s talking about, how long a plan like that would take to implement and the timeline for more details on getting this actually to implementation? Karoline Leavitt: I can check in with our immigration and our policy team and get you some more details on that, Karen. Question: And then, is this something he wants to roll out soon? I mean, he was talking back and forth with Secretary Rollins. Karoline Leavitt: Right. Question: And said this is kind of imminent that he wants to do this. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, look, the president is in constant communication with all of his cabinet secretaries, particularly Secretary Rollins who has the backs of American farmers and ranchers. It’s something that he spoke about with her in the front of all the cameras in the cabinet room. But I’ll check in with not only our immigration team, but also with USDA. Karoline Leavitt: And we’ll get you an answer. Jonathan? Question: Hi, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Hi, it’s good to see you in here. Question: You too. The president has long said that it would be an abuse of power for a president to direct prosecutors to investigate him. Last week, President Trump explicitly directed the Justice Department to scrutinize Chris Krebs, to see if it can find any evidence of criminal wrongdoing. How is that not an abuse of power to direct the Justice Department to look into an individual, a named individual? Karoline Leavitt: Look, the president signed that executive order. It’s the position of the president in this White House that it’s well within his authority to do it, otherwise he wouldn’t have signed it. And he signed it. And that’s his policy. Jeff, how are you doing? Question: Um, fine thanks. Thanks, Karoline. A follow up on Harvard, the president floated on Truth Social, I believe, the possibility of removing tax exempt status. How serious is that threat? And are there other universities he’s considering? And then a follow up question on foreign policy, what are your – can you give us an update on what the president hopes to come from the next round of talks with Iran? Karoline Leavitt: Um-hum, sure. First, when it comes to Harvard, as I said, the president has been quite clear, they must follow federal law. He also wants to see Harvard apologize. And Harvard should apologize for the egregious antisemitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish American students. There were professors who – who said that he had engaged in discriminatory behavior against Jewish students. Karoline Leavitt: Of course, you had the former president of the university saying bullying and harassment depends on the context. You also had an encampment on Harvard Yard that we all saw play out before the cameras. Karoline Leavitt: The university failed to impose formal discipline on any students for this antisemitic conduct violations, including the occupation of a campus building and the disruption of classes with bullhorns. The president believes Harvard should apologize to its Jewish American students for allowing such egregious behavior. Karoline Leavitt: As for the tax-exempt status, I would defer you to the IRS for any updates. I do want to answer your question on Iran, of course. The maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues, but as you know, the president has made it clear he wants to see dialog and discussion with Iran, while making his directive about Iran never being able to obtain a nuclear weapon quite clear. Karoline Leavitt: And the president spoke to the Sultan of Oman today who helped facilitate these talks. I have a readout for all of you. He held a call with the Sultan of Oman today and he thanked him for hosting the first direct meeting between the United States and Iran and emphasized the need for Iran to end its nuclear program through negotiations. Karoline Leavitt: The two leaders also discussed the United States’ ongoing operations against the Houthis and emphasized that the Houthis will pay a severe price until they end their attacks on maritime traffic in the Red Sea. As you know, an additional negotiation between Steve Witkoff and Iran’s representative has been scheduled for Saturday. Karoline Leavitt: And since these are ongoing negotiations, I have nothing more to add on that. Question: [Inaudible] on Iran. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Oh, thank you, Karoline. When you said that the president said that Iran will never have nuclear weapon, is the focus on dismantling the entire nuclear program or just restricting enriched uranium or the missile program? Karoline Leavitt: The president does not want to see Iran have a nuclear program. He does not want Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. He’s been very clear about this. Shelby. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Shelby, you have a seat today. Question: I know, stole it. Karoline Leavitt: Glad to see it. Question: Two quick ones on TikTok. First, is the president expecting to extend the TikTok ban that’s now June 19th, if China doesn’t come to the table in time? Karoline Leavitt: Well, June 19th, is a long ways away, obviously. I think it’s two months away. Two months is a long time and the Trump administration as you have all seen. We work at Trump speed around here. We get a lot done. So I definitely don’t want to get ahead. The vice president continues to lead these negotiations and talks. Karoline Leavitt: The president’s involved and their ongoing. Question: And then the president previously said he’d consider reducing tariffs on China in order to get a TikTok deal done. Is that option still on the table? Karoline Leavitt: Look, the president has made his position on China quite clear, although I do have an additional statement that he just shared with me in the Oval Office. The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them. There’s no difference between China and any other country, except they are much larger. Karoline Leavitt: And China wants what we have, what every country wants, what we have, the American consumer, or to put it another way, they need our money. So the president, again, has made it quite clear that he’s open to a deal with China, but China needs to make a deal with the United States of America. Sure. Question: On tariffs. Yesterday in the Oval Office – Karoline Leavitt: Which outlet are you with? Question: The Canadian Public Broadcaster. Karoline Leavitt: Oh, nice to see you. Question: Thank you. Yesterday in the Oval Office, President Trump suggested that there could be some help for automakers. I’m wondering what that looks like. Is it tariff relief on the 25 percent tariffs that are in place right now, or the new tariffs that are coming up in May on auto parts? And a second on Canada, if I may. Question: President Trump’s tone when it comes to Canada-US relations, Canadians have noticed it’s shifted a bit in the past few weeks, ever since the election campaign started. He stopped talking about Canada becoming the 51st state, at least publicly. I’m wondering if that’s on purpose and why? Karoline Leavitt: I would reject the president’s position on Canada has shifted. Perhaps he just hasn’t been asked about Canada by questions from this group in the Oval Office when they see him almost every day, but the president still maintains his position on Canada. The United States has been subsidizing Canada’s national defense and he believes that Canadians would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state of the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: As for autos and auto parts, I don’t have anything to read out for you there, but I think the point the president was making is flexibility and he has flexibility when it comes to negotiations and talks. But ultimately, his goal in his fair trade deals that he is pursuing with many countries around the world, is to put the American worker first. Karoline Leavitt: And we had automakers and auto workers here at the white House on Liberation Day, who believe in this president and his negotiating ability to put them first and to bring those jobs back to the United States of America. And the president’s been very clear about that in his conversations with the automakers as well. Karoline Leavitt: Deanna, go ahead. Question: Thanks, Karoline. One on Ukraine and then one on China. On Ukraine, this past weekend, Zelenskyy offered an invitation to President Trump, extending an offer for him to visit Ukraine. Just wondering if there’s any update on that? Has Trump seen that offer and what he’s thinking about? Karoline Leavitt: I don’t know, actually. I haven’t talked to the president about that or if he saw Zelenskyy’s offer, I’m sure he did. I haven’t spoken to him about it. I can ask him what he thinks. I certainly don’t have any plans to share on a potential trip to Ukraine, though. Question: And then on China, this last week Chinese officials were posting videos on social media sites depicting Trump J.D. Vance, Elon Musk in AI-generated videos, working in factories, putting together Nike shoes and iPhones and products like that. Does the White House, have they seen these videos? Do you guys have a response to that? Karoline Leavitt: I have seen the videos. I’m not sure who made the videos or if we can verify the authenticity, but whoever made it clearly does not see the potential of the American worker, the American workforce. The president believes in the American people and he knows that we have the best, not only consumer base in the world, but also the best workforce in the world. Karoline Leavitt: And that’s why he’s so focused on bringing investments home and shoring up our critical supply chains and bolstering our manufacturing here as well. Bret? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Would the president support a ban on members of Congress trading stocks? Karoline Leavitt: I’m certain that’s something the president would be interested in looking at and I can ask him if he would support such a bill. Question: Sure. Yes. I have a question about the president’s post from this morning on farmers. He asked farmers to be patient and just hold on. But a lot of farmers that I’ve talked to in the last week or so have said they’re in the middle of spring planting season and that a trade war makes everything sort of up in the air. Question: What would his message to them be? And also, is there anything specifically planned to provide relief like in President Trump’s last term? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. Well, relief is being considered. The secretary of agriculture, I know has spoken to the president about that. And again, it’s being considered. And as for the president’s message to the farmers, he put it out himself. He could speak for himself much better than I can speak for him. And so I would just direct you to the statement he had, telling the farmers again, and reiterating his support for them and that he has their backs, which he certainly does. Karoline Leavitt: Kelly, in the back. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Two questions. The first one, a Georgia man was just arrested over alleged threats to kill Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Reportedly, there is now increased security around the FBI, deputy director. Can you talk about the level of threats against various administration officials? Question: And then a second one on Biden. Karoline Leavitt: I’m sorry to hear that. I had not seen that report. It’s very unfortunately and obviously, the White House, the president and the entire administration, condemn any threats of violence against any administration officials or public officials on both sides of the aisle here in Washington, DC. It shouldn’t be tolerated and we commend the local law enforcement agencies for arresting this individual. Question: [Inaudible] Biden, former President Biden. He’s set to deliver his first major speech since leaving office tonight. He plans to talk about what I’m told will be Social Security under the current administration, closing of offices, longer wait times, harder for seniors and people with disabilities to access earned benefits, as what Democrats have been saying today. Question: I wanted to get the president’s response or if he plans to respond to this and comments on what Democrats are calling cuts to Social Security. Karoline Leavitt: My first reaction when seeing former President Biden was speaking tonight was I’m shocked that he is speaking at night time. I thought his bedtime was much earlier that his speech tonight. I understand the topic of his speech will be Social Security. Let me make it very clear ahead of former President Biden’s remarks, the president, this president, President Trump is absolutely certain about protecting Social Security benefits for law-abiding, taxpaying American citizens and seniors who have paid into this program. Karoline Leavitt: He will always protect that program. He campaigned on it. He protected it in his first term and he’s back again to continue protecting it. On the topic of Social Security, I have some news before I let you all go. Later this afternoon, the president will be signing a Presidential memorandum aimed at stopping illegal aliens and other ineligible people from obtaining Social Security Act benefits. Karoline Leavitt: The memorandum will direct the administration to ensure ineligible aliens are not receiving funds from the Social Security Act programs. It will expand the Social Security Administration’s fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 US attorney offices and establishes a Medicare and Medicaid fraud prosecution program in 15 US attorney offices. Karoline Leavitt: The memorandum will also require the Social Security Administration inspector general to investigate earning reports for individuals aged 100 or older with mismatched Social Security records to combat identity theft. And the memorandum will direct the Social Security Administration to consider whether to reinstate the use of civil monetary penalties against individuals who engage in Social Security fraud, an effort that has been paused for several years. Karoline Leavitt: These taxpayer-funded benefits should be only for eligible taxpayers and President Biden should think about what he did in his last term, which is allow tens of millions of illegal people into our country, many of whom were fraudulently receiving these benefits. So, you’ll hear from the president on that later and we will see you later in the East Room. Karoline Leavitt: Bye, guys. Question: Thanks, Karoline.
Date: 2025-04-17
Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. And I’ve been briefed on the Florida State University Tallahassee active shooting. I guess it’s an active shooter. Uh, fully briefed as to where we are right now. It’s a shame. It’s a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place, and we’ll have more to say about it later. Donald Trump: In the meantime, it’s an honor to have the Prime Minister of Italy with us, Prime Minister Meloni who’s, uh, doing a fantastic job. I would say that she has taken Europe by storm and highly respected. Everybody loves her and respects her. And I can’t say that about many people. And she’s become a friend. Donald Trump: And we really have a great relationship between Italy and ourselves, and we talked about trade. We talked about many, many things during our luncheon, and, uh, she’ll be saying a few words. But she’s a very special person, and it’s nice to have you with us. Thank you very much. Giorgia Meloni: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you for your warm welcome. Thank you for this occasion, which is aimed to strengthen our relation, our friendship that comes from very far. You know today is April 17th, and April 17th marks the anniversary of the agreement that allowed Cristoforo Colombo to make his trip. Giorgia Meloni: And I say it to remember our [Inaudible] or our ties but also to remind – to remind that we both share another fight, which is the fight against the work and ideology that would like to erase our history. And as I know that we share lots of things on tackling illegal migration, on fighting against synthetic drugs. Giorgia Meloni: You know, Italy has been one of the nations – Donald Trump: That’s right. Giorgia Meloni: That made a plan against fentanyl for example. But we have been talking about many bilateral topics and things that we can do together about defense, about economic – about economy, about space, about energy. Uh, Italy will have to increase its LNG imports, uh, and also nuclear that we are trying to develop. Giorgia Meloni: I think there can be ways to work together, and the Italian enterprises will, uh, invest as they’ve been doing for many years as you know, in the next years, I think around 10 billion. That shows how interconnected our economies are. And that’s very important, Mr. President. It’s not only about Italy, it’s about the entire Europe. Giorgia Meloni: The exchange between us is a very big one, investments, trade. It’s a topic that we are discussing this week. Donald Trump: That’s right. Giorgia Meloni: But at the end of the day, look, somebody calls me, I was saying it before, such a Western nationalism. I don’t know if it is the right word, but I know that when I speak about West, mainly, I don’t speak about geographical space. I speak about civilization. And I want to make that civilization stronger. Giorgia Meloni: So I think even if we have some problems, OK, between the two shores of the Atlantic, it is the time that we try to sit down and find solutions. So I want to thank President Trump for having accepted an invitation to pay an official visit to Rome in the near future and consider a possibility in that occasion to meet also with Europe. Giorgia Meloni: The goal for me is to make the West great again, and I think we can do it together. Donald Trump: We can. Giorgia Meloni: And we will keep on working on that. I’m going to close. I want to say only, I’m proud of sitting here as prime minister of an Italy that today, has a very good situation despite the difficulties, a stable country, a reliable country, one million more jobs in the last two years and half. Donald Trump: Great. Giorgia Meloni: Inflation is going down. So forgive me if I promote a bit, my country, but you’re a businessman and you understand me. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Giorgia Meloni: So migration flow is going down 60 percent. So we are trying to do our best, but I think we can do it even better together. Also on Ukraine, I will close, together, we’ve been defending the freedom of Ukraine. Together we can build a just and lasting peace. We support your efforts, Donald. Thank you. Donald Trump: Good. Thank you very much. And I think we’re doing well in that effort, but we want to get it done and we’ll see if we can. We want to save on average. Think of it, every week, 2,500 people are being killed, mostly soldiers, Russian, Ukrainian soldiers. And if we can save those lives, that would be a very good thing. Donald Trump: And so we’ll see what we can do. And I think we’re getting close, but we’ll let you know very soon. And you’ve been very helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any questions? Question: On Russia. On Russia, Mr. President. How much longer does Vladimir Putin have to respond to your ceasefire proposal before you put secondary tariffs or sanctions on Russia? Donald Trump: We’ll see what that will be. We’re going to be hearing from them this week, very shortly, actually. And we’ll see, but we want it to stop. We want the death and the killing to stop. Question: Mr. President, on Jerome Powell. On Jerome Powell, you said that the termination of Jerome Powell could not come fast enough. He says he won’t leave even if you ask him to. Donald Trump: Oh, he’ll leave. If I ask him to, he’ll be out of there. But I don’t think he’s doing the job. He’s too late, always too late, a little slow. And I’m not happy with him. I let him know it and, oh, if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, please. Question? Question: Are you trying to remove him, Mr. President? Donald Trump: You got a question? Question: [Inaudible] in a case against your administration, said the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial order. Do you agree with that statement? Donald Trump: Well, you’re going to have to speak to the lawyers. We have great lawyers. I can tell you this, we’re doing a fantastic job of getting criminals out of this country who Biden allowed into the country, hundreds of thousands of criminals, murderers and drug dealers. And I was elected because of the fact, I would say maybe that was the number one factor, a lot of reasons, the economy, a lot of things. Donald Trump: But one of the primary reasons I was elected is because I said, I’m going to get the criminals that he allowed to come into our country so stupidly through open borders, I’m going to get them out. And I got a lot of votes, record setting numbers of votes, as you know. We won everything, the popular vote, all seven swing states. Donald Trump: We want everything and that’s what the public wanted. That’s what I’m doing. But you’ll have to speak to the lawyers because it’s up to them. Say it. Question: What do you think of the proposal from France and the UK on a peace mission in Ukraine with soldiers? And do you think that Italy should take part into it? Donald Trump: Well, I think Italy will have to make that determination, but peace missions are always good with me. I’m OK with peace missions. Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, have you discussed – what areas of cooperation have you discussed with the prime minister vis a vis Italy and the United States and Europe and the United States? And China – Donald Trump: We discussed it very briefly. No, we’re doing very well with negotiations. I think with all countries. And Scott could tell you a little bit, but we are doing very well. We have a lot of countries that want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make deals more than I do. Go ahead, Scott. Would you say something, please? Scott Bessent: Yeah, we’ve got [Inaudible] in place. We’re working on the big 15 economies first. We had a fantastic meeting with Japan yesterday. I believe there have been calls with the EU already. And then we have a South Korea coming in next week. And I believe India is also talking. That’s moving very quickly. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Question: Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has said he has evidence that China is supplying weaponry or ammunition to Russia. Do you have any evidence on those lines? And also, he said we could see a minerals deal signed this week. Is that – Donald Trump: Well, we have a minerals deal, which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday, Scott, next Thursday? Soon? And I assume they’re going to live up to the deal, so we’ll see. But we have a deal on that. No, I have no comment on that. I have no idea. That’s his statement, not mine. Question: [Inaudible] attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Can you comment on that? Is that accurate? Donald Trump: And they say the attack is what? Question: That you waived off an Israeli plan to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. Donald Trump: I wouldn’t say waived off. I’m not in a rush to do it because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death. And I’d like to see that. That’s my first option. If there’s a second option, I think it would be very bad for Iran. And I think Iran is wanting to talk. Donald Trump: I hope they’re wanting to talk. It’s going to be very good for them if they do. And I’d like to see Iran thrive in the future, do fantastically well. I know the Iranian people, they’re incredible people, always have been very smart, very energetic, very successful people. And I don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt anybody. Donald Trump: I really don’t, but Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s pretty simple. It’s really simple. We’re not looking to take their industry. We’re not looking to take their land. All we’re saying is you can’t have a nuclear weapon. The deal that was made, the deal that was made with Obama, that deal would have expired already. Donald Trump: It was a terrible deal. It would have expired and that gave them a clear path to a nuclear weapon. I wouldn’t have accepted. That’s why I terminated the deal. Number one, it was way too short. When countries are involved, you don’t make short term deals. These are countries with long lives. And I terminated that and it was a great termination because it didn’t allow us to do anything once it terminated. Donald Trump: You know what the deal was. It was a terrible deal, really, one of many terrible deals made by the US. But no, I’d like to see Iran thrive. And they can do that, I think very easily, or they can do it the other way. And the other way is not going to be good for them. It’s going to be really bad for them. Question: What do you make of the NVIDIA CEO going to China and met with [Inaudible] officials there? Donald Trump: Well Jensen’s an amazing guy. He’s become a friend of mine and I don’t know. He’s a person that’s very proud of our country. He loves our country. I’m not worried about Jensen at all. Question: Mr. President [Inaudible] in contempt, will you take steps to return Kilmer of Borrego Garcia to the United States and put him in front of a judge? Donald Trump: Well, I’m not involved in it. I’m going to respond by saying you’ll have to speak to the lawyers, the DOJ. I’ve heard many things about him and we’ll have to find out what the truth is. But I will say this, we were inundated by millions of people, many millions of people during the Biden administration. They say 21 million, and a big percentage of those are criminals, serious criminals. Donald Trump: I’m not saying just criminal because they came into the border illegally. I’m saying they’re criminals at the highest level, murderers. Many of those people murdered more than one person and they’re on the loose. And I was elected to get rid of those criminals, to get them out of our country or to put them away, but to get them out of our country. Donald Trump: And I don’t see how judges can take that authority away from a president. We’ve done an amazing job, Tom Homan, Kristi Noem. We have done an amazing job. Nobody can believe the job we’ve done. Far greater than what I said. I mean, I got elected on that, but we’ve done much better. We have right now 99 percent border. Donald Trump: It’s at 99 percent. Nobody thought that would even be – nobody’s coming through our border practically. Two weeks ago, we had nine people come through all for medical reasons. We allowed them – we brought them through because one had a heart attack, one had something else. All for medical reasons. We have a great border. Donald Trump: We had a great border four years ago, but we have a border now that’s even tighter, and we did that in a matter of weeks. And, uh – no – we have to – we need – we need to get murderers and drug dealers and people that were in jail for horrible – you know, they released jails, Giorgia, from all over the world and release them, not just South America – all over the world. Donald Trump: The Congo in Africa. Many, many people come from the Congo. I don’t know what that is, but they came from the Congo. And all over the world, they came in, opened their jails – Venezuela, practically all of their prisoners released into our country. We took them because we had an incompetent administration called the Biden administration and to think what they’ve done to our country. Donald Trump: And I was elected to straighten that out, and I’m doing that. But we have activist judges that don’t want murderers to be sent out of our country. They don’t want killers and drug dealers and drug lords and people from mental institutions. They want them to stay in our country, I guess. I don’t know. Maybe that’s the liberal way, or as they call it nowadays the progressive way. Donald Trump: But I don’t think it’s the way that our country believes, and that’s why I won in a landslide. Question: Mr. President, you did say that you were confident these deals would be done, but you also said that you’re in no rush. Americans are seeing prices rise. They’re seeing it on their bills. How long can they expect that pain to last? Donald Trump: So, they’ve already seen it get much better because, if you were truthful, which you’re not – I know you very well are. You have gasoline that hit $1.98 yesterday in a couple of states. You have gasoline way down. The price of oil has dropped substantially. The price of groceries are substantially down. Donald Trump: The, uh, the price of eggs – you know, when I came in, they hit me with eggs. I just got there. I was here for one week, and they started screaming at me. Eggs have gone through the roof. I said I just got here. I was there for seven days, and I hear that eggs have gone through the roof before I got there. Donald Trump: And they were screaming at me, the press, the fake news like you. You’re fake. And the fake news is screaming at me like about eggs. I said I’ve only been here – I just – this is my seventh day, and they were right. They went up 87 percent, and you couldn’t get them. They said you won’t have eggs for Easter, which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody. Donald Trump: You won’t have eggs for Easter, and we did an unbelievable job. And now eggs are all over the place, and the price went down 92 percent. And our Commissioner of Agriculture, Brooke, has done a fantastic job, done really – done a fantastic job. So, prices haven’t gone up. The only thing that’s gone up actually is interest rates because we have a Federal Reserve chairman that is playing politics. Donald Trump: Somebody that I’ve never been very fond of actually. But he’s playing politics. Interest rates should be down now. They should be coming down. In Europe, as you know, they reduced them I guess seven times. It looks like they’re going to reduce them again and again and again. But our guy wants to play cute. Donald Trump: But, uh, interest rates are pretty much even. Maybe they went up just a slight bit, but that’s the only thing. But that’s because of the Federal Reserve because they’re not very smart people. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Go ahead? Yes, sir. Please. Go ahead please. Question: Do you regret nominating him, Jerome Powell? Donald Trump: Uh look, in the first four years, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. Stock market went up 88 points. Uh, I think he’s terrible, but I can’t complain because we had the most successful administration economically in the history of our country. Uh, I think we’re going to do even better this time because you will see that the numbers that we’re taking in are astronomical. Donald Trump: We’re taking in tremendous amounts of money with the tariffs. We were treated very unfairly on trade. And countries are having a hard time getting used to the fact that they can’t do that to us anymore because we have a real president. We have a president that understands what it’s all about. We had presidents that in some cases were smart, but they didn’t understand business, or they didn’t like business or, you know, it wasn’t like a priority. Donald Trump: And then you had like the last administration. The only thing they were good at was cheating in elections. That’s about all they could do. They couldn’t do anything. They were useless. They were incompetent. Worst administration in the history of our country. Worse than Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter died a happy man. Donald Trump: You know why? Because he wasn’t the worst president. Joe Biden was. So, I think you’re going to see some fantastic numbers when this all happens. It’s happening now. I mean, everybody wants to make a deal. And if they don’t want to make a deal, we’ll make the deal for them because that’s what’s going to happen. Donald Trump: We’ll just say this is what it is. But we want to listen to everybody. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I think – I think I can – I think I can say for Scott and the other people that are working on it that we’re listening, and we’re going to be very fair to people. But, you know, we’re the one that really sets the deal, and that’s what we’ll be doing. OK. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Please. Question: My question today, our Prime Minister. Donald Trump: Oh, you have a great Prime Minister. You’re so lucky. Yes. Yes Question: [✧ AI Machine Transcript] In italiano. Presidente Meloni, volevo sapere cosa pensava del fatto che il presidente Trump ha considerato responsabile della guerra in Ucraina. [✧ AI Translation: “In Italian. President Meloni, I wanted to know what you thought about the fact that President Trump held you responsible for the war in Ukraine.”] Question: [✧ AI Machine Transcript] E poi, se avete parlato delle spese militari e qual è il limite massimo a cui ha detto che può arrivare l’Italia? La percentuale delle spese militari. Abbiamo parlato di limiti massimi a cui può arrivare l’Italia. Abbiamo parlato del fatto che l’Italia sta mantenendo. [✧ AI Translation: “And then, if you talked about military spending and what is the maximum limit that he said Italy can reach? The percentage of military spending. We talked about the maximum limits that Italy can reach. We talked about the fact that Italy is maintaining.”] Giorgia Meloni: [✧ AI Machine Transcript] I suoi impegni perché arriverà al prossimo vertice della NATO con il 2% che era già previsto, che è stato sottoscritto dai governi precedenti perché siamo una nazione seria, ma non abbiamo parlato poi di quanto vada aumentata questa percentuale anche se siamo ovviamente consapevoli che insomma il tema della difesa sia un tema particolarmente importante di questo tempo per quello che riguarda la guerra in Ucraina. [✧ AI Translation: “His commitments because he will arrive at the next NATO summit with the 2% that was already foreseen, that was signed by previous governments because we are a serious nation, but we have not spoken then about how much this percentage should be increased even if we are obviously aware that the issue of defense is a particularly important issue of this time with regards to the war in Ukraine.”] Giorgia Meloni: [✧ AI Machine Transcript] Lei sa come la penso penso che ci sia chiaramente una diciamo ci sia stata un’invasione che l’invasore ha da quel punto di vista fosse Putin e la Russia ma non è questo che diciamo oggi quello che che rivela il fatto che insieme vogliamo lavorare e stiamo lavorando per cercare di arrivare in Ucraina una pace che possa essere giusta e duratura penso che questi siano gli sforzi sui quali condividiamo il nostro lavoro abbiamo condiviso anche oggi il nostro Presidente. [✧ AI Translation: “You know how I think I think that there is clearly a let’s say there was an invasion that the invader from that point of view was Putin and Russia but that is not what we say today what reveals the fact that together we want to work and we are working to try to arrive in Ukraine a peace that can be just and lasting I think that these are the efforts on which we share our work we have also shared today our President.”] Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I – that sounded absolutely – that was so beautiful. What the hell did she – [Laughter] What did she say? Please? Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: No. I mean, it sounded great. It was beautifully presented, but maybe I could hear what she said. Go ahead. Question: [✧ AI Machine Transcript] Avete discusso di Cina – [✧ AI Translation: “You discussed China –”] Unidentified: It was about asking – Donald Trump: Hold it. Hold it. Unidentified: Have some respect please. Donald Trump: Thank you. No, no. Wait. Wait. I want to hear what she said. Go ahead please. Unidentified: President and Prime Minister Meloni was asked whether – what she thinks about the fact that President Trump holds Zelenskyy responsible for the war in Ukraine, and Prime Minister Meloni answered, well, actually we were – we have a no – and also if – you talked about the military spending, how – and the raising of the military spending and the – and the first thing, President – Prime Minister Meloni said, is that no, actually we didn’t talk about the raise in military spending. Unidentified: Of course, Italy will keep its commitments with two percent, and then we will see because we are absolutely aware of the fact that it is very important to – to do – defense is very important. Giorgia Meloni: Well, I will do that. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. I will do that. They’ve been asking if we raise – if we decided on defense percentage about the defense spendings. Donald Trump: Right. NATO. NATO. Giorgia Meloni: And I said – yes, NATO. And I said that Italy is reaching the two percent as it was already decided. We didn’t speak about the specific other percentage. But we are aware of the fact that defense is important for the future, and we see what also the work that we are trying to do at the European level. Donald Trump: And I don’t hold – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I don’t hold Zelenskyy responsible, but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started. That was a war that would have never started if I were president. You’d have millions of people living right now that are dead. You’d have cities that would be open and thriving, and they’d have their beautiful [Inaudible]. Those [Inaudible] are the most beautiful in the world, but they’re not with us any longer. Donald Trump: They’re smashed to smithereens, laying on the ground in a million pieces, getting hit by rockets, bombs, and bullets. And so, I’m not happy with him, and I’m not happy with anybody involved. I think it’s a war – I know it’s a war. It didn’t happen for four years. It was never close to happening. Donald Trump: It was never even a thought. And I spoke to President Putin about it a lot. It was the apple of his eye, but there’s no way he would have ever gone in if I were president. Now I’m trying to get him to stop, because as you know, Russia’s a lot bigger. It’s a bigger military force. And if you’re smart, you don’t go involved and get involved in wars. Donald Trump: You can blame the man that was sitting in this seat, Biden. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I can guarantee you that, and everybody agrees to it, if I were president, that war would have never taken place. I’m not blaming him, but what I am saying is that I wouldn’t say he’s done the greatest job. Donald Trump: OK? I’m not a big fan. I really am, I’m not a big fan. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Question: [✧ AI Machine Transcript] Se ne avete discusso di Cina della possibilità che l’Europa ponga dei dazi sulla Cina mi sembra evidente. [✧ AI Translation: “If you have discussed China, the possibility that Europe will impose tariffs on China seems obvious to me.”] Question: Mr. President, are you sure about the [Inaudible]? Would you say again that the European – Giorgia Meloni: He’s never said. Question: Would you say again, that – Donald Trump: What? The European – Giorgia Meloni: Have you ever that Europeans are parasites? Have you said it? Donald Trump: No, I haven’t said – I didn’t even know what you’re talking about. Go ahead, please. Go ahead. No, no, wait. Wait, next, next, next. Go. Question: Thank you. Prime Minister Meloni just said we want to make Europe great again and we want it to be together, together – Donald Trump: Sure. Giorgia Meloni: With the West. Yeah. Question: I guess, that’s what you said. And Ms. Prime Minister, how are you going to do that? And are you looking to do it to counter China who is really trying to gather influence against the United States with the help of [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I hope that Europe is going to be great again. Europe has gone through a lot of problems and a lot of it’s having to do with immigration. And I’m not a big fan of Europe and what they’ve done with immigration at all. And I think they’ve got to get smart, because Europe is being very badly hurt by what they’ve done with immigration. Donald Trump: Now, I’ll say this, that the prime minister has taken a very tough stand on immigration and I commented to her before, I said, I wish more people would be like you having to do with that subject, but they’re not. Europe is very important to me. Europe is very important to the world. I want Europe to do very well. Donald Trump: I think they have to get a lot smarter on immigration. Giorgia Meloni: But we are beginning doing it. You will see now the policies of the European Union in the last, let’s say, two and a half years have been changing. OK? At the beginning, we were talking only about how we were redistributing illegal migrants coming to Italy. Now, we are talking mainly about how to stop illegal migration, work with the countries of origin and transit and to return people. Giorgia Meloni: The European Commission suggested the new rules about repatriations and things like that. So things are changing, thanks also to the example that Italy brought in lowering the rates of illegal migration. So we are working now together, so I’m optimistic on that. Donald Trump: Good. I hope so. Go ahead, please. Go ahead. Question: I’d like to ask President Meloni, if you have discussed the option of starting with direct communications? And President Trump, if you want to see the Google [Inaudible] Donald Trump: The Google what? Question: The Google company. Donald Trump: What about it? Question: Google business, [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Giorgia Meloni: Oh. Well, we didn’t discuss about Starlink. We’ve been discussing about defense, space. We will work together also in the Mars missions. So there are big, big things to do together, but we didn’t discuss it. Question: [Inaudible] prime minister that changed your mind potentially about tariffs and what you plan to do going forward? Is there anything that the prime minister said to you that changed your perspective? Donald Trump: No, tariffs are making us rich. We were uh losing a lot of money under Biden, trillions of dollars, trillions on trade. And now, that whole tide has turned. We’re making a lot of money. We’re taking a lot of money. Don’t forget, we’re taking in 25 percent on cars, 25 percent on steel, 25 percent on aluminum, 10 percent baseline. Donald Trump: We put penalties on China for sending us fentanyl. We put penalties on Mexico and Canada, 25 percent for allowing fentanyl and allowing the borders to be weak. No, we’re taking in billions and billions of dollars while I sit here and talk to you. And we didn’t take in anything before, other than the tariffs that I put on previous to Biden, which were the tariffs I put on China, where we took in, up until this point, probably $700 billion. Donald Trump: They were Trump tariffs. He tried to weaken them. He did everything he could. You know, he got paid money by China, right? The family got paid money, he did. So I don’t know, maybe that was the reason or maybe it wasn’t, but he tried to weaken them. But he couldn’t because there was so much money that his budgets, they couldn’t stand not doing it. But I took in, up until this point, my tariffs on China, nobody ever took in $0.10 from China. Donald Trump: No other president took in $0.10, I took in more than $700 billion from China. So we’re doing very well. I mean, our country is doing very well. They had a bad report today from one of the health care companies that had an impact on the stock market, but this isn’t about that. This is really, we’re building a base. Donald Trump: We’re building a country like no other. And again, I had the strongest economy in the history of our country by far, history of any country probably, but the history of our country in four years and I think this has a chance to be much better. Question: Can you just clarify on the minerals deal, will not be signed here at the White House with Ukraine on Thursday? Will President Zelenskyy be coming here for that? Donald Trump: I don’t know exactly. I’m going to leave that to Scott. What do you think? Where would it be signed and when? Scott Bessent: We’re still working on the details we’re shooting for around April 25th. Question: Is there any more detail that you could tell us about what’s in that deal and how it came together? Scott Bessent: It’s substantially what we’d agreed on previously when the president was here. We had a memorandum of understanding. We went straight to the big deal and I think it’s an 80-page agreement, and that’s what we’ll be signing. Question: Can you clarify on rate cuts, do you intend to seek Powell’s firing if he doesn’t change his stance on rate cuts, or is that on the table or is that – Donald Trump: Well, I think he should do the rate cuts because I think if Europe has done it, it puts us at a disadvantage to Europe. I mean, he plays right into their hands. So I think he should do the rate cuts. We don’t have really inflation now. I just said, the major things are going down. Oil is great. Oil is way ahead of schedule and that’s because of our policies. Donald Trump: But oil is down into the $65 range now per barrel. And I told you, in certain states we have less than $2 for gasoline. And food is down, groceries as we call it, are down. Other than interest rates, everything’s down. Interest rates are pretty flat. It’s not that they’re up, but we should be better than flat. Donald Trump: If he would lower the interest rate, I think it would have a good impact on that too. But the costs are down. We have very little inflation. I would say we have essentially no inflation. Hard to have inflation when oil goes down and oil goes down. When Biden came in, oil went through the roof. That’s what caused our problem, that and his very dumb spending. Donald Trump: But when the oil prices go down, and they have gone down a lot, we’ve gotten it down really good. We’ve opened it up and we’ve gotten them down and that means that people driving cars are going to be paying $2 and $2.50 instead of $4.50. And even at the end, they tried just for the purpose of the election to get it down, but they had really lost that sucker. Donald Trump: That was really – it was not good. But if they had won, oil right now would be at $7 or $8 because of their policy and we’re going to be at about $2, could be even a little bit less than that, and you’re starting to see it. So I don’t know how you can have inflation when oil has come down quite a bit. And I would say the fed really owes it to the American people to get interest rates down. Donald Trump: That’s the only thing he’s good for, and he would have an effect on that if he lowered them. And I think at some point he will. He’s going to have a lot of political pressure. They are political also. And I think there’s a lot of political pressure for him to lower interest rates. OK? Yeah, go ahead. Please. Question: Do you think Italy can be your best ally in Europe? And also, do you ever notice when you [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Only if the prime minister remains the prime minister, can it be our best. No, she’s doing a great job. And yeah, certainly one of our great allies, not just in Europe, anywhere. She’s a fantastic person and doing a great job, and our relationship is – is great. And we have a lot of Italians in this country, I tell you, and they like Trump and they voted for Trump. [Laughter] Thank you very much, everybody. Donald Trump: Thank you.
Date: 2025-04-17
Donald Trump: They won’t pick it up properly, but it’s so sad. Go ahead. Unidentified: So as Peter said, sir, starting in 2009 and continuing in 2014, a very large part of the American exclusive economic zone in the Pacific amounting in total to half a million square miles of the American economic zone has been an – exclusive economic zone has been held off limits to commercial fishing. We have a proclamation for your signature today, sir, that would reopen this area for commercial fishing by American flagged vessels only. Unidentified: This is a huge deal to the island populations in the Pacific, and we hope that this will lead to a new dawn for the American fishing industry in the Pacific Islands. Donald Trump: Could you, captain, say a few words about how ridiculous this has been that you had to live like this? American Samoa. Unidentified: It’s – we operate out of American Samoa. We supply to Starkist, American company. Does military packs. And it’s – you know, it’s – it’s our right – the US has the biggest EEZ in the Pacific, and yet we can’t fish there. And it seems unfair, and I’m glad that we’re – we’re opening it up so that we can feed our people. Donald Trump: And tell them how large an area we’re talking about. Unidentified: It’s – the Pacific is big, but this is a huge area. Again, the US has the biggest EEZ in the Pacific. Note: [Crosstalk] Unidentified: It’s an area the size of three Californias. They can’t fish there. And so, what do you do? How do you fish? They took away your livelihood. Well, we fish in the high seas, and then we have to pay to fish in other – Donald Trump: The high seas would mean more danger, right? Is there more danger in the high seas? Unidentified: Not really. It’s just – it’s just – far away. The distance. It’s a bigger area and you know – Donald Trump: So, how – how far do you have to travel to get – to fish? Unidentified: Uh, the well, the boat carries a lot of fish, so it goes until it’s full basically. But it’s good to have plenty of fishing grounds. To get out to where you have to go? [Inaudible] seven days. Uh, it can be as close as four days, but it’s a little bit of a jaunt. Yeah, and, uh, and – Donald Trump: That’s a little bit, I’d say. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: So, you’ll travel from four to seven days. Unidentified: Just to get to the fishing grounds. Donald Trump: Just to get to the area that you’re allowed to fish. And is that as fertile an area as the area that you’re not allowed to fish in or? Unidentified: Well, the Western Pacific as a whole is, um – 80 percent of the world’s tuna comes from the Western Pacific. So, US has a huge EEZ there. There’s also the island countries, but uh, it’s a big, big area. Donald Trump: So, they took away very fertile grounds. Unidentified: Very fertile. Yeah. Donald Trump: This is so crazy. What would you like to say? Go ahead. It’s such an honor to do this for these people. This is just crazy. Just tell me, when did this start? When was it – when did it – Unidentified: Started Back in 2008. But thank you, Mr. President, for this great announcement, and, uh, thank you so much for your awesome leadership and giving back to American Samoa what had been taken away from us without even consulting with our leaders and people at that time. And, uh – Donald Trump: And they just one day just took away three Californias. Unidentified: Yes. And so, this is such a wonderful gift to American Samoa and of course, it’s also Holy Week, uh, beginning today. And so, uh, thank you for returning to our indigenous people this wonderful gift of our traditional fishing grounds. [Inaudible] Donald Trump: It s such an honor to do this. You know, normally I say things, and it’s nice and everything’s good. You get more water in the shower head and things like that. [Laughter] But this is such an honor. What they’ve done to you people this is incredible. It’s like – it’s so terrible. When you have to travel four days in a boat to fish – and it’s usually seven days I was told before, but four days to seven days in order to fish. Donald Trump: And you were there a long time before we were, right? Unidentified: Yes. Yes. For centuries. Centuries. Donald Trump: Like – yeah, thousands of years I was going to say. Unidentified: So, Mr. President, you have another fishery in the Pacific Ocean. This is – this is the [Inaudible] fishery that fishes for canned tuna, and then the fishery in Hawaii fishes for fresh tuna. And so, there are 150 vessels, and you’re opening up Johnston Island, which is very close to Hawaii. Makes it a lot easier for them to fish because of the – Note: [Crosstalk] Unidentified: Well, yes, of course. Um, so, um, you’re, um, helping the entire fleet, and most of our fish are – are sold on the mainland. We also fish for swordfish. And when we have too many regulations for our swordfish fishery, you get swordfish from Peru, Brazil, and all those other places that don’t have the same management measures that we have in the United States. Unidentified: So, we are very grateful in Hawaii for this, the fishermen that we just – it’s fantastic. Donald Trump: So, what’s the difference? You say canned tuna? Unidentified: Right. You have two different US fisheries there. Donald Trump: Yeah, but the same tuna. Unidentified: Uh, different – no, that’s a skipjack, albacore, and yellowfin. And then – Donald Trump: So, albacore is canned tuna, right? Unidentified: Right. Donald Trump: I know that from – Note: [Crosstalk] Unidentified: You’ve seen the can. So, yeah. So, our fishery fishes for the sashimi quality fish, so it’s all fresh. It’s an ice fishery, and it’s been around since, what, started in the early 1900s. And – Donald Trump: Well, it’s been around for millions of years. Unidentified: Right. Exactly. Donald Trump: Long before us Unidentified: Right. Exactly. Donald Trump: That’s great. Unidentified: So, you know, that’s where you’re getting your sashimi and your swordfish from. Most of the swordfish that you eat on the mainland comes from our fishery. Donald Trump: You know, they shut down also areas off Maine, you know, the Maine lobster. Unidentified: Yes. Oh, yes. Donald Trump: Yes, I think we’re going to have to open that one up really quickly too. But we did it. And then after the election, which was totally rigged, they went out and they – they put it back again. It was like 500 square miles or some ridiculous thing like that. And Canada fish is there, but we’re not allowed to – can you imagine. Donald Trump: They restricted it, but Canada fishes it. Please? Unidentified: Mr. President, this is such a great honor, you know. Today in American Samoa we’re celebrating the 125th Flag Day. It’s the first day celebrating when the US flag was first raised there. At this very moment, they’re celebrating that. So, this is a monumental occasion for the people of American Samoa, and we are truly – Donald Trump: So This is a big thing that’s going on right now. Unidentified: This is – this – because we are a dependent economy. 99.5 percent of our exports is tuna. Donald Trump: 99.5 percent? But what about the other half a point? [Laughter] Note: [Crosstalk] Unidentified: And then – and then about 80 percent of our private employment is related to this industry. Donald Trump: That’s unbelievable. Unidentified: So, yes, this is a big thing for the [Inaudible]. What’s this going to do in terms – it’s so interesting to me. It’s so, so horrible and so stupid. It’s so stupid. We’re talking about a massive ocean, and they’re forced to travel four to seven days to go and fish in an area that’s not as good and it’s probably a little more dangerous. Unidentified: The whole thing. So, um, what’s this going to – how is this going to affect your business? Donald Trump: It’s going to be many more – I mean, you’re going to be able to do much more business, I would think, right? Unidentified: Yes. We would think that this would definitely, uh, result in more efficient deliveries, and more efficient deliveries is more economic gains for – for the territory. Donald Trump: Tell us what happens when you say China and other people steal your fish. Unidentified: Well – Donald Trump: In other words, you’re forced to go to areas that are very dangerous. Unidentified: Well, because of the monuments and overlays of sanctuaries, our fishermen mostly fish on the high seas. And if you look at Global Watch, you will see China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan all fishing on our very edge of the 200-mile zone. So, our fishing – we’re in competition with them. And also, you know, their dumping of their fish on US markets lowers the price for our fishermen. Unidentified: And that’s another difficult thing that we hope you’ll take care of soon. Donald Trump: And what about the stealing of your fish? Unidentified: Well, you’re competing with tuna in a very competitive market, right? So, they’re camped right outside – like Katie said, they’re camped right outside our EEZ. Donald Trump: And what happens? Unidentified: And they’re taking our fish because it’s migratory. Tuna s migratory – Because we can’t fish in our zone, the fish goes to whoever. And they come in – they come in in the dead of night. Yes, they do. Note: [Crosstalk] Unidentified: That’s a common, well-documented problem. Donald Trump: Does anybody – I mean, it’s so interesting. Even you have to find this one interesting. So, by doing this, we’re going to give you back your lives. And you’ve been doing this for thousands of years in this area. Unidentified: Absolutely. Donald Trump: Along comes Biden and Obama and they – they say you can’t do it anymore, right? This is – Unidentified: [Inaudible] fish baby fish. That’s right. Donald Trump: What’s the level of popular – and this is a risky question, but what’s the level of popularity of Trump on Samoa versus the Democrats? Unidentified: 77 percent. Donald Trump: For Trump? Unidentified: For Trump, yes. That’s right. 77 percent. It’ll go up to 90 tomorrow. Yes. It’ll go up to 100. [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Well, it’s an honor. I’m not doing it for that. I’m doing it because it’s just an honor. Here’s one of the boats out there. Look, how beautiful that is. Now, they use it for beautiful crews that take seven days before they can do the first fish. Can you believe that? So, now you’ll be able to do it like almost immediately, right? Unidentified: Yeah, much closer. Absolutely. So, if the fish is there, we can make more trips and employ more people. Donald Trump: Do you know through sonar radar everything, do you know where the fish are? I mean, can you see them? Unidentified: You get educated guesses. So, you can – you get all kinds of different reports, plankton, and all kinds of stuff and they can – Donald Trump: It’s a beautiful life. You wouldn’t choose any other life, right? Unidentified: It’s a very unique life. I love what I do. I really do. Donald Trump: I mean if you could have a life like some beautiful leisurely life in Washington, DC – [Laughter] Mugged when you go to work. But other than that, you love politics. If you could live in the White House, you’d take exactly what – Unidentified: Might take it under consideration. [Laughter] Donald Trump: All right. Let’s do this, right? It’s an honor. You’ve seen that signature, and I don’t use autopen, you know, like Biden. Biden uses autopen. Unidentified: [Untranslated] Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you so much. Donald Trump: And what is the second one please? Unidentified: We have one more also relating to fisheries, sir. This is an executive order on seafood competitiveness. Currently we have two basic problems here. One is that the American seafood industry is dramatically overregulated. Our fisheries are dramatically overregulated. The other is that we have unfair trade practices from our foreign trading partners relating to the seafood industry. Unidentified: So, this executive order is going to attempt to address both of those. The Department of Commerce, other federal departments and agencies are going to work with the fisheries to establish common sense regulatory reforms. Donald Trump: How long will that take? Unidentified: I think we’re expecting to – to move as quickly as we can. Yes, sir. Donald Trump: You know what the regular – I mean, you know exactly what we’re talking about already, right? It’s crazy, the regulation. Unidentified: It is. Secretary Rudnick is going to fast track that I can assure you. Donald Trump: Howard, please. Go ahead. Unidentified: Sure. So, you just heard us. The economic zone around Hawaii and Samoa is huge, and it’s exclusively ours. So, why wouldn’t we have our fishermen fish there? I mean, imagine saying our own fishermen – every country in the world they all fish the 200 miles off their coast, and we were stopping our own fishermen from going off the coast. Unidentified: It’s totally the opposite of common sense. That’s why President Trump has changed it. Now let’s talk about regulation. If you’re not even going to let them fish, imagine the regulations that have been written to stop our fishermen from just surviving and thriving. We have the greatest coasts in the world with the greatest fishermen in the world, and we need to let them do their great jobs. Unidentified: Raise and catch your fish, bring them to our tables. Have America have the greatest fish in the world which we have, and then let them export all these other countries, right? They stop us from exporting. That’s going to be over with your leadership and your trading policies. We’re going to open all of these markets, and we’re going to let our fishermen thrive and prosper, and we are going to have lower cost fish, more of it and the freshest fish in the world. Unidentified: And this is just common sense for the United States of America. Donald Trump: So, could I ask – it’s so interesting. So, you take these massive areas of water, and other countries are allowed to fish in them, right? Unidentified: No. They sneak in and poach. Donald Trump: So, they’re not allowed, but they do it because they don’t care. Unidentified: They fish in their own zone, sir, so we’re systematically disadvantaging our fishermen by not allowing them to fish in parts of our exclusive economic zone while other countries have their own exclusive economic zones, and they’re fishing the heck out of those. Donald Trump: So, they’re totally benefiting. Unidentified: Now that you’re allowing the US fishing fleet to fish, they also serve as observers, and when they see poachers, they report them to the authorities. And so, they are a big help to the US Coast Guard, and so it’s great for our US food security. Donald Trump: That’s great. Unidentified: We should have a trade surplus in fish, and we have a big trade deficit. It’s crazy. It’s just crazy. Donald Trump: OK. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: This is an easy one. Unidentified: Very easy. Donald Trump: Hi, mom. This is an easy one. This is crazy, huh? [Laughter] Unidentified: Well, 80 percent of the seafood in the US is imported, so. Yeah. Can you imagine that? We import seafood, and we have the greatest coast for fishing in the world. Donald Trump: OK. So, in Maine, they do something similar. I think it’s like 500 miles or something – some crazy thing. And Canada goes, and they fish there. Other people fish there. Europe fishes there. The Maine lobster. You can’t get Maine lobsters because Maine – so Maine’s forced to go for days out to some other area that’s not as good. Donald Trump: Um, we have to free that up, too. Unidentified: We’ll have that on your desk next week, I promise. Donald Trump: The Maine lobster, right? Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s incredible. Unidentified: You did it – Donald Trump: Think of it. Canada fishes there, but we’re not allowed to, Yeah, I did it last time in Maine, and they undid it. That’s why we have to stay president for a long time. OK? Thank you, everybody. What an honor. It’s a great honor. Thank you, sir. Unidentified: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Unidentified: Thank you. Very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: It’s a great job. Unidentified: Thank you so much. Donald Trump: Beautiful. Unidentified: Mr. – Donald Trump: Looks like a real athlete right here. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, a short time ago, the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in the case about ending birthright citizenship. How confident are you that the court will rule in your favor and allow that order to end birthright citizenship to go forward? Donald Trump: Well, you’re just telling me that for the first time. I am so happy. I think the case has been so misunderstood. That case, birthright citizenship, is about slavery. If you look at the details of it, the signings of it, everything else, that case is all about slavery. And if you view it from that standpoint, people understand it. But for some reason, lawyers don’t talk about it. The news doesn’t talk about it. That’s not about tourists coming in and touching a piece of sand and all of a sudden, their citizenship – you know, they’re a citizen. Donald Trump: That is all about slavery. And even look at the dates on which it was signed. It was right at that era during right after the Civil War. And if you look at it that way, the case is an easy case to win. And I hope the lawyers talk about birthright citizenship and slavery because that’s what it was all about, and it was a very positive. Donald Trump: It was meant to be positive, and they use it now instead – not for slavery. They use it for people that come into our country, and they walk in and all of a sudden, they become citizens, and they pay a lot of money to different cartels and others. It’s all about slavery, and if you look at it that way, we should win that case. Donald Trump: OK. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: We have a great relationship with the president of El Salvador. Will you ask him to release Abrego Garcia so that you can facilitate his return here to the United States? And do you believe he deserves due process here? Donald Trump: Well, I must tell you, I have to refer again to the lawyers. I’ll have to do what they ask me to do. I had heard that there were a lot of things about a certain gentleman – perhaps it was that gentleman that would make that case be a case that’s easily winnable on appeal. So, we’ll just have to see. I’m going to have to respond to the lawyers. Question: Mr. President, we’re learning that there are now two deceased following that shooting at Florida State University. Following and amid that, is there any changes that you want to see to gun legislation? Anything you see broken with gun laws – Donald Trump: Well, I’m going to have to – look, I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning. I protected it. And these things are terrible. But the gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do. It’s, you know, a phrase that’s used probably too often. I will tell you that, uh, it’s a shame. Donald Trump: I’m just hearing about it now. I just hear about it. I know the area very well. I know the school very well. I know everything about it. It’s Florid. And we’ll have more to say about it later on – Question: What do you [Inaudible] you say there will be more to say about it? Donald Trump: Only in terms of what happened. Uh, as far as legislation is concerned, this has been going on for a long time. I have an obligation to protect the Second Amendment. I ran on the Second Amendment among many other things, and I will always protect the Second Amendment. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible] United Kingdom reports that you’re going to go and stay with the king in September. Can you confirm that? What are you looking forward to? Donald Trump: Well, I was invited by the king and by the country. Great country to – they’re going to do a second, as you know, a second fest, and that’s what it is. It’s a fest, and it’s beautiful. And it’s the first time it’s ever happened to one person. And the reason is that we have two separate terms, and it’s an honor to be – you know, I’m a friend of Charles. Donald Trump: I have great respect for King Charles and the family, William. We, uh, we have, uh – it’s really just a great respect for the family, and it’s a very great honor that, uh – and I think they’re setting a date for September. Question: It’s going to be a smaller visit initially and then a bigger state visit to follow after. Is that the plan? Donald Trump: Yeah, they say that it’s going to be, uh – I don’t know how it can be bigger than the last one. The last one was, as you know, is incredible, but they say it’s going to be even more important. So, that’s a great honor to be so chosen. Question: President Trump, yesterday you spoke with Japan. Is the Nippon Steel deal part of the tariff negotiations? Did you discuss that with him? Donald Trump: It could be, but I doubt it. I mean, I think we’re going to view it separately. We want US steel to remain in the hands of the United States and people from the United States. And a great respect for Japan but we don’t want a foreign country buying US steel. US steel was one of our great companies of the world when you go back 80 years, and it was the biggest, strongest, most powerful company in the world. Donald Trump: And we’re going to make it very strong and powerful again without Nippon. But if Nippon wants to come in – and I hear they’re working on it very hard. I have great respect for Nippon Steel. I know a lot about it. But we can – they can invest, and they can do lots of things, partnerships. But we want to have US steel remain in this country. Question: So, is that a stipulation you would put on these tariff negotiations? Donald Trump: I guess. We could talk about it with regard to tariffs, Howard. I mean, it’s something that could be a part of it. But tariff negotiations are actually simpler than that. I mean, we’re going to set a number, and people are going to pay that number, or they’re going to decide to go elsewhere. If there is such a place. Donald Trump: There really is no elsewhere I think. Question: Mr. President, in the first term, your attorney general apologized to Tea Party groups who have been targeted by the IRS under the Obama administration. Why is it OK for the IRS to now be looking at changing the tax status of Harvard because of policy disagreements you have with the university? Donald Trump: So, you know, I had dinner last night with a lot of pastors and ministers and people of faith, and they were like 32 of them. And it was beautiful in the blue room. And they said, sir, I was targeted by the IRS, and the FBI came in, sir, and I’ve been going through hell for years. And somebody overheard that statement, and they said, oh, that happened to me, too. Donald Trump: Another one overheard. Oh, that happened to me, too. It was the Biden people, and they had seven or eight of them. We re going to be reporting it very soon. I said this has to be reported. These are ministers, pastors, uh, evangelicals. They were targeted by the Biden administration, which was a disgraceful administration. Donald Trump: Well, I was targeted more than anybody in history. I think you probably know that. I hope you admit it, but you might not. But I was targeted more than anybody in history. But it was interesting because one pastor told me and another one, heard it, oh me, too, and me, too, me, too, me, too. All of a sudden, they’re all – and one of them spent all of his money, everything he had on lawyers for three years. Donald Trump: He said it took place almost immediately after the election, after the election when Biden came in, unfortunately for the country, sadly for the country. So, when you asked me that question, I immediately say let’s switch it around to tell you what happened last night. And not only that. We’re also finding that many people just having to do with Trump’s support have gone through hell, and they’ve used the IRS for purposes of something that’s very illegal for them to have to – Question: Were you trying to – Donald Trump: It’s a very illegal – it’s a very, very illegal thing to do what they did. And I think it’s so – I think it’s such a shame. That was long what? Question: If that was wrong, why are you considering changing the tax status at Harvard? Donald Trump: Because I think Harvard’s a disgrace. I think what they did was a disgrace. They’re obviously anti-Semitic, and all of a sudden, they’re starting to behave. But when you see where they – what they were saying, what they were doing, when you see the way they took care of events, when you – when you watch that woman, that horrendous president that ruined the image of Harvard maybe permanently in Congress and the halls of Congress. Donald Trump: When you take a look at what happened there, it’s, uh, it was horrific. And, you know, I’ve looked at a lot having to do with it. I’m not involved in it. Being handled by lawyers. I read about it just like you did. But tax-exempt status, I mean, it’s a privilege. It’s really a privilege, and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard. Donald Trump: By a lot more than Harvard. So, we’ll see how that all works out. I don’t think they’ve made – I don’t think they’ve made a final ruling. I don’t believe they’ve made a final ruling, but it’s, uh, it’s something that these schools really have to be very, very careful with, uh. Very anti-Semitic when you take a look, whether it’s Columbia, Harvard, Princeton. Donald Trump: I don’t know what’s going on, but when you see how badly they’ve acted – and in other ways also. So, we’ll – uh, we’ll be looking at it very strongly. Question: [Inaudible] on the tax-exempt status subject, what are the other groups that you’d like to see that status removed from? Could we expect – Donald Trump: Well, we’ll be – we’ll be making some statements, but it’s a big deal. And, uh, they’re so rich and so strong, and then they go so bad. They’ve earned so much by being a member of this country and a member of this group, this beautiful group of people in this country, and then they go, and they abuse their power like that. Donald Trump: I think it’s – you know, I think it’s very sad. Question: Are we talking about immigrant rights groups, environmental rights groups – Donald Trump: Could be. Could be. I mean, look, environmentally – I have a group named Crew. Crew. Did you ever hear of it? I think it’s C-R-E-W. And they have a guy that heads Crew. It’s supposed to be a charitable organization. The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So, we’re looking at that. We’re looking at a lot of things, but if you take a look at Crew, what they’ve done – and I think it was a very big abuse, but we’re going to be finding out pretty soon. Question: Can you explain the disconnect between your conversations with President Xi, when those potentially could happen, and why they haven’t happened yet? Donald Trump: Well, you don’t know whether or not they’ve happened. Question: That’s a question. Donald Trump: Yeah, I mean, I’ve never said whether or not they’ve happened, but I have a very good relationship with President Xi. I think it’s going to continue. And I would say they have reached out a number of times – Question: Xi or [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Well, the way I view it very similar. It would be top levels of China. And if you knew him, you would know that if they reached out, he knew exactly – he knew everything about it. He runs a very tight, very strong, very smart, and, you know, we’re talking to China – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: In days – or recent weeks – Donald Trump: Excuse me? Question: They’ve reached out since the 145 percent tariffs? Donald Trump: Oh, yeah, sure. Question: Do you believe – Donald Trump: A lot. All the time we re talking. Question: Have you already talked directly to President Xi? Donald Trump: I don’t want to say that. It’s just not appropriate. Question: But you’re speaking – I’m sorry. Has he called you directly? President Xi. Or reached out to try to facilitate a conversation? Donald Trump: Well, you’d think it was pretty obvious that he has, but we will talk about that soon. It’s not that important because, honestly, we’re going to have a deal. I believe we’re going to have a deal with China. And if we don’t, we’re going to have a deal anyway because we’re going to set a certain target, and that’s going to be it. Do you have anything to say about that, Howard? Unidentified: I think our tariff policy around the world has every country in the world coming in and talking to us. It is incredible. We had country after country in yesterday. We are confident that we will work out something with China, and the president knows what he wants to do, and I think he s – he knows it better than anybody else in the world. Unidentified: And we are confident that this is going to work out well both for the United States of America. I’m sure he’ll work it out with China. But the amount of other countries who are working with us is incredible. And I think it’s really going to work for the American farmers, for our ranchers, for our fishermen, for our businesses. Unidentified: The scale of companies coming to America just every day – like even this morning, we were talking about whirlpool, and then we were talking about car companies opening. The scale of factories coming to America is mind boggling, driven by Donald Trump’s tariff policy, which has got the world coming and finally respecting the United States of America Question: President Trump, you said – Donald Trump: And by the way, there’s never been anything like it. We have at least $7 trillion of new businesses coming in. If you go back and look at others, I mean, in years they wouldn’t do anything like that, so. And this isn’t a matter of weeks, it’s been pretty amazing. Question: You said we’re talking. So, China and the US are talking on tariffs. Donald Trump: Yeah. Oh, sure. Question: Do you believe them that they won’t go higher than 125 percent? We’ve heard Chinese officials say that. And like what happens if they do go higher? Does – do we retaliate more? Donald Trump: Well, at a certain point – I don’t want them to go higher because at a certain point you make it where people don’t buy. So, I may not want to go higher, or I may not want to even go up to that level. I may want to go to less because, you know, you want people to buy. And at a certain point, people aren’t going to buy. Donald Trump: And it’s actually up – it’s actually up to 145 percent because you have the 20. Question: You previously said that you would consider reducing tariffs on China to get a TikTok deal done. Is that still on the table as of now? Donald Trump: Well, we have a deal for TikTok, but it will be subject to China. So, we’ll just delay the deal until this thing works out one way or the other. And I think it’s a good deal for China. The TikTok deal is very good. TikTok is good for China, and I think they’d like to see us do a deal, especially the deal that we have pretty much done with some of the best companies in the world. Question: If they agree to sign the deal, would you take that into consideration – Donald Trump: I think it would be something we discuss because it’s a – you know, it’s a natural – if we’re making a deal, I guess we’ll spend five minutes and talk about TikTok. It wouldn’t take very long. Question: Can you give us a sense of how far along these negotiations are with China? Are they in the early stages, or are you inching closer now to actually making a deal on tariffs? Donald Trump: I think that we will make a deal with China. I think we’ve had some very good talks, but we will have some very good talks remaining. And, you know, I view it – and some people say, oh, rush. I think we have a lot of time. I think we have plenty of time. But we have very, very good – you saw Japan was here yesterday. Donald Trump: We had Italy today. We had a great conversation with the Prime Minister. We’ve had, uh, very good talks yesterday with Mexico. We’re talking with everybody. You know, the problem is there’s only so many hours in the day. Uh, I think we’re going to make a deal with China. We’re going to make a deal with everybody. Donald Trump: And if we don’t make a deal, we’ll just set a target, and we’ll – that – we’ll live with that, and it’ll be fine. Question: How much time – Donald Trump: I would – I would think over the next three or four weeks. I think maybe the whole thing could be concluded. You have to understand we’re a big – if you think of us as a big, beautiful department store before that business was destroyed by the internet. We’re a big, beautiful store, and everybody wants a piece of that store. Donald Trump: China wants it. Japan wants it, Mexico, Canada. They live off it, those two. Without us they wouldn’t have a country, and everybody wants a piece. And at a certain point, if we don’t make a deal, we’ll just set a limit. We’ll set a tariff. We’ll set some parameters, and we’ll say come in and shop. They may not like that, and they may find it – or the market may find it too high. Donald Trump: You know, more likely the market, but the market may find it too high, or the country may find it too high. Then they’ll come back and say, well, we think this is too high, and we’ll negotiate or they’re going to say something else. They’re going to say, well, let’s see what happens. But they always have a right not to do it. So, they can say, well, we don’t want it, so we’re not going to shop there. Donald Trump: We’re not going to shop in the store of America. We have something that nobody else has, and that’s the American consumer. And I had the most successful – I had the most successful four-year period in the history of this country. And I think we’re going to blow it away this time. There is a little bit of a transition. Donald Trump: And we’re going to have that little transition, and it’s not much of a transition. You know, if you look right now, we’re getting 25 percent on cars, right? We’re getting 25 percent on steel. We’re getting 25 percent on aluminum. We’re going to have some other things that we’re going to be adding in the not-too-distant future because we want them to be made here. Donald Trump: The medicines, the drugs, pharmaceuticals are going to be done and, uh, computer, computer chips, et cetera, et cetera. And because of that, we have the biggest computer companies in the world coming in from Taiwan and other places. And they’re building in Arizona and lots of other places. We’re number one in AI by far. Donald Trump: We’re leading China by a lot, by tremendous amounts. We’re going to supply electricity at levels never supplied before. They’re going to build their own electric. We’re going to let them become a utility essentially. And it’s going to be amazing for the country. They’re going to build their own electric plants. Donald Trump: We have to double up our electricity to be – to remain number one in AI, we’re going to have to double up our electricity from – take our whole country. We’re going to have to double up our electricity. Think of that. And probably even triple it up. And we’re going to let them build their own electric plants with their plant that they’re building for the AI or whatever they’re doing. Donald Trump: Never been done before. We’re going to get them quick approvals. It’s going to be very clean, going to be very nice, and we’re going to get them very fast approvals. And people are investing in this country like they’ve never invested before. Thank you very much, everybody. Note: [Crosstalk] Aide: Thank you, press. Thank you. We’re headed out. Thank you, guys.
Date: 2025-04-23
Donald Trump: [No video] Hello everybody. So we have a – Donald Trump: [Video begins] –very special group of wounded veterans who are amazing, I’ve actually visited many of them in the hospital and they came out better than me. They came out looking good. If I had that look, I would have been president 20 years ago. I wouldn’t have had to wait so long. You look great, fellas. Donald Trump: But many of them, I didn’t even realize it at the time, but I visited many of you in the hospital. They did an incredible job. The doctors are absolutely unbelievable, the job they do. So, we were having a little meeting and at the same time we’re signing some very important legislation – what will become legislation. Donald Trump: And right now, it’s an executive order and having to do mostly with education. And we have our Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who’s been so incredible over the last few weeks. I’ve been watching her on television. I’d like to tell her she could do better, but she can’t do any better [Laughter]. So, I want to thank you, Linda. Donald Trump: Fantastic. And we also have commerce, and we have labor with us today. And you have been – thank you, Lori, very much and, Howard, thank you very much. And we’ll take some questions after we’re finished. Maybe I’ll ask Will to step forward and you can go through some of these. Also, Lindsay, you work with Will, two very talented lawyers, as you all know by now. Will Scharf: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: And we’ll go through them. And Linda, why don’t you come over here? In fact, why don’t the three of you come over here? Will Scharf: We also have a special guest with us today, sir. Donald Trump: Oh, That’s right. Annette Albright, where is Annette? Annette Albright, Charlotte Mecklenburg school teacher, very special one. Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to have you. You’ve got all sorts of awards for talent. That’s good. Thank you very much for being with us. Appreciate it. Thank you. Ok, please. Will Scharf: Sir, the first executive order we have prepared for your attention, there are currently laws on the books requiring certain disclosures of universities when they accept large foreign gifts. We believe that certain universities, including for example, Harvard, have routinely violated this law and this law has not been effectively enforced. Will Scharf: So, this executive order charges your departments and agencies with enforcing the laws on the books with respect to foreign gifts to American universities. Donald Trump: Ok, thank you. Thank you very much. We’ll put it right here. Will Scharf: Next for you, sir, university accreditation is currently a process controlled by a number of third-party organizations, that’s by statute, by law. Many of those third-party accreditors have relied on sort of woke ideology to accredit universities instead of accrediting based on merit and performance. Will Scharf: This executive order affects a number of changes to the university accreditation process, also applies to law schools and other sort of graduate programs, but the basic idea is to force accreditation to be focused on the merit and the actual results that these universities are providing, as opposed to how well these universities have gotten. Will Scharf: So we’re setting up new accreditation pathways. We’re charging the Department of Education to really look holistically at this accreditation mess and hopefully make it much better. Donald Trump: Will we look into the past people that they’ve taken? For instance, I hear all about certain great schools and then we read where they’re going to teach people basic math, math that we could all do very easily, but they can’t do. They’re going to the top school and they come out with a program of teaching basic math to somebody that got into a Harvard or a Princeton or a Yale. Donald Trump: Is that part of this? Will Scharf: When universities are not performing appropriately, whether that’s in admissions or whether that’s in their actual instructional activities, that’s certainly something that accreditors should be considering, that right now, we believe they’re not doing a good enough job of and I think Secretary McMahon could probably speak to that better than I could, sir. Donald Trump: What about that, they’re allowing people into school, they can’t do math and yet kids who’ve worked really hard and number one in their class at a high school someplace in new Jersey or in Mississippi, they can’t get into the best schools. What is that all about? Linda McMahon: Yeah, I think that gets to your policy, sir, of meritocracy, that we should be looking at those who have real merit to get in and we have to look harder at those universities that aren’t enforcing that. Donald Trump: OK. Thank you. And this pretty much does it, right? Linda McMahon: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you. OK. Thank you. Will Scharf: Sir, during your first administration, you made promoting historically Black colleges and universities, HBCUs, a major priority. This executive order takes existing law on HBCUs and brings it into effect. We’re going to be setting up a White House initiative on HBCUs. The basic idea here is making sure that every aspect of your administration is working to ensure that HBCUs are able to do their job as effectively and as efficiently as possible. Donald Trump: OK. OK. All right. Will Scharf: This next executive order relates to artificial intelligence education, sir. You’ve obviously done a lot in the artificial intelligence space already. The basic idea of this executive order is to ensure that we properly train the workforce of the future by ensuring that school children, young Americans, are adequately trained in AI tools so that they can be competitive in the economy years from now into the future, as AI becomes a bigger and bigger deal. Donald Trump: That’s a big deal. Will Scharf: Huge. Donald Trump: Because AI is – where it seems to be at, we have literally trillions of dollars being invested in AI and somebody today, a very smart person said that AI is the way to the future. I don’t know if that’s right or not, but certainly, very smart people are investing in it heavily. OK. OK. Will Scharf: Next, sir, we have an executive order on workforce development. This executive order is going to charge numerous departments and agencies within the government to reshape the way that we do workforce development. One example from the executive order, for instance, we’re looking to get the total number of apprenticeships, new apprenticeships up to a million in the country to ensure that in critical jobs areas, in areas where we currently don’t have enough trained workers, that we’re recreating that pipeline to ensure that particularly as we onshore industrial jobs and new industries, that those industries have the workforce they need to be competitive globally. Donald Trump: Right, very important. Howard Lutnick: And this is the EO that we’re all here working together. Donald Trump: And in a way, this is like a training center, right, for what we’re trying to do, which is jobs and great salaries. These are great salaries too. Howard Lutnick: Right, its exactly. So all those factories that you’re bringing in because of your trade policy, we’re going to train people in trade craft, bring back trade craft to America so that people can work in these factories with great paying jobs. And we’re going to train them and we’re going to remake the American dream for all these people. Howard Lutnick: We’re working together, right, Lori? Lori Chavez-Deremer: That’s right. Absolutely. This plays right into America at Work Tour, which I have kicked off. We will work with our state partners and work with our businesses to see exactly who they need in that workforce. And we will skill and upskill these apprentices so they can get right to work and get in the field and build back this economy for exactly living the American dream. Donald Trump: Here, Lori. Lori Chavez-Deremer: Yeah, thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Will Scharf: Next, sir, we have an executive order on school discipline policies. Under, I believe it was the Biden administration, first Obama and then Biden, the Department of Justice issued guidance that made it almost impossible for schools to enforce adequate disciplinary policies. This created issues in the classroom for teachers and students alike. Will Scharf: Basically, they focused on CRT and sort of diversity ideology instead of actually just enforcing the rules in classrooms to ensure a safe learning environment. This executive order revokes that prior guidance and puts us back in a place where hopefully the Department of Education can focus on education and teachers can focus on teaching in a safe environment. Donald Trump: And this was important for you, Linda, as I understand it, huh? Linda McMahon: Yeah, absolutely, because it gives teachers the authority now to have discipline in their classroom and discipline the person who is being disruptive. Donald Trump: Great. We took that away. OK. Thanks. Howard Lutnick: You’re welcome. Donald Trump: Here, Linda. You should hold that. Will Scharf: Lastly, sir, we have an executive order on disparate impact theory. This is a theory that underlies a lot of the modern DEI and CRT-driven diversity culture. The basic idea here is instructing your departments and agencies to no longer rely on disparate impact theory as their regulating, as they’re issuing guidance, as they’re making rules. Will Scharf: We want to focus on results. We want to focus on actual fairness. We want to focus on merit, not things like disparate impact theory and the whole sort of diversity, equity and inclusion cult. Donald Trump: It’s getting out of that, huh? Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: After being in that jungle for a long time. OK. Thank you. Very good job. Will Scharf: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Will Scharf: Appreciate it. Donald Trump: Very much. Would you like to introduce again, Annette, and perhaps Annette wanted to say something having to do with that? Annette is right here. Linda McMahon: Yes, Annette. Yes, please, come over. Would you like to have some comments to make under your former Charlotte-Mecklenburg school teacher? I’m a North Carolina girl, so it’s nice to see you. Annette Albright: Yes, from New Bern. Linda McMahon: Yes, from New Bern. Annette Albright: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. I am so honored to be here. This has been an eight-year journey for me to raise awareness to the violence that’s in public schools and the critical need to address violence in public schools. Again, been doing it eight years, because most administrations like to keep the violence hidden. Annette Albright: We have three students that should be here with us today. We have Austin Metcalf, I’m sorry if I say his name wrong, Serenity Baker and Nahzir Taylor from Charlotte, North Carolina who was shot in the back as he was getting off of a school bus because they thought he was a part of a big brawl that happened inside a public high school. Annette Albright: So this is very important and critical legislation, that we have to keep our educators safe, we have to keep our students safe and public schools have to be safe environments. So like I said, I’ve done this journey alone. I’ve been on it, but I have a whole team behind me now. I spoke at the RNC and I told millions that Donald Trump and his administration was going to make schools great again, and I feel that we’re on the right path and I’m just honored to be here. Donald Trump: Thank you, Annette. And we’re giving this to the – our great vets that are with us. And is it Ok if I give her one? What do you think? Should I? Annette Albright: Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Annette Albright: Thank you. What an honor. Donald Trump: Great job. Could I ask Sarah to speak, Verardo? Sarah Verardo: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Donald Trump: Tell us a little bit about these great gentlemen. Sarah Verardo: These heroes, Mr. President, are extraordinary. This is my husband, Michael. And so many of our dear, dear friends who are here today, many of them have met you, sir, in your first administration in the hospital, many times at Walter Reed. Donald Trump: Right. Sarah Verardo: And they’ve had long recoveries. Tomorrow, for my husband, marks 15 years since he was wounded in Afghanistan. Donald Trump: Wow. Sarah Verardo: And on that day, about six years ago, he had his 120th surgery post-Afghanistan. Donald Trump: Oh, wow. Sarah Verardo: And you came to see him at Walter Reed and so many others. And we saw great reform in the VA – access, same day access to prosthetics, mental healthcare. And we know that that is back. We’re going to – these gentlemen were saying, Alex here earlier was saying in the last few years when he’s gone to get a wheelchair, the VA has asked him, this gentleman, they’ve asked him to prove that he still has his injuries as though maybe his limbs would grow back. Sarah Verardo: And they unfortunately did not, yes. And we’ve seen that many times. And so, we’re excited for you bringing back the VA Accountability, MISSION Act, Community Care that were the hallmarks of your first term. And we’re so excited, sir, to be here. We’re honored to be here. And thank you for all you do for our nation’s heroes. Donald Trump: Thank you. Who’s that picture on there? Unidentified: That is Joe Biden, and it says, Let’s go Brandon [Laughter]. Donald Trump: I’m saying what was that picture. Sarah Verardo: I told him he wasn’t allowed to ask you to sign it [Laughter]. Donald Trump: That’s very good. Well, thank you all very much. Would you like to say anything, fellas? Here’s a big chance. You have a lot of good people watching that believe in you. They happen to be the media, but they believe very much in you like I do. Anybody? Unidentified: Mr. President, we’re very happy with the energy that this administration is bringing and it’s an administration that says – does what it promises. And so, we’re behind you, we believe in you and I think we all love you. I think I speak for everybody. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. And I’m going to get you a better hat, we have better hats. That’s a good one. That was the original. Unidentified: It was. Donald Trump: That means he was there. Unidentified: I’ve been wearing it before it was cool. Donald Trump: That’s right, that was an early one. We’ll save that one though, right? Unidentified: Yes, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. Anybody, please. Unidentified: I’d like to say – oh, go ahead. I was just going to say thank you for loving America, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. That’s very nice. Thank you very much, truly. Thank you. Unidentified: [Inaudible] saved Michael Bardo’s life. And of course he goes immediately to say thank you, as he was the one that saved Michael Bardo from the helicopter and got him off the combat zone. So, the selflessness of these men is unspeakable. Donald Trump: That’s great to you – Sarah Verardo: He’s alive because of that man right here. Donald Trump: These are amazing people, great heroes. So, that’s really great. Anybody else? Unidentified: I’d like to say it was an honor to serve, you were worth it, this country is worth it, it’s because of what Christ paid for it. Donald Trump: Thank you. And we have a spirit that people haven’t seen in many years, at least five. They haven’t seen – I think even then, because we’ve been through so much for the last four years together. It was so bad. It was so bad what they’ve done to the borders, what they’ve done all over the place. And it’s really an honor to be with you, all of you. Donald Trump: Incredible. And I’m going to give you these coins and I think you’re going to really like them. I think they’re the best. These are the best coins. You have your choice. This is gunmetal. I don’t know, soldiers like the black, but I think you’ll like this one. It’s OK. A lot of soldiers like the black. Here we go, what do you like? Unidentified: I’ll go with black. Donald Trump: See, I told you [Laughter]. These are choices. Unidentified: I’ll take a black one, sir. Donald Trump: OK, look at this, that rarely happens. You’re different, huh? Unidentified: I’ll take a white one, sir. There you go. Donald Trump: That’s great. Unidentified: [Inaudible] the military. Donald Trump: No, but I always say the soldiers, they do like – it’s gunmetal. What do you like here? Unidentified: That’s what I heard that it was gunmetal. Gold is what – Donald Trump: I’m giving you – I’m giving him two [Laughter]. Sarah Verardo: We have three girls. They’re going to fight. Donald Trump: One for this one right here, we’ll get another one here. OK, this is actually fun. Unidentified: I’ll take the gold, Mr. President. Donald Trump: OK, I thought you were going to take that gold, OK. Unidentified: Gold one, sir. Donald Trump: OK, I got it. Unidentified: I had an opportunity to sail across the Gulf of America, two days after you named it, right? Donald Trump: Oh, wow. It’s been an honor and now people say it routinely, they don’t even think about the other. They say it routinely. That’s been a great honor for me. OK? Unidentified: I’ll take a gold one, sir. Donald Trump: OK, so it’s almost even – I think gold has an edge. Unidentified: I would love a gold one, sir. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Take the gold, it picked up at the end, right [Laughter]? Well, OK, that’s good. So, I want to thank you very much and especially, that’s a great story. So, what do you think of a guy like that? Pretty good? Unidentified: Actually, we all served together. Donald Trump: Wow! Unidentified: And Jared, over there. Donald Trump: And Jared. So, you guys got hit pretty good, you got hit. Unidentified: Pretty good. Donald Trump: Amazing, amazing. Unidentified: We’re in a pretty tough area in Kandahar – in the Arghandab River Valley, right in Kandahar. Sarah Verardo: Their unit had a more than 50 percent Purple Heart rate, sir, in 2010. Donald Trump: Wow, you deserve it, you deserve that and more. We appreciate it so much. Brave – really brave, brilliant people. Thank you very much. Do you have any questions of the guys here? Question: I want to say thank you to the veterans who are here. Thank you so much for defending us. And then I wanted to ask you, Mr. President, because you said you want to bring the tariffs on China down soon. How soon do you want to bring the tariffs on Chinese goods down? Donald Trump: Well, that depends on them. We have a situation where we have a very, very great place, it’s called the United States of America, and it’s been ripped off for years and years. These people know it. We talked about it before you came in. We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world practically, friend and foe. Donald Trump: And we will – we’re not doing that anymore. So, what’s happened is we’ve – Howard, how many countries have we spoken to already? Howard Lutnick: 90 Donald Trump: 90, and they all want to make deals and we’re going to make deals, but they’re going to be fair deals; they’re not going to be rip off deals. And we were losing almost $5 billion a year. No country can do that. And now we have it down almost to even, maybe even better than even, because of the tariffs on cars and aluminum and steel. Donald Trump: We have tariffs, 25 percent on cars, aluminum and steel. There’s a rush to build new steel plants, a rush to build new aluminum plants. And the biggest rush I’ve ever seen, that we’ve ever seen, to build car plants. We have like 11 of them or something, big ones, where you guys maybe work. Maybe you won’t want to work, you’ll do something else instead of that. Donald Trump: But if you like cars, you’d like to work at one of these plants. The biggest plants in the world, three of them have left Mexico before construction started, one of them during construction and they’re coming to this country. They’re coming back, don’t forget. And we get along great with Mexico, but Mexico took 32 percent of our car building business. Donald Trump: So, it’s amazing what’s happened. Remember this number, anywhere from $3 billion to $5 billion a day. That’s not million dollars, that’s billion dollars a day. Nobody can even imagine it. And that’s what we were losing. And hence we have $36 trillion in debt and everything else. And in the end, I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to have great deals. Donald Trump: And by the way, if we don’t have a deal with a company or a country, we’re going to set the tariff, we just set the tariff. It’s something that we think – that will happen I’d say over the next couple of weeks, wouldn’t you say? I think so, over the next two or three weeks, we’ll be setting the number. Question: For China. Donald Trump: We’re going to pick – could be for China too, could be for China. Well, we’re dealing with almost all of them – too many to fully deal with, but we’re going to be fair to them. But we’re dealing with a lot of countries right now and could be with China, but maybe we’ll make a special – a deal and we’ll see what it will be. Right now, it’s 145 percent. Donald Trump: That’s very high. It got there because of the fentanyl. They’re sending massive amounts of fentanyl into our country and killing a lot of people, probably 200,000-plus a year, wiping them out. You probably all have friends that were killed. Somebody was killed in your family or your friends with fentanyl and somehow, it’s made almost exclusively in China. Donald Trump: And as you know, we essentially taxed them 10 percent and then another 10 percent. We also taxed Mexico 25 percent, and we taxed Canada 25 percent. And that’s the kind of money – that’s what’s pouring into our country right now. And it’s gotten us down from losing $3 billion to $5 billion a day to actually making money, but breaking even, let’s say. Donald Trump: But we’re going to make a lot of money, and that money is going to be used to reduce taxes. We’re going to get big, big tax breaks. We’re going to – there was a time, I said it this morning, I think some of you were there. There was a time from 1870 to 1913, it was a long time ago, we were an all-tariff nation. Donald Trump: Foreign nations paid taxes, they paid money to us in the form of tariffs and that was when we were the wealthiest. We were the wealthiest proportionately that we ever were. And they formed committees in 1887 in particular, but they formed committees to determine what we should do with all the money. We had so much money, you guys would have loved it. We had so much money they didn’t know what to do with it. We gave it away to different causes. Donald Trump: And you haven’t seen that too much anymore, although we give plenty away, but now we shouldn’t be giving it away. We have to take care of ourselves first, right? But we were very wealthy and proportionately the wealthiest we ever were. We built the Panama Canal; Jimmy Carter gave that away for $1, by the way. Donald Trump: One of the most profitable things ever built, the Panama. And now we gave it away for $1 to Panama. Why? I don’t know. Nobody knows, but that’s what we had. We had people like that sitting behind this desk and that shouldn’t have happened. Panama Canal, it was the most expensive thing ever built by our country in history. Donald Trump: I’m talking relative dollars. We’ve never built anything so expensive. I think it was the equivalent of $1.7 billion, and we’ve never built anything like that. We built a lot of things but never so expensive. Then we started building other things. We had a lot of money to do it, all based on foreign countries coming in and paying us tariffs and we’re doing that again. Donald Trump: And I think we’re going to make so much that we’re going to be able to reduce taxes in this country by a lot. And we’re also going to treat those countries very fairly. But if we don’t make a deal, which is possible, we’re going to just set the price. Because you remember, they have to come in, they want to come in here and they want to do business with the United States. Donald Trump: So we want to set a fair price and we’ll do that. We’re going to be very fair, but we’ll set a fair price and then they can make a determination as to whether or not they want to do business with the United States. And I think most of them will, and I think we’re going to treat them very fairly. Question: Were you worried about what the 145 percent tariffs were doing to small businesses here in the US? Is that why you’re bringing it down? Donald Trump: No, no. No, I haven’t brought it down. I haven’t brought – it’s still 145. I haven’t brought it down. Question: But you said in the next few weeks – Donald Trump: I said it’s a high tariff. It is a high tariff, but I haven’t brought it down. It basically means China’s not doing any business with us, essentially, because it’s a very high number. So when you add that to the price of a product, a lot of those products aren’t going to sell, but China’s not doing any business. Donald Trump: They were doing $1.1 trillion. Think of that, $1.1 trillion. You know what that is? And it was just very unfair to us and we were doing very little, relatively very little with them. It was one-sided, very one-sided. But we get along, I get along very well with President Xi, and I hope we can make a deal. Donald Trump: Otherwise, we’ll set a price and hopefully they’ll come here and they’ll contribute. And if they don’t, that’s OK. Question: Sir, on your trip to Rome, there’s a lot of leaders attending the Pope’s funeral, who also said they’d like to meet with you while you’re there. Do you have any meetings set up? Donald Trump: Yes, I do. I have a lot of meetings set up. I don’t know if I can do it. Do you want to help me out, fellas? I got a lot of meetings. I got every leader in the world, which tells you that we have a good product, it’s called the United States of America and it’s great. And these people know about it better than anybody in this room, but we have a great place and it should be a lot greater and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make it greater than ever before. Donald Trump: It’s very simple. Question: Who are you going to be meeting with, President Zelenskyy? Donald Trump: Well, I have a lot of meetings set up. Yeah, a lot. Question: And are you bringing anyone with you in the US delegation to the funeral, like Secretary Rubio or a former president? Donald Trump: We have a couple of people coming. We’ll announce it probably this evening or tomorrow. The first lady is going and some people are coming with me from staff, but we’ll have a number of people going. I’m sure it’s going to be a beautiful ceremony. Question: I have one on Ukraine, but I wanted to ask you one about veterans, as they are here today, and thank you for your service and sacrifice. I wanted to ask you about the cuts that have been made, including with the VA. Can you assure that veterans like these men here, those that have been suffering from mental health issues or burn pits, for example, will be taken care of even with the cuts? Donald Trump: Yeah, very much so. In fact, they will tell you, it’s been better with me than any president in history. We had a 92 percent approval rating, which is unheard of, up 50 points from the previous administration in my first four years. And we’re doing better now, and in fact, now they have something to call in doctor stuff, where it’s really become modernized and great, where you don’t have to go and travel sometimes long distances to get to a clinic or get to the VA. And I just heard this morning, I was listening to Doug Collins, who’s a secretary, who was being interviewed. Donald Trump: And the numbers are incredible. The approval ratings are the highest. I’ve never heard numbers like this. It’s better than the first four years. So no, there’s no group of people more important than the people in this room. And I am not talking about the media. I’m talking about these people right here. There’s no group, and they’re going to be taken really well care of. It’s very important to me. Question: And on the war in Ukraine, are you going to be meeting with President Zelenskyy? He’s asked to meet with you this weekend. Will you be meeting with him this weekend? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I don’t know that he’s going to the funeral or not, but I just hope he gets this thing solved because we’re losing about, think of this, 5,000, I was saying 2,500 and everyone was telling me that’s low. 5,000 soldiers are being killed every week, approximately. Think of that, every week, 5,000 soldiers, but let’s say from 3,000 to 5,000 are being killed. Donald Trump: They’re Russian and Ukrainian. They’re not Americans, but they’re people and they’re humans. They’re human beings. They have families. They wave goodbye to their son and then they get a call that the son is no longer there. It’s a vicious war. And if I can help solve it – we’re not losing our soldiers, but we’re losing soldiers, a lot of people. Donald Trump: And if I can solve it because of a certain ability, that will be great. And if it doesn’t happen, I will say that I think Russia is ready and a lot of people said Russia wanted to go for the whole thing. And I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy. And I hope that Zelenskyy, I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. Donald Trump: So far, it’s been harder, but that’s OK. It’s all right, but I think we have a deal with both. I hope they do it because I’m looking to save – and we spent a lot of money, but this is about a lot of humanity. This is the worst – I get the pictures, the satellite pictures. I’ve never seen anything like it, of the fields after some of these battles. Donald Trump: It’s horrible, that it’s going for nothing. We would have never had this problem. You would have never had that war if I were president, I guarantee you that. And for four years, you didn’t have it. Yeah, please. Please. Question: Are you going to meet with Vladimir Putin? Donald Trump: I will be meeting with him. Question: In Saudi Arabia? Donald Trump: It’s possible, but most likely not. I think we’ll meet with him shortly thereafter, though. Question: What [Inaudible] going to present to the – Donald Trump: Please, go ahead. Please. Question: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, during the Biden administration and the campaign, with inflation raging, he lowered interest rates two times. Now, with two consecutive months of inflation being down, all economic theory you learn in the eighth grade says it’s time to cut rates when inflation is down. Donald Trump: You’re right. Question: He’s not done that. Have you had any direct conversation with him about – Donald Trump: No, I haven’t called him. I might call him. I haven’t called him, but I believe he’s making a mistake by not lowering interest rates. And I think as well as we’re doing, we’d doing much better. He’s keeping rates too high. He historically has been late, except when it came to Biden. He was recommended by a certain person that I’m not particularly happy with, but he will hopefully do the right thing. Donald Trump: The right thing is to lower interest rates. So we’ll see what happens. I think we’re sitting on something that’s going to be very good. With all the tariff money starting to come in, our country’s going to be doing really well and hopefully he’ll be – we don’t have inflation. Groceries are down. When I first came in, people were there, they hit me with the first day that I was president. Donald Trump: Somebody started screaming at me that eggs are up. I said, I just got here. And in the first week they were going crazy. You remember that, Linda? Linda McMahon: Yes. Donald Trump: They were going crazy. They’re this saying that egg prices are too high. I said, I’m here for one week, just leave me alone. This is the fake news media. And I said, what can I tell you? But Brooke Rollins, our Secretary of Agriculture and a group working with her, have done an amazing job and egg prices have gone down 87 percent. Donald Trump: Energy now is down $65 a barrel. They have some energy selling gasoline for less than $2 in a couple of states, Alabama, a couple of great states. But all over the country, it’s way down from what it was six months ago, three months ago. And that has a lot to do with the war. When Biden allowed energy to skyrocket, it just skyrocketed. Donald Trump: It was out of control. Russia made a lot more money because they make their money on energy and I kept saying, he supposedly wants to end the war, but he lets energy go out of control. Well, I’ve gotten it – we are drilling like crazy right now and we have it down to $65 a barrel. It went up to almost $100 a barrel. Donald Trump: And at that number, Putin and Russia made a lot of money. So I think one of the reasons – I think he has a certain respect for me, but one of the big reasons is oil prices are down. I think this is a good time to get the war settled. Thank you. Thank you for that question. Question: Just one more question. [Inaudible] For those of us that live here in the district, you said when you came in, you were going to make Washington, DC great again. Donald Trump: Right. Question: One of the issues we’ve got right now is we understand there might be an imminent deal between the owner of the Washington Football Team, whatever you want to call them now, commanders, and locally, in getting the Redskins back to DC in RFK Stadium. That’s on federal property. Donald Trump: Right. Question: Are you going to be involved in that negotiation? Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: And would one of the stipulations be they change their name back to the Redskins? Donald Trump: Oh, I see. Well, that’s a little bit – nobody’s asked me that one. Look, I think when the Indian population is a great part of this country, a great heritage. And we were talking about Massapequa, Long Island, the Chiefs, they call themselves the Chiefs – or the Kansas City Chiefs. They’re not changing their name. Donald Trump: A great team, great people, great owners, great coach and quarterback. I love the quarterback, I like his girlfriend too, his wife. His wife is great. She’s been a big fan. The quarterback’s mother is incredible. I like that team. They’re called the Chiefs. And frankly, I see nothing wrong with it. They call them the Warriors, and not that team, but a lot of other teams and all of these Indian surnames and different names. Donald Trump: And I’m saying that I think that’s a positive thing. And when you go back to Indians, they pull this, they don’t know why these names are being taken off. They’re trying to – I think it’s degrading to the Indian population and it’s a great population. And they like when they’re called by various names. Now, Washington, the Redskins, perhaps that’s a little different, a little bit different. Donald Trump: But I can tell you that I spoke to people of Indian heritage that love that name and they love that team. And I think it’s a much – I think it’s a superior name to what they have right now. It had heritage behind it. It had something special. But a lot of the names having to do with different places, not just Indians, but I think it’s – they changed the name of the Cleveland Indians. Donald Trump: Why would you take the name Indians off the Cleveland Indians, and now it’s called the Cleveland, something else, right? Guardians. It just doesn’t make sense to me. So, we’re about bringing common sense back to this country and it may be popular or unpopular, what I’m saying, and I’ve just said to you. He’s a nice guy; he got a lot out of me on this one [Laughter]. But I think most people agree with me. I think it really is demeaning to Indians, but to change the name of the Cleveland Indians, as an example, to the Cleveland Guardians is not the same and I’m sure it has an impact on the team. Question: Thank you, sir. Elon Musk said he’ll be stepping back from his work with DOGE a little bit and only dedicating maybe a day or two a week to it. How long would you like to see that continue and how involved would you like to see him continue to be after? Donald Trump: Well, first of all, I can’t speak more highly about any individual. He’s an incredible guy. He’s a brilliant guy. He’s a wonderful person. I’ve seen him with his family. I’ve seen him with a lot of his children. He’s got a lot of children. He treats them good. He loves his children. But he’s a brilliant guy and he was a tremendous help both in the campaign and in what he’s done with DOGE. And we’re talking about almost $200 million and rising fast because many of the things that we were looking at are now being found out to be fact. Donald Trump: It’s terrible, I mean, the fraud, the waste, the abuse, the – everything that’s happened is just terrible. So, I also know that he was treated very unfairly by the – I guess, you’d call it the public, by some of the public, not by all of it. So, he makes an incredible car, makes – everything he does is good. Donald Trump: But they took it out on Tesla, and I just thought it was so unfair because he’s trying to help the country. But he has helped the country. I also want him to make sure that he’s going to be in great shape. And I know he is – I mean, he’s going to be – he’s going to do great. He loves the country. He didn’t need to do this. Donald Trump: He did it and I told him, I said, you know, whenever you’re ready – I’d like to keep him for a long time. But whenever you’re ready, he’s an exceptional guy. When you see those rockets go up and come back and land in the same gantry, nobody else can do that but this man. So, he’s just an incredible person and he’s a friend of mine and he’s a nice person, too. Donald Trump: He’s a very nice person. He really helped the country saved us a lot of money. And I heard him say that he’ll start easing, which is always – he was always, at this time, going to ease out. And when he goes back to Tesla, that’ll be taken care of. It was just – it’s artificial. These were sick people that thought they were doing something. Donald Trump: He really – he’s a great patriot and he should – really it should be – it shouldn’t be the way, that should never have happened to him. And I will tell you right now, he makes a great product. He makes a great product. It’s a great car. It’s great everything, Starlink is great. What he does is good. He’s doing medical things that are amazing, and we have to, at some point, let him go and do that, and we expect him to be doing it about this time. Donald Trump: But I’ll talk to – I’ll talk to Elon about it. Thank you for the question. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – a second question. Canada has an election coming up. How – would you have a prediction for that? And what do you think the results – Donald Trump: With respect to Canada? Question: With the negotiations? Donald Trump: Oh, I don’t want to predict other nations’ elections. It’s tough enough doing this one. Look, I love the Canadian people, I like Canada, but it’s costing us $200 billion a year to support Canada, $200 billion. And I say why are we doing that? You know what? We can make our own cars. We have more energy than they do. We have more energy than anybody in the world. Donald Trump: We don’t need their lumber obviously; we have more lumber. We have a lot of lumber. We have a lot of everything that they sell us, but in particular cars. They took a large percentage of the car making and I want to bring it back to this country. I really don’t want cars from Canada. So, when I put tariffs on Canada, they’re paying 25 percent, but that could go up in terms of cars. Donald Trump: When we put tariffs on, all we’re doing is we’re saying, we don’t want your cars, in all due respect. We want really to make our own cars, which is what we’re doing in record numbers now. You know, we’re going to be at record levels in a very near future because of all the plants, the car plants that are being built. Donald Trump: And I’d rather see them made in Michigan and made in South Carolina and made in different states, Tennessee. We have a lot of great car-making states, and we have some that aren’t car-making yet, but they will soon be car-making states. And that’s what I want to see for our country. At the same time, I want to help Canada as to – I have spoken to the current prime minister. Donald Trump: He was very, very nice, I will say, very nice. We had a couple of very nice conversations, very good. But I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to get involved in their election. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – if I may, this deal that you have with Russia, does it include recognizing Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea? Donald Trump: Well, everything is good. I just want to see the war end. I don’t care – if they’re both happy, if they both sign an agreement – I have no favorites. I don’t want to have any favorites. I want to have a deal done. I want to save the lives. Now, with that being said, we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars through Biden. Donald Trump: Biden should have never let that war happen. We’re spending hundreds of billions, maybe $350 billion we’ve given to Ukraine, and we could use that money right here. So, I’d like to see that. But most importantly right now is when I see the pictures, the satellite pictures of the battlefield, if I can stop that because of an ability I have to do things, I want to see if I can do that. Question: Mr. President, on tariffs, you just mentioned that 25 percent could go up on cars in terms of Canada. Does that mean that you’re considering changes to the auto tariffs and auto parts? Donald Trump: No, we’re not considering it now. But at some point, it could go up, yeah, because again we don’t really want Canada to make cars for us, to put it bluntly, we want to make our own cars, and we’re now equipped to do that. They took a lot of our car business. Mexico too took a lot of our car business. We want to make the cars here. Donald Trump: I’m running this country; I’m not running Canada. And that’s why I asked Trudeau, who I call Governor Trudeau affectionately, but I asked him why are we spending $200 billion to support Canada, to subsidize Canada? And he was unable to answer the question. I mean, why are we doing that? And I have to be honest, as a state, it works great. Donald Trump: As a nation, considering the fact that most of the nation – you know, 95 percent of Canada, what they do is they buy from us, and they sell to us. They sell to us. If we didn’t buy their oil, if we didn’t buy their – and we don’t need their oil, we have more oil than anyone. But we don’t need their oil, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their cars, we don’t need anything. Donald Trump: So, I said why are we doing this? Why are we spending $200 billion? It doesn’t make sense. If we needed something that would be a different subject. So, I’m working well with Canada. We’re doing very well. We’re working on a deal. We’ll see what happens. But again, why – representing this country, why are we spending $200 billion to support and subsidize another country? Donald Trump: Because if they didn’t have us and if we didn’t spend that money, as Trudeau told me, they would cease to exist. He said that to me, they would cease to exist, which is true, certainly as a country. Question: On tourism, there’s been a steep drop off in international travel to the United States. It was down 12 percent last month, down even more from Western Europe. Why do you think that there are fewer people suddenly who want to travel to the United States? Donald Trump: Well, there could be a little – there’s a little nationalism there, I guess perhaps. It’s not a big deal. But with the dollar being where it is, because China would always fight for having a low dollar. Japan would always fight for having a low dollar, meaning a low yen or in the case of China, the yuan. Donald Trump: They’d always want to have – China would always – I’d speak to President Xi a lot. I’d say, it’s unfair that your yuan is so low. I’d call up a great man, Prime Minister Abe, great man, Shinzo, who was unfortunately assassinated. And I used to tell – he was a good friend of mine. I used to say, Shinzo, you can’t let your yen go down. Donald Trump: It makes it very hard for us to sell tractors. It makes it very hard for us to get tourism. And our dollar is a little bit on the low side, and that means that a lot of tourism is going to come in. But I could see a little bit nationalism at work. And I could see it likewise with us not wanting to go to certain countries, but that will work out very easily. Question: Do you think some people are scared to come here because they hear the stories of tourists who are detained for a few days or even a week or two? Donald Trump: No, no, we treat our tourists great. We’re the tourism capital of the world. There’s no place like this. And there may be a little bit of nationalism, but I doubt it. I actually doubt it. Yeah? Question: Mr. President, has there been any direct contact between the US and China on trade at all? Donald Trump: Yeah, of course, every day. Question: Every day. And then secondly, would you support a millionaire tax? Donald Trump: I think it would be very disruptive because a lot of the millionaires would leave the country. In the old days, they left states. They’d go from one state to the other. Now with transportation so quick and so easy, they leave countries. You’d lose a lot of money if you do that. And other countries that have done it have lost a lot of people. Donald Trump: They lose their wealthy people. That would be bad because the wealthy people pay the tax. OK? Question: Sir, how did the talks today go in London? Do you think that the asks from Ukraine and Europe – Donald Trump: I think they went well. We got to get two people, two strong people, two smart people to agree. And as soon as they agree, the killing will stop, but yeah, I think they went well, pretty well. Question: Mr. President, we understand that you economic team, many of them are here today, JD Vance has negotiated what’s been called a monster trade deal with India, like, biggest one ever. Can you share with us what some of the framework of that might be? Donald Trump: You said England. Question: India. Donald Trump: India? Question: India. Modi. Donald Trump: Oh. They’re not very complicated, these deals. It’s about the tariffs. India charges almost more than any other country in the world. And believe it or not, we do very little business with India, other than the fact that I like the prime minister very much. He’s a friend of mine. He was here two weeks ago, as you know. Donald Trump: And we stood right outside, did a news conference. Unfortunately, the grass was very wet and it was very hard for people to stand on the grass. They got their shoes all ruined. But other than that, it was a very good news conference and he’s a great guy, but we do very little business. You know why, because the tariffs are so high. Donald Trump: They have among the highest tariffs, higher than China. They have among the highest tariffs in the world, and I understand they’re going to reduce those tariffs. But it’s really sort of their problem, not ours. We do very, very little purchasing in India and selling. We do very little selling. I mean, Harley Davidson, I said, how are you doing in India? Donald Trump: This is about six years ago. They came to lunch as a great American company. They make the motorcycles. And I said, how are you doing in India as an example? Well, we don’t do any business there. Why, because the tariffs are too high. I said, that’s interesting. Well, what are you going to do? He said, well, we’re going to build a plant in India, and that’s what they did. Donald Trump: I don’t want that to happen. They were forced to build a plant. Well, essentially, what we’re doing is same thing. Remember, there’s no tariff when they build their plant here and everybody wants to build because they don’t want to – and the higher the tariffs go, the more likely it is they come in and build a plant. Donald Trump: I mean, if it’s 25 percent, that’s fine. If it’s 50 percent, you’ll get more plants, 75, you get more. At 100, you get more than that. And they’re all coming in at numbers that nobody’s – I don’t think, Howard, there’s ever been numbers like we’ve seen. Howard Lutnick: Never. Donald Trump: $7 trillion, $8 trillion worth in two months because it took me a month to get started, in all fairness. But in two months we – uh we did this and now we’re coming up on 100 days, first 100 days. And I think we’re going to be close to $8 trillion. There was never any president that did even a tiny percentage of that. Donald Trump: OK. Any other questions? Question: [Inaudible] deal signed, one of the deals signed by your 100-day mark, and China is saying that we’re threatening and blackmailing them into a deal. What would be your response to that? Donald Trump: Well, I mean, China, look, I have great relationships in China, with President Xi in particular, but China has been charging us massive tariffs for many years. That’s one of the reasons they were able to steal so many of our companies. They took our companies out of America and they built their plants in China. Donald Trump: And one of those things – so now we’re reversing it, but at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. No, we’re going to get along great with China. I have no doubt about it. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-04-24
Glenn Beck: Mr. President, your first 100 days, this is the first 89 days, these are first 89 days. Donald Trump: We work hard. Glenn Beck: You work really hard. I actually met some of the people that write the executive orders last night and they need sleep, they’re working overtime. Donald Trump: What a great team? Glenn Beck: Yeah. So, I remember when I was at Fox, Barack Obama – we didn’t call it this, but it was shock and awe. It was – I couldn’t keep up with it. It was going too fast. You have put that to shame. Donald Trump: Blew them all away. Glenn Beck: Blew them all away. Was that by design to – Donald Trump: No. There were just so many things that the country needed. I mean, honestly, this country, what they did in four years was so disastrous for the country. I wish I didn’t have to do so much, but they did things that were just horrible. I mean with energy, they terminated ANWR, which is the biggest find in the world, in the whole world, in Alaska, they terminated it. They did things on the border that are shocking, just absolutely shocking. Donald Trump: You know we have the best border we’ve ever had now, and three months ago it was the worst border in history, probably for any country, not just here. There was no border. There’s never been a border like that where prisons and gangs and drug dealers and murderers are allowed to walk in without being checked or vetted? Donald Trump: So, it wasn’t by design, it was just that they have so many things. I mean we’re doing a lot more. There are a lot more to come. Glenn Beck: So, I want to get into this a little later, but this seems appropriate to bring it up here. Where the hell is congress? Where are the Republicans? Donald Trump: Well, I think they’re working hard. I think you’re going to see that. If we pass the – as I call it, the Big, Beautiful Bill, you know we’re talking about one bill. We were talking, as you remember, it was a debate on should we do one big one or should we do three or four or two? And we’re doing it in one bill, which I thought was much more beautiful because it’s everything. Donald Trump: It’s everything, it’s tax cuts, it’s regulation cuts, it’s things that you wouldn’t believe, lots of, you know – big, it’s big and we get that done, it’s beautiful. And we are getting along very well. I will tell you, the Republicans, we had a majority a few months ago of one in the House, now we have seven. Donald Trump: That’s a lot. We won two races and picked up a couple of others in addition, but we’re up to seven, that’s a big – that’s a big difference. Glenn Beck: Will this be – will all your work go away, however, if they don’t codify? Donald Trump: So, we’re going to codify and we’re going to wait till after the bill is passed and then we’re going to work on nothing but codifying. As an example, the other day I did showerheads and sinks and the whole thing. Glenn Beck: Thank you. Donald Trump: Isn’t it nice? Glenn Beck: Yes, it is. Donald Trump: No, you go into a new building, the hotel, and no water comes out, no water comes out of the sink. All of that’s done, dishwashers. We did a little thing, very little thing, but it was a big thing to some people – straws. We are now making again straws that are plastic straws as opposed to paper that melts – that melts in your mouth. Glenn Beck: Yeah. Donald Trump: And so many different things. It’s been really amazing. A lot of them, common sense. Glenn Beck: What is the one thing that you think is maybe overlooked that you think is the most significant thing that you did? Donald Trump: Well, I mean, I really think we’ve done a lot because we – the biggest tax cuts like last – you know, we had a tremendous four years. Glenn Beck: But I mean, the thing that you think to yourself, why isn’t this getting more attention? This is big. Donald Trump: Well, if you look at – and this is not the biggest thing, but it’s a big thing, men in women’s sports. How these people can be promoting it even now is unbelievable. The men playing in women’s sports. When you – you know, we put a whole thing out on that and that’s no longer a part of our fabric. Hopefully, we have a couple of people like Maine, the governor of Maine, who wants to play the game and she’s going to lose an election if she runs. Donald Trump: I don’t know if she runs, I couldn’t care less, but she was one that wanted to take it on. Even in California, they gave up on that one pretty much. That was something that’s amazing. Open borders to me are amazing. We don’t have open borders. We have nice, closed borders now. We have – people can come into our country, but they have to come in legally. Donald Trump: But I mean, how amazing is that when you have – because you’re asking about things that I see that are amazing. That’s amazing that you can have an open border where prisoners from all over the world are allowed to come into our country. 11,888 murderers are allowed into our country, we have that number of murderers. Donald Trump: We’re taking them out as rapidly as we can. And by the way, we’re being met with strong resistance from judges that are – I don’t know where they come from. I don’t know where they come from. Glenn Beck: Let me go there. There’s some amazing stats that I looked up. I don’t think most Americans know this. Bill Clinton turned away 12.3 million people, formally returned home 1 million. He had 12 injunctions on him. George W. Bush, 10.3 million people, 2 million he turned around formally, six injunctions. Barack Obama, 5.5 million, 3 million he formally turned around and he had 12 injunctions. Glenn Beck: You have six, you had 30 last time, 30 – I’m sorry, 30 last time, 30 this time and you’re facing 190. You’re 100 days in and you have 190 cases against you. Donald Trump: It’s obstruction and what they’re doing to the country is unbelievable. But we’re getting it done and we’re winning, but it’s so much more difficult than it should be. When you have a murderer that people are protecting. When you have people like – you know, you read so much about the wonderful man from Maryland, who was just wonderful. Donald Trump: But he had on his knuckles tattooed MS-13. We didn’t know he was MS-13. And the Democrats are working hard to protect him. And you know, it’s not – I don’t want to get into his reputation, but it’s not exactly stellar. And when they do that that’s like, you know, how they protect open borders, as I said, or so many of the other things, you know, transgender for everybody. Glenn Beck: What does it tell you that the Democrats are trying to protect him, stop you at the border. And when you shut down USAID, which a lot of their money was coming from. Donald Trump: A lot. Glenn Beck: A lot of their money. All the color revolution money was there and coming back here for color revolution that they – they Immediately respond to that to Tesla or to Elon. Donald Trump: Yes. Glenn Beck: And the worst of the worst, what does that tell you about them? Donald Trump: Well, they don’t want to do anything about it. That’s right. Well, when you look at the kind of money that we found, fraud, waste, abuse, when you look at billions of dollars given to people that had nothing, and billions – I mean, Stacey Abrams was given $2 billion into an environmental account where she had $100 – $2 billion. Donald Trump: Now $2 million is a lot, $200,000 is a lot, she’s given $2 billion out of that grouping. No, it’s a terrible, terrible – oh, and that was nothing compared to some of the ones that we found. And you know, the – and the press doesn’t even want to write about it by the way. Glenn Beck: My audience I hear from every day, they’re concerned about tariffs, we’ll talk about that in a minute. But they’re also concerned about justice and not seeing the wheels of justice turn like Stacey Abrams. If she did something illegal, she should go to jail. Is justice going to be pursuing these people on Russiagate or whatever the crimes might be – COVID? Donald Trump: Well, I think – Pam Bondi is doing a fantastic job. She’s our law enforcement person that’s doing outstanding work, I really think so. I think Kash is going to be – at FBI, is doing a really great job. Now it’s very early, so I can’t really tell you, but I think a lot of the things that you’re talking about have to be looked at, they have to be looked at. Glenn Beck: Let me go back to the border here for a second. Mexico, I mean it seems that it is a failed Narco-state. Is Mexico a failed state, Narco-state? Donald Trump: Well, I would say in all due respect – and I really like the president a lot, I’ve gotten to know her and I really like her. She’s an elegant, beautiful woman, but I think it’s run by the cartels. Glenn Beck: Yeah. Donald Trump: And they have so much control over it and I think the politicians are – you know, they’re afraid. I think the police are probably afraid, a lot of them are shot and killed. And even the military is very much afraid. Glenn Beck: I had a guy, an ATF agent, reach out to me and he said, Glenn – and I wrote it down someplace. But he said have people in our ATF actually trace the numbers. He said they keep talking about all these guns that are in the hands of cartels and how they get them across the border from America. He’s like all of those numbers correlate with the numbers that come from the Pentagon of the arms that we officially ship to their military. Glenn Beck: And he said they’re in the – they’re taking the military guns and using those. He’s like there’s – Donald Trump: Nothing surprises me. When you see the kind of drugs coming in, comes in from China. You know, we tax them 20 percent because of what they’ve done with fentanyl, but it goes through Mexico largely. And it goes through Canada too, by the way, right, a lot goes through Canada, but it comes through Mexico and Canada. Donald Trump: But when you watch Mexico, what’s happening, It’s pretty amazing. And we’ve shut down the border, but we’ve shut it down and I didn’t need laws passed, you know, as the expression goes, they just needed a new president. They said shut down the border, we shut it down and we shut it down tight. But yeah, Mexico’s got some very big problems. Glenn Beck: I would imagine the people of Mexico – because if I were in Mexico, I’ve often role played. If I were in Mexico and I was living in a failed Narco-state and everybody I voted for was being killed and my family was being threatened, I’d try to get across the border as well. It would only make sense. But when your government won’t do anything about it or can’t do anything about it, honestly, I would be at bed at night next to my kids praying that, you know, special forces might just kind of pay some people some visits in the middle of the night? Donald Trump: You’re right, Glenn. And I’ve asked to – I said, would you like some help? I’d be glad to give you help. No, no, no, we don’t want help. They really don’t want help. Please, please. We do not want help and I think they need help. Glenn Beck: But isn’t it – at some point, doesn’t it – Donald Trump: Well, I can’t tell you about that because that would be – that would be breaking news, wouldn’t it? But you know, you could say at some point maybe something’s going to have to happen. It can’t go on the way it is. Look, when we closed the borders, that was a big deal and we had to fight very hard to close. Donald Trump: That was not just as simple as it sounded because it happened fast. There were lots of skirmishes that went on because that was a big revenue source. Glenn Beck: Right. Donald Trump: For some – a lot of people. But no, we’re here to help Mexico if we can. I like the president very much. I like the people, so many of the Representatives, but it can’t be easy for them. It really – it’s – I think it’s a very dangerous job. Glenn Beck: So, some people – you know, the last administration, they didn’t want to check anybody’s ID or ask any questions on the way in. During COVID – in the height of COVID, don’t even check them for that. Donald Trump: Don’t check them for anything. Glenn Beck: Bring them in. Now they all seem to want to check them on the way out. Donald Trump: Yeah. Glenn Beck: And the judges are – what did the – I think it was – it was uh Senator Mike Lee that said, this is judicial insurrection. Donald Trump: Yeah, I think he could say that. Glenn Beck: I’m not a big fan of Andrew Jackson. I know you are. Andrew Jackson took care of this constitutionally. Would you consider taking care of this some way or another with the judges in a constitutional way? Donald Trump: Well, I hope we don’t have that problem, and I hope we don’t have to get into it. But I will say we have millions of people in this country right now that are criminals, and you see how fast we’re getting them out. And we’re going to get them out even faster. But when you have to get out and do court cases for individual people and you would have, in theory, millions of court cases, you know what that means. Donald Trump: If you had one court case it takes forever. Millions of court cases? They’re really saying you’re not allowed to do what I was elected to do. I was elected for – a very big part of it was the border and getting people out, because I said – and the stats reveal it. When you look at Tren de Aragua, when you look at MS-13, when you look at these gangs and just really bad criminals coming in – you know, we have many murderers, people that killed, 50 percent of which killed more than one person. Donald Trump: They put them into our country through open borders, and now we have to go to court to get them out. I don’t think the people of our country are going to stand for it. Glenn Beck: Let me switch, you were elected for several things, one of which was to reduce the size of the government and thank you for the Department of Education. Thank you for the USAID. Thank you for the things you’re doing on that. It was announced, I think, yesterday that Elon is possibly reducing his role, not leaving but reducing his role in May. Glenn Beck: It was a true $2 trillion goal. Glenn Beck: It was reduced to $150 billion. Is that lawsuits, Is that deep state? Donald Trump: No, that’s money found and it’s a lot of money, you know, it’s $150 billion. And think of it, that’s a lot of money. Now, that’s continuing, and it will continue. You know, it’s not easy, these are thieves. Glenn Beck: No, I know. Donald Trump: In many cases, thieves. In many – in some cases it’s incompetence and all, but it’s also thieves. That number is continuing, but that’s – if you just stopped at that number, that’s a tremendous number. We found things that you wouldn’t believe. And then there’s others that you look at certain rolls of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security where people that don’t exist are on, where people that do exist, but they’re not supposed to be on are on it. You know, we have – that’s just building up, that number’s building up very rapidly. Glenn Beck: I think you’re going to be remembered as the AI president. I think – I don’t know if you feel this way at all, but AI is going to define the next – Donald Trump: Very big, yeah. Glenn Beck: Yeah. And you are the first one to really talk about it, really take it on and surround yourself with people who know what this is. Has Elon been helping you at all on AI or – Donald Trump: Well, he probably knows more than anybody else than I know about it, but we have some great people here. And I think – I mean, I don’t know that that’s how I’m going to be defined. But AI is certainly very important and we’re pressing it very hard. We have so many – we have trillions of dollars being invested. Donald Trump: And whatever it is, you know, if you’re not into that world, you have to say whatever it is, it’s big. Because the biggest people are coming in and companies with more money than anything else you can imagine, more than even the car plants. We’re opening up many, many car plants, factories, if you want to call them that because that’s what they are. Donald Trump: And they’re coming in from Mexico. They’re coming in from Canada. They’re coming in because of the tariffs. We’re getting record numbers. We have over $7 trillion worth of investment already, think of that. It’s going to be unbelievable. But AI is one of the biggest – one of the biggest things I’ve ever seen. Donald Trump: And you know, these places that they’re building, if you said $200 million, $300 million, that’s for a corner of the building. These are the biggest things, and I’m making it possible, as you probably know, with AI. The one thing is you need massive amounts of electricity. And I’m getting it for them, and I’m getting immediate approval and I’m letting them build their electric plant. Donald Trump: In other words, they’re becoming really a producer of electricity. So – Glenn Beck: Nuclear plants? Donald Trump: They can use nuclear if they want for the energy; they need to create electricity. Glenn Beck: Because Eric Schmidt said yesterday or the day before we used 3 percent – they used 3 percent of the power they’re going to need, and by 2027, 99 percent of the power? Donald Trump: They need more electricity than we have right now in our country. Glenn Beck: Right, right. Donald Trump: Powering everything, which is crazy. Glenn Beck: And you’ll cut all of the red tape and get that built? Donald Trump: Yeah, we’re going to get it done very quickly. Glenn Beck: That’s amazing. Donald Trump: We’re going to let them become utilities actually, we’re going to let them build their own electric plant. Because when they first came to me, I heard this number that we have to double electricity. And we’re way ahead of China right now, by the way, you probably heard, way, way ahead on AI. Glenn Beck: On AI, yes. Donald Trump: And they don’t have the problem with electricity because, you know, that takes one person’s approval. We have to go through a process. And I call it a national emergency. We have to be – we’re going to be number one, we’re going to be number one in everything, we have to be or we’re going to lose our spot. Donald Trump: And that’s not going to happen. If we have competent presidents, we will do great. If we don’t have competent presidents, we just witnessed four years of the most incompetent human being anyone’s ever imagined and it really hurt this country, but we’re bringing it back fast. Glenn Beck: You say if we don’t have competent presidents. Donald Trump: Yeah. Glenn Beck: You and I have talked before on tariffs, and I give you the benefit of the doubt because you’re the best negotiator this country has ever had, probably the best the world has seen. Donald Trump: I’d better be, we need it. Glenn Beck: We need it. And you’ve earned the right. It concerns me about congress not stepping up because of regulations and tax cuts. Those things have to go through to be able to complete all of this. Donald Trump: I think you’ll be surprised. Now, when I say congress, Republicans in congress, because we have majorities, they’re not big majorities. In the Senate we’re up three, which is OK. And in the House we’re up seven, as I said. And we are going to be coming forward with – it’s the biggest bill, I think, in history. Donald Trump: And I think you will say that if we get that passed, you’re going to give them very good marks. Glenn Beck: Good. Donald Trump: Because everything’s in that bill, and then all we have to do is work the bill work, the magic. But it’ll be the biggest tax cut in history. It’ll be the biggest regulation cuts in history. It’ll be so many other things. And I think that if congress gets them approved, and I think they will – now, we will get no votes from democrats. Donald Trump: It’s horrible, it’s horrible. The divide is so incredible. You look at what’s going on. I mean Schumer did the right thing and he ends up being excommunicated from his party when you think about it, right. The level is just so bad there. Their policy is so bad. You know, they’re great at cheating and they’re great at certain things, but they are so bad on policy. Donald Trump: They’re so far off. When I watch them trying to prosecute the same things that they just lost an election in a landslide on, and they’re still going through the same things. It’s crazy. And they don’t know who their leaders are. They have a new one, Crockett. Have you seen Crockett? Have you ever seen her talk? Donald Trump: This is going to be their leader. Glenn Beck: I hope she’s the next candidate for president. Donald Trump: We can hope in one way, but in another way it’s pretty demeaning. Glenn Beck: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s demeaning to our country, but you don’t see anybody out there. Glenn Beck: So, this is pure conjecture here, but in trying to understand you and the moves that you made. When you called the tariff day Liberation Day, that hearkened, to me, back to the end of the war, World War II. And I’m wondering because of all of the moves you’ve made, NATO, the endless wars, everything else that goes along with this. Glenn Beck: Are you signaling to the world that this is not just tariffs? This is an end to the order that we built after World War II, because it might have been good after World War II for everybody, but we’re not the suckers anymore. That’s long past and it’s time to transform. Donald Trump: You’ve said it so well because people don’t talk about that; even I don’t mention it enough. We helped countries after World War II, we helped them rebuild, and the Korean War with South Korea. Glenn Beck: Right. Donald Trump: And we never stopped, and they became very successful, and they stole our businesses. Look, South Korea took our car business, our shipbuilding business, you know, so many different businesses, technology, electronics. If you look at Japan – and I’m not knocking them, I think it’s great, what they did for them. Donald Trump: The one I’m knocking and the people I’m knocking are our presidents and our leaders, that we allowed that to happen. Glenn Beck: So, I was talking to somebody last night who’s around the economy and knows it quite well. And I said to them, I’m not a fan of tariffs, I’ve talked to the president about it. However – Donald Trump: You might be. Glenn Beck: I might be in the end. Donald Trump: You might. Glenn Beck: However, I don’t see anyone else with another option. And I feel like this is our last chance and if you can’t get it done, if we can’t make this turn, we’re done. And this individual reached out and put their hand on my shoulder and said, no, Glenn, we’re done. How serious is the situation that America is in if we don’t turn this corner? Donald Trump: So, we have one big chance to become really amazing, and that’s with me, whether we like it or not. I hate to put that weight on my shoulders, but that’s what we have, because we were ripped off by every country, I always say friend and foe. And honestly the friend was oftentimes worse than the foe. Ripped off on trade, ripped off on the military too. Donald Trump: When I got involved in NATO, I wasn’t a big expert in NATO, but I have a lot of common sense, and I figured it out in about two minutes. Nobody was paying. I mean, they weren’t paying their bills. So, we were defending Europe, and we were getting ripped off by Europe in trade. It was like massive; no country can sustain that. Donald Trump: We were paying most of the bill for NATO. And when I say most, I mean, like in the 80 and 90 percents and maybe 100. And I got involved and I said, you’re going to have to pay your bills or we’re not going to be here for you any longer. And they said, well, does he really mean that? And they said, you mean, if we don’t pay the bill, you’re not going to be here? Donald Trump: Nope, I’ll be gone. Glenn Beck: Good for you. Donald Trump: And they said, hmm. And the secretary general of NATO, Stoltenberg, good guy, said – he has done something that I’ve never witnessed before. Because Bush would come in, give a speech and leave. Obama would come in, give a speech and leave. Biden we don’t even talk about because he followed me, he let it get out of control. Donald Trump: But he said Trump came in, didn’t give a speech, made a nice speech, but didn’t give, didn’t care about it. What he cared about was the fact that nobody was paying – they weren’t paying their bills. So, we were ripped off; we were defending them, and they were killing us with the European Union, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States of America. Donald Trump: And I said this isn’t going to go on. So, I’m not so popular in Europe because of what I’ve done, but in many ways I am popular. People don’t want to see us fail. Glenn Beck: You know, if it wasn’t for their press that is worse than ours, because most of it is state run, I think you would be popular because the people are in the same position. Donald Trump: They get it. Glenn Beck: Yeah, they get it. It’s happening in their country, and I don’t understand how – Donald Trump: It is happening over there. It’s happening. Glenn Beck: Oh. I mean, I just read a report that they said Sweden, the Netherlands could be out by 2030. I talked to Liz Truss just a couple of weeks ago and she said, Glenn, England is a failed state. Donald Trump: Yeah. Glenn Beck: How – how are the – Donald Trump: She’s been very nice. She’s been saying good things about me. You know, she got – Glenn Beck: The shaft. Donald Trump: I think so. I mean, she basically said I want to reduce taxes, and they threw her out and she was right. You know, I reduced taxes, it’s one of the things that made us do so well. Glenn Beck: Yeah. Donald Trump: Because we had the strongest economy in history during my first four years. You know, my first four years was incredible. I think we’re going to do even better now. But we have a chance to do something that’s monumental and I’m in the process of doing it right now. Glenn Beck: But how do you negotiate with a group of elites who honestly, they were for the great reset, the WEF great reset? Donald Trump: I don’t have to negotiate. I don’t have to negotiate, I’m talking to people out of respect, but I don’t have to. So, we’re this giant store that people want to come in and buy from. We’re the United States. We have the richest consumer, etc., etc., right? But we’re not going to be that way for long if we don’t do something. Donald Trump: But we’re this giant store and they all want to come in and they want to take our product. But to take our product, they’re going to have to pay, and will either make a deal with them or we’ll just set a price because some countries are worse than others. Some countries have ripped us off really badly, and some countries have just ripped us off a little bit. Donald Trump: But almost all of them have ripped us off because we’ve had really poor leadership. And what’s going to happen is we’re going to negotiate with – we are negotiating, we’re negotiating with 70 different countries. We’re negotiating; we’re showing great respect. But in the end, we may make deals, but either that or I just set a price, I said here’s what you’re going to pay for the privilege of servicing the United States of America. Donald Trump: And they have an option, they can maybe talk to me a little bit or they cannot shop, you know, they don’t have to shop at this big store. Or they can shop, but in any event, they’re going to have to pay. Look, we owe $36 trillion for a reason. The reason is the trade, and also the endless wars, the stupid wars that we fought. Donald Trump: We go into the Middle East, we blow it up, we leave, we don’t get anything. And you’re a big fan of exactly what I’m saying, meaning, let’s not do this stupid stuff. Glenn Beck: Let’s not do that, it doesn’t work. Donald Trump: It’s stupid. Endless wars – endless wars that they don’t even want us. You know, we got into wars, they didn’t even want us. So, all of that stuff – you know when I left four years ago, we had no wars. We had no Israel and Hamas and, by the way, would have never happened because Iran was broke, they were broke. Donald Trump: I had sanctions that were so strong on Iran. They were totally broke. They had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah. We didn’t have Russia-Ukraine, that would have never happened by the way. We didn’t have the Afghanistan embarrassment – one of the great embarrassments in the history of our country. We didn’t have any inflation. Donald Trump: Don’t forget, I charged China hundreds of billions worth of tariffs. They talk about inflation. We had no inflation because that doesn’t cause inflation; stupidity causes inflation, high energy caused inflation. When they took over my energy – we were making it like nobody’s ever seen. And then the prices doubled. Donald Trump: By the way, because of that Putin went in. If they kept – you see what’s going on with energy now, it’s going down. Glenn Beck: Yeah, I do. Yeah. Donald Trump: It makes it much harder for Putin to prosecute the war. So, we have a lot of great things on the horizon. Glenn Beck: One of your spokespeople came out today and said that you’re tired, getting fatigued with Zelenskyy. I think he treated you poorly in the Oval myself. He’s kind of a punk. But is he the problem? Donald Trump: You said it. Glenn Beck: Yeah. Is he the problem? Is Putin the problem or is Europe the problem? Donald Trump: So, look, Russia is a very big military force and Ukraine isn’t. Without Ukraine – and I’m the one that supplied the javelins to them. So, you know, I did a lot for them because the tanks got stuck in the mud and then they got javelins, right. And they always say Trump gave the javelins and it was in that case Obama gave sheets. Donald Trump: He gave sheets, they sent nothing. But Biden gave money like nobody’s ever seen before, $350 billion – $350 billion, gave military equipment, gave storage. We had massive storage bins full of ammunition, buildings as long as the eye could see for – gave the ammunition. What he did is – look, between the border and the this and the that. Donald Trump: But this war is so bad and it’s – And remember this, I say it here, I say it every time, this is Biden’s war, not my war. I’m just trying to end it. And I’m actually ending it, yes, for money, but I’m not ending it for that, number one, I’m ending it because they’re losing 5,000 people a week. Young soldiers are being killed, Russian and Ukrainian both. Donald Trump: But in the end, Russia has a lot of soldiers, and they have a very big military. And things were said like when Zelenskyy was in the Oval Office, I was talking about getting it done and he starts screaming, but we need security, meaning security after the fact. I said security, I don’t even know if we can get this deal done. Donald Trump: He’s asking for more, just more and more and more. And he doesn’t have the cards, as you know, because you see what’s happening over there. He doesn’t have the cards. So, hopefully, he’s going to get it done because I don’t believe that Vladimir Putin would be doing this for anybody else but me – a lot of people have said it too. Donald Trump: I think he had the idea of going all the way through. I think he’s willing to make a deal and I would say thus far he’s been easier to deal with than Zelenskyy, thus far. Glenn Beck: Mr. President, I have to tell you, I didn’t understand why gold was going up so fast until I walked into the Oval. Oh? Donald Trump: Oh? Oh, we’re making it nice. Glenn Beck: You are [Laughter] you are making it nice. Donald Trump: We’re making it the way it should be. Glenn Beck: You have transformed the Oval. Donald Trump: Yeah, no, it’s good and I think I’ve transferred it and transformed it, maybe more importantly in what we’re doing with our ideas, our policies because we had some really bad things happening to our country. And we now have a strong border. We’re now respected. When you take a look at the money that’s pouring in through the tariffs, you’re going to see – I mean, I want to – that would be an ambition. Donald Trump: I’m going to make you a fan of it. Glenn Beck: You got it. I would love to be a fan of it. Donald Trump: Not that I want to do, you know, tariffs or anything else, but I want to save our country. Glenn Beck: Yes. Donald Trump: We were losing $5 billion a day. You can’t do that. It’s not sustainable. So, we’ll be doing another interview in a year or two years from now and you’re going to say, you know, you were right on that. I’ve been right about a lot of things. Glenn Beck: I have been corrected by your actions before. So, thank you. Donald Trump: Yeah, but it’s a great honor to be with you. Thank you. Glenn Beck: Always. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you.
Date: 2025-04-24
Note: [Jeffrey Goldberg, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer of The Atlantic saty with Donald Trump for an interview at the White House on April 24, 2025. The interview was published online April 28, 2025. The transcript is of “substantial excerpts from our conversation, condensed and edited for clarity.” It is available online here: https://cqrc.al/the-atlantic-20250424. Interview courtesy The Atlantic.] Donald Trump: This will be very, very interesting. You think Biden would do this? I don’t think so. How are you, folks? Ashley Parker: Good, how are you? Thanks for having us in. Donald Trump: I’m good. Thank you very much. Jeffrey Goldberg: Nice to see you. And thanks for announcing the interview on Truth Social. Ashley Parker: Thank you for your discretion! Donald Trump: I wanted to put a little extra pressure on you. But at the same time, you’ll sell about five times more magazines. Jeffrey Goldberg: Believe me, I understand the marketing here. Donald Trump: I did it for you. If you take a look back, Jeffrey, this is the new Oval Office – and people love it. Those paintings were all in the vaults. We have vaults downstairs. They have about 4,000 pictures, and I took some of the great presidents. Jeffrey Goldberg: It really does look different. Donald Trump: Well, now it looks like it’s supposed to look. Before, they didn’t take care of it. There was no tender loving care. Ashley Parker: Are you using your own money for the Oval Office? Donald Trump: Yeah, I do it on my own. You see up top? That came all out of Mar-a-Lago. Ashley Parker: Really? Donald Trump: Yeah. Jeffrey Goldberg: Wait, the gilded – ? Donald Trump: Yeah, the gold. And that’s all 24-karat gold, which is interesting because they’ve never come up with a paint that looks like gold. They’ve never come up with a paint where you can just paint it and it looks like gold. Michael Scherer: Is there truth to the rumor you’re going to do the ceiling? Donald Trump: Yeah, I’m doing that. The question is: Do I do a chandelier? Beautiful crystal chandelier, top of the line, beautiful. Would be nice in here. It almost calls for it, but I don’t know. We’re more focused on China, Russia. But you know, this is all new. The George Washington was in the vaults. Most of those pictures were in the vaults. Donald Trump: And it’s a great thing, you know. We just had the secretary-general of NATO, Mark Rutte. And we had the prime minister of Norway just preceding you. We have a lot of great relationships with people. People don’t talk about it much, but they all want to meet. So we’re trying to get the killing field ended, you know, in Russia. Jeffrey Goldberg: Yes, we want to talk about that. But I first wanted to thank you for having us in. I think it’s better to talk than not talk. We are trying to do a cover story that I think is both fair and balanced. Donald Trump: That’s all I want. Fair. Fair and balanced. I’ve heard that before. Jeffrey Goldberg: The animating question of our cover story is how you did it. If you look at January 2021, February 2021, people would not have bet that you would come back. And just to be fair, I wanted to ask you what you think I don’t understand about your presidency. Donald Trump: I really believe that what I’m doing is good for the country, good for people, good for humanity. As you just heard, I was just with the prime minister of Norway and separately, outside, is the head of NATO. We also had the former head of NATO just a few minutes ago: Stoltenberg. Terrific guy; both terrific people. Donald Trump: And they made a statement. They said, “If you don’t get this war ended, it will never end; it will go on forever, and people are going to be killed for a long time to come.” And, you know, they’re losing – I was saying 2,500 people a week; it’s close to 5,000 people a week, for the most part Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. Donald Trump: And if we can stop that, that would be a great thing. Jeffrey Goldberg: But let me ask you, because the portrait of Ronald Reagan is sitting right above your shoulder. Donald Trump: Yeah. Jeffrey Goldberg: For 100 years, American presidents have innately sympathized with the smaller nations and peoples that have been bullied or oppressed by Russia. You don’t seem to have that same innate sympathy. It’s not just Ronald Reagan. It’s Jimmy Carter, JFK, and so on. Why don’t you seem to have that same feeling for these bullied, oppressed nations that every other American president has had? Donald Trump: I think I do. I think I’m saving that nation. I think that nation will be crushed very shortly. It’s a big war machine. Let’s face it. And if it weren’t for me – I’m the one that gave them the Javelins that knocked out the tanks. You know, that tank moment was a big moment, when the tanks got stuck in the mud, and I gave them tremendous numbers of Javelins. Donald Trump: That’s the anti-tank busters. And they took out all those tanks when they got caught in the mud. You know, that was a big moment because, had those tanks gone in, they were 71 miles outside of Kyiv and they were going to take over Kyiv. That was the end of the war; it would’ve ended in one day. And that was one of the reasons it went on. Now, I could also make the case that it’s too bad it went on, because a lot of people have died. Donald Trump: A lot more people died in that war than is being reported. Not just soldiers. It’s a lot of soldiers, but it’s a lot of other people too. And, you know, I really can make the case that I’ve been very good because I’m saving that country. The prime minister of Norway – very respected guy – says that if President Trump didn’t get involved, this war would never end. Donald Trump: I think I’m doing a great service to Ukraine. I believe that. Jeffrey Goldberg: The Ukrainians don’t believe that, though. Donald Trump: Well, they don’t because they have pretty good publicity. Look, the war in Ukraine would’ve never happened if I were president. It would’ve never happened, and it didn’t happen for four years. Jeffrey Goldberg: I want to ask you about something that you just wrote in your Truth Social post. By the way, I love the line “I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg.” Donald Trump: Oh, you like that? I had to do that. Jeffrey Goldberg: It’s a nice flair. Donald Trump: I had to explain to people. That’s my way of explaining to people that you’re up here, because most people would say, “Why are you doing that?” I’m doing that because there is a certain respect. Jeffrey Goldberg: You wrote, after talking about “many fictional stories,” that I was “somewhat more ‘successful’” with Signalgate. I just didn’t understand what that means. Donald Trump: Well, I only meant that it got – Jeffrey Goldberg: Are you saying that Signalgate was real? Donald Trump: Yeah, it was real. And I was gonna put in something else, but I didn’t have enough time. Jeffrey Goldberg: How long does it take you to write these? Donald Trump: Not long. Jeffrey Goldberg: I didn’t think so. Donald Trump: I go quickly as hell. You’d be amazed. You’d be impressed. And I like doing them myself. Sometimes I dictate them out, but I like doing them myself. What I’m saying is that it became a big story. You were successful, and it became a big story. Jeffrey Goldberg: But you’re not saying that it was successful in the sense that it exposed an operations-security problem that you have to fix. Donald Trump: No. What I’m saying is, it was successful in that you got it out very much to the public. Jeffrey Goldberg: Oh. Donald Trump: You were able to get something out. It became a very big story. Jeffrey Goldberg: But is there any policy lesson from that, that you’ve derived and have talked to Pete Hegseth about, and Mike Waltz? Donald Trump: I think we learned: Maybe don’t use Signal, okay? If you want to know the truth. I would frankly tell these people not to use Signal, although it’s been used by a lot of people. But, whatever it is, whoever has it, whoever owns it, I wouldn’t want to use it. Ashley Parker: You don’t use Signal yourself? Donald Trump: I don’t use it, no. Ashley Parker: You’re a big supporter of Pete Hegseth’s, but he’s fired three top advisers in recent weeks, he rotated out his chief of staff, he installed a makeup studio at the Pentagon, he put attack plans in two different Signal chats, including one with his wife and personal attorney. Have you had a talk with him about getting things together? Donald Trump: Yeah, I have. Ashley Parker: What did you say? Donald Trump: Pete’s gone through a hard time. I think he’s gonna get it together. I think he’s a smart guy. He is a talented guy. He’s got a lot of energy. He’s been beat up by this, very much so. But I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him. Ashley Parker: How does he explain it? Donald Trump: Look, you had a secretary of defense that was missing in action for a week and nobody had any idea where he was. Think of that. And whether we like it or not, Afghanistan was perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. I thought it was terrible. I was getting out. I would’ve kept Bagram Air Base. Donald Trump: I was going to keep Bagram because it’s right next to where China makes their nuclear weapons. But you had a secretary of defense that did that, that led to that whole disaster, and, you know, I think that’s far, far worse. Ashley Parker: But for now, you think Hegseth stays? Donald Trump: Yeah, he’s safe. Ashley Parker: Does he stay longer than Mike Waltz? Donald Trump: Waltz is fine. I mean, he’s here. He just left this office. He’s fine. He was beat up also. Michael Scherer: A few weeks ago, several people on the National Security Council were dismissed. People like Laura Loomer and others have come to you with concerns about some people currently in your government. Should the American people expect that there will be more changes coming in terms of who’s working in your government? Donald Trump: I hope not, but you know, sometimes you learn about people later on. And people will give you recommendations. You would take recommendations about a writer, and then you find out six months later they did something that you weren’t happy with, and you probably let them go or admonish them, or let them go. And I hire, indirectly or directly, 10,000 people. Donald Trump: That’s a lot. You know, this office is where it all begins. It’s sort of an amazing office. Funny, I have the biggest people in the world coming into this office. They have great offices, they have great power, they have great companies or countries, and they all want to stop and they want to look: It’s the Oval Office. Donald Trump: You know, it’s an amazing thing. But through this office, I hire about 10,000 people. They say directly/indirectly, you know, from secretary of state and others, and appointments of Supreme Court justices – three – to much lower-level people. And during the course of all of those hirings, you know, you’re going to find out that you made a mistake. Ashley Parker: Our story is tracking the arc of a remarkable comeback. And not just the comeback. It feels like you are wielding power quite differently now. But my question has to do with January 2021 – you’re in exile; you’re fighting for your political life. Donald Trump: I don’t think of it that way, but you’re right, I guess. There could be some truth to that. Ashley Parker: When was the first moment when you realized you could return, when you realized that it could happen again? Donald Trump: So, I’m a very positive thinker. I was questioning whether or not I would want to come back, but I never thought that I wouldn’t be able to. You had Ron DeSantis, who was a hot prospect. People were saying, “Oh, he’s gonna do great.” And you had, on the Democrat side – I guess – you had some that were hot. Donald Trump: Who knows? I didn’t think they were hot. Biden, in my opinion, was a failed president. He let millions and millions of people into the country who shouldn’t be here. It’s a tremendous problem. I thought that maybe I wouldn’t do it, but I thought if I did do it, I’d win. But I never considered it a comeback. Donald Trump: A lot of people call it a comeback. Most people, I guess, call it the greatest political comeback in history. I think that’s an honor, but I don’t view it as a comeback. I just sort of view it as: I just keep trudging along. I shouldn’t be embarrassed by that word, because it’s probably accurate. I just didn’t view it as a comeback. Michael Scherer: When I came to the Oval Office last week as part of the press pool, I asked you a question about the IRS going after Harvard, and you talked pretty passionately about conservatives being targeted by the IRS. You also put out the executive order – Chris Krebs, you accused him of violating the First Amendment, but you’re punishing him for his view on the 2020 election. Donald Trump: Right. Michael Scherer: There is a lot of concern in the country that your use of executive power to go after people you disagree with represents a slide toward authoritarianism. You put on Truth Social, maybe it was a joke: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Should people be concerned that the nature of the presidency is changing under you? Donald Trump: No. Look, in history, there’s nobody that’s been gone after like me. It may be harder for you guys to see because you’re on the other side of the ledger. But nobody’s been gone after like me. I didn’t realize it for a little while. I was told – when I fired Comey, I was told that was a terrible, terrible mistake to fire him, that it’ll come back to haunt you. Donald Trump: When I fired him, it was like a rock was thrown into a hornet’s nest. The whole thing went crazy in the FBI. And that’s where we found the insurance-policy statement. You remember the famous statement, “Don’t worry, he’s gonna lose. But if he doesn’t, we have an insurance policy”? The insurance policy was what they were doing. Donald Trump: There’s never been anybody that’s been gone after like I have. I say that in the first presidency, we accomplished a lot; you know, I’ve been given very good marks by, well, let’s say by people in the middle and on the right. On the right, definitely. But I’ve been given very good marks. And, you know, when you look at the economy, we then got hit with COVID, and when we handed back the stock market after COVID, it was higher than it was prior to COVID coming in, which is frankly pretty amazing. Donald Trump: But the real thing was: While I was here, I was being spied on; they spied on the initial campaign. And now that’s been proven – you know, many of these things were proven, the whole Mueller witch hunt; I mean, the bottom line on that was I had nothing to do with Russia. Michael Scherer: Let’s just – Donald Trump: Just to finish. This is a much more powerful presidency than I had the first time, but I accomplished a tremendous amount the first time. But the first time, I was fighting for survival and I was fighting to run the country. This time I’m fighting to help the world and to help the country. You know, it’s a much different presidency. Jeffrey Goldberg: Let’s stipulate just for the purpose of the conversation that you are right about all of the things that you say happened to you. But you’re back on top now. Wouldn’t it be better to spend your time focused on China and all the other major issues, rather than vendettas against people who you think persecuted you four or eight years ago? Donald Trump: So, you have two types of people. You have some people that said, “You just had one of the greatest elections in the history of our country. Go do a great job, serve your time, and just make America great again.” Right? Then you have a group of people that say, “Do that. Go on and do a great job. But you can’t let people get away with what they got away with.” I am in the first group, believe it or not. Jeffrey Goldberg: I’m not sure I believe it. Donald Trump: Yeah. But a lot of people that are in the administration aren’t. They feel that I was really badly treated. And there are things that you would say that I had to do with that I actually didn’t. Going after – and I don’t know if you say “going after” – but people that went after me, people in this administration who like or love Donald Trump and love MAGA and love all of it. I think it’s the most important political movement in the history of our country, MAGA. Jeffrey Goldberg: Bigger than the founding of the Republican Party in the 1850s? Donald Trump: No, no, no, but it’s a big movement. There’s been few movements like it. So, it’s just been an amazing movement, and I think I have great loyalty. I have people that don’t like the way I was treated. Jeffrey Goldberg: The thing that I can’t get my mind around is that you’re one of the most successful people in history, right? You’ve won the presidency twice – Donald Trump: Three times. Jeffrey Goldberg: This is exactly the question! At this point in your career, don’t you think you can let go of this idea that you won? I mean, I don’t believe you that you won the 2020 election. Donald Trump: I’m not asking you to. Jeffrey Goldberg: Most people don’t believe you won the 2020 election. A lot of people don’t believe you won. It goes to this point about vengeance versus moving forward. Donald Trump: Look, it would be easy for me not to just respond, when you say that, and I could just let you go on. But I’m a very honest person. I believe – I don’t believe; I know the election was rigged. Biden didn’t get 80 million votes. And he didn’t beat Barack Hussein Obama with the Black vote in the swing states – only in the swing states; it’s interesting. Donald Trump: We have lots of other things. I mean, we have so much information, from the 51 agents – that was so crooked – to the laptop from hell, to all of these different things. So it would be easier as you say that to just let you go on. But I’m a very honest person, and I believe it with all my heart, and I believe it with fact – you know, more important than heart. Donald Trump: I believe it with fact. And it was a bad four years for this country. This country has been beaten up. We had a president that truly didn’t have it. I left some very smart people from other countries today, and I have them all the time. And I think maybe one of the things I’ve been most successful with is foreign relations. Jeffrey Goldberg: I think the Canadians would disagree. Donald Trump: Well, the Canadians. Here’s the problem I have with Canada: We’re subsidizing them to the tune of $200 billion a year. And we don’t need their gasoline; we don’t need their oil; we don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy of any type. We don’t need anything they have. I say it would make a great 51st state. Donald Trump: I love other nations. I love Canada. I have great friends. Wayne Gretzky’s a friend of mine. I mean, I have great friends. I said to Wayne, “I’m gonna give you a pass, Wayne.” I don’t want to ruin his reputation in Canada. I said, “Just pretend you don’t know me.” But they’re great people. You know, they do 95 percent of their business with us. Remember, if they’re a state, there’s no tariffs. Donald Trump: They have lower taxes. We have to guard them militarily. Jeffrey Goldberg: You seriously want them to become a state? Donald Trump: I think it would be great. Jeffrey Goldberg: A hell of a big Democratic state. Donald Trump: A lot of people say that, but I’m okay with it if it has to be, because I think, you know, actually, until I came along – Jeffrey Goldberg: I’m no political genius, but I know which way they’re going to vote. They have socialized medicine. Donald Trump: You know, until I came along, remember that the conservative was leading by 25 points. Ashley Parker: It’s true. Donald Trump: Then I was disliked by enough of the Canadians that I’ve thrown the election into a close call, right? I don’t even know if it’s a close call. But the conservative, they didn’t like Governor Trudeau too much, and I would call him Governor Trudeau, but he wasn’t fond of that. Ashley Parker: The Trump Organization is selling “Trump 2028” hats. Have you sought out a legal opinion about running a third time? Donald Trump: No. Ashley Parker: I look at you and your presidency this time, and you’ve shattered so many norms, democratic norms – Donald Trump: That would be a big shattering, wouldn’t it? Ashley Parker: That’s kind of my question. Jeffrey Goldberg: That’s the biggest shattering of all. Donald Trump: Well, maybe I’m just trying to shatter – look. Ashley Parker: Is that a norm too far? Donald Trump: Oh, people are screaming all the time, no matter where I go, “2028!” They’re happy. People are very happy with this presidency. I’ve had great polls, other than Fox. Fox never gives me great polls, but even at Fox, I have great polls, but Fox never gives me good polls. Fox is in many ways a disgrace for that. Donald Trump: But, you know, I wrote something today, I said, “Rupert Murdoch for years has been telling me he’s gonna get rid of his pollsters,” but they never have – they’ve never treated me properly, the Fox people. But I’ve had great polls, including at Fox. Ashley Parker: Trump 2028, that’s not a norm you’re willing to shatter? Donald Trump: Well, I just will tell you this. I don’t want to really talk about it, but it’s not something that I’m looking to do. It’s not something that I’m looking to do. And I think it would be a very hard thing to do. But I do have it shouted at me: “No, no, you’ve gotta run.” Michael Scherer: You’ve talked about moving American criminals to foreign prisons. You’ve criticized the courts for requiring due-process steps for deporting undocumented immigrants here in the country. Are there, in your mind, clear limits of how far you will go? Donald Trump: Yeah. Michael Scherer: Is there any reason that an American citizen would have to be concerned about their due-process rights being honored by your government? Or, and I mean, the Declaration of Independence reads: We don’t want to be subject to foreign jurisdiction – Donald Trump: Oh, could you open that? Pull that. Note: [Trump directs Karoline Leavitt to pull the blue curtains shielding a recently installed copy of the Declaration of Independence.] Donald Trump: How’s Karoline? How’s Karoline doing? Good? Doing a good job? Jeffrey Goldberg: Karoline? She’s very tough on me. Donald Trump: Oh, is she? Uh-oh. Jeffrey Goldberg: Oh, yeah. Donald Trump: I didn’t know that. Jeffrey Goldberg: I probably just got her a raise by saying that. Donald Trump: Wow. Karoline Leavitt: I did a whole briefing on Jeffrey Goldberg. Donald Trump: Oh, really? Ooooh, she could be tough. She could be tough. Anyway, this is pretty cool. That was in the vaults for many years, downstairs. Michael Scherer: So the original question was: What are the limits? Should American citizens be concerned about being sent to foreign prisons? Donald Trump: I did say that. Michael Scherer: Yes, and the issue the courts have raised is that people who are accused of being here illegally are being deported without due process. That raises the possibility that someone would be nabbed accidentally or improperly and deported, if you don’t have due process. Donald Trump: Well, they’re here illegally to start off with. Michael Scherer: But what if there’s a mistake? You might get the wrong person, right? Donald Trump: Let me tell you that nothing will ever be perfect in this world. But if you think about it: Clinton, Bush, and every president before me – nobody’s ever been challenged when they had so-called illegal immigrants in the country; they took them out of the country, and they took them out very easily and very successfully. Donald Trump: With me, we’re going through a lot with this MS-13 person from, right now, from – where is he from? Where does he come from? Steven Cheung: El Salvador. Donald Trump: Well, he actually comes initially from El Salvador, I guess. Yeah, I guess he comes from El Salvador. I knew he was outside of this country, way outside of this country, and then it turns out that his record is bad. They made him, like, the nicest guy in the world, a wonderful family man. And then they saw the MS-13, by mistake, on his knuckles, and they saw lots of other things. Ashley Parker: But what about Americans who aren’t here illegally who may have committed a crime? Do you feel like they are guaranteed due process? Donald Trump: If a person is legally in the country? That’s a big difference between being legally in the country and illegally. These people are illegally in the country, all of them. So we have 250,000 people that we want to bring out. They’re rough, tough people. Rough, tough. Many arrests, some from hitting women over the head with a baseball bat when they weren’t looking; some from driving a motorcycle, pulling her along the street, she hits a lamppost, is horribly hurt. Donald Trump: If you look at the registers, some from pushing people in the subway just prior to the subway train coming, chugging along, and they get pushed into the train and either get very badly hurt or die, mostly die. And I said “if,” “if,” in terms of foreign prison, “if it’s legal,” and I always say “if it’s legal.” Jeffrey, I said – I did talk about this – I would love it, you have people that are back and forth between sentences 28 times, people that are put back and forth into jail, they immediately go out and they whack somebody or they hurt somebody, or they do something very bad, and they go back, and they’ll have, like, 28 different sentences. Donald Trump: If it was legal to do – and nobody’s given me a definitive answer on that – but if it was legal to do, I would have no problem with moving them out of the country into a foreign jail, which would cost a lot less money. Michael Scherer: In terms of a definitive answer, you still believe the judiciary is an equal branch of government and you will abide by whatever the Supreme Court says in the end? Donald Trump: Oh, yeah. No, I always have. I always have, yeah. I always have. I’ve relied on that. I haven’t always agreed with the decision, but I’ve never done anything but rely on it. No, you have to do that. And with that being said, we have some judges that are very, very tough. I believe you could have a 100 percent case – in other words, a case that’s not losable – and you will lose violently. Donald Trump: Some of these judges are really unfair. But I do say, Jeff – I do say “if it’s legal.” I always preface it by saying that, because I think it sets a different standard. Michael Scherer: There’s talk on Wall Street of what they call a “Trump put,” meaning that there’s a bottom to how far the market will fall, because if we’re headed to a recession, you’ll change your tariff policy. If we’re headed to de-dollarization and bond interest rates are rising, you’re going to change your tariff policy to adjust for that. Michael Scherer: Is that a fair characterization, that you’re watching the markets and that you’re going to try and protect the American economy? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. I don’t see how I could possibly change, because I saw what was happening. I’ve been saying this for 35, 40 years: I’ve watched this country get ripped off by other nations, and I say “friend and foe.” And believe me, the friends are in many cases worse than the foe. Look, we lost trillions of dollars last year on trade with this guy, trillions of dollars. Donald Trump: And every year, we lose trillions. Trillions, right? Hundreds of billions, but basically trillions; we went over the ledge into the T word. And I can’t imagine it’s sustainable to have a country that can lose that much money for years into the future. And I felt somebody had to do something about it. And already, I have tariffs on cars, as you know, of 25 percent; tariffs on steel of 25 percent; tariffs on aluminum of 25 percent. Donald Trump: I have a base tariff of 10 percent for everybody, for every country, and that’ll be changed. And a little bit of a misnomer: I have a lot of negotiations going on, but I don’t have to. I do that because I want to see how they’re feeling. But I’m like somebody that has a very valuable store and everybody wants to shop in that store. Donald Trump: And I have to protect that store. And I set the prices. And we’re gonna be very rich. We’re gonna make a lot of money. So I don’t think the answer is that it will affect me. It always affects you a little bit, but I don’t think – and certainly there’s no theory, like you say, that if it hits a certain number – I don’t know where it is today. Donald Trump: How’s the stock market? Jeffrey Goldberg: I don’t track it hour to hour. Donald Trump: Anybody know? Let’s see. Just give me the good news if it’s good. Karoline Leavitt: It’s up. All green. Donald Trump: How much is it up? Karoline Leavitt: Dow is up 419 points; NASDAQ’s up – Donald Trump: This is a transition period. It’s a big transition. I’m resetting the table. I’m resetting a lot of years. Not from the beginning, you know. Our country was most successful from 1850 or so to, think of this, from 1870 – really, from 1870 to 1913. And it was all tariffs. And then some great genius said, “Let’s go and tax the people instead of taxing other countries.” We were so successful that the president set up committees, blue-ribbon committees, on how to give away the money. Donald Trump: We were making so much money. And then we went to an income-tax system after that. And by the way, they brought the tariffs back, and after the Depression started, you know, they liked to say, “Oh, tariffs caused –” I might as well get that little plug in, because the one thing they say, “Well, tariffs caused the Depression.” No, no, we went into the Depression. Donald Trump: We were in there for a while and they said, “Maybe we could go back to tariffs and save it.” But that ship had sailed. Ashley Parker: Another theme of our story: You mentioned being a positive thinker. Putting the 2020 election aside, what have you learned about your ability to will reality into existence, or to shape the world around yourself? Can you tell us how that works? Donald Trump: Well, I think a vast majority of the Republican Party thinks I won in 2020. And I don’t think it’s necessarily what I’ve said. I think they have their own eyes and they have their own minds. They’re very smart people, actually. Ashley Parker: The election aside, how are you able to do that? It seems like you sometimes are able to create reality, to make things true, simply by saying them. Donald Trump: Well, I’d like to say that that is reality. You know, I’m not creating it. But maybe you could use another subject, because probably I do create some things, but I didn’t create that; I think that is reality. I have an amazing group of people that love what I’m saying. We don’t want crime. We don’t want people getting mugged and killed and slapped and beat up. We don’t want to be taken advantage of on trade and all these other things. Donald Trump: We want to keep the taxes low. We want to have a nice life. And we weren’t having a nice life these last four years. People were really, really unhappy. And you saw that in the election. It’s hard to win all seven swing states. And I won them by a lot. You know, I won all seven. I just think that I say what’s on my mind. Donald Trump: I also say things that are common sense, but it’s not that I say them because they’re common sense. It’s because that’s what I believe. It turns out to be common sense. When I hear – I watched this morning a congressman, who I don’t even know, fighting like hell to have men play in women’s sports. And I think it’s a 95 percent – you know, they say it’s an 80-20 issue; I think it’s probably a 95 percent issue. Donald Trump: And I don’t fight it too much. I don’t even mention it now. I save it for before an election, because I don’t want to talk them out of it. I see this Congresswoman Crockett, who’s so bad, and they say she’s the face of the party. If she’s what they have to offer, they don’t have a chance. I think that the Democrats have lost their confidence in the truest sense. Donald Trump: I don’t think they know what they’re doing. I think they have no leader. You know, if you ask me now, I know a lot about the Democrat Party, right? I can’t tell you who their leader is. I can’t tell you that I see anybody on the horizon. I would tell you, if you said, “Well, who do you think it would be?” Ashley Parker: Yeah, who? Donald Trump: I don’t see anybody on the horizon. Now, maybe there’s somebody – Jeffrey Goldberg: Not Wes Moore, Shapiro, Beshear, any of these? Donald Trump: So I spoke to Shapiro the other day. I liked him. I called him about his house, which was terrible. I said, “We’re behind you 100 percent.” And we had our people look and everything. It was a hell of a fire. You know, usually you hear that stuff and you see not much damage. That was – that place was burned out. Donald Trump: I spoke to him. I like Shapiro. I think he’s good. I don’t know that he catches on. You never know what’s going to catch on. Ashley Parker: Gretchen Whitmer? Donald Trump: I think she’s very good. She was here. You know, she took a lot of heat. She was here because she wanted to have me keep open an Air Force base, a very big one up in Michigan. A very noble cause. Michael Scherer: When we first talked to you on the phone, I asked if you were having fun. You said you were having a lot of fun. That was a month and a half ago. Has something between then and now been much harder than you expected? Donald Trump: It’s much softer than it was the last time. If you look at the inauguration, the first time, I didn’t have any of the people that you saw the second time, or the third time, I guess you would call it. Michael Scherer: Do they call you to complain about their portfolios, their net worth, with the stock market going down? Donald Trump: No, nobody – nobody called. Most people say, “You’re doing the right thing.” I mean, they’re doing the right thing. It’s not sustainable what was happening with our country. We were letting other countries just rip us to pieces. I think I’m doing the country a great service. It would be easier for me if I didn’t do it. I could have a really easy presidency. Donald Trump: Just come in here, leave everything alone, don’t go through the tariff stuff. And I don’t find it hard. I don’t find it hard to sell. All you have to do is say, “We lost trillions of dollars last year on trade.” And, you know, other countries made trillions. You know, China made one and a half trillion dollars on trade. Donald Trump: They built – they’re building the biggest military you’ve ever seen with that. And they’re building it with our money. Jeffrey Goldberg: Just to go back to the Russia question. “Vladimir, STOP!” You wrote that today on Truth Social. Donald Trump: Yeah, I did. Jeffrey Goldberg: He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who will say, “Oh, well, Trump told me he wants to stop, so I’m going to stop.” Donald Trump: You may be surprised. Jeffrey Goldberg: Well, if that’s the case, I’ll come back and say, “You were right. I was wrong.” But I think I’m right. He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to just stop trying to take over all of Ukraine. The question is: If he advances, if he has more military success – Donald Trump: Which is possible. Jeffrey Goldberg: Blowing up apartment buildings – Donald Trump: Sure. Jeffrey Goldberg: Do you ever see a situation in which you’re going to come in, not with troops, but with more weaponry, with full-blown support for Ukraine to keep its territorial integrity? Donald Trump: Doesn’t have to be weapons. There are many forms of weapons. Doesn’t have to be weapons with bullets. It can be weapons with sanctions. It can be weapons with banking. It can be many other weapons. Jeffrey Goldberg: Is there anything that Putin could do that would cause you to say, “You know what? I’m on Zelensky’s side now.” Donald Trump: Not necessarily on Zelensky’s side, but on Ukraine’s side, yes. Yeah. But not necessarily on Zelensky’s side. I’ve had a hard time with Zelensky. You saw that over here when he was sitting right in that chair, when he just couldn’t get it. Jeffrey Goldberg: That was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen in the Oval Office. Donald Trump: All he had to do is be quiet, you know? He won his point. He won his point. But instead of saying “Okay” when I made the statement, I said, “Well, we’re working to get it solved. We’re trying to help.” He said, “No, no, we need security too.” I said, “Security?” Jeffrey Goldberg: Well, isn’t he supposed to advocate for his country? Donald Trump: Yeah, he is, but somehow, let’s get the war solved first. I actually said, “I don’t even know if we’re gonna be able to end it.” You know, he was talking about security after. After. And then he made the statement, something to the effect that they fought it alone, they’ve had no help. I said, “Well, we’ve helped you with $350 billion, and Europe has helped you with far less money,” which is another thing that bothers me. We’ll have to see what happens over the next period of pretty much a week. Donald Trump: We’re down to final strokes. And again, this is Biden’s war. I’m not gonna get saddled – I don’t wanna be saddled with it. It’s a terrible war. Should have never happened. It would’ve never happened, as sure as you’re sitting there. Jeffrey Goldberg: So that scene with President Zelensky over here, you don’t think that scared Taiwan or scared South Korea or Japan? Donald Trump: No. No. Jeffrey Goldberg: They’re not asking, “That’s the way he treats allies?” Donald Trump: Well, look. Ready? We’ve been treated so badly by others. We went to South Korea and we took care of them because of the war. We took care of them and we never stopped. You know, we have 42,000 troops in South Korea. Costs us a fortune. I actually got them to pay $3 billion, and then Biden terminated it. I don’t know why. Donald Trump: They’ve become very rich. They took shipping; they took our cars. You know, they took a lot of our businesses, a lot of our technology. You don’t have to feel sorry for these other countries. These other countries have done very well at our expense, very well. And I want to protect this country. I want to make sure that you have a great country in another hundred years. Donald Trump: It’s a very important time. Jeffrey, this is a very important time right now. This is one of the most important periods of time in the history of our country right now. Michael Scherer: Did you mean to call me at 1:30 in the morning after the UFC fight? I got a call – Donald Trump: After what? Michael Scherer: After the UFC fight in Miami, I got a call from your cellphone number at 1:30 a.m. Donald Trump: Really? Oh, no, that’s another – that sounds like another Signal thing.
Date: 2025-04-24
Mark Rutte: Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for being available. I had a very good meeting with, uh, with the president and with his team, with Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth and Mike Waltz, Security Advisor. Uh, obviously, we discussed Ukraine, but the main emphasis of the meeting was on the NATO summit coming up in The Hague. Mark Rutte: And we are really all very excited about the fact that we will see NATO spending so much more on defense, particularly European and Canadian side, more and more making sure that we equalize with what the US is spending. As the ambassador here said the other day, it will not be billions, but when you look at it for the years to come, it will be trillions. Mark Rutte: And this is necessary to make sure that we stay safe. So, this is really a NATO which is stronger, which is fair, which is also more lethal in terms of being able to defend NATO territory. So, it was a very good meeting. All very excited looking forward to The Hague Summit and as I said, of course also discussing the situation in Ukraine. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: What’s your reaction to Russian airstrikes? Secretary general, how do you think NATO’s role will change should the US withdraw from discussions about peace in Ukraine? Mark Rutte: Well, what I’m seeing here is a United States under the leadership of President Trump who first broke the deadlock. I think when you look at the outcome of the meeting yesterday in London, we can be quite positive on where we are. So, I’m not seeing a situation where the US is walking. I’m seeing a situation where under President Trump’s leadership this could be brought to a positive end. Mark Rutte: And that is very important and I really want to thank him for that. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: How does the global trade work – Do you think that the Russian President wants to make peace? Mark Rutte: I don’t know. I’ve worked with him for four years between 2010 and 2014 when I was Prime Minister of the Netherlands and I stopped trying to read his mind. Uh, you mean President Putin? Uh, President Putin? You meant the Russian President? Question: Yes. Mark Rutte: Yes. So, I worked with him for four years, between 2010 and 2014. I stopped trying to read his mind. Uh, we’ll see, but there is something on the table now. I think, uh, where the Ukrainians are really playing ball. Uh, and, um, I think the ball is clearly in the Russian court now. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: How does the global trade war affect the [Inaudible]? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Is it accurate to say that you urge US officials not to pressure Ukraine into accepting a peace deal that favors Russia? Mark Rutte: No, it’s not true. No. Question: Do you think the secretary general – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: How much are you encouraging other NATO allies to spend on their defense? What would you like that percentage to be? Mark Rutte: Yes, it has to be considerably higher than this famous 2 percent, uh, which we wanted to achieve by 2024. We have seen the last couple of days, countries like Belgium and Spain and Italy saying we will reach the 2 percent in time for the summit. So, that is not 2024 but close, but clearly with 2 percent we cannot defend NATO territory. Mark Rutte: It has to be considerably higher. And I’ve said before, it has to be considerably north of 3 percent, and this is based not on an assumption, but based on careful planning. We know exactly which capabilities we need to reach. We know the gaps there are to keep NATO territory safe and the good thing is that by spending so much more on the Canadian European side, we will equalize with what the US is paying on its defense. Mark Rutte: And that means that with Trump 45, what we have seen is now hundreds of billions now in total, $700 billion spent more on defense, on agriculture, but this will indeed bring in not billions, but trillions more for the coming years. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Did the president – did the president commit to maintaining the level of American troops in Europe as they are now? Did you talk about American presence in military bases there? Mark Rutte: As you know, the US is – has to take care of many theaters including the Middle East, including the Indo-Pacific. And I said before, since President Obama there has been a pivot towards Asia. The question here is how do you make sure that the US is capable of making sure that you take care of all these areas and at the same time that collectively we defend the Euro-Atlantic area. Mark Rutte: That’s exactly what we’re working on. So, there is a total commitment of the US to NATO, a total commitment to the famous Article 5, an attack on one is an attack on all, but also clearly a commitment that we have to speed up the spending in Europe. Do more ourselves so that for the US it is possible for them to spend more time and resources on the Indo-Pacific, which I think is logical. Mark Rutte: Sir? Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Based upon your conversations that you’ve had here in Washington with the defense secretary, with President Trump, from your take, do they understand the threat that President Trump has on Europe as a whole, not just on Ukraine, but Europe as a whole even to countries that aren’t NATO like Moldova? Mark Rutte: We all agree in NATO that Russia is the long term threat to NATO territory to the whole of the Euro-Atlantic territory. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Are you concerned about Turkey? The president was asked about concessions, are you aware of any concessions from the Ukrainians or the Russians? And should the Ukrainians be concerned that a deal won’t be in their favor? Mark Rutte: Well, you know, when you are in peace talks, somehow you have to negotiate, but I think I’m not helping a successful conclusion of these talks. And I really believe that some huge steps have been taken over the last couple of days and the London meeting yesterday was successful. But I don’t think it helps if I start to comment on itsy bitsy bits of it, it doesn’t work. Mark Rutte: So, I’m not going to do that. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Are you concerned about Turkey? Mark Rutte: Madam? Question: What was your message to the president when it comes to Crimea, in terms of Ukraine, keeping that or not? What was your message to the president? Mark Rutte: Again, these talks are ongoing, it doesn’t work and it doesn’t help if I’m going to comment on every aspect of talks and what might be on the table or not. So, I don’t want to do that. I think we are going. Thank you so much. This was very special. See you next time. Question: Thank you, sir.
Date: 2025-04-24
Boeing should default China for not taking the beautifully finished planes that China committed to purchase. This is just a small example of what China has done to the USA, for years… And, by the way, Fentanyl continues to pour into our Country from China, through Mexico and Canada, killing hundreds of thousands of our people, and it better stop, NOW!
Date: 2025-04-25
Note: [Donald Trump sat for an interview with Time Magazine on April 22, 2025. The interview, conducted by Eric Cortellessa and Sam Jacobs of Time Magazine, was released online on April 25, 2025. It was not listed or indicated which journalist asked which question. Time Magazine published the transcript in full here: https://cqrc.al/time-20250425. Per time, the transcript was “lightly edited.” Interview courtesy and copyright Time Magazine.] Question: Obviously, a lot has happened. We want to have a conversation about what your first 100 days have looked like in office. And we want to try to touch on as many different points as we can. Donald Trump: There’s a lot, right? A lot of things happening. Question: You know better than anyone that the President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. At the same time, it seems like you are expanding the power of the presidency. Why do you think you need more power? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t feel I’m expanding it. I think I’m using it as it was meant to be used. I feel that we’ve had a very successful presidency in 100 days. We’ve had people writing it was the best first month and best second month, and really the best third month. But that you won’t know about for a little while, because it takes a little time in transition. Donald Trump: You know, we’re resetting a table. We were losing $2 trillion a year on trade, and you can’t do that. I mean, at some point somebody has to come along and stop it, because it’s not sustainable. We were carrying other countries on our back with, you know, with trade numbers, with horrible numbers, and we’ve changed it. You see the market fluctuates quite a bit. Donald Trump: Today, it’s up 1,000 or 1,200 points. It goes up and down, but that will steady out, and we’re taking in tremendous amounts of money. We have, as you know, already, 25% on cars, 25% on steel and aluminum – Question: Mr. President, I think what we’re driving at is that you’ve taken congressional authority on trade and appropriations. You fired the heads of independent agencies. You’re challenging the courts right now, as you know. You’re using the levers of government to weaken private institutions like law firms and universities. Question: Isn’t this seizing power away from institutions and concentrating them inside the presidency? Donald Trump: No, I think that what I’m doing is exactly what I’ve campaigned on. If you look at what I campaigned on, for instance, you can talk about removing people from the country. We have to do it because Biden allowed people to come in through his open border crazy, insanity. He allowed people to come into our country that we can’t have in our country. Donald Trump: Many criminals – they emptied their prisons, many countries, almost every country, but not a complete emptying, but some countries a complete emptying of their prison system. But you look all over the world, and I’m not just talking about South America, we’re talking about all over the world. People have been led into our country that are very dangerous. Donald Trump: If you were walking down the street, and if you happen to be near one of these people, they could, they would kill you, and they wouldn’t even think about it. And we can’t have that in our country. Question: So you’re not concentrating more power in the presidency? Donald Trump: don’t think so. I think I’m using it properly, and I’m also using it as per my election. You know, everything that I’m doing – this is what I talked about doing. I said that I’m going to move the criminals out. I saw what was happening early on when I heard that he had open borders, when I, because it was a hard thing to believe. Donald Trump: I built hundreds of miles of wall, and then he didn’t want to, and we had another, an extra hundred miles that I could have put up because I ordered it as extra. I completed the wall, what I was doing, but we have, I wanted to build additional because it was working so well. An extension. And he didn’t want to do that. Donald Trump: And when he said he wasn’t going to do that, I said, “Well, he must want open borders.” There were sections that were being built. And he stopped to work on it, and I said, this guy actually wants to have open borders. That’s going to be a tragedy for our country. That’s going to mean that other countries will release into our country some very rough people. Question: We’d love to come back to immigration but maybe start with the economy. Obviously an issue you campaigned on as well. You promised that you would immediately bring down prices and usher in a golden age of America. The prices of gas and eggs have gone down, but the cost of other things remain – Donald Trump: The prices of groceries have gone down. The only price that hasn’t gone down is the price of energy. The cost of energy, I’m sorry, well, energy has gone down, excuse me. Let me change that – is the interest rates. And interest rates have essentially stayed the same. But almost every other thing, I mean, you take a look at what’s going on, and this is, we’re taking in billions of dollars of tariffs, by the way. Donald Trump: And just to go back to the past, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs from China, and then when COVID came, I couldn’t institute the full program, but I took in hundreds of billions, and we had no inflation. Question: But let’s focus on what is happening right now because – Donald Trump: We took in billions of dollars, we had no inflation. Now, if you take a look, the price of groceries are down. The price of energy is down. Question: Inflation remains pretty much the same. And the IMF is saying it’s going to go up. Donald Trump: No, Eric, you can’t say what they think, because so far what I thought is right. I’ve been right about – Question: 401ks are down. The Atlanta Fed says our economy is contracting -2.2% during quarter one. Donald Trump: Well, they may have said that, but so far, they’ve been, I mean, I’ve been right. If you look at all of the years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve been right on things. You’re gonna – you’re gonna have the wealthiest country we’ve ever had, and you’re gonna have an explosion upward in the not-too-distant future. Donald Trump: You know, I’ve been here now for three months, and I inherited eggs, I inherited groceries, I inherited energy. It was all going through the roof. And we had the highest inflation we’ve ever had as a country, or very close to it. And I believe it was the highest ever. Somebody said it’s the highest in only 48 years. Donald Trump: That’s a lot, too, but I believe we had the highest inflation we’ve ever had. I’ve been here now for three months. And three months, we are taking in billions and billions of dollars from other countries that we never took in before. And that’s just the start. Question: Well let’s talk about the tariffs. You want companies to build and make goods here in America. Donald Trump: Not in all cases. There are some products I really don’t want to make here. Question: Like t-shirts? Donald Trump: I can’t – I can give you a list because I actually have a list, but if you want, I could give it to you. Question: Well, I mean, the question is, how can CEOs make long-term plans and investments if our tariff policy can change from day to day and still remains so uncertain? Donald Trump: How can they make long-term investments? I’ll turn it around. How can they make long-term investments if our country is losing $2 trillion a year on trade? Question: Will you consider giving exemptions – Donald Trump: No wait, just so you understand. How can we sustain and how is it sustainable that our country lost almost $2 trillion on trade in Biden years, in this last year. That’s not – when you talk about a company. I had the head of Walmart yesterday, right in that seat. I had the head of Walmart. I had the head of Home Depot and the head of Target in my office. Donald Trump: And I’ll tell you what they think, they think what I’m doing is exactly right. Question: Well, the CEOs of small businesses are saying they may not be able to last another two months with the current regime in place. Will you consider giving small businesses an exemption similar to what you’ve given to Big Tech? Donald Trump: I’d have to look at the individual business. Question: Would you consider it? Donald Trump: Our country is going to be very rich in not a long period of time. I’ve been doing this for three months, and if you look at the kind of numbers that we’re taking in and the jobs, and if you look at, more importantly, the companies, the chip companies, the car companies, the Apple. $500 billion. Apple is investing $500 billion in building plants. Donald Trump: They never invested in this country. Question: Small businesses are worried that you’re treating the Apples of the world better than you’re treating them. Donald Trump: No, I’m treating small businesses – small businesses will be a bigger beneficiary of what I’m doing than than the large businesses. But everybody’s going to benefit. Question: If we still have high tariffs, whether it’s 20% or 30% or 50%, on foreign imports a year from now, will you consider that a victory? Donald Trump: Total victory. Question: Why so? Donald Trump: Because the country will be making a fortune. Look, that’s what China did to us. They charge us 100%. If you look at India – India charges 100-150%. If you look at Brazil, if you look at many, many countries, they charge – that’s how they survive. That’s how they got rich. Now, zero would be easy. Oh, zero would be easy, but zero, you wouldn’t have any companies coming in. They’re coming in because they don’t want to pay the tariffs. Donald Trump: Remember this, there are no tariffs, if they make their product here. There are no tariffs, if they make their product here. There are no tariffs. This is a tremendous success. You just don’t know it yet, but this is a tremendous success what’s happening. We’re taking in billions and billions of dollars, money that we never took in before. Donald Trump: We’re also, very importantly, because of that, because of the money we’re taking in, those companies are going to come back and they’re going to make their product here. They’re going to go back into North Carolina and start making furniture again. They’ve already started. In Mexico, many car plants that were under construction have stopped. Donald Trump: They’re all coming into this country. We’re gonna, you’re gonna see car plants going at a level that you’ve never seen before. Question: Your trade adviser – Donald Trump: I’m also – chips. Look at Jensen. Question: Nvidia. Donald Trump: He’s gonna spend $500 billion. Look at Mr. Wei from Taiwan. Question: Do you trust them when they say that? These businessmen who say, Oh, I’m gonna spend $500 billion. Donald Trump: Oh yeah. Well, I’ll tell you why I trust them. First of all, I think they’re trustworthy people. But more importantly, they have no choice, because they won’t be able to pay the tariffs if they don’t do it. The tariffs are bringing in the business. Remember, with all the, you know, questions you’re asking about tariffs, there are no tariffs when you make your product here. Question: Sure, no, I understand, Mr. President – Donald Trump: Zero. Question: Your trade adviser, Peter Navarro, says 90 deals in 90 days is possible. We’re now 13 days into the point from when you lifted the reciprocal, the discounted reciprocal tariffs. There’s zero deals so far. Why is that? Donald Trump: No, there’s many deals. Question: When are they going to be announced? Donald Trump: You have to understand, I’m dealing with all the companies, very friendly countries. We’re meeting with China. We’re doing fine with everybody. But ultimately, I’ve made all the deals. Question: Not one has been announced yet. When are you going to announce them? Donald Trump: I’ve made 200 deals. Question: You’ve made 200 deals? Donald Trump: 100%. Question: Can you share with whom? Donald Trump: Because the deal is a deal that I choose. View it differently: We are a department store, and we set the price. I meet with the companies, and then I set a fair price, what I consider to be a fair price, and they can pay it, or they don’t have to pay it. They don’t have to do business with the United States, but I set a tariff on countries. Donald Trump: Some have been horrible to us. Some have been okay. Nobody’s been great. Nobody’s been great. Everybody took advantage of us. What I’m doing is I will, at a certain point in the not too distant future, I will set a fair price of tariffs for different countries. These are countries – some of them have made hundreds of billions of dollars, and some of them have made just a lot of money. Donald Trump: Very few of them have made nothing because the United States was being ripped off by every, almost every country in the world, in the entire world. So I will set a price, and when I set the price, and I will set it fairly according to the statistics, and according to everything else. For instance, do they have the VAT system in play? Donald Trump: Do they charge us tariffs? How much are they charging us? How much have they been charging us? Many, many different factors, right. How are we being treated by that country? And then I will set a tariff. Are we paying for their military? You know, as an example, we have Korea. We pay billions of dollars for the military. Donald Trump: Japan, billions for those and others. But that, I’m going to keep us a separate item, the paying of the military. Germany, we have 50,000 soldiers – Question: I’m just curious, why don’t you announce these deals that you’ve solidified? Donald Trump: I would say, over the next three to four weeks, and we’re finished, by the way. Question: You’re finished? Donald Trump: We’ll be finished. Question: Oh, you will be finished in three to four weeks. Donald Trump: ‘ll be finished. Now, some countries may come back and ask for an adjustment, and I’ll consider that, but I’ll basically be, with great knowledge, setting – ready? We’re a department store, a giant department store, the biggest department store in history. Everybody wants to come in and take from us. They’re going to come in and they’re going to pay a price for taking our treasure, for taking our jobs, for doing all of these things. Donald Trump: But what I’m doing with the tariffs is people are coming in, and they’re building at levels you’ve never seen before. We have $7 trillion of new plants, factories and other things, investment coming into the United States. And if you look back at past presidents, nobody was anywhere near that. And this is in three months. Question: Will you call President Xi if he doesn’t call you? Donald Trump: No. Question: You won’t? Donald Trump: Nope. Question: Has he called you yet? Donald Trump: Yep. Question: When did he call you? Donald Trump: He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf. Question: But you would think it’s a sign of weakness if you called him? Donald Trump: I don’t – I just look – Question: Well, what did he say? Donald Trump: If people want to – well, we all want to make deals. But I am this giant store. It’s a giant, beautiful store, and everybody wants to go shopping there. And on behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices, and I’ll say, if you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay. Question: This period of uncertainty will be over in three to four weeks? Donald Trump: don’t think there’s any uncertainty there. The only thing – they have an option. They don’t have to shop here. They can go someplace else, but there aren’t too many places they can go. You understand what I mean though? Question: Sure. Your Treasury Secretary says this situation with China is unsustainable. Donald Trump: Oh I agree. You mean the way it is now? Question: Yes. Donald Trump: Or the way it was before I got here? Question: The current moment, too, he believes is unsustainable. Donald Trump: Well, no, they won’t do any business here, because at 145% it’s going to be very rare that you see business. Question: But your conversations with Xi have made you feel like we’re moving towards a more productive – Donald Trump: Oh, there’s a number at which they will feel comfortable. Yeah. But you can’t let them make a trillion dollars from us. You can’t let them make $750 billion. See, that’s really what’s not sustainable when China makes a trillion dollars, or a trillion one, when we have almost $2 trillion worth of, I call it loss. Donald Trump: Some people don’t, but a lot of it’s loss. I say, when you have a trade deficit of $2 trillion I consider that loss. Question: Mr. President, there was a period of time on April 9 when the bond market was under extreme stress and there was a risk of a financial crisis far beyond what the plummeting stock market suggested. Donald Trump: I wasn’t worried. Question: What did your advisers tell you, though? You were in the Oval Office with Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick. What did they tell you to convince you to lift the reciprocal tariffs for the 90-day pause? Donald Trump: They didn’t tell me. I did that. Question: What made you decide? Donald Trump: It wasn’t for that reason. Question: It wasn’t for the bond market? Donald Trump: No, it wasn’t for that reason. I’m doing that until we come up with the numbers that I want to come up with. I’ve met with a lot of countries. I’ve talked on the telephone. I don’t even want them to come in. Question: You said the bond market was getting the yips. Donald Trump: The bond market was getting the yips, but I wasn’t. Because I know what we have. I know what we have, but I also know we won’t have it for long if we allowed four more years of the gross incompetence. This thing was just running – it was running as a free spirit. This was – this was the most incompetent president in history. Question: In our interview last year, Mr. President, you committed to complying with all Supreme Court orders. Donald Trump: I said what? Question: You committed to complying with all Supreme Court orders – Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: When you and I spoke last April. Are you still committed to complying with all Supreme Court orders? Donald Trump: Sure, I believe in the court system. Question: The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that you have to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia. You haven’t done so. Aren’t you disobeying the Supreme Court? Donald Trump: Well, that’s not what my people told me – they didn’t say it was, they said it was – the nine to nothing was something entirely different. Question: Let me quote from the ruling. “The order properly requires the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.” Are you facilitating a release? Donald Trump: leave that to my lawyers. I give them no instructions. They feel that the order said something very much different from what you’re saying. But I leave that to my lawyers. If they want – and that would be the Attorney General of the United States and the people that represent the country. I don’t make that decision. Question: Have you asked President Bukele to return him? Donald Trump: I haven’t, uh, he said he wouldn’t. Question: Did you ask him? Donald Trump: But I haven’t asked him positively, but he said he wouldn’t. Question: But if you haven’t asked him, then how are you facilitating his release? Donald Trump: Well, because I haven’t been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you. Question: Do you believe he deserves his day in court? Donald Trump: believe that they made him look like a saint, and then we found out about him. He wasn’t a saint. He was MS-13. He was a wife beater and he had a lot of things that were very bad, you know, very, very bad. When I first heard of the situation, I was not happy, and then I found out that he was a person who was an MS-13 member. Donald Trump: And in fact, he had a tattooed right on his – I’m sure you saw that – he had it tattooed right on his knuckles: MS-13. No, I believe he’s a man who has got quite a past. This is no longer just a nice, wonderful man from Maryland, which people, which the fake news had me and other people for a period of time believing. Donald Trump: Now, nobody believes that. And I think this isa very bad – I think this is another menwomen’s sports thing for the Democrats. Question: Maybe, but Mr. President, whatever he might have done, whoever he might be affiliated with, doesn’t he deserve his day in court? Nazi saboteurs who came on our shores at Montauk during World War II had their day in court. Al Qaeda terrorists had their day in court. Donald Trump: I really give that to my lawyers to determine, that’s why I have them. That’s not my determination. It’s something that, frankly, bringing him back and retrying him wouldn’t bother me, but I leave that up to my lawyer. You could bring him back and retry him – Question: That’s exactly right. You could fix this simply by bringing him back and going through the legal process – Donald Trump: But I leave that decision to the lawyers. At this moment, they just don’t want to do that. They say we’re in total compliance with the Supreme Court. Question: What about the lower courts? Are you committed to complying with lower courts? Donald Trump: Sure. All courts. Question: One more question on this, sir. You took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. The Constitution says the Supreme Court is the ultimate authority once they issue a ruling. If you defy them, aren’t you violating your oath? Donald Trump: I’m not defying the Supreme Court. I never defy the Supreme Court. I wouldn’t do that. I’m a big believer in the Supreme Court, and have a lot of respect for the Justices. Question: You asked President Bukele of El Salvador to build out the CECOT prison to house American citizens. You said you would love to send “homegrown criminals” there – Donald Trump: No, I didn’t say that. I said if it were permissible according to the law, I would like to do that, yes. Question: Well, do you intend to send American citizens to foreign persons? Donald Trump: would love to do that if it were permissible by law. We’re looking into that. When I have a person, these would be extreme cases. When I have a person that is a 28-time in and out person that goes out and tries to kill people every time he or she is out, I would have no problem with doing that whatsoever. Donald Trump: We’re talking about career criminals that are horrible people that we house and we have to take care of for 50 years while they suffer because they killed people. If you ask me whether or not I would do that, I would, but totally, and I think you have to leave this part of the sentence totally subject to it being allowed under law. Donald Trump: And people are looking to see if it would be allowed under law. We have crime rates under Biden that went through the roof, and we have to bring those rates down. And unfortunately, those rates have been added to by the illegal immigrants that he allowed into the country. Question: Which Americans would you do that to? Donald Trump: I would do that to people that hit old ladies over the head with a baseball bat, for people that grab their bicycle? You saw that one where they dragged an old woman along the street on a motorcycle, a bicycle, a motorcycle, I think. People that push people into subway trains just before the train is ready to stop. Donald Trump: You saw that? The man barely lived. Think of it. And a guy comes up to him, and from behind he pushes him. That’s a serious, serious thing. People that shoot people in the back, people that are executioners. Yeah, I would have no trouble with that but subject to it being allowed by law. Question: Do you really want there to be gulags for American citizens in foreign countries? Donald Trump: Gulag? You define gulag. Question: Prisons like in the Soviet Union – Donald Trump: Look, I see where you’re coming from, from the moment this interview started, and it’s fine, I don’t mind. I’ve answered every question that can be answered by mankind or womankind, and I see where you’re coming from. Rapid fire. You can’t even wait for me to give you the answer. You should let me give you that final answer. Question: Go ahead, sir. Donald Trump: No, no, I’m not – I’m just saying, I see where you’re coming from, and you’re just so wrong. You’re so wrong. These are people that have been in jail for 20 times. They’re career criminals. Do I have a problem with a career criminal that hits people with baseball bats when they’re not looking, that pushes people into subways, that shoots people in the face or in the back? Donald Trump: I have absolutely no problem with doing that, if the law allows it to be done and we’re looking at it. And one of the reasons I like it is because it would be much less expensive than our prison system, and I think it would actually be a greater deterrent. Question: Sir, on that note, how much are we paying President Bukele for holding those prisoners? Donald Trump: I don’t know. I could get you the information, but we’re paying less than we would normally. Question: Did you personally approve those payments? Donald Trump: No, I didn’t. Question: Many of the Jan. 6 prisoners you pardoned pleaded guilty to or were convicted of violent crimes as part of the capital attack. Days before you pardoned them, J.D. Vance said “of course” you wouldn’t include those who committed violence. What changed? Donald Trump: What changed where? Question: At what moment did you decide to include all of the defendants, including the ones who committed violent offenses? Donald Trump: Because I’ve watched in Portland and I watched in Seattle, and I’ve watched in Minneapolis, Minnesota and other places. People do heinous acts, far more serious than what took place on Jan. 6. And nothing happened to these people. Nothing. And I said, What a double standard it is. And we were talking about a very small group of people that are in your definition, most of these people should have been let out a long time ago. Donald Trump: There’s never been a group of people, maybe with one exception, I won’t even go into it, one exception as a group. But there’s never been a group of people that’s been treated so horribly as the J6 people. You know, when I say peacefully and patriotically, nobody mentions that. When I say go peacefully and patriotically, nobody ever mentions that. Donald Trump: Nobody mentions the fact that the unselect committee of political scum, the unselect committee, horrible people, they destroyed all evidence, they burned it, they got rid of it, they destroyed it, and they deleted all evidence. And we went in looking for evidence, and they said, I’m sorry, we don’t have it anymore. Donald Trump: It’s been destroyed. If I ever did that, it would be unthinkable what you guys, what you two guys, would be doing and writing, but, you know, and nobody wants to talk about it, and you won’t write about it, and nobody writes about it. It’s unbelievable, right? But people get it. I mean, people get it. They get what I’m saying, and they obviously believe it, because I had a hell of an election. Question: You campaigned on it, and you won decisively. Donald Trump: No and everything I campaigned. If you think of, you know, the way you ask me these questions, like, it’s so serious that we’re moving people out of the country. I said during the election that I’m going to move them out of the country, and that’s what we’re doing. Question: Can you talk a little bit about the budget? Donald Trump: Yeah. And if we didn’t do it, then you two would not be safe. I guarantee it. Question: Some Republicans are considering raising taxes on millionaires in the package you’re planning to pass that would extend your 2017 tax cuts. Do you support that idea? Donald Trump: Well, I’ll tell ya, I certainly don’t mind having a tax increase, and the only reason I wouldn’t support it is because I saw Bush where they said, where he said “Read my lips” and he lost an election. He would have lost it anyway, but he lost an election. He got beat up pretty good. I would be honored to pay more, but I don’t want to be in a position where we lose an election because I was generous, but me, as a rich person, would not mind paying and you know, we’re talking about very little. Donald Trump: We’re talking about one point. It doesn’t make that much difference, and yet, I could just see somebody trying to bring that up as a subject, and, you know, say, “Oh, he raised taxes.” Well, I wouldn’t be, really, you know, in the true sense, I wouldn’t. I’d be raising them on wealthy to take care of middle class. Donald Trump: And that’s – I love, that. I actually love the concept, but I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I’ve seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news. Question: Do you think it would help cover the cost that would be lost from getting rid of taxes on tips and some of these other proposals? Donald Trump: Well, that would be able to take it. See, that would be able to do it, but I would not mind personally paying more. But the concept is something that may not be acceptable to the public. Question: Experts estimate that the House Republican budget will result in more than $800 billion in losses to Medicaid over the next 10 years. Do you support that? Donald Trump: Due to what? Question: The House Republican budget that would cut roughly $800 billion from Medicaid. Donald Trump: I don’t think they’re going to cut $800 billion. They’re going to look at waste, fraud, and abuse. Question: So would you veto a bill if it had cuts to Medicaid? Donald Trump: If it was an increase, if we were deducting something from – I would, but it’s waste, it’s fraud and abuse is what we’re looking for. And nobody minds that. Question: If Republicans send you a bill that cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, you commit to vetoing it? Donald Trump: If it cuts it, I would not approve. Question: So you would veto that? Donald Trump: I would veto it, yeah. But they’re not going to do that. Question: Would you support a ban on congressional stock trading? Donald Trump: Well, I watched Nancy Pelosi get rich through insider information, and I would be okay with it. If they send that to me, I would do it. Question: You’ll sign it? Donald Trump: Absolutely. Question: The FTC is currently trying Meta for maintaining an illegal monopoly by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. Do you think more companies need to be broken up? Donald Trump: It depends on the company, depends on the market, depends on what the company does. But I think that a lot of companies certainly have been looked at during the Obama and during the Biden regime certainly. Question: Do you think corporate monopolies have hurt average Americans? Donald Trump: In some cases, yeah. In some cases, not. Question: I’d like to ask you some questions about DOGE. You’ve put Elon Musk in charge of this cost-cutting operation. The question is, why is the government, through DOGE, amassing the sensitive personal information about everyday Americans, which was previously stored across different agencies, all in one place? Donald Trump: DOGE has been a very big success. We found hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. Billions of dollars being given to politicians, single politicians based on the environment. It’s a scam. It’s illegal, in my opinion, so much of the stuff that we found, but I think DOGE has been a big success from that standpoint. Donald Trump: [An aide interrupts the interview for President Trump to take a phone call from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi] Question: So if we can just come back to the question before the call, which is the database that DOGE is putting together Americans’ information. Why are they doing that? Donald Trump: Because we want to find waste, fraud, and abuse, and want to cut our costs. Question: Some officials have described what DOGE is doing is creating a central kind of “God-mode” view into government databases that has been, up until now, intentionally kept separate. The idea, they say, is to basically use this information to advance your policy goals. Is this an accurate characterization? Donald Trump: No, that’s inaccurate, as you know. I mean, it’s a crazy question. We just want to find fraud, abuse. We want to find who’s on the rolls that shouldn’t be, who’s getting paid every month by the government that shouldn’t be paid. Do these people exist? In many cases, they don’t, in some cases, even worse, they do. They’ve been getting money, and they shouldn’t be. Question: What does your administration plan to do with information obtained by the IRS and other agencies as part of the DOGE effort? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know about the IRS, because, as you know, I’m not involved in it, but we’ve found tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. Tremendous. Question: Will any of it be used to track down and round up migrants as part of the deportation operation? Donald Trump: Not that I know of, no. Question: Let’s talk about the cuts. As you know, Mr. President, a lot of American companies do business with the government. The DOGE cuts aren’t just affecting government employees. They’re also affecting American businesses that provide goods and services to the federal government. There were nearly 280,000 layoffs in March across virtually every sector. Question: Why is it better for these people to be out of jobs?Because we have to have an efficient country. And when the country gets down to bare knuckles, you’re going to see, you’re going to see something the likes of which this world has never seen before. We’re going to make our country strong, powerful, and very rich again. Question: Right now, our country is not sustainable. We’re being ripped off by everybody in the world, other countries, other people, other militaries, are ripping us off. We’re protecting countries for no money or for very minimal money, and that wasn’t supposed to happen. We’re not supposed to be protecting everybody. Question: We’re supposed to be, number one, taking care of ourself, and number two, helping people when we can, helping outside people and outside countries where we can. But we’ve been ripped off by levels that you’ve never seen. European Union sounds nice, but they’ve been very tough. $300 billion loss. China – hundreds of billions of dollars in losses. Question: And I can go through a list, but I don’t want to, because there are many friendly countries, our friendly countries, in many cases, are worse than our enemies. And it’s not a sustainable model. It’s not a sustainable possibility even, that a country can go through that and Biden let it get to a level that is seriously dangerous. Question: Well, many Americans certainly agree with you that they want to get rid of government fraud, waste, and abuse. They want to shrink the federal – Donald Trump: It’s not only government. It’s deals. It’s horrible deals that have been made with other countries. As an example, China has been ripping us off for many years, until I came along. I raised, I upped tariffs on China, hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ve done hundreds of billions, hundreds. Question: But domestically, for instance, your administration blocked grants for the National Institutes of Health that funded research into infectious diseases, cancers, Alzheimer’s – Donald Trump: Well maybe we didn’t think they were right. You know, I mean, you look at the people, look at the money that was given away by others. We didn’t get anything out of it. Question: Well what do you tell the families and people who are suffering from those diseases? Donald Trump: We’re taking care of – we’re spending a lot. I spent 58 – we spent, let’s see, I think $58 billion in the first term. We were spending tremendous amounts of money, and I am now, but they have to be a little bit careful. A lot of the money like Stacey Abrams got $2 billion on the environment. They had $100 in the account and she got $2 billion just before these people left – and had to do with something that she knows nothing about. Question: NIH is the world’s largest funder of cancer research – Donald Trump: Shouldn’t they be asking those questions? I could give you a list of abuse and waste and fraud, and you don’t have any interest in hearing it. I mean, I just see by these questions, just wondering, with all of the bad things that have happened, with all of the things we found, you have no interest in those things. Donald Trump: You only have an interest. So what about this? What about that? Our country is going to be strong again because of what we’re doing, and this is not a sustainable model, what we’re looking at. And I think very importantly, I had a great election. Won all seven swing states, won millions and millions of votes. Donald Trump: Won millions of votes. They say it was the most consequential election in 129 years. I don’t know if that’s right, but it was certainly a big win, and that’s despite cheating that took place, by the way, because there was plenty of cheating that took place. Question: In ’24? Donald Trump: ’24, yeah. ’20, of course. But ’24 also, they tried. They tried that. They did their best. It’s the only thing they’re good at. But we’re gonna have a great country again. Just remember, every single question you’re asking, I campaigned on it. I campaigned on all the things you’re talking about, all the things you’re asking about, and openly campaigned. Donald Trump: And we’re given credit, even by radical left lunatics. We are given credit for that. We’re given credit for saying, This is what I’m going to do. If you look at your questions, that’s what I campaigned on. Question: Following that call, I’d love to hear a little bit about the role that you’re playing on the world stage. And I think that you campaigned on that too. Donald Trump: t’s interesting because you see the relationship. I didn’t want to wait, you know, have you leave the room, but you see the relationship. I have that relationship with many leaders. If I can stop losing 3,000 human beings a week on average, with Russia, Ukraine, it’s only because of me, nobody else could have stopped it. I think we’re going to do that, by the way. Donald Trump: I think that’ll be done. I think that we’re going to make a deal with Iran. I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran. Nobody else could do that. Question: You said you would end the war in Ukraine on Day One. Donald Trump: Well, I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration, because to make a point, and you know, it gets, of course, by the fake news [unintelligible]. Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest, but it was also said that it will be ended. Question: Well what’s taking so long? When do you think it will be ended? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t think it’s long. I mean, look, I got here three months ago. This war has been going on for three years. It’s a war that would have never happened if I was president. It’s Biden’s war. It’s not my war. I have nothing to do with it. I would have never had this war. This war would have never happened. Donald Trump: Putin would have never done it. This war would have never happened. Oct. 6 would have never happened. Oct. 7 would have never happened. Would have never happened. Ever. You then say, what’s taking so long? Do you hear this, Steve? The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, what’s taken so long? Question: Do you think peace is still possible if Putin is President? Donald Trump: I think peace is possible. You say if Putin is still president? Question: Yeah, if Putin is President. Can there be peace if Putin is President of Russia? Donald Trump: I think with me as president, there’s – possible, if very probable. If somebody else is president, no chance. Question: If Putin can make peace? Donald Trump: Yeah, I think Putin will. I think Putin would rather do it a different way. I think he’d rather go and take the whole thing. And I think that because of me, I believe I’m the only one that can get this thing negotiated. And I think we’re a long way. We’ve had very good talks, and we’re getting very close to a deal. Donald Trump: And I don’t believe anybody else could have made that deal. Question: Do you believe peace is possible if Zelensky is still President of Ukraine? Donald Trump: Yeah, I do. He is president now and I think we’re going to make a deal. Question: Should Ukraine give up any hope of ever joining NATO? Donald Trump: I don’t think they’ll ever be able to join NATO. I think that’s been – from day one, I think that’s been, that’s I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO. If that weren’t brought up, there would have been a much better chance that it wouldn’t have started. Question: Should Crimea go to the Russians? Should they get to keep Crimea? Donald Trump: Well, Crimea went to the Russians. It was handed to them by Barack Hussein Obama, and not by me. With that being said, will they be able to get it back? They’ve had their Russians. They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea. Donald Trump: But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump. Would it have been taken from me like it was taken from Obama? No, it wouldn’t have happened. Crimea, if I were president, it would not have been taken. Question: Would it be acceptable to you in a deal if Crimea and the four other regions that Russia has taken from Ukraine would be folded into Russia under a final accommodation? Donald Trump: If Crimea will stay with Russia – we have to only talk about Crimea because that’s the one that always gets mentioned. Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelensky understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along. Again, this is Obama’s war. Donald Trump: This is a war that should have never happened. I call it the war that should have never happened. Question: You’ve talked about improving relations with Moscow. Are you pursuing negotiations with them on issues other than Ukraine? Donald Trump: No – Question: Like nuclear weapons stockpiles or testing? Donald Trump: But if a deal has happened, I can see us doing business with Ukraine and with Russia as a country. Question: You’ve talked about acquiring Greenland, taking control of the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state. Maybe you’re trolling a little bit on that one. I don’t know. Donald Trump: Actually, no, I’m not. Question: Well, do you want to grow the American empire? Donald Trump: Well, it depends as an empire, it wasn’t, these are not things that we had before, so I’d view it a little bit differently if we had the right opportunity. Yeah, I think Greenland would be very well off if they I think it’s important for us for national security and even international security. I think Canada, what you said that, “Well, that one, I might be trolling.” But I’m really not trolling. Donald Trump: Canada is an interesting case. We lose $200 to $250 billion a year supporting Canada. And I asked a man who I called Governor Trudeau. I said, “Why? Why do you think we’re losing so much money supporting you? Do you think that’s right? Do you think that’s appropriate for another country to make it possible, for a country to sustain and he was unable to give me an answer, but it costs us over $200 billion a year to take care of Canada?” We’re taking care of their military. Donald Trump: We’re taking care of every aspect of their lives, and we don’t need them to make cars for us. In fact, we don’t want them to make cars for us. We want to make our own cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state. Donald Trump: Steven Cheung: We’re coming up on time, about 10 minutes. Question: Okay, we’ll move quickly then. Last note: Do you want to be remembered as a president who expanded American territory? Donald Trump: Wouldn’t mind. Question: One more question on the cuts, sir. You’ve made cuts to homeland security, cyber defenses, the Nuclear Security Administration, your FBI chief is pushing to shift the bureau from domestic intelligence to criminal investigation. These are programs that were set up after September 11 to prevent terrorist attacks. Question: Are you worried that this could be making America more vulnerable to an attack? Donald Trump: No. America will be much stronger. Question: If we are attacked, do you risk being blamed for letting down our defenses? Donald Trump: What does that mean? Question: If we are subject to an attack, do you risk being blamed because of these cuts? Donald Trump: think I’ll be blamed no matter what. I think if I make the country unbelievably successful, which it’s not now, we owe $36 trillion right? It’s, you know, when you think about it, a lot of money, a lot of money, but, but no, I think I’ll be, I’ll be blamed whether it’s successful or not. I’m used to it. Question: You may be right about that. UNICEF says that more than 300 children have been killed and more than 600 have been wounded since the ceasefire in Gaza broke down. Who is to blame for those deaths? Donald Trump: I would say that the blame for that is Biden more than anybody else, because I had, as you know, Iran was broke, and he allowed them to become rich – Question: More than Hamas? Donald Trump: There was no money for Hamas. There was no money for Hezbollah. There was no money. Iran was broke under Trump, and you know that, he knows that, broke. They had no money, and they told Hamas, we’re not giving you any money. When Biden came and he took off all the sanctions, he let China and everybody else buy all the oil, Iran developed $300 billion in cash over a four year period. Donald Trump: They started funding terror again, including Hamas. Hamas was out of business. Hezbollah was out of business. Iran had no money under me. I blame the Biden administration, because they allowed Iran to get back into the game without working a deal. Question: You’ve begun direct talks with Iran. Are you open to meeting with Iran’s President or Supreme Leader? Donald Trump: Sure. Question: You reportedly stopped Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear sites. Donald Trump: That’s not right. Question: It’s not right? Donald Trump: No, it’s not right. I didn’t stop them. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, because I think we can make a deal without the attack. I hope we can. It’s possible we’ll have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, but I didn’t say no. Ultimately I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped. Question: Are you worried Netanyahu will drag you into a war? Donald Trump: No. Question: Let’s talk about some of the issues with universities – Donald Trump: By the way, he may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in. Question: The U.S. will stay out of it if Israel goes into it? Donald Trump: No, I didn’t say that. You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack. Question: You’re planning your first major foreign trip for your second term to the Middle East next month. What are the last hurdles for Saudi Israeli normalization? Donald Trump: Well, what I want, and the reason I’m doing it, is because Saudi Arabia, I happen to like the people very much, and the Crown Prince and the King – I like all of them, but they’ve agreed to invest a trillion dollars in our economy. $1 trillion. I’m then going to Qatar, and I’m then going to UAE, and then I’m coming back, and then we’re making another. Donald Trump: I think our foreign policy has been incredible, and it was before, and it is now. You sort of got a little glimpse of it. Question: Are you closer to a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal than you were before? Donald Trump: have very good relationships in the Middle East, and I think all over the world. I think it’s – well, the smarter people understand. I have stopped – I have solved more problems in the world without asking for or getting credit. Question: This would be a big one. Donald Trump: Which one? Question: Saudi-Israeli normalization. You had the Abraham Accords, one of your, you know, historic accomplishments – Donald Trump: Unfortunately, they did nothing. They did nothing with the Abraham Accords. We had four countries in there, it was all set. We would have had it packed. Now we’re going to start it again. The Abraham Accords is a tremendous success, but Biden just sat with it. Question: Can you build on it to get the Saudi-Israeli normalization deal? Donald Trump: Well, I tell you what: I think Saudi Arabia will go into the Abraham Accords. Question: Yeah? Donald Trump: Yeah, and by the way, I think it will be full very quickly. Question: It would be a big deal if that happens. Donald Trump: They did nothing. Oh, that will happen. Question: That would be a big accomplishment. The State Department said it has revoked 300 student visas, primarily because of their participation in campus protests. I want to ask you about this, Mr. President, because you emphasized free speech as a cornerstone of your campaign, you castigated efforts to suppress it. But now it looks like your administration is deporting hundreds of people for engaging in speech you don’t like. Question: Why? Donald Trump: Tremendous anti-semitism at every one of those rallies. Tremendous, and I agree with free speech, but not riots all over every college in America. Tremendous anti-semitism going on in this country. Question: Are you worried that you’re intimidating students or chilling free speech on American campuses and elsewhere throughout the country? Donald Trump: No, they can protest, but they can’t destroy the schools like they did with Columbia and others. Question: Let’s talk about one case. Are you familiar with the case of the Tufts University student Reynessa Ozturk, who was arrested by a group of plain clothes officers. Well, she has since been accused by your government of having ties to Hamas. They have not revealed any evidence. Would you direct your Department of Justice to disclose the evidence that she is connected to Hamas? Donald Trump: would have no trouble with it, no. I’ll look into it, but I’m not aware of the particular event. Question: You were harshly critical of what you called the weaponization of the Justice System under Biden. You recently signed memos – Donald Trump: Well, sure, but you wouldn’t be – if this were Biden, well, first of all, he wouldn’t do an interview because he was grossly incompetent. Question: We spoke to him last year, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Huh? Question: We spoke to him a year ago. Donald Trump: How did he do? Question: You can read the interview yourself. Donald Trump: Not too good. I did read the interview. He didn’t do well. He didn’t do well at all. He didn’t do well at anything. And he cut that interview off to being a matter of minutes, and you weren’t asking him questions like you’re asking me. Question: Well, we appreciate that you are able and willing to answer these questions. It says something about you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: am indeed. I’ve been answering them for years and I’ve been getting elected by bigger and bigger numbers all the time, but you didn’t ask questions like this to Biden, because if you did, he would have crawled under this beautiful desk. Question: You recently signed memos calling for an investigation of Chris Krebs, a top cybersecurity official in your first term. Isn’t that, though, what you accused Biden of doing to you? Donald Trump: think Chris Krebs was a disgrace to our country. I think he was – I think he was terrible. By the way, I don’t know him. I’m not – I don’t think I ever met him. I probably saw him around. You know, I have people come in, like the other one. He came in, and he’s on CNN all the time as like an expert on Trump. Donald Trump: I have no idea who he is. And Chris Krebs the same thing. I guess he probably said he knows me, but I have no idea. And you know, oftentimes I’ll have some people sitting right here, and behind them will be 10 or 15 people from their agency or their office, and they’ll stand there, and then all of a sudden, I’ll hear that like I’m, you know, they’re all time experts in me. I know very little about Chris Krebs, but I think he was very deficient. Question: You’ve used threats and lawsuits, other forms of coercion – Donald Trump: Well, I’ve gotta be doing something right, because I’ve had a lot of law firms give me a lot of money. Question: Why is that an appropriate use of presidential power? Donald Trump: Well, I think it is because I think they felt that the election was rigged and stolen and they didn’t want to be a part of it. You think they gave me $100 million each for nothing? You know these law firms gave me $100 million worth of work, et cetera, and other things. And do you think they gave me that because I’m a nice guy? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. They gave it to me because they knew what they did wrong and they didn’t want to get involved with it. And that’s okay. That’s the way it works, unfortunately. Question: But that is an appropriate use of presidential power, you think? Donald Trump: Which is? Question: The threats and the EOs against the law firms. Donald Trump: They pay – these are the top firms in the world. These are the biggest, the best: Cravath, Milbank Tweed, Paul Weiss. These are the toughest, smartest firms. They don’t, they don’t do this unless there’s a little problem or a big problem. Question: Isn’t cutting a deal with them to remove a threat from you and to do pro-bono work for causes you like just a form of extortion? Donald Trump: I don’t think it was a threat. I think they did that because, I assume they did it because they felt they did something wrong. Otherwise they would have, we would have had a lawsuit. Question: You once said you weren’t sure how the Civil Rights Act quote “worked out.” Would America be better without it? Donald Trump: I never heard of that. Nobody’s ever asked me that before. Question: You said it in a 2020 interview. Donald Trump: I don’t remember having said that. Donald Trump: Cheung: We have time for one more question. Question: When we spoke to you a year ago, we asked whether you would challenge the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two terms. You said, and I quote, “I’m going to serve one term. I’m going to do a great job, and I’m going to leave.” What changed? Donald Trump: Well, I’m serving two terms now. Question: You meant one in addition to the one you already served. Donald Trump: You mean one more. I have more people begging me to run again, but I haven’t looked at even the possibility. But the only thing that’s changed is they think I’m doing a great job, and they like the way I’m running the country. They have a border, which you didn’t ask about, that’s virtually totally closed. Donald Trump: The best border we’ve ever had. Question: Border crossings are down substantially. Donald Trump: No, I mean, it’s, it’s really, people can’t believe it. They interviewed some farmers, really beautiful people that lived on the other side. They were being drawn into fights and horror shows, and now, I mean, it was dangerous. One of them got very badly injured, and by an illegal migrant that came across. Donald Trump: And they asked him, How is it now? He said, “Thank God for Donald Trump. It’s the best it’s ever been. And I’ve lived here for 50 years.” Question: You recently said you were “not joking” about seeking a third term and that there were methods to do it. What methods? Donald Trump: I’d rather not discuss that now, but as you know, there are some loopholes that have been discussed that are well known. But I don’t believe in loopholes. I don’t believe in using loopholes. Question: You wouldn’t run as vice president to J.D. Vance? Donald Trump: don’t know anything about, what, look, all I can say is this, I am being inundated with requests. I’m doing a good job. Great physical exam, and unlike every other president, I took the cognitive test and I aced it 100% and I bet you guys couldn’t get 100% on that exam. It’s a tough exam. You know, when you get into the mid questions, it gets to be pretty tricky and pretty tough, and the last questions are very tough, and I aced it. And I guarantee, I’d give you, I’d make a big, beautiful bet that you guys couldn’t ace it. But anyway. Donald Trump: But look, it’s good to have you, it’s a very nasty interview. They don’t ask any of the good things. Question: One final question. Mr. President, you were showing us the new paintings you have behind us. You put all these new portraits. One of them includes John Adams. John Adams said we’re a government ruled by laws, not by men. Do you agree with that? Donald Trump: John Adams said that? Where was the painting? Question: It’s right here. Donald Trump: We’re a government ruled by laws, not by men? Well, I think we’re a government ruled by law, but you know, somebody has to administer the law. So therefore men, certainly, men and women, certainly play a role in it. I wouldn’t agree with it 100%. We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you’re going to have honest men like me. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. We appreciate your time. Donald Trump: Thank you.
Date: 2025-04-28
Good luck to the Great people of Canada. Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America. No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be. Free access with NO BORDER. ALL POSITIVES WITH NO NEGATIVES. IT WAS MEANT TO BE! America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!
Date: 2025-04-29
Note: [Terry Moran of ABC News interviewed Donald Trump at the White House on April 29, 2025. The transcript below includes some minor corrections and a three-minute discussion that aired on ABC News that was played prior to the full interview. You can find the original video and transcript here: https://cqrc.al/abc-20250429. Video courtesy and copyright ABC News. ] Donald Trump: Hello everybody. How are you? This is the Oval Office. This is the Resolute Desk, which is really something very spectacular. There’s nothing quite like it, and it, uh, they give you a choice of about seven different desks, but this is the one I chose. Ronald Reagan had it. FDR had it. A few people had it, but I found it to be the most beautiful. Terry Moran: It is amazing. Donald Trump: This is an amazing space and amazing, maybe architecturally wonderful, but, uh, amazing for what it represents. It represents the US, and if properly used, a lot of good things can happen. Terry Moran: I see Ronald Reagan over there. Donald Trump: Yeah. Ronald Reagan. Terry Moran: Right to your left. Donald Trump: Being in the Oval Office is very important. See Ronald Reagan here and, uh, put him a little bit larger, sort of seemed to fit very nicely. Uh, you have, uh, Democrats a little bit. You have – Terry Moran: Franklin Roosevelt. Donald Trump: Franklin Roosevelt. So you look at that picture and people say, “Well, what’s he doing up there?” But look, he was a serious president, whether we like it or not, he was a four-termer and, uh, you know, went through a war. You have Lincoln, you have Washington, but you look over here, that’s Monroe, the Monroe Doctrine. Terry Moran: Why is he up there? Donald Trump: I think the Monroe Doctrine was pretty important, you know, that was his claim to fame. Over here you have the original of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and of course you have the Declaration of Independence. Terry Moran: What does it mean to you? Donald Trump: Well, it means, uh, exactly what it says. It’s a declaration. It’s a declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s, uh, something very special to, to our country. Terry Moran: Lincoln’s portrait up there, I’m not familiar with that one, but I think when I, when I’m looking at that, that famous line in the second inaugural, “With malice toward none, with –” Donald Trump: Right, right. Terry Moran: – charity toward all, is that – Donald Trump: Well, he was, uh, a great president. He went through a lot. Terry Moran: And the Oval Office is always changing between presidents. Donald Trump: It changes you. Terry Moran: It says something. Donald Trump: It does. Terry Moran: Wh- wh- what does this say about how you feel about the country and the office? Donald Trump: Well, I think it says, I love the country. I mean, I’m putting pictures of presidents up that have never been up. Uh, pictures that weren’t largely used and in many cases, you know, great men in this case men, but, uh, great men of great achievement. Terry Moran: And your every detail of it seems. Donald Trump: Yeah. Terry Moran: This is your office. Donald Trump: I’m a, uh, very detailed person. I’m a very clean person. I like cleanliness. I like to see, uh, this space be treated properly. I’ve added a lot to the space in terms of, uh, beautification, uh, in terms of modernization. Terry Moran: That’s a – a gallery of presidents. Donald Trump: It really is. It really is. So, and it’s an honor to have you people with us. Note: [The video cuts to the official sit-down interview.] Terry Moran: Okay. Mr. President, thank you for doing this. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Terry Moran: Here in the Oval Office, it’s – it’s special. A hundred days into your second term. So what’s the one thing, just one thing, that you think is the most significant thing you’ve done so far in these 100 days? Donald Trump: Well, I think maybe the border is the most significant because our country was really going bad. They were allowing people to come in from prisons, as you know. And you’ve heard me say it, but you’ve heard a lot of people say it. Prisons, mental institutions, gang members – murderers. We had many murderers, 11,888, they think. Donald Trump: Some murdered more than one person. So you had murderers coming in. You had everybody coming in. And not just South America. From all over the world, they were emptying their prisons into our country. And now it’s totally closed down. And you’ve seen just yesterday, they announced 99.9%. Nobody thought that could happen, and it happened quickly, very quickly. Donald Trump: And I think that’s very significant. But we’re doing other things that are very significant. Results will take a little bit longer because it’s one of those – you know, it’s complicated. It’s – many years of trading abuse. We’ve been abused by other countries for years and years. They laughed at us. They thought we were stupid people, and we’re fixing it. And – I think that’s gonna be very, very important. Donald Trump: But I – I would – Terry Moran: We have a lot of ground to cover. Donald Trump: Yeah. I would really say that – that – that the border is so important, you know? You just can’t – Terry Moran: And we’ll get there. Immigration is huge – Donald Trump: – let that happen. Yeah. Terry Moran: And we’re gonna get there. But I wanna start – Donald Trump: Sure. Terry Moran: – with the economy, the number one issue for so many people, for just about everybody. It – it’s one of the main reasons that you’re back in this office. And now we have this trade war with China that – that Moody’s and other analysts say is gonna cost American families thousands of more dollars per year. Terry Moran: And there is a lot of concern out there. People are worried, even some people who voted for you, sayin’, “I didn’t sign up for this.” So how do you answer those concerns? Donald Trump: Well, they did sign up for it, actually. And this is what I campaigned on. I said that– we’ve been abused by other countries at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. We were losing $3 to 5 billion a day on trade. We were losing– a trillion and a half to $2 trillion a year. Not sustainable. They were takin’ advantage of us like they’ve never – I could’ve left it that way, and at some point there would’ve been an implosion like nobody’s ever seen. Donald Trump: But I said, “No, we have to fix it.” I’ve – I’ve wanted to do this for many years. You know, I had the best economy during my first term. We had a tremendous economy, tremendous success. And we – we did tremendous numbers of tariffs on – we took in a lot of money from tariffs – China in particular, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. Donald Trump: We had no inflation, as you know. We had an incredible economy. We were given credit for a great economy. But I said, “We have to fix this, otherwise it’s just not self-sustaining.” Terry Moran: Well, one of the things you ran on was you’d said you’d bring prices down on day one. And that – Donald Trump: And I have – Terry Moran: – it would happen fast. And that it would happen fast and – Donald Trump: I have. Terry Moran: Many – most economists will tell you that tariffs will raise prices. So don’t your tariffs cut against that promise you made to bring prices down? Donald Trump: No, because I had massive tariffs on China, if you remember in my first term, and we had essentially no inflation. Like, around 1% inflation, which is, like, a perfect number. The – and then when Biden took over it went through the roof. It went to the – probably the worst inflation we’ve ever had. I mean, we had an inflation nightmare. Donald Trump: Now, if you look at what’s happening now, we’re only there for 100 days, as you say, and in 100 days we took over the – we had bad inflation for four years, for two years of – especially two years of his – his administration. I would say record-setting like we’ve never seen. They say 48 years, the worst in 48 years. Donald Trump: I’d say it was much worse than that – Terry Moran: You lived through that, I lived through that, yeah. Donald Trump: Right. So – so now if you look at what’s happened – energy is down. Gasoline hit $1.98 in a few states – during the last couple of days. It was $3.50 and $4.00 and $4.50. But gasoline is way down. And when I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs? They hit me the first week, “Eggs, eggs, eggs,” like it was my fault. Donald Trump: I said, “I didn’t cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden. What’s the problem with eggs?” And they said, “They’ve doubled it.” Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved. Terry Moran: A lotta that is bird flu, right – Donald Trump: And by the way – and there were plenty of eggs for Easter, which we just went through. There were plenty of eggs for Easter. They were saying, “You won’t have enough eggs for Easter.” We ended – our sec – my secretary did a fantastic job on eggs. Groceries are down. Everything’s down – Terry Moran: Okay. Donald Trump: Interest rates are the same. Interest rates should be down, but we have a Federal Reserve that wants to be stubborn. They wanna be cute – Terry Moran: Alright, we’ll get to that. A couple – you said something a couple weeks ago that – that struck me. You said, concerning the tariffs, which economists say are gonna raise prices, you said, quote, “Hang tough. It won’t be easy.” You said that to the American people. Is that what Americans should expect – Donald Trump: Well, I’ve said that – Terry Moran: – some hard times? Donald Trump: I’ve said that during – Terry Moran: Because of these tariffs– Donald Trump: – my campaign. Look, we won a campaign by a lot. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by a lot. You know, we had a tremendous campaign. I said all of these things during my campaign. I said, “You’re gonna have a transition period.” We’ve been ripped off by every country all over the world. Donald Trump: They’re laughing at us. They thought we were stupid people, and we were. And I said, “That’s not gonna happen. We’re not gonna let that happen” – Terry Moran: Hard times – hard times are ahead? Donald Trump: I don’t think so. I think great – Terry Moran: Hang tough – Donald Trump: – times are ahead. Look, since I came in gasoline is down, groceries are down, egg prices are down – many things are down, just about everything. You know, you don’t have the drop in – in fuel and energy and oil like we did. I took it from maybe $3.20, maybe more than that, down into a low – a much lower number. Donald Trump: When you have that kind of a drop you’re not gonna have inflation. Terry Moran: Not now. But it’s the tariffs, right? We still have 145% tariffs – Donald Trump: Well – Terry Moran: – on China Donald Trump: Why is it – Terry Moran: Your Treasury secretary said we basically have an embargo on China. Donald Trump: Look, you’re trying to – Terry Moran: And that – Donald Trump: – say something’s gonna happen, Terry – Terry Moran: No, no, no, no. Okay, well, do you – Donald Trump: Nothing’s gonna happen Terry Moran: You know business. I wanna ask you – Donald Trump: Terry – Terry – Terry Moran: I wanna ask you. Donald Trump: I do know business. And – Terry Moran: Yeah, so 145% tariffs on China. And – and that is – Donald Trump: That’s good. Terry Moran: – basically – Donald Trump: That’s good. Terry Moran: – an embargo Donald Trump: They deserve it. Terry Moran: It’ll raise prices on everything from– Donald Trump: They deserve it. Terry Moran: – electronics to clothing to building houses. Donald Trump: You don’t know that. You don’t know whether or not China’s gonna eat it – Terry Moran: That’s mathematics. Donald Trump: China probably will eat those tariffs. But at 145, they basically can’t do much business with the United States. And they were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody’s ever ripped us off. And by the way, we have other countries that were just as bad. If you look at the European Union, it was terrible what they’ve done to us. Every country, almost every country in the world was ripping us off. Terry Moran: But I – Donald Trump: They’re not doing that anymore. Terry Moran: I want you to think about the boom that this country has had in small businesses, mom-and-pops – Etsy stores, small businesses that became – Donald Trump: Really? They haven’t had a boom – Terry Moran: – big businesses Donald Trump: – because of inflation. Terry Moran: Well, your boom, what they’ve done – Donald Trump: The boom was inflationary boom. The people were wiped out with inflation. I mean, you read the news. You do the business stuff, I assume – Terry Moran: Now they face – now they – they – a lot of ‘em built those businesses on the trading model before you – Donald Trump: Yeah, and they’re gonna make more money now Terry Moran: They source their products overseas. And now they’re looking at an extinction event – Donald Trump: I’ve been here. Terry Moran: They’re – they’re – it’s disaster for them. Donald Trump: I’ve been here for three months. I’ve taken a trade deficit down to a number that’s very, very – starting to get really good. I only – I just got here. We had a country that – it was not sustainable. What Biden did to this country, between – the open borders where criminals poured into our country, between every country in the world ripping us off on trade, it was not sustainable. Terry Moran: So your message to those small businesses who are saying, “We can’t live a month, two months with these tariffs,” Apple got a big deal. Is there something for them? Donald Trump: No, no. Not only Apple. We’ve got $7-8 trillion being invested in our country in two months. Biden didn’t have that over a year. I mean, if you look at Biden, nobody was really investing in this country. Everybody was ripping off our country. Apple’s putting up $500 billion, but that’s only one of many companies. Donald Trump: Companies are flooding into our country right now. Terry Moran: So your answer to the concern about the tariffs is, “Everything’s gonna be hunky-dory?” Donald Trump: Everybody’s gonna be just fine. It wouldn’t have been if I didn’t do this. I had a choice. I could leave it, have a nice, easy time. But I think ultimately you would’ve had an implosion. Our country had inflation that was worse than they’ve ever had it before. You don’t mention that. Why don’t you mention that? Donald Trump: We had the worst inflation probably in the history of our country. People say 48 years, probably in the history of our country we had the worst inflation. And people were dying over the inflation. You know that. Now the grocery prices are coming down. The energy prices are coming down. Gasoline’s coming down. Donald Trump: It’s all heading in the right direction. Terry Moran: Okay. Let’s move on to immigration. And as you said, it is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted, a staggering decline. But there are questions about your methods, and so I want to ask you – Donald Trump: About my message? Terry Moran: Methods. About your methods, how you’re accomplishing this – Donald Trump: Well, they seem to work. Terry Moran: Do you acknowledge that under our law every single person who gets deported gets a hearing first to make their case? Donald Trump: Well, are we talking about people that are citizens of our country or not? Terry Moran: No, you’re not deporting citizens, at this point. Donald Trump: Well, lemme ask you. Do they get hearings when – when Biden allowed 21 million – ’cause I think the number’s 21, 20 million – people to flow into our country? He had 21 million people that came into our country through a stupid open border. And they were prisoners and they were – people that you don’t want, in many cases, in our country, right? Donald Trump: They came from all over the world. They came from the Congo. They came from south – they came from all over the world. We’re talkin’ about some of the roughest countries in the world – they had – they had here, including terrorists, by the way. Now – Terry Moran: But the law – Donald Trump: Did we give them a hearing when they came in? Terry Moran: Well, the law requires that every single person who is going to be deported gets a hearing first. Donald Trump: Well – Terry Moran: Do you acknowledge that? Donald Trump: I’ll – I’ll have to ask the lawyers about that. All I can say is this: If you’re gonna have 21 million people, and if we have to get a lot of ‘em out because they’re criminals, we’re gonna have to act fast. We can’t – do you think we can give 21 million trials? Let’s say each trial takes two weeks. Is that what you want us to do – Terry Moran: The law is the law, sir – Donald Trump: – give 21 million? Terry Moran: The law is the law and you’re sworn – Donald Trump: No, no. The law doesn’t say anything – Terry Moran: – to uphold it – Donald Trump: – about trials Terry Moran: No, not trials. Hearings. I said hearings – Donald Trump: If these people came in, they’re not citizens, they came in illegally, they came into our country illegally, we have to – Terry Moran: And they – Donald Trump: – get them out. Terry Moran: There’s a legal process for that. Donald Trump: I can’t – sure, and we follow the legal process. I can’t – I can’t have a trial– a major trial– for every person that came in illegally, we have thousands of murderers that came in. They’re gonna murder people. They already have murdered people in our country. Terry Moran: Right, so – Donald Trump: We have to get ’em out– Terry Moran: They’re bad guys – Donald Trump: And we have to get ’em out fast. Terry Moran: Really bad guys. But in our country even bad guys get due process, right? Donald Trump: If people come into our country illegally there’s a different standard. These are illegal. They came in illegally. Terry Moran: But they get due process. Donald Trump: Well, they get a process where we have to get ’em out, yeah. Terry Moran: Okay. Let’s talk about the Venezuelans. Donald Trump: They get whatever my lawyers say. Terry Moran: Right. Alright, let’s talk about the Venezuelans. You deported more than 200 Venezuelans to that prison in El Salvador. You – you say they’re – they’re violent. They’re gang members. They’re terrorists. Many of them don’t have – a criminal record – Donald Trump: They are, by the way. Terry Moran: – at all. Donald Trump: Well – I’m not so sure about that, if you take a look – Terry Moran: I wanna – I wanna read you something – Donald Trump: When you – excuse me. When you look at those – those people, they were violent people. They were violent people – Terry Moran: But many of them don’t have a criminal record at this point – Donald Trump: Go ahead. Terry Moran: I wanna read you something – Donald Trump: I mean, that’s what you say. Terry Moran: Well, it’s based on – their lawyer– what their lawyers have said – Donald Trump: Go ahead. Go ahead. Terry Moran: Joe Rogan said this. Joe Rogan, one of the leading podcasters, Trump supporter, about the deportation of Venezuelans. He said, quote, “Rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process,” he said it was dangerous and added, quote, “We gotta be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters.” I – is Joe Rogan – Donald Trump: I agree with that. Terry Moran: – right? Donald Trump: Oh, I agree with that a hundred percent, yeah. We want to be careful. We are careful. We’re doing something that has to be done. We have a country that’s very sick. Joe Biden – and it’s not him, because I don’t even think he knew what the hell was happening. But the people around him are vicious people. Donald Trump: And what they’ve done to the country is unbelievable. They’ve allowed 21 million people to pour into our country. Many of these people are criminals. They’ve allowed the – you mention Venezuela – the jails of Venezuela to be emptied into the United States. Do you know Venezuela crime is way down? Way, way down. Donald Trump: You know why? Because their criminals are now living happily in the United States of America, and we’re getting ’em out. And I was elected to get ’em out, and we’re getting ’em out – Terry Moran: Under the law, it sounds like – Donald Trump: – getting them out fast, and we’re getting them out legally. Now in some cases, we have judges. In some cases, they’re radical left judges. What happened the other day, where a judge was protecting a criminal, was horrible. Terry Moran: Mmm. Donald Trump: And I think she’s got big problems, frankly – Terry Moran: Probably. And talk about – Donald Trump: And there are a couple of them like that. Terry Moran: I want to talk about one man – Donald Trump: Wait a minute. Terry Moran: Yep. Donald Trump: We have to be treated fairly by judges. And we’re not being treated fairly by all judges. Terry Moran: Oh, that’s a subject its – so you’re saying that you don’t like some of the rulings, some of the – Donald Trump: Well, I think – Terry Moran: – court orders? Donald Trump: I think the rulings will be overturned, yeah. Terry Moran: Alright. Well, let me ask about one man and one court order. Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He’s the Salvadoran man who crossed into this country illegally but who is under a protective order that he not be sent back to El Salvador. Your government sent him back to El Salvador and acknowledged in court that was a mistake. Terry Moran: And now the Supreme Court has upheld an order that you must return him to the – facilitate his return to the United States. What are you doing to comply? Donald Trump: Well, the lawyer that said it was a mistake was here a long time, was not appointed by us – should not have said that, should not have said that. And just so you understand – Terry Moran: Said it in court. Said it in court – Donald Trump: – the person that you’re talkin’ about, you know, you’re makin’ this person sound – this is a MS-13 gang member, a tough cookie, been in lots of skirmishes, beat the hell out of his wife, and the wife was petrified to even talk about him, okay? This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland – Terry Moran: I’m not saying he’s a good guy. It’s about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir – Donald Trump: He came into our country illegally. Terry Moran: You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk. Donald Trump: I could. Terry Moran: You could pick it up, and with all – Donald Trump: I could Terry Moran: – the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, “Send him back,” right now. Donald Trump: And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that. Terry Moran: But the court has ordered you – Donald Trump: But he’s not. Terry Moran: – to facilitate that – his release– Donald Trump: I’m not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don’t want – Terry Moran: You’re the president. Donald Trump: – to do this, Terry – Terry Moran: Yeah, but the – but the buck stops in this office – Donald Trump: I – no, no, no, no. I follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is – Terry Moran: The Supreme Court says what the law is. Donald Trump: Listen. I was elected to take care of a problem that was – it was – a, a unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man, a man that turned out to be incompetent that you always said was wonderful, a great genius, right? And now you find out – all of the media, now they’re saying what a mistake they made. Donald Trump: A man who was grossly incompetent allowed us to have open borders where millions of people flowed in – Terry Moran: Alright. Donald Trump: I campaigned on that issue. I wouldn’t say it was my number one issue, but it was pretty close. Terry Moran: Right up there. Donald Trump: I campaigned on that issue. I’ve done an amazing job. I have closed borders. He said you couldn’t do it, you wouldn’t be able to do it, it would never happen. Well, it happened. And it happened – Terry Moran: Alright. Donald Trump: – very quickly. Wait a minute. When we have criminals, murderers, criminals in this country, we have to get ‘em out. And we’re doing it. Terry Moran: By law – Donald Trump: And you’ll pick out one man, but even the man that you picked out – Terry Moran: He’s got – Donald Trump: – he said he’d – wasn’t a member of a gang. And then they looked, and – Terry Moran: Alright. Donald Trump: On his knuckles – he had MS-13 – Terry Moran: Alright. There’s dis – there’s a dispute over that – Donald Trump: Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. He had MS-13 – Terry Moran: Well – Donald Trump: – on his knuckles tattooed. Terry Moran: – he – he – he – it didn’t say– oh, he had some tattoos that are inper – interpreted that way. But let’s move on Donald Trump: Wait a minute. Terry Moran: I want – Donald Trump: Hey, Terry. Terry. Terry. Terry Moran: He – he did not have the letter – Donald Trump: Don’t do that – M-S-1-3 – It says M-S-one-three. Terry Moran: I – that was Photoshop. So let me just– Donald Trump: That was Photoshop? Terry, you can’t do that – he had – – he– hey, they’re givin’ you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doin’ the interview. I picked you because – frankly I never heard of you, but that’s okay – Terry Moran: This – I knew this would come – Donald Trump: But I picked you – Terry – but you’re not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed – Terry Moran: Alright. Alright. We’ll agree to disagree. I want to move on – Donald Trump: Terry. Terry Moran: – to something else. Donald Trump: Terry. Do you want me to show the picture? Terry Moran: I saw the picture. We’ll – we’ll – we’ll agree to disagree – Donald Trump: Oh, and you think it was Photoshop. Well – Terry Moran: Here we go. Here we go. Donald Trump: – don’t Photoshop it. Go look – Terry Moran: Alright. Donald Trump: – at his hand. He had MS-13 – Terry Moran: Fair enough, he did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I’m not an expert on them. I want to turn to Ukraine, sir – Donald Trump: No, no. Terry – Terry Moran: I– I want to get to Ukraine– Donald Trump: Terry, no, no. No, no. He had MS as clear as you can be. Not “interpreted.” This is why people – Terry Moran: Alright. Donald Trump: – no longer believe – Terry Moran: Well. Donald Trump: – the news, because it’s fake news – Terry Moran: When he was photographed in El Sal – in– in El Salvador, they aren’t there. But let’s just go on – Donald Trump: He is – Terry Moran: They aren’t there when he’s in El Salvador. Donald Trump: –there – oh, oh, they weren’t there – Terry Moran: Take a look at the photograph – Donald Trump: But they’re there now, right? Terry Moran: No. What – Donald Trump: But they’re there now? Terry Moran: They’re in your picture. Donald Trump: Terry. Terry Moran: Ukraine, sir. Donald Trump: He’s got MS-13 on his knuckles. Terry Moran: Alright. I – Donald Trump: Okay? Terry Moran: – we’ll – we’ll take a look at it – Donald Trump: It’s – it’s – you do such a disservice – Terry Moran: We’ll take a look. We’ll take a look at that, sir – Donald Trump: Why don’t you just say, “Yes, he does,” and, you know, go on to something else – Terry Moran: It’s contested. Ukraine. I want to turn – I was just in Rome, and to that moving photograph of you and President Zelenskyy sitting in St. Peter’s Basilica – Donald Trump: Yeah. Terry Moran: – talking peace. It went around the world. Donald Trump: Sure. Terry Moran: Take us into that moment. Donald Trump: Well, look, the Ukraine is a very serious, very tough situation. And this is Biden’s war. This is not my war. But I want to see if I can solve it, because probably close to 5,000 young soldiers a week are being killed, Russian and Ukrainian. We also spend a tremendous amount of money in Ukraine, and Europe should be spending much more than us. They’re not. Donald Trump: They’re spending much less. It’s been badly handled by the Biden administration. It’s been badly handled all the way around, all the way around – Terry Moran: But that – that moment. Donald Trump: The moment was a moment of solace in a sense, because – tremendous numbers of people are dying. A lot of his people are dying. They’re being killed. And I feel very badly about it. I feel very badly about – that’s a war that would have never happened if I were president, and it didn’t happen for four years. Donald Trump: It was never even a thought of it happening. Terry Moran: It – it does feel like something’s happening. After that meeting with Zelenskyy in St. Peter’s, you posted this on social media. “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, in cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe” – Donald Trump: Yeah, well, that was part of my post. But you’re right. That was – that was part of a post, yes – Terry Moran: And it says, “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war. He’s just tapping me along–” Donald Trump: It’s possible. Yeah, that’s possible. Sure. Terry Moran: He might be – Donald Trump: He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war. I think that – Terry Moran: You believe that? Donald Trump: – if – if it weren’t for me, I think he’d want to take over the whole country, personally. I always felt – so when I left, there wasn’t even a chance that this would happen. When Biden got involved, I won’t say whether or not he handled it properly, but obviously it wasn’t good, because the war started. Donald Trump: Putin went in. The war started. I believe that Putin wanted to get all of Ukraine once he went in. And I think part of the reason he went in is he saw what happened in Afghanistan, how incompetent – how incompetently Milley and all these guys handled that. It was one of the greatest embarrassments of – of our lifetimes but maybe in the history of our country. Donald Trump: Okay. So Putin went in. I think Putin wanted all of Ukraine. Terry Moran: Right. Donald Trump: I think if I didn’t win the election, he would have gotten all of Ukraine. I think he would have taken all of Ukraine. Terry Moran: From – Donald Trump: I think his first choice – never with me. He would have never gone in. With this group of losers, he went in. He saw what happened in Afghanistan. He said, “Wow, this is my chance,” because it was always the apple of his eye. I talked to him. Ukraine was the apple of his eye. I think he wanted the whole country. Terry Moran: You’ve said for months that – Donald Trump: And because of me, I do believe that – Terry Moran: Yeah. Yeah. Donald Trump: – he’s willing to stop the fighting. Don’t forget – Terry Moran: You think he wants peace? Donald Trump: – this is – Terry Moran: You think Vladimir Putin wants peace? Donald Trump: I think he does, yes. I think he does– Terry Moran: Still? Donald Trump: I think because of me – Terry Moran: Even with the raining missiles on – Donald Trump: I think he really – his – his – his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he’s not gonna do that. Terry Moran: Do you trust him? Donald Trump: I think – Terry Moran: Do you trust him? Donald Trump: I don’t trust you. I don’t trust – I don’t trust a lot of people. I don’t trust you. Look at you. You come in all shootin’ for bear. You’re so happy to do the interview. Terry Moran: I am happy – Donald Trump: And then you start hitting me with fake questions. You start tellin’ me that a guy – whose hand is covered with a tattoo – Terry Moran: Alright. We’re back to that. Donald Trump: – doesn’t have the tattoo, you know. Terry Moran: Alright. Donald Trump: I mean, you’re being dishonest. Terry Moran: No, I’m not – Donald Trump: Let – let– let me just tell you – Terry Moran: No, I am not, sir. Donald Trump: Do I trust – I don’t trust a lot of people. But I do think this. I think that he – let’s say he respects me. And I believe because of me he’s not gonna take over the whole – but his decision, his choice would be to take over all of Ukraine. Terry Moran: Okay. Donald Trump: It’s a war that never should have happened. It did happen because of incompetent people – Terry Moran: Last question on this. Donald Trump: But it never should have happened. Terry Moran: If there’s no peace deal, will the U.S. cut off military aid to Ukraine? Donald Trump: I don’t want to tell you that. I’m not gonna tell you whether or not I would or not – Terry Moran: That sounds – Donald Trump: I want to leave that as a big, fat secret, because I don’t want to ruin a negotiation. But – Terry Moran: I’d be worried if I were Ukraine. Donald Trump: – I will tell you I was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities. And – that was not something that I liked seeing, and I thought it was inappropriate. But I think the whole war is inappropriate. Terry Moran: Okay. Donald Trump: Again, it’s a war that shouldn’t have happened. This war is a war that if the election weren’t rigged – and it was totally rigged, the 2020 election – if it weren’t rigged, you wouldn’t have that. You wouldn’t have had the embarrassment – Terry Moran: Okay. Donald Trump: – of Afghanistan. Terry Moran: Got it. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t have October 7th with Is – Terry Moran: Got it. Donald Trump: –Israel. You wouldn’t have had any of the problems that you have right now – Terry Moran: Thank you. I want to ask one question – Donald Trump: And you wouldn’t have had inflation either. Terry Moran: Alright. I want to ask one question about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. There’s a lot of turmoil – at the – at the Pentagon right now. There’s the Signal chat with his wife on it where he’s discussing that attack in Yemen. There’s another Signal chat – discussing the attack on Yemen. There’s a reporter accidentally involved. Terry Moran: You said the other day that you had a talk with the secretary. Did you take him to the woodshed? Donald Trump: I had a talk with him, and whatever I said I probably wouldn’t be inclined to tell you. Bu t– we had a good talk. He’s a talented guy. He’s young. He’s smart, highly educated. And I think he’s gonna be a very good defense – hopefully a great defense secretary, but he’ll be a very good defense secretary – Terry Moran: You have a hundred percent confidence in Pete Hegseth? Donald Trump: I don’t have – a hundred percent confidence in anything, okay? Anything. Do I have a hundred percent? It’s a stupid question. Look – Terry Moran: It’s a pretty important position. Donald Trump: – I have – no, no, no. You don’t have a hundred percent. Only a liar would say, “I have a hundred percent confidence.” I don’t have a hundred percent confidence that we’re gonna finish this interview. Terry Moran: We will. Donald Trump: Let’s go. Terry Moran: Elon Musk and DOGE. Everyone knows that there’s wasteful government spending. It’s really important. But the cuts have had some serious consequences. There have been cuts to foreign aid programs that save lives and keep people alive overseas. There’s been research at the National Institutes of Health on cancer, on Alzheimer’s that has had to be stopped. Terry Moran: And- - the question I think people have is: Did DOGE go too far, too fast, too recklessly? Donald Trump: No, I think DOGE has been, look, saved $150 billion. Billion. We saved – that’s a lot of money. There’s also a lot of things right now under investigation, which is gonna increase that amount by a lot. And that’s a tremendous amount of money. There were some things where when I heard about ‘em I – I put ’em back, as you know. Donald Trump: There are things that I’m considering right now putting back. But overall, we’ve saved hundreds of billions of dollars of – Terry Moran: Well, the original promise was $2 trillion, went to $1 trillion. Now, it’s $150 billion – Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know – Terry Moran: – and heading south. Donald Trump: You don’t know what it’s gonna be because we have things that are very – at a very high level that are being looked at right now. We also found tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse, as you know. We found a lot of fraud. There was a lot of fraud. Fraudulent things were taking place, and we ended that, and those people are gonna be suffering – Terry Moran: Just – Donald Trump: – because of it. Terry Moran: – a legal note. Fraud is a crime. There have been no referrals to the Justice Department on any of this – Donald Trump: Well, you don’t know that, do you? How do you know that? Terry Moran: Have there been referrals – Donald Trump: How do you know that – Terry Moran: – to the – are there criminal referrals – Donald Trump: Why – how would you know that, that there were no referrals? I think there– Terry Moran: There’s – there’s – Donald Trump: – were referrals. Terry Moran: They generally – alright. There’s been no investigation from the Justice Department – Donald Trump: How do you know that? Terry Moran: I’m asking you, sir. Donald Trump: No, you’re not askin’ me. You made a statement. You’re not asking me – Terry Moran: Now, I’m asking you. Donald Trump: That was a statement that you made. There have been – Terry Moran: Now, I’m asking. Donald Trump: Have there been? Yes, there have. Terry Moran: So there have been referrals for fraud from the work of DOGE? Donald Trump: Of course there have been. Take a look at some of these things – Terry Moran: Alright. Alright. Donald Trump: – that took place. Millions of dollars were given to people for no reason whatsoever. Of course there have been. Terry Moran: I want to bring up – what is truly one of – to a lot of people, one of the biggest achievements of your first term. That is Operation Warp Speed. You got that COVID vaccine up and going – Donald Trump: That’s right. Terry Moran: – and distributed. And a lotta people took it, and a lotta people that feel their lives have been saved by it. Now, we have this measles outbreak, biggest in a decade – in Texas, and it’s because people aren’t getting their children vaccinated. Do you recommend to parents that they get their children vaccinated for measles? Donald Trump: Well, I recommend the governors to make the decisions. You have a very talented governor of Texas, and he’s making decisions, and those decisions are gonna be made rapidly. This is a very much different thing than COVID in terms of rap – rapidity and speed and other things. Measles have been with us a long time. Donald Trump: And I’m not saying good, bad, or indifferent. I’m just saying that – the governors are making the decision. It’s a federalist decision – Terry Moran: So you’re – the president is – is our leader in so many ways, and your voice counts so much. And you can’t tell moms and dads, you know, it’s a good thing – Donald Trump: Oh, sure. I rec – Terry Moran: – to get a measles vaccine? Donald Trump: Do I recommend it? Terry Moran: Yes. Donald Trump: Yes, I do. I recommend it. Yeah. Terry Moran: Got it. That was my question – Donald Trump: Do I mandate it? No. Terry Moran: No. No, I didn’t ask – Donald Trump: But I do recommend it, yes – Terry Moran: Good. Do you think your – Donald Trump: And I have recommended it. Terry Moran: Do you think the secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of at the very least vaccine skepticism – do you think Kennedy recommends the measles vaccines? Donald Trump: He did. He did. He recommended it. Yeah, he did. He recommended it – Terry Moran: Are you satisfied with his – Donald Trump: Yeah, I mean, he – Terry Moran: – response on this? Donald Trump: – recommended that they go out and get the vaccine. Yeah. Terry Moran: Okay. I want to talk a little bit about presidential power, the powers that you have in the presidency- - temporarily that the American people ha – have given you, right? You’ve revoked a lot of people’s security clearances. You’ve revoked people’s security details who are – still threatened, you know, with death threats. Terry Moran: You’ve gone after law firms because they’ve employed people you don’t like or they have represented people that you don’t like – Donald Trump: Well, they obviously agreed because they paid me a lotta money. Terry Moran: Well, the reason they agreed is because you were threatening to destroy their business with your executive order that said, “You can’t represent clients before the federal government.” That’s– Donald Trump: Well – These are big – Terry Moran: That’s their bread and butter – Donald Trump: These are big boys. These are big – these are the biggest, most powerful lawyers. These are not people that – Terry Moran: You got a lotta leverage as president – Donald Trump: – are easily intimidated. Terry Moran: As president, you’ve got all the cards. Donald Trump: And they paid hundreds of millions of dollars because they felt – I guess they probably felt they did something wrong, you know – Terry Moran: It was for survival, sir. You – Donald Trump: No, it isn’t. These – Terry Moran: You were crushing their business – Donald Trump: These – these firms are very powerful firms, and there’s 15 of them. And these are firms that – probably– look, you have to ask them. In fact, this is a separate story. You have to ask them, “Why did you all pay Trump hundreds of millions of dollars in services, et cetera? Why did you do that?” I don’t know. Terry Moran: You don’t think that factored – Donald Trump: We – we – we have a clause in the thing that, “While we admit no wrongdoing.” But, you know, it’s like one of those things. And now I’m friendly with those firms. But it’s – you know, these are the most powerful firms in the world. And they just signed whatever I put in front of ‘em. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m– I’m actually surprised myself in a certain way. Donald Trump: But they obviously felt they probably did something wrong. I guess that’s why they signed. Terry Moran: I guess the question out of that is the concern that people have: Are – are you using your powers as president to get personal revenge? Donald Trump: No. I’ll tell you what – I tell you what you sh – not – you’re really not asking and you should be asking. There has never been a president in this country in the history that was persecuted like I was persecuted by really crooked people. Dishonest, horrible people. And it’s been proven. So when you say I’m treating people rough, I’m not treating people rough. Donald Trump: I was treated worse than any president in the history of our country. And, you know, people figured, “Well, maybe that’s it. Finally we got– you know, he’s leaving town. There goes the helicopter.” And then I came back. And – I came back because I have tremendous support. You know, when you win an election like I won it – and you will admit: I won all seven swing states. Donald Trump: I won the popular vote. I won – 700 of – let’s say 2,750 districts compared to 500 districts. That’s why the map is all red. And those people feel that I was treated unfairly. Terry Moran: But does that give you the right to go after your political opponents with the powers of this office – Donald Trump: I don’t go after – I don’t go – I’m going after – all I’m doing – hey, Biden did something to me – Terry Moran: So – Donald Trump: –a nd I did something to Biden. And you know why I did it? ’Cause he’s grossly incompetent. That’s not a man that should be allowed to, you know, be lookin’ at things that are very confidential. Terry Moran: But what about –71 people you’ve revoked their – Donald Trump: Here’s a man that used an autopen to sign very important documents. Now, who really is – do – do you think he knew what – that they were using an autopen? I mean, he used an autopen to sign very, very important documents. And so those are really the questions you should be asking: “What do you think of the autopen? Donald Trump: Who wielded the autopen?” Because – whoever that person was, think of it. Whoever the person that wielded the autopen, he was really the president of the United States. Terry Moran: You are the president, right. Donald Trump: I don’t think that Biden knew anything about it – Terry Moran: Okay, fair enough. But you are the president now. And I’m asking the justification for going after people you don’t like. Donald Trump: Uh. No, no. Terry Moran: That is the – Donald Trump: People that I think are dishonest. It’s not that I don’t – I don’t even know most of ‘em. They’re people that I think are dis – Terry Moran: These are people that made you angry. Donald Trump: No– it’s not anger. These are people that I think are very dishonest. I don’t think they’re worthy of being able to go into top-secret information. I think that’s fine. And Biden did that with many of our people. But when you look at it – these are people that I don’t think are worthy. That’s my decision. Donald Trump: It’s not a question of anger. Terry Moran: Okay. I understand you just had a phone call with the new Canadian premier. And they just had this election. You were a big issue in it. And Canadians, many of them, are really angry, furious, about your talk about, “We’re gonna take over Canada. It’s gonna become the 51st state–” Donald Trump: That’s their prerogative. Terry Moran: And it kind of is of a piece – a lotta – travel is down into the United States from around the world. Donald Trump: We’re doing great – Terry Moran: Feels like there’s been reputational damage – Donald Trump: The country’s doing great. Terry Moran: Well – Donald Trump: Prices are down. Terry Moran: Not the tourism industry – Donald Trump: Gasoline’s down. Energy’s down. Tourism is gonna be way up. Wait till you see the numbers. The tourism is way up. Terry Moran: Not now. Donald Trump: Now, Canada – oh, sure – tourism’s doing very well. We’re doing very well. We’re doing very well. Wait till you see the real numbers come out in about – in six months from now wait till you see the numbers. Terry Moran: But do you think – Donald Trump: They’re gonna be very good – Terry Moran: I’m gonna ask – if I may, do you think the reputation of the United States has gone down under your presidency? Donald Trump: I – no, I think it’s gone way up, and I think we’re a respected country again. We were laughed at all over the world. We had – a president that couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs, couldn’t walk down a flight of stairs, couldn’t walk across a stage without falling. We had a president that was grossly incompetent. Donald Trump: You knew it, I knew it, and everybody knew it. But you guys didn’t want to write it because you’re fake news. Terry Moran: Alright. Thank you – Donald Trump: And, by the way, ABC is one of the worst. I have to be honest with you – Terry Moran: Okay. Thank you for the opinion. But more importantly, thank you for having us here. I have one more question. It’s a big one. It’s a question that you know a lot of people have out there. What do you say to people who are concerned you are taking, seizing too much power and becoming an authoritarian president like we haven’t had before? Donald Trump: No, I – I would hate them to think that. I’m doing one thing: I’m makin’ America great again. We have a country that was failing. We have a country that was laughed at all over the world. We had a leader that was grossly incompetent. He should have never been there. The election was rigged. He shoulda never been there. Donald Trump: Our country suffered greatly, and now our country’s coming back like nobody can believe. I have editorials just today where they’re saying they’ve never seen anything like it. They love it. Our country’s coming back, and we’re respected again. Terry Moran: Mr. President, thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you, Terry, very much.
Date: 2025-04-29
Karoline Leavitt: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you so much for coming. This is our second official influencer briefing here at the White House in the beautiful South Court Auditorium. And as you can tell, in the White House, we are fully embracing new media. Trust in the mass media has fallen to record lows. Tens of millions of Americans are turning elsewhere to get their news and their information. Karoline Leavitt: Good morning, everybody. Happy first 100 days. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge that the bipartisan Take It Down Act passed the House last night. This important legislation was championed and guided through Congress by our wonderful first lady, Melania Trump, including through her direct advocacy on behalf of survivors during her passage – the passage efforts. Karoline Leavitt: That’s why we’ve welcomed in, openly, independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, content creators and we will continue to do so. President Trump and our White House also believe strongly in the First Amendment, which is why our team has restored the press passes of hundreds of journalists whose passes were wrongly revoked by the Biden administration. Karoline Leavitt: The Take It Down Act criminalizes the publication of non-consensual image – intimate imagery, and requires social media and similar websites to remove such content within 48 hours of notice from a victim. The first lady thanks all those who voted in favor of this important legislation, and the president looks forward to signing it when it arrives on his desk. Karoline Leavitt: So, thank you all so much for coming today, for your interest in covering the historic achievements of President Trump’s first 100 days. And today officially marks 100 days of promises made and kept by President Trump. Our primary focus is how President Trump is in the process of rebuilding the world’s greatest economy just like he did in his first term. Karoline Leavitt: Today officially marks 100 days of promises made and promises kept by President Trump. This has truly been the most historic start to a presidency in American history. After building the greatest economy in the world in his first term as president, President Trump is in the process of doing that all over again. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump has created 345,000 jobs since taking office in January. Last month’s job report, we saw 100,000 more jobs than economists predicted. It was the fourth highest month for private payroll growth in the past two years. 9,000 manufacturing jobs have been created and added to the economy already since January, and that’s in comparison to the 6,000 manufacturing jobs that were lost per month in the final two years of the Biden administration. Karoline Leavitt: The American people trust in President Trump. Since his first day in office, President Trump has focused on defeating the Biden inflation crisis, bringing down the cost of living, and making the United States the best place in the world to do business, invest, create jobs and innovate. And President Trump’s efforts are working. 345,000 jobs have already been added since the start of President Trump’s term. Karoline Leavitt: So, each month we were losing 6,000 manufacturing jobs; under President Trump, in just 100 days, we’ve added 9,000. The US unemployment rate remains at historic lows. The labor force participation rate for those without a high school diploma is up, good news for working class American families. And the veteran unemployment rate is down as well to 3.8 percent in March; when we came into office, it was 4.2 percent. Karoline Leavitt: Last month’s jobs report saw nearly 100,000 more jobs than economists predicted, and it was the fourth highest month for private payroll growth in the past two years. 9,000 manufacturing jobs have been added to the economy already. This is a sharp contrast to the 6,000 manufacturing jobs that were lost each month in the final two years of the Biden administration. Karoline Leavitt: Remote work among federal employees has fallen over 16 percentage points from March last year to March this year, showcasing the success of President Trump’s initiative to bring federal workers back to the office. We know middle class Americans, hard-working people, they have to show up to the office every day. Karoline Leavitt: The US employment rate remains at historic lows. And thanks to President Trump, Americans are seeing price relief for the first time in years. The last inflation report showed the consumer price decline since the COVID pandemic, a decrease in energy prices, and real average hourly wage growth. President Trump is delivering on his promises to lower costs for American families and businesses. Karoline Leavitt: We expect bureaucrats and government workers to do the same, especially when they are living off of the taxpayers’ dime. If you want to work on behalf of the American taxpayer, you should show up to work in person. Thanks to President Trump Americans are seeing the first price relief in years. The last inflation report showed the first consumer price decline in years, a decrease in energy prices and real average hourly wage growth. Karoline Leavitt: Prices across the board for everyday goods have seen declines since this president was inaugurated. From airfare to used motor vehicles to prescription drugs, prices are dropping. In fact, last month’s drop in the price of prescription drugs was the largest ever recorded. And after Joe Biden botched the response to the bird flu, President Trump and Secretary Rollins’ aggressive plan have brought down wholesale egg prices more than 50 percent from Inauguration Day. President Trump ended Joe Biden’s reckless war on American energy and fossil fuels, and has restored American energy dominance. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump is delivering on his promises to lower costs for American families and businesses. Prescription drug prices are down. Last month’s drop in prescription drug prices was the largest ever recorded. And thanks to President Trump ending Joe Biden’s reckless war on American energy, gasoline prices and energy prices are down as well. Karoline Leavitt: And Secretary Wright, Secretary Doug Burgum are working hard on that effort every single day. Oil and gas prices are now way down because of this bold approach. Gasoline price is down 7 percent, energy down – energy prices are also down as well. The Department of Interior just announced a new offshore drilling policy that will boost oil production in the Gulf of America by 100,000 barrels per day. Karoline Leavitt: The cost of wholesale eggs has decreased more than 50 percent. President Trump inherited a complete mess from the Biden administration who totally botched their response to the bird flu. They were killing chickens. They were killing our chicken supply in this country, which led to an increase in egg prices. Karoline Leavitt: On the deregulation front, President Trump is committed to cutting senseless red tape especially for America’s small business owners, who are the backbone of our economy. We know cutting regulation leads to lower costs and higher growth. The mass deregulation effort by this administration will help usher in the Golden Age of America, which is underway. Karoline Leavitt: And the president and Secretary Rollins did an incredible job attacking that on day one. On the deregulation front, President Trump is launching the largest deregulation campaign in American history. He has blocked all of the unfinalized Biden era rules, which has saved us more than $180 billion already. Karoline Leavitt: Immediately upon taking office, President Trump blocked all of the unified – unfinalized Biden era rules, saving America’s more than $100 billion, or 20 – 100 per family of four over the next decade. And the president also launched a bold multi-agency effort to roll back existing federal regulations that drive up the cost of living on hardworking families. Karoline Leavitt: He’s launched a bold multi-agency effort to roll back existing federal regulations that drive up the cost of living on hardworking families. That has yielded more than $7,755 billion in total savings as well. And as you all know, investments from companies around the world continue to pour into this country. Karoline Leavitt: This effort is projected to yield significant cost savings in the coming months, including the EPA’s rollback of tailpipe emission rules for light duty and medium duty vehicles and the Department of Transportation’s latest corporate average fuel economy standards. These two efforts alone yield $755 billion in total savings, or more than $8,800 per family of four over the next decade. Karoline Leavitt: Every morning, we wake up to a new headline with a new company from a different country announcing major investments in our country. What does that mean for people in your communities across the nation? It means jobs, it means Americans going to work, it means Americans providing for their families, for their children, living the American dream. Karoline Leavitt: In total, the combined savings from all of these actions equal just over $935 billion, or nearly $11,000 in real savings per family of four for the coming decade. The press is not talking nearly enough about the positive impact of President Trump’s deregulation campaign, and investments from the biggest companies and countries in the world are pouring in under this president. Karoline Leavitt: That’s what those investments will do. It’s truly the golden age of America. And that’s why the president is working so hard to leverage good trade deals around the world. He knows America is the best place in the world to do business. He is using our leverage to negotiate good deals with countries around the world to onshore manufacturing jobs here, to revitalize our middle class and our manufacturing industry, and also to protect our national security. Karoline Leavitt: So far, total investment commitments under the Trump administration have reached more than $5 trillion, including $500 billion from Apple in US-based manufacturing and training, $500 billion from Nvidia in AI infrastructure, $100 billion from TSMC in US-based chips manufacturing, and the $500 billion private Investment by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank in AI infrastructure as well. Karoline Leavitt: I don’t think any American agrees it’s good that China currently supplies and produces our chips, our pharmaceuticals and our critical industries. We want the united – those things built in the United States of America and President Trump is the first president in modern times to actually do something about that. Karoline Leavitt: All of these investment commitments are estimated to generate at least 451,000 new high paying jobs for American workers and families. At this point, President Trump has secured more investments in the United States of America in 100 days than Joe Biden did in four years. President Trump is America’s businessman in chief, and that’s why these trillions of dollars in investments are flooding to our country. Karoline Leavitt: So, with that said, today is 100 days. There have been so many achievements not just on the economic front, and the president continues to work very hard on tax cuts as well and on negotiating those trade deals. But look at the success at the southern border, which we talked a lot about yesterday with our border czar, Tom Homan, Secretary Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller here at the White House, all of whom are doing a tremendous job and have created, at the president’s direction, the most secure border in American history. Karoline Leavitt: The business community is bullish on America because President Trump is back in charge. Tomorrow the president will host CEOs and leaders from several companies that have made these investments to tout their historic commitments to our country and encourage others to follow suit. Under President Trump, there has never been a better time to invest in America. Karoline Leavitt: We have a mass deportation campaign of illegal aliens underway. We are removing heinous criminals from your communities across the country every single day. We are making America safe again. And if you look abroad on the world stage, the president is really using his peace through strength foreign policy approach once again. Karoline Leavitt: And the president finally said enough is enough and refused to allow America and our workers to be ripped off any longer on trade. President Trump implemented powerful tariffs to end the era of economic surrender and to rebalance America’s trading agreements. More than 100 countries have already come to the table looking to offer more favorable terms for America and our people. Karoline Leavitt: The rest of the world knows that America is back. I know Joe Biden used to say that, but we’re stealing it from him because it’s actually true now with President Trump in the Oval Office. The world is a safer place and will continue to be. So, thanks for coming to the influencer briefing. I look forward to taking your questions. Karoline Leavitt: There has never been a president who has created his own leverage like this president, and we are just getting started. Republicans in Congress are getting very close to passing President Trump’s one big beautiful bill, which will include the largest tax cuts in American history, strong border security measures, major military advancements, dramatic deregulation and common sense spending reforms. Karoline Leavitt: And Deborah, why don’t you kick us off? Karoline Leavitt: As President Trump has said before, the best is yet to come. For more on President Trump’s economic successes so far and the plans ahead, I want to pass it off to our incredible Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who is here today. And we will open it up to questions. In our new media seat, we have Brendan Pedersen, the financial services reporter for Punchbowl News. Question: So, congratulations on 100 incredible days. And over the first 100 days, the majority of policies that we’ve seen from the Trump administration have been either targeted at foreign affairs, such as bringing the American hostages home, or attempting to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, or on long-term goals such as cutting government spending with DOGE. What policies can we expect to see rolled out over the next few months that Americans will directly feel the effects of in order to secure the 2026 midterms for the republican party and keep his approval rating historically high? Karoline Leavitt: Punchbowl news covers power, people, and politics based in Washington DC, laser focus on Capitol Hill, the politics of legislating, founded in 2021. And it is the first newsletter that Capitol Hill and the White House reads every morning, in the middle of the day, and throughout the evening. Thanks for being here with us, and we’ll start with you today. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, the first answer that comes to mind, Deborah, is definitely tax cuts. The president is working closely with congress as we speak. He met with leadership from both chambers. The administration met with leadership from both chambers yesterday to talk about how we can quickly pass the largest tax cuts in American history. Question: Thanks so much for being here. I have a question for Secretary Bessent. On tariffs, the president said over the weekend that we are hoping that maybe tariff revenues could replace income tax, but we also keep hearing about the deals that the administration is pursuing. So, my question is, what is the White House’s ultimate objection – objective here? Karoline Leavitt: And the president promised on the campaign trail, he wanted no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security for our hardworking seniors, no tax on overtime pay. He intends to keep those promises, and he needs congress’ help to do so, that’s why he’s working closely with them. But you look at – again, I talked about the leverage the president uses to negotiate good trade deals around the world, but he uses that leverage right here in Washington as well on Capitol Hill. Question: Do you want to have long term tariff revenue or deals that might reduce those tariffs? Karoline Leavitt: He has great relationships with leaders on both chambers and we are confident that we can pass a massive tax bill which will directly lead to more money in people’s pockets right away. Sure, go ahead. Scott Bessent: I think it’s a combination of both. So, we’re going to take in long term tariff revenue. We’ve put a process in place. We have 18 important trading relationships. We will be speaking to all of those partners – or at least 17 of them the – over the next few weeks. Many of them have already come to Washington. Question: Yeah, so the president has really wanted to end the war in Ukraine for a long time now and has been working on that. In the first 100 days, we’ve seen President Zelenskyy come here, as well as the president meeting with President Zelenskyy just in the last couple of days. I’m wondering where those talks stand and if the president is optimistic that that conflict is going to wrap up shortly. Scott Bessent: What President Trump is referring to is the ability for tariff revenue to give income tax relief, and I think there’s a very good chance that we will see this in the upcoming tax bill. The president campaigned on no tax on tips, the – no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, and the – restoring interest deductibility for autos – for American made autos. Karoline Leavitt: The president is optimistic yet realistic about the incredibly complicated and unfortunate situation happening with Ukraine and Russia. First of all, this is Biden’s war. It would have never started if President Trump were in office. There is a reason that Putin did not invade Ukraine when President Trump was in the Oval Office. Scott Bessent: So, tariff income could be used for tax relief on all those immediately. Karoline Leavitt: And it’s because, again, President Trump leveraged the power of the United States to warn Putin not to do it. And the president has spoken about that in those direct warnings to the Kremlin that he gave in his first term. Then we had a mentally incompetent president in Joe Biden who didn’t even know what day it is never mind knew how to prevent war. Question: So, you think that there is a role for significant tariff revenue in US fiscal policy? Karoline Leavitt: And the entire world took advantage of that and took advantage of America’s lackluster leadership abroad. And so, we’ve had this terrible war. The president talks about it all the time. He’s briefed on it constantly. There are men dying on the front lines of this, an entire generation is being wiped out and enough is enough. Scott Bessent: I – I think that it is something that got put away a long time ago, and I think that tariffs will bring back American manufacturing and generate substantial revenues. Karoline Leavitt: The president has made it very clear he wants to see this end at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield. He has spoken directly to both sides of this war. He most recently met with President Zelenskyy at the Vatican when he attended the funeral of Pope Francis. And he remains optimistic that both sides will come together to negotiate peace. Question: On manufacturing, we’ve seen some pretty grisly surveys this month from the Philly Fed, which saw the biggest drop since May of 2020, and the Dallas Fed, similar plunging outlook, poor shipping orders. What are American manufacturers not understanding about your push for onshoring in the US? Karoline Leavitt: There are a lot of complexities on both sides of this war, but – and so, he’s realistic about that. But he is optimistic that we are moving in the right direction. And if you just take a step back and look at where we are now, where you have concessions from both sides publicly, where you have ceasefire proposals from both sides. Scott Bessent: Well, I – I think – I was in the investment business 35 years, and I learned to ignore the survey data and look – or the surveys, look at the actual data. And the actual data has been quite good. The job data is good. Americans keep spending. And as Karoline said, we have these incredible commitments to bring manufacturing back on shore, with record investment by domestic corporations and foreigners who want to come into the U.S. Karoline Leavitt: The president has made it clear he wants a permanent ceasefire first. But you actually have the United States talking to Russia. You have the United States talking to the Ukrainians on a daily basis, communicating with both sides. Look at that compared to where we were when we came into office, where neither side was talking. Karoline Leavitt: Weija? Karoline Leavitt: There was just one approach to ending this war. No one was really talking about a peace deal. We were just talking about continuing to send blank checks to continue funding the fighting and the killing. This war has been a meat grinder, young men are dying, women and children are dying as a collateral result of the military conflict. Question: Thank you so much, Karoline. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. The Chinese continue to say that the US and Chinese are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs. You recently said you’ve talked to your counterpart, but more about, quote, traditional things like financial stability. So, can you clarify? Karoline Leavitt: And the president wants to see it end as quickly and as soon as possible. And I can tell you watching firsthand, he has exuded a tremendous amount of effort into this war. He’s getting frustrated with the amount of effort this has taken, and he’s made that clear to both sides, but he remains optimistic that we can get this done. Question: Is the administration talking to Beijing specifically about tariffs or not? Karoline Leavitt: Brendan? Scott Bessent: Well, we’re not going to talk about who’s talking to whom. But I think that, you know, over time we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China. I saw – I’ve seen some very large numbers over the past few days that show, if these numbers stay on, Chinese could lose 10 million jobs very quickly and, even if there is a drop in the tariffs, that they could lose five million jobs. Question: I was wondering if you’d indulge me in a quick round of Trump trolling or Trump truthing. Scott Bessent: So, remember that we are the deficit country. They sell almost five times more goods to us than we sell to them. So, the onus will be on them to the – take off these tariffs. They’re unsustainable for them. Karoline Leavitt: Sure, let’s do it. I love it. Question: And they are saying you guys are not talking about it. So, is that true? Question: OK, good. Rapid fire. Greenland joining America. Scott Bessent: Well, they have a different form of government. They’re playing to a different audience. So, I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty, again, of who’s talking to whom. But as I said, I believe, for the Chinese, these tariffs are unsustainable. Karoline Leavitt: Definitely Trump truthing. Question: And very quickly, two days ago you said you didn’t know if President Trump had spoken to Xi Jinping. Do you know now? Question: Canada becoming a 51st state. Scott Bessent: Again, I would say Karoline and I have a lot of jobs around the White House. Running the switchboard isn’t one of them. Karoline Leavitt: Trump truthing all the way, and the Canadians would benefit greatly, let me tell you that. Karoline Leavitt: Bloomberg, go ahead. Question: Eliminating the IRS? Question: Secretary Bessent, thank you so much for being here this morning. You’ve talked about the importance of giving investors certainty when it comes to the market, yet the Trump administration is – is continuing to negotiate several complex trade deals in a very sort of compressed time frame. When do you – when do you expect you’ll be able to give the market some certainty around those deals? Karoline Leavitt: I think that is an optimistic goal and the president – so I would say we’re on the side of truthing there for sure. And the president again wants to see tax cuts and he wants to see this massive revenue that we can gain from tariffs as well, which will create the external revenue service. So, that’s a definitive goal for sure. Question: Do you have a deadline? Is it the 90 day pause? What are we looking at here? Question: And most importantly, Trump 2028 [Laughter]. Scott Bessent: Good question, and I – I think one thing that has been a little disconcerting for the markets is, you know, President Trump creates what I would call strategic uncertainty in the negotiations. So, he is more concerned about getting the best possible trade deals for the American people. You know, we had four years of bad deals, four decades the – of unfair trading, and we are going to the – unwind those and make them fair. Karoline Leavitt: Trump trolling, although the hats are flying off the shelves. Yes. Link, go ahead. Scott Bessent: What we are doing is we’ve created a process. I think the aperture of uncertainty will be narrowing. And as we start moving forward announcing deals, then there will be certainty. But, you know, it – certainly is not necessarily a good thing in negotiating. Question: So, one thing I’ve noticed in the first 100 days is that the White House is crawling with kids. You have a young, beautiful baby boy, there are babies everywhere. There are so many young folks on staff who have kids. But the last four years under Joe Biden, parents were really stressed and ravaged; they had to take on two or three extra jobs. Question: Mr. Secretary, last night there were – there were reports on the administration sort of walking back a little bit on the auto tariffs. Can you sort of just elaborate on that decision there and what we can expect going forward, and why sort of the shift in those auto tariffs? Question: Depression rates were up, suicide rates were up. You’re a very high profile, young mother who seems to juggle and balance it all beautifully. What advice do you have to young parents out there who are starting their careers, having kids, building families and trying to find that balance so desperately? Scott Bessent: Well, President Trump has had meetings with both domestic and foreign – excuse me, foreign auto producers, and he’s committed to bringing back auto production to the US. So, we want to give the automakers a path to do that quickly, efficiently and create as many jobs as possible. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, well, it’s a great question. And first to the heart of your premise – it’s true, the president has empowered not just me as a young mother in this role, but there are so many new moms and dads on our senior staff in the West Wing, but also across the entire administration. There are working moms and dads who are owing our country public service for President Trump while raising young families. Karoline Leavitt: Jasmine? Karoline Leavitt: And the president really empowers us to do that, and I commend him for that. He doesn’t get enough credit for it. But as for – the president is implementing policies every day to uplift young families and young people. He talks so much about young people and talked directly to young people so much on the campaign trail. Question: Thank you so much, Karoline. Thank you, Secretary. Back on China, does the administration anticipate – anticipate supply chain shocks or supply shocks coming now that cargo shipments from China are significantly down? And if so, are there being plans – or are there plans in the process of how to address that? Karoline Leavitt: It really, I think, inspires him when he is around young people and a young audience. And he wants to restore the American dream for the next generation, not just our generation of young folks, but our children and our grandchildren. What does that look like? Homeownership, the ability to afford a home, to live – to have a good paying job. Scott Bessent: I – I wouldn’t think that we would have supply chain shocks and I think, retailers, they have managed their inventory in front of this. I speak to dozens of companies, sometimes daily, but definitely weekly, and they know that President Trump is committed to fair trade and have planned accordingly. Karoline Leavitt: That’s part of this effort to onshore jobs because you have an entire generation going to these incredibly expensive and liberal higher education universities coming out saddled with debt and then unable to get a good paying job. The president wants to put an end to that so that young people can provide for their families and truly live the American dream. Question: And then second question, can you outline the timeline for when you think some of these deals, particularly with your Asian countries like India, Japan, South Korea, you may have an announcement? Karoline Leavitt: So, to young people around the country, the president hears you, he sees you, he loves you and he wants to uplift you. And all of the policies he is implementing every day are to provide a more prosperous and safe and free America for future generations. You’re welcome. Sure. Hi, you too. Scott Bessent: I’m glad you brought up our Asian trading partners and allies. They have been the most forthcoming in terms of doing the deals. As I mentioned, Vice President Vance was in India last week. I think that he and Modi made some very good progress, so I could see some announcements on India. I could see the contours of a deal with the Republic of Korea coming together, and then we’ve had substantial talks with the Japanese. Question: Thanks, Karoline, so much for the time. Tag teaming off of Link’s question about young people, one of the most pressing challenges for Gen Z right now is the lack of home ownership. As of 2025, I believe the median age is 38 years old of first-time home buyers, which is a hindrance to starting families for a lot of people. Karoline Leavitt: Andrea. Question: How does the Trump administration plan on tackling this in the next four years? Question: Yeah. Secretary Bessent, just continuing on the path of the sort of progress. You said yesterday, I think that it was, it could happen as early as this week or possibly next week. Can you give us a bit of a timetable? And then I wanted to ask about South Korea specifically. They’ve said that they probably won’t be able to make a comprehensive deal until early July because of their elections. Karoline Leavitt: It’s a major issue, as you mentioned, that’s directly impacting young people and young families. And the president is, I think, tackling it head on already. The reason that homes have become so unaffordable is because of the massive inflation crisis caused by the previous administration, not just the cost of a home, but everything that goes into building a new home went up and through the roof, right? Question: Japan also has elections. To what extent are domestic factors complicating your efforts? Canada just had an election. Are you seeing that you might have to think about delaying the 90 days? Karoline Leavitt: We also saw mortgage rates reach incredible highs under the previous administration. So, a few things. The president wants to bring down the cost of living, which he is already doing, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, which will increase our supply of homes across the country. But he also wants to bring down mortgage rates and interest rates to make it easier for young people and all people to borrow money, to take out those loans, to buy your first home. Scott Bessent: Well, I would actually take the opposite tack, that I think from our talks, that these governments actually want to have the framework of a trade deal done before they go into elections to show that they have successfully negotiated with the United States. So we are finding that they are actually much more keen to come to the table, get this done and then go home and campaign on it. Karoline Leavitt: And so, we’ve got to increase the supply, bring down costs and bring down interest rates and mortgage rates. And by the way, those are all things the president successfully did in his first term. When he left office inflation was a record low 1.4 percent. Interest rates, mortgage rates also hit record lows in his first term. Karoline Leavitt: Sean. Karoline Leavitt: So, this is a proven economic formula that works. It takes time to get there. We are in the process of the golden age. The president and the admin are slashing regulation every day, cutting red tape, cutting costs, and we need, again, congress to pass those tax cuts to put more money back in people’s pockets, so they have greater purchasing power as well. Question: I’m sorry. Did you have a comment on whether something could happen this week or next week? Karoline Leavitt: You’re welcome. Sure. Scott Bessent: For? Question: [Inaudible] with Independent Women and WMAL. Question: For a deal. So you said yesterday – Karoline Leavitt: Oh, great. Scott Bessent: Again, I think that we are very close on India. And in India, just a little inside baseball, India, in a funny way, is easier to negotiate with than many other countries because they have very high tariffs and lots of tariffs. So it’s much easier to confront the direct tariffs as we go through these unfair trade deals that have been put in over decades, that the non-tariff trade barriers can be much more insidious and also harder to detect. Question: We love working with the administration to really tout policies that work for families and work for small businesses in this country. Next week is Small Business Week and I know that the SBA will be championing all the small businesses, the millions in this country, almost half of which are women owned. But I’d love to find out what the president feels about independent contractors who are not typical W-2 employees, not 9 to 5 workers, but who hang their own shingle, they’re 1099 workers. Scott Bessent: So a country like India which has the posted and ready tariffs, it’s much easier to negotiate with them. So I think the India negotiations are moving well. Question: We saw the Biden administration really try to crack down on that small business entrepreneurial spirit. And we’re hopeful that the administration would overturn what the Biden administration did and maybe even work with congress to pass some lasting changes, codify some lasting changes that would protect your ability to be self-employed, your ability to be a small business owner. Karoline Leavitt: Sean, go ahead. Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president is a businessman at heart himself, right. He’s a real estate developer and I think that’s a large reason the American people elected him the first time and the second time, because they trust in him. And small businesses are the backbone of our American economy. I come from a small business family myself and the president knows what small business families need and independent contractors need, entrepreneurs need – you need less government in the way, you need less regulation. Question: Hi, Mr. Secretary. So it was reported this morning that Amazon will soon display a little number next to the price of each product that shows how much the Trump tariffs are adding to the cost of each product. So isn’t that a perfect, crystal-clear demonstration that it’s the American consumer and not China, who is going to have to pay for these policies? Karoline Leavitt: You need low energy costs, low taxes, a low cost of living, a low cost of goods. And that’s exactly what the president is focused on doing, while simultaneously effectively leveraging tariffs to protect our middle class and our working class and our manufacturing base. Look at our auto industry, think about Michigan, it used to be the heartland of the auto industry of the world. Karoline Leavitt: I will take this since I just got off the phone with the president about Amazon’s announcement. This is a hostile and political act by Amazon. Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years? And I would also add that it’s not a surprise because as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm. Karoline Leavitt: It was the auto capital of the world. And unfortunately, so many of those jobs have gone overseas. And so, the president wants to protect good paying jobs here at home and unleash the might of our economy for small business owners. And that removes – that includes removing red tape and cutting taxes. And as for independent contractors and what the president would hope to do with congress, we’ll definitely check back in on that and get you an answer because it’s an important question. Karoline Leavitt: So this is another reason why Americans should buy American. It’s another reason why we are onshoring critical supply chains here at home to shore up our own critical supply chain and boost our own manufacturing here. Karoline Leavitt: You’re welcome. Sure. Question: Is Jeff Bezos still a Trump supporter? Question: Will Upton, the National Pulse. You kind of gave us an overview of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, 100 days in. What would the next steps look like though if we don’t reach an agreement by, say, the summer? And also, can you give us an update on the rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine? And is there any kind of response from the administration to Greenlandic Foreign Minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, some of her comments about maybe seeking aid with China. Karoline Leavitt: Look, I will not speak to the President’s uh relationships with Jeff Bezos, but I will tell you that this is certainly a hostile and political action by Amazon, and Secretary, if you have anything to add. Karoline Leavitt: Sure, to your first question about the critical minerals deal, the president is confident that will be signed. Ukraine needs to sign it; they should sign it. It’s not just good for the United States to recoup the billions of tax dollars we’ve spent and onshore some of those critical minerals, but certainly it’s good for the Ukrainian people when this war is over to rebuild their country. Scott Bessent: Yeah. I would also add that bringing down the terrible Biden inflation has been a priority for the first 100 days of the Trump administration. And President Trump has done a great job of leading that. Since January 20th, interest rates, mortgage rates are down. Gasoline and energy prices are down. We’re expecting the further decreases. Karoline Leavitt: It’s an economic partnership between the United States and Ukraine. That’s what the president envisions, and he wants Ukraine to sign that deal. He’s confident that they will. As for what it would look like later down the road, I don’t want to get ahead of the president, obviously. But again, I will reiterate he’s increasingly grown frustrated at the amount of time. Scott Bessent: And as Karoline said, the big tax on consumers that goes unnoticed is deregulation, or regulation, and we are deregulating and bringing that down. So from a household income point of view, we would expect real purchasing increases that we’ve seen them over the first hundred days and we would expect that to accelerate. Karoline Leavitt: Our secretary of state recently said there’s not much more time or effort the United States has to give to this effort. And so, we need both sides to come to the table to negotiate. As for Greenland, it’s – I hadn’t seen those comments. If true, I’m sure they are – certainly an interesting strategy to cozy up to communist China. Scott Bessent: We are doing peace deals, trade deals, tax deals and deregulating and deregulation is a longer lead time, but I think by the third and fourth quarter, that’s really going to kick in. Karoline Leavitt: Greenland needs the United States of America. We subsidize their national security and their defense. And the president has rightfully pointed out the great strategic importance that Greenland serves for not just our national security and economic interests, but for our country and for the world as a whole. Karoline Leavitt: Kelly, go ahead. Karoline Leavitt: And we can’t allow Chinese or Russian influence to continue to infiltrate places like Greenland or the Panama Canal, I may add. To the back. Question: Thank you, Karoline. A question for you and Secretary Bessent. We talk a lot about volatility and uncertainty in the marketplace and the president has stated all along that he’s more concerned about mainstream America, the American worker. You just talked about deregulation and this entire fair trade and reciprocals. Question: Can you talk about the importance of a stock market all-time high, specifically in relation to the midterms? And seems like a lot of folks, when Trump was elected, they thought that the stock market goes up. He really cares about that. He uses it as a measurement of the economy. It’s gone down, but it’s still up over the last 12 months or so. So, how much of that is playing into some of the economic policy decisions? Question: What is your message to the American people in terms of letting them get through this disturbance and the outcome being greater and a greater good for the American worker, the American people, the American families? Karoline Leavitt: I think the president has spoken on this, he said the stock market gets yippy, but he doesn’t get yippy. He trusts in his economic agenda and formula, obviously. And Wall Street made out very well in President Trump’s first term. President Trump also wants to look out for Main Street and do what’s best for both. Karoline Leavitt: I would say trust in President Trump. There is a reason he was reelected to this office. It’s because of the historic success of his economic formula in the first term. And as I laid out at the beginning of the briefing and the secretary has talked about, and the president talks about every day, there’s a proven formula that works, massive deregulation, energy independence and tax cuts which are coming. Karoline Leavitt: So, I think the president right now, his main focus, what drives him to make decisions is what’s best for the working-class Americans, for the American worker, for the small business owner, for American families. And he’s trying to correct the wrongs of the last several decades, not just the last four years with the economic and inflation nightmare caused by the Biden administration, but of the unfair trade practices that have ripped off our country for a very long time. Karoline Leavitt: And the secretary is working very hard on that with our counterparts on Capitol Hill, if you want to talk about that. That’s a huge deal to put more money back into the pockets of hardworking Americans. As for the fair-trade deals the president is trying to negotiate, he’s not just righting the wrong of the mess that he inherited from the past four years of the Biden administration, this is a mess that has been created for the past four decades, that has sold out the middle class, that has moved jobs overseas. Karoline Leavitt: So, look, the stock market goes up, it goes down, but President Trump has a goal, he has a vision and he’s remaining very much committed to that. Thank you so much, everybody, for joining today. We’re heading off to Michigan tonight for a big rally. So, I’m sure we’ll see all of your amazing creative content on social media later. Karoline Leavitt: You think about our heartland, middle America, what towns used to look like, what they look like today. President Trump wants to restore the golden age and it’s a process to do that. And that process is underway, but he’s put together a fantastic trade team, Secretary Bassett, Secretary Lutnick, Jamison Greer, all working incredibly hard on this effort, 24/7. But tax cuts are coming and that’s key. Karoline Leavitt: It’s going to be a great speech and maybe you’ll get a Trump dance too. So, thank you so much for coming today. It’s a pleasure to have you here. Thank you. Karoline Leavitt: And Mr. Secretary, why don’t you talk a little bit about that. Scott Bessent: Yeah. So it’s really a three-legged stool in the economic policy. It’s trade, it’s tax and it’s deregulation. So we are in the midst of addressing, as Karoline said, these long-term trade imbalances. The tax bill is going much better than I would have thought when I took office on January 28th, and that’s through President Trump’s leadership, that Speaker Johnson Leader Thune are united. Scott Bessent: Speaker Johnson, we had a very good meeting yesterday with something called the Big Six, NEC director Kevin Hassett, myself, Speaker, Johnson, Leader Thune, Committee Chairman Jason Smith and Senator Crapo, and the tax bill is moving forward. It is going to give permanence to the 2017 Tax Cuts. And Jobs Act, which will, back to the question on certainty, it will give American business certainty. Scott Bessent: It will give American people certainty. And then President Trump is also adding the things for working Americans that I talked about earlier, no tax and tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, making auto payments deductible. So that will substantially address the affordability crisis. And the other thing that I would note, and back to data, is that they have Vanguard, one of the largest money management firms in America, said that over the past 100 days, 97 percent of Americans haven’t done a trade. Scott Bessent: And in fact, individual investors have held tight while institutional investors have panicked. So individual investors trust – individual investors trust President Trump. Karoline Leavitt: Megan, in the back. Question: Thank you both. Can you detail for us exactly what we should expect as far as relief on the auto tariffs front? And then further, Mr. Secretary, should we expect other industries to also get relief the way we’ve now seen for auto and tech as well? Scott Bessent: I’m not going to go into the details of the auto tariff relief, but I can tell you that it will go substantially toward reshoring American auto manufacturing. And again, the goal here is to bring back the high-quality industrial jobs to the US. President Trump is interested in the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past. Scott Bessent: We don’t need to necessarily have a booming textile industry like where I grew up, again, but we do want to have precision manufacturing and bring that back. And another important, very important function of this that does not get talked about enough is national security. President Trump, his overriding the concern and belief is that economic security is national security – national security is economic security. Scott Bessent: And we saw during COVID that our supply chains got cut off. And we need to bring back a lot of those supply chains, whether it’s in semiconductors, medicines, the steel. And we have to onshore those. So, it’s a combination of making trade free and fair and remedying this gaping national security hole that he was left with. Question: And if I could on – Karoline Leavitt: I would just add, Megan, the president will sign the executive order on auto tariffs later today, and we will release it as we always do. Go ahead. Question: Secretary, any updates on the negotiations with the European Union? And is it hard to negotiate with the European Union? Scott Bessent: Pardon? Question: Do you have any updates on the negotiations with the European Union? Scott Bessent: I’m more involved the – in the Asian negotiations. My observation would be – goes all the way back to Henry Kissinger’s statement, when I call Europe, who do I call? So, we’re negotiating with a lot of different interests. Some of the European countries have put on an unfair digital service tax on our big internet provider. Scott Bessent: France and Italy, other countries, Germany and Poland don’t have that. So, we – we want to see that unfair tax of one of America’s great industries removed. So, it’s going to be a give and take. So, they have some internal matters to decide before they can engage in an external negotiation. Karoline Leavitt: Edward? Question: Thanks, Caroline. Mr. Secretary, so contacts I have in the business community say that they’re – they’re basically frozen for long term investment because of the uncertainty around tariffs. How long do you think President Trump has to make a deal before there’s damage to the economy? Scott Bessent: Look, I – I think that what we’re seeing is that business leaders, they’ve – they’ve gone into a pause. And I think we’re going to give them great certainty on this tax bill. And I think over the next couple of weeks – as I said, we have 18 important trading relationships. We’ll put China to the side, 17. They are in motion. Scott Bessent: And then as I said yesterday, I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to get this tax bill done. And the tax bill is going to be very powerful for domestic US investment. So, what we are going to do – one of the most powerful parts of President Trump’s 2017 tax bill was full expensing of equipment. Scott Bessent: We are going to make that – as President Trump said in his speech to Congress, that will be retroactive to January 20th. The other thing that we are looking to add is full expensing for factories. So, bring your factory back, you can fully expense the equipment and the building. We will couple that with deregulation, cheap energy, and regulatory certainty, and that will continue to make the US the greatest destination for domestic and foreign investment. Question: And the president – Karoline Leavitt: And just a hard – Question: If I could follow up just – the president said that world leaders would like to meet with him in Rome and Vatican – in Vatican City, I’m sorry, about trade. Other than President Zelenskyy, who did the president meet with and – about trade? And when could we get some of those deals? Karoline Leavitt: The president met with President Zelenskyy, as you know, which we talked about. And the president continues to be engaged with his fellow foreign leaders – or his fellow leaders around the world and the European Union. You’ve seen many of them visit the White House. I want to harp on, in closing, the point the secretary just made. Karoline Leavitt: On the campaign trail, the president promised the American public that he was going to make America the best country in the world to do business again, the lowest taxes, lowest regulation, lowest energy costs of anywhere in the world. And if you do business in the United States, you won’t pay a tariff. You won’t pay a price. Karoline Leavitt: That’s not just good for companies around the world, but it’s good for the American worker. That’s what this team is focused so hard on every day. We have work to do. The Golden Age of America is underway. But as I pointed out in the beginning, there’s a lot of reason for the American consumer, the American CEO, the American small business owner to be confident and optimistic about this president and where we’re headed. Karoline Leavitt: So, you will hear more from the president himself. Later this evening, he is traveling to Michigan, as you all know. He’ll make a stop at the Air Force base with Governor Whitmer. And then we will head to a rally tonight, where you’ll hear more from him directly. So, we’ll see you in Michigan. Thank you, guys.
Date: 2025-04-29
Donald Trump: Hello, everybody. We’re going to a great state that we won very big, Michigan, and we’re going to have an Air force base that’s not going to be closing. We’re going to keep it open for the people of Michigan and for our country. And I look forward to that. Some of you are going and some of you aren’t. Any questions? Question: [Inaudible] Jeff Bezos? Donald Trump: Great. Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved a problem very quickly and he did the right thing and he’s a good guy. Question: How you spoken to President [Inaudible] update? Donald Trump: No, not an update, no, not an update. Question: Jordan Conrad from the Gateway Pundit. I want to get your response on the left media. They’re trying to hide the mug shots that are featured on the front lawn of rapists, murderers, pedophiles. What do you think of that? Aren’t they proving to be the enemy of the people? Donald Trump: Well, I guess they are – I guess they are, right? Yeah, who are you with? Question: I like your hat by the way. Donald Trump: Who are you with? Question: The Gateway Pundit, sir. Mr. President, sir, what’s your message to republicans on the Hill who seem not to be on board with your political agenda? What do you say to that? Donald Trump: Oh, I think they’re going to be all aboard. I think the republicans are really with us. We have the Big, Beautiful Deal moving along and I think we’re going to have it taken care of. I think they’ll all be there. Question: [Inaudible] – will you end the IRS? Tell us about your decision on the auto tariff, sir? Donald Trump: We just wanted to help them during this little transition, short term. And during this little – if they can’t get parts, it has to do with a very small percentage. If they can’t get parts, we didn’t want to penalize them. And during – they have a one-year period and then they have an extra year. But it’s for a very, very small part of the car. Donald Trump: Basically, they’re paying 25 percent. All right? Question: Mr. President, the Panama Canal Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, with the Internal Revenue Service – [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: Yeah, nothing that really – he’s a good guy. I’ve gotten to know him over the last couple of years and he’s done a fantastic job. So, I appreciated what he did. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: There you go. Question: Michigan, you’re going to list the accomplishments of the administration. If there was one big thing you wanted to have happen in the first 100 days, what would it be? Donald Trump: Well, I think either we’ve done everything or it’s in the process of being done. For instance, the border is in great shape, 99.9 percent came out again today, 99.9, I would say that was my number one thing. The economy would be certainly right up there and I think it’s doing great. We were losing billions and billions of dollars a day with trade, and now I have that down to a very low level. Donald Trump: And soon we’re going to be making a lot of money. We’re going to be reducing people’s taxes and we’re going to get the big – look, a very important element that we’re working on now, maybe more important than anything with the border in good shape, is the fact – excuse me, is the fact that we want to get, and very importantly, the Big, Beautiful New Deal, if we get that done, that’s the biggest thing what’s happening in congress right now. Donald Trump: And I think we’re going to get it done. We have great republican support. If the democrats blocked it, you’d have a 60 percent tax increase. I don’t think that’s going to happen. We have great support from republicans. So, the Big, Beautiful Deal, that’s what we want, the bill. Question: [Inaudible] 100 days? Donald Trump: I think – the next period of time I think my biggest focus will be on congress with the deal that we’re working on. That will be the biggest bill in the history of our country in terms of tax cuts and regulation cuts and other things. Question: – Canadian elections – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, who would you see – who would you like to see as pope? Donald Trump: As pope? I’d like to be pope, that would be my number one choice. No, I don’t know. I have no preference. I must say, we have a cardinal that happens to be out of a place called New York who’s very good. So, we’ll see what happens. Go ahead. Question: Yes, Mr. President, you are doing so much for Africa. You are the first president that in the first 100 days focus on Africa for the first time in the history of this country. Are you planning maybe in the future to visit the continent? Donald Trump: Sure, I would do that. I would do that, absolutely. Question: [Inaudible]? Mr. President? Donald Trump: Yeah, go ahead. Question: Will you speak to the prime minister of Australia at all? [Inaudible] prime minister [inaudible]? Donald Trump: They are calling and I will be talking to them, yes. Question: Probably something with the tariffs and automobiles? Were you worried about the automobile companies? Donald Trump: No, not at all. We’ve just given them a little chance because in some cases they can’t get the parts fast enough. So, this is just a little transition. It’s 15 percent for one year and just 10 percent for another, it’s a little bit uh and it has to do – that’s only the percentage of parts on the car. So, it’s a little bit of help for people that will be doing a great job. Donald Trump: And these are all people for the most part that are building plants and will be working here. So, it’s a little transition. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Go ahead. What? Question: [Inaudible] India? Donald Trump: India is coming along great; I think we’ll have a deal with India. The prime minister, as you know, was here three weeks ago and they want to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-04-29
Donald Trump: Hello, Michigan. [Audience chants “USA”] No, thank you very much. Hello Michigan. Hello. We love you, Michigan. We love you. We just had the biggest victory in Michigan. They said, sir, it’s going to be hard. Well, we won it twice. We actually won it three times, if you want to really know that. But I’m thrilled to be back in this beautiful state. Donald Trump: I love this state. [Audience member calls out “We love you”] Got a lot of auto jobs coming. Watch what’s happening. The companies are coming in by the – by the tens. [Laughter] You got to see what’s happening. They all want to come back to Michigan and build cars again. Do you know why? Because of our tax and tariff policy. Donald Trump: They’re coming from all over the world. They’re coming up and they’re opening up plants. And they’re talking to us all day and all night. They want to get here. And they’re coming in at levels you’ve never seen before. And I want to thank the auto workers for your support. That was great. But I’m thrilled to be back in this beautiful state with thousands of proud, hardworking American patriots. Donald Trump: And we’re here tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country. And that’s according to many, many people. This is the best, they say, 100 day start of any president in history. And everyone is saying it. We’re just – . We’ve just gotten started. Donald Trump: You haven’t even seen anything yet. It’s all just kicking in. And week by week, we’re ending illegal immigration. We’re taking back our jobs and protecting our great American auto workers and all of our workers, frankly. We’re protecting all of our workers. We’re restoring the rule of law which was sort of out the window with this crazy guy we had. [Audience member calls out “Michigan loves you”] How the hell did that guy ever become president? Donald Trump: Could somebody explain to me? [Audience boos] How the hell did that happen? There’s my friend. Blacks for Trump. I like that guy. He follows me. He follows me. We love you. Your whole group has been so supportive over the years. I want to thank you. I want to – everyone thinks I pay you a fortune. I don’t know, – I don’t even know who the hell he is. I just like him. Donald Trump: That’s true. [Laughter] Thank you very much. Thank all of the fellas. Thank them all. But we’re ending the inflation nightmare. The worst that we’ve had probably in the history of our country. Getting woke lunacy and transgender insanity the hell out of our government. We’re stopping the indoctrination of our children, slashing billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse. Donald Trump: And above all, we’re saving the American Dream. We’re making America great again, and it’s happening fast, too. What the world has witnessed in the past 14 weeks is a revolution of common sense. That’s all it is really. We’re conservative. You’re conservative. You’re liberal whatever the hell – do you know what it’s all about? Donald Trump: It’s about common sense when you think about it. We’re for common sense. We like strong borders. We like good education. We like low interest rates. We like being able to buy a beautiful car. And now, deduct the interest on the loan. That’s never happened before. We want a strong military. We want low taxes. Donald Trump: You know, the Democrats, they campaigned on, we will raise your taxes. It’s the first time. You know, I haven’t been doing this that long. Actually, compared to a lot of people, they’ve been doing it for a long time. They say you became president, and I can’t get out of Congress. And some of them can’t even get into Congress. [Laughter] But you know, I haven’t been doing it that long. Donald Trump: But all my life I’ve been watching, and I’ve never heard people campaigning that they’re going to raise taxes. It’s always been, we will reduce your taxes. Democrat, Republican. Now they go, we’re going to raise your taxes. If our bill doesn’t pass, the Republicans, we have 100 percent just about Republican support, but would be nice if we had just a couple of Democrats just to make sure. Donald Trump: Because you know, every once in a while, you have a grandstander Republican. We have some grandstanders. But every once in a while, not many, not many, but remember who those grandstanders were and vote them the hell out of office, OK, will you do that? Vote them out of office. You know, they do it morally, they’re morally bound. Donald Trump: You know what the answer is? If you – if you don’t get it, you’re going to have the highest tax increase in history instead of the greatest tax cut in history. If the Democrats prevail on this bill, you get a 58 percent tax increase. Would you like that? [Audience boos] These are the Democrats but I’ve never seen, all the years they campaign, we will raise your taxes. Donald Trump: I say, what a – this place has gone – this country has gone crazy. And today they did it again, some guy that I never heard of. John James, is he a congressman this guy? He said, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to start the impeachment of Donald Trump. What the hell did I do? Here we go again, they want to impeach me. This lunatic – this lunatic, he was up – actually I had the television way down and I said to our great first lady, listen, did I just hear I was being impeached again? Donald Trump: We’re getting good at this though. No, they’ve gone totally crazy, these people. And you know what, they’ve totally lost their confidence too. They can’t even tell a lunatic like this dumb guy that said it. And then you have the other one that’s always with the cane. He’s always impeaching. He raises his cane. Donald Trump: He always impeaches. But they have no control over those people. They have no control. And the reason is they’ve lost their confidence. They have no confidence anymore as a party. They have no candidates. And you know, when they say that Bernie – Bernie’s probably the best they have. By the way, he’s about seven years older than me – more, eight years older. Donald Trump: One thing I’ve got to give him credit – he’s a lunatic, but he’s still pretty sharp. And he’s going around with AOC plus 3, you know, the Plus 3 follow him. They hang on for little bits [Audience boos], they hang on for nuggets and they get crowds. They say, oh, the crowd was – our crowds are so much bigger than their crowds. Donald Trump: Their crowds are small. If I ever had a crowd like their biggest crowd, they’d say it’s over for Trump, he’s lost the magic. But this is great and all the people outside, we love you. We put screens up. We’re taking back our country from a sick political class that got rich selling America out and bleeding America dry. Donald Trump: We don’t let that happen anymore. And we had four great years – we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. The stock market went up 88 percent, we did great. And we’re going to do better now because now we’re really – we learned a little bit. After years of leaders who sent your money to defend the borders of distant foreign nations – that’s what we did. Donald Trump: We would fight for other nations, but not for ourselves. You finally have a president who is defending our borders and our nation. Dr. Oz, Dr. Oz. After decades of politicians who destroyed Detroit to build up Beijing, you finally have a champion for workers in the White House. And instead of putting China first, I’m putting Michigan first and I’m putting America first. Donald Trump: After a lifetime of unelected bureaucrats stealing your paychecks, attacking your values and trampling your freedoms, we are stopping their gravy train, ending their power trip, and telling thousands of corrupt, incompetent and unnecessary deep state bureaucrats, you’re fired. Get the hell out of here, you’re fired. Donald Trump: Get out of here. In 100 days, we have delivered the most profound change in Washington in nearly 100 years. I read an editorial today that this is the most consequential presidency in history. How about that? And it wasn’t even by a group that would normally be supporting us. It was a group of people that I think they tend to be on the liberal side. Donald Trump: But they said it’s the most important election, the November 5th, that changed it all. You have to see – wait until you hear some of these numbers, but that is the most consequential election that we’ve ever had in our country. And what a nice thing. I’m going to start again subscribing to that particular paper. Donald Trump: Even if I don’t read it much, I’m going to subscribe, but it was a very nice compliment, especially from them, they know who I’m talking about. We’re ushering out the long reign of special interests and the Radical Left Lunatics and we’re ushering in the golden age of America. That’s what we have, right. Donald Trump: Front Row Joe, look at you Front Row Joes, I miss you guys. I missed the campaign. You haven’t changed. You’ve lost a couple of pounds. Oh, he’s probably getting one of those jabbers. You’ve lost a couple of pounds, you look good. And I have Mr. Wall here, this guy, how many rallies have you gone to? Like hundreds and we love him here. Donald Trump: The wall – one day, I’m going to get that suit and I’m going to wear it on stage. We appreciate it, fellas. Great. Thank you. You know, we have a group of ladies, I don’t know if they’re here, but we have a group of women from North Carolina, a large group like 50 of the most beautiful women. And they’ve been to 129 rallies. Donald Trump: They’re happily married I think too. They just keep going to rallies all the time. But they’re great, North Carolina where we won by big numbers. Nowhere has this transformation been more dramatic than our southern border. You have seen a change on your southern border that Sleepy Joe said couldn’t happen. Donald Trump: Sleepy Joe, the worst president in history, said it couldn’t happen. The last administration engineered a massive border invasion allowing gangs, cartels and terrorists to infiltrate our communities and rape and murder our citizens and that is being nice about it. That’s actually being nice about it. They are the worst. Donald Trump: But standing before you today, I can proudly report that this heinous betrayal is over and that we have achieved the most secure border in American history by far in American history. For two months in a row, we have now set all-time records, and this is by the media, the fake news media, which most of it is fake. Donald Trump: We’ve set all-time records for the lowest number of illegal border crossings ever recorded. Think of that, ever recorded. The number of illegal border crossers released into the United States is down, listen to this please, 99.999 percent. Think of that, 99.999. Three people got in, three, and I got angry as hell at Tom Homan. Donald Trump: How did you allow three, Tom? I called up, Kristi – Kristi Noem is doing a great job, Tom Homan, I said how did you allow three people. No, they allowed a few in for medical reasons. Honestly, they had – a couple of them were very sick. The ones that got in were really very sick and we had to take care of them, but it was a few people. Donald Trump: But three people got in versus hundreds of thousands in the last administration, hundreds of thousands a month were pouring in. Biden had no control. Thank goodness he appointed a great border czar, right? Kamala, Kamala, Kamala, she was a great candidate [Audience boos]. She was fantastic. Joe Biden was down 35 points. Donald Trump: The debate was not a good one for him. He said, you know, if I didn’t debate, I could have gone all the way. He was down 35 points, and they decided to replace him. That never – nothing ever happens like what happens to me. It never happens to anybody else. I had to beat two candidates, so he’s down. This is like you’re in a fight. Donald Trump: Dana White, the UFC, you’re in a fight and you’re just beating the guy so badly and they say, oh, let’s put in another fighter. That’s what happened and I knew nothing about her. She was vice president, but nobody knew a damn thing about her. She had nothing to do with the border even though she was appointed border czar. Donald Trump: The great people, all of the great people, Paul and all of the Border Patrol people, they never spoke to her, they never heard about her. For four years she never called. But there’s never been such a difference in anything as the difference between the border today and the border – what it was just six months ago. Donald Trump: So, I want to say congratulations, America, it’s about time. If we had not won the 2024 election, oh, does that sound good, right? We won the 2024 – all that work. The radical left Democrats would right now be importing the next 10 million invaders in giving amnesty to 30 or 40 million illegals, many of them criminals, many of them frankly murderers and people of crime at the absolute highest level. Donald Trump: Real, real bad people. It would only be a matter of years or months until America itself became a failed third world nation. That was happening to us, we were going to be a third world nation. I’ll tell you what, if these guys won, if this group of radical lunatics – and by the way, you know Biden – we find out that whoever operated the autopen was the real president and Biden new nothing about it. You know, he had a group of radical left guys who were very smart and – and a woman, a particular woman. Donald Trump: Very, very smart people. These are not stupid people. These are sick people, but they’re not stupid people. And they were very smart. What they’re best at is cheating at an election. They cheat on elections. That’s their single greatest trait. They cheat like hell. And let me tell you, they tried to cheat on this election, but we made it too big to rig. Donald Trump: Remember Too Big to Rig. They tried. I watched those numbers. I watched those numbers. We had Elon with us. Elon is a smart guy. Elon – Elon Musk. And I was sitting with Dana White and Elon Musk, and I’m watching the numbers in Pennsylvania. And we’re winning so easily, and then all of a sudden it flatlined. Donald Trump: And I said, you know, I said I think they’re cheating again. Look at this. What’s going on? I think they’re cheating again. And Elon looked at us, he goes, no, you’re going to win, they just don’t know it yet. And about 15 minutes later we won. You know, sort of crazy. I’ll never forget, you’re going to win, they just don’t know it yet. Donald Trump: But you know what? We made it too big to rig. It was too big. Starting on day one, I deployed the US military to defend our country from the invasion of our border. I shut down all migrant flights. Do you remember when we’re talking about people coming in? They’re trying to deny it. OK. People are flowing in, they said, no, I don’t see any people. Donald Trump: It’s like what’s wrong. But then we saw airplanes going overhead. We said what the hell are those airplanes doing? Big Boeing 757s were traveling right overhead loaded up with people. They say, where the hell are those planes going? They were loaded up with migrants coming in illegally, flying in by plane, paid for by the US government. [Audience boos] I’ll tell you they are – they are sick. Donald Trump: They are. Remember that day? That was the day we found out that not only do we have to defend it here, we have to defend it not only in the water, but we have to defend it in the air. The planes were going over us. I said, what the hell is that? I banned all welfare to illegals, and I signed an order that will end automatic citizenship for the children of illegal aliens. Donald Trump: No citizenship. For years, Joe Biden and the media told us that stopping the flood of illegal immigration was absolutely impossible. He said it was impossible. He didn’t know what the hell anybody was talking about. He said it was impossible. That the president had no power to stop what was needed in the form of legislation. Donald Trump: He needed legislation. He had no power to get it. But it turned out that all we needed was a new president. Within days of taking office, I signed the Laken Riley Act. Laken Riley. Beautiful Laken Riley. Who was killed by an illegal immigrant. Viciously, violently killed. But I signed the Laken Riley Act to facilitate the expulsion of dangerous criminal aliens. Donald Trump: And when necessary, we had to put them in jail. We couldn’t take a chance that they’d come back in again. In recent weeks, ICE, who are great, these people are great, has arrested dozens of child rapists along with murderers, kidnapers, drug traffickers and thieves. And frankly, people from mental institutions. Donald Trump: We’ve designated six murderous Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organization. We have also designated two bloodthirsty transnational gangs, MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, TDA. They’ve been designated the highest level of terrorist. And that lets us do a lot of things that you wouldn’t be able to do. We got to get them out of here before they kill more people. Donald Trump: They’ve killed plenty. My administration has increased arrests of known and suspected terrorists by 655 percent. Is that OK? We tried to get it higher. We tried to get it higher, but the courts are giving us a hard time. Can you believe it? You know, I won on the basis of, I think, the number one thing was on illegal immigration at the border, the people pouring across our border that are from all over the world there. Donald Trump: They’re unbelievably bad. In many cases, unbelievably bad people. I think that was the number one thing. And now the courts are trying to say that, you know, that doesn’t matter. I don’t think it’s going to be allowed to stand. Democrats have vowed mass invasion and mass migration. We are delivering mass deportation. Donald Trump: And it’s happening very fast. And the worst of the worst are being sent to a no nonsense prison in El Salvador. Why don’t you watch – Watch this. Watch this. Take a look. Note: [A media presentation is played] Donald Trump: [Audience chants “USA”] So under President Trump America is a dumping ground for criminals no longer. They are not even trying to come in. But while we’re fighting to protect Americans, the radical left Democrats who are so bad for this country are fighting to protect TDA, you just saw that, for years, Democrat politicians did not raise one word of protest as American women and girls were raped and slaughtered by these monsters. Donald Trump: They were raped and slaughtered by numbers that you don’t even want to hear about. But the second we try to deport them, the Radical Democrat Party is racing to the defense of some of the most violent savages on the face of the earth. [Audience boos] Who the hell would vote for these people? [Audience boos] They’re racing to the courts to help them. Donald Trump: But this is not what the people want. This is not what they voted for in record numbers. I won the election. We won every swing state. We won the popular vote. And we got 312 electoral college votes. And just this month, two Venezuelan members of TDA, that’s Tren de Aragua were arrested in Washington state for kidnaping a 58 year old woman driving a power drill through her hand to extort her bank account information, shooting her, leaving her for dead. Donald Trump: And miraculously she just survived, but she’s not feeling so well. In January, a Tren de Aragua member in Chicago kidnaped three women, took them in an alley, lined them up and shot them each in the head. They all died. And the FBI recently assessed that these vicious gangs have been sent by the foreign regime in Venezuela to foment violence and instability in the United States of America. Donald Trump: Can’t let that happen. And it’s not just – in all fairness, not Venezuela, it’s all over the world, it’s all over. They come in from the Congo, they come in from Africa. The Congo, they emptied out their prisons into our country, but they come from Africa, Asia, South America. They come from all over – bad parts of Europe. Donald Trump: That’s why we’ve invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expel every foreign terrorist from our soil as quickly as possible. Never forget the same people that we now claim were not – and we’re not going to – we’re just not taking this crap anymore. We can’t. They’re claiming that we’re not allowed to deport illegals and they’re the ones who orchestrated an eight-year campaign to jail their political opponents. Donald Trump: You know what I mean? They wanted jail. They wanted jail. That’s all they can do, jail their political opponents. What they did to people is a disgrace and now they come after us. Why are you not nice to them? Why are you not nice to them? They tried to jail your president, they tried to jail – except for the really courageousness of a few very good judges, we could have been – we could have been calling you from the other side of the bars saying, hey, fellas, how about a little protest? Donald Trump: How about a little protest? But they cheered the assassination of CEOs, looted our cities and destroyed our property. No, they tried to jail our politicians and they tried to jail a lot of people, many of whom didn’t even know what the hell they were being looked at for. These people are criminals. If they had their way we would be living in a third world hellhole. Donald Trump: That’s what they want. Removing the invaders is not just a campaign pledge, it’s my solemn duty as commander in chief. I have an obligation to do it, save our country. And that’s why we got, despite the fake polls – you know, they do these polls where they interview far more Democrats than Republicans. I saw them over the last few days and I had them checked out. Donald Trump: They interview far more Democrats for the polls. They interviewed Democrats by big numbers and then Republicans by small. They say Trump only has a 44 percent approval rating. Well, it’s actually not bad. But when you figure that, if it were a legit poll, it would be in the 60s or 70s. These people are a bunch of crooked people. Donald Trump: No, they interview more Democrats than Republicans. In other words, they take the poll and they interview Democrats, they poll Democrats. And then they say – they try and depress it as much – just like they write bad stories. 97 percent of the stories written about me, think of it, were negative and yet we won in a landslide because they have no credibility. Donald Trump: And also, we cannot allow a handful of communist radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States. Judges are trying to take away the power given to the president to keep our country safe and it’s not a good thing. But I hope for the sake of our country that the Supreme Court is going to save this because we have to do something. Donald Trump: These people are just looking to destroy our country. Nothing will stop me in the mission to keep America safe again. It’s very simple – keep America safe again. And our first 100 days have also produced historic results in the battle to defeat Biden’s inflation disaster and bring jobs and wealth back to America and bring them back to Michigan, OK. We want to bring it back. Donald Trump: As an example, since I took office, the cost of eggs is down 87 percent. Now you remember a few weeks ago before Thanksgiving, before – we heard about it before – I heard about it a long time ago, before Thanksgiving I heard about it. And then I was hearing – I wasn’t president. This guy was barely president. Donald Trump: Nobody knew, was he president? Who the hell was president. To this day, I say it was the one that operated the auto pen, but what do I know? But I was hearing about eggs and then, all of a sudden, we have a great election victory and my first week in office they start screaming at me, what about the price of eggs, eggs, eggs? Donald Trump: I said I’ve only been here for six days. I was there six days. I said, what’s wrong with eggs? They said, the price of eggs has gone through the roof and you won’t be able to have them for Easter. So, I put a very capable Brooke Rollins, who’s our wonderful commissioner of agriculture that you know in Michigan. Donald Trump: I said, Brooke, I’ve only been here six days before I heard, maybe even less, maybe five, maybe four, but it was my first week. And I said, Brooke, you’ve got to save me here. I’m getting killed about eggs, what the hell’s going on with eggs? She said, well, you can’t get them, the price is through the roof, and it looks like we’re going to have a real problem for Easter, you’re not going to have eggs. Donald Trump: I said Brooke, that doesn’t sound politically viable to me. That doesn’t sound good because nobody’s going to believe me when you get out there that it’s Sleepy Joe Biden’s fault. So, Brooke, you got to get going, Brooke, please. And she did a great job, and you had so many eggs for Easter and your price was down 87 percent from that point. Donald Trump: Prices are coming way down. You know, the fake news doesn’t say it. They said, he pledged – now I pledged safe borders, I pledged all sorts of things, but they said he pledged to bring prices down. Well, that’s what I’ve done. They’re trying to say the prices have gone up, your energy, your car, your gasoline. Donald Trump: And they have three states this week, a couple of days ago that were $1.98 a gallon. So, gasoline prices are down by a lot. Energy prices are down. Mortgage rates actually just went down. Prescription drug prices just saw their largest monthly decline ever recorded. How about that? Remember what you heard, prescription drug prices just took the biggest plunge ever since they’ve recorded the prices which have basically gone up except for my four years, they did pretty well. Donald Trump: But we got to know that system, the system is a bad system. But they just took the biggest dive ever in the history of prescription drug prices. Think of that, that’s a big thing. I’ve got to say it again and again because they will never tell you that. The fake news will never tell you that. Grocery prices have gone down, everything’s gone down. Donald Trump: And yet I saw this person on MSNBC, which I think is probably even worse than CNN. It’s probably worse, [Audience boos] probably worse than CNN. But I saw this horrible, horrible anchor, how these people get jobs. I wouldn’t hire them to do the most menial of chores. But I saw this person – he campaigned on bringing prices down. Donald Trump: Every price has gone down. What am I going to do? I mean think of it. Gasoline was almost $4 not so long ago. And now, Mike, we just hit $1.98 in a lot of states. Think of it. And they’re saying – and you know what, and inflation is basically down and interest rates came down despite the fact that I have a fed person who’s not really doing a good job. Donald Trump: But I won’t say that. I want to be very nice. I want to be very nice and respectful to the fed. You’re not supposed to criticize the fed; you’re supposed to let him do his own thing. But I know much more than he does about interest rates, believe me. Core inflation has reached the lowest rate in four years and last month we had the largest drop in consumer prices since the pandemic. Donald Trump: This is all done in 100 days. Think of that, this is all done in 100 days, but when you watch the fake news, you see fake polls. Again, they poll more Democrats than Republicans. Democrats aren’t going to say I’m going to vote for Trump, and we still got 45-44 percent. But on the legitimate polls, I think we’re in the 60s. I really – I think we’re in the 60s or 70s or something. Donald Trump: In three months, we have created 350,000 jobs. Think of that. For the first time in recent memory job gains for native born Americans now exceed job gains for foreign workers. This is for the first time in nobody even knows when, Americans now are doing better than foreign workers. How about that? I mean that’s OK. I want the foreign – I want everyone to do well, but that’s OK. And to curb inflation, we’re cutting a record number of job killing regulations. Donald Trump: We beat, in the four-year first administration which was a tremendous success. We cut more regulations than any president in history, including two term presidents, including Roosevelt, who was more than a two term president. We cut more regulations than any president in history in one term. And now our second term. Donald Trump: And you know, I don’t know why it was so important to win because they used to say the fake news. To be a great president, you have to serve two terms. So now we’re going to serve two terms. Now they’ve taken that one – Cross that one off, cross that one off. Right? Right, Dr. Oz? Cross that went off. Cross that went off. Donald Trump: No, they say it all the time. When I was out, they say well – [Audience member calls out, inaudibly] They got through. [Laughter; Audience boos] Thank you. Thank you, sir. But we’ve ended the radical left. Well, we actually already served three, but – if you count – [Audience calls out “Yeah”] But remember, I like the victories. Donald Trump: I like the three victories which we absolutely had. I just don’t like the results of the middle term. The results, I don’t want those results, John. I don’t want those results. What results? What a disgrace. If we would have had this group for another year, we wouldn’t have a country left. I really mean it. I don’t think we would have had a country left. Donald Trump: And now, we’re respected all over the world. They’re coming from all over the world to see your president. They’re coming from India. They’re coming from France. They’re coming from Spain. Yeah, they’re coming from China too. Yeah, they’re coming from China. They’re coming from all over the world to see your president. Donald Trump: They want to make a deal. They want to make a deal. And you know, we’ll make deals, but we don’t have to. We are the ones that have the product. We are the ones that the United States, they want a piece of our product. We can just set the price. But I want to be respectful, and I want to be nice. But if it takes too long, I’ll just set a price. Donald Trump: Say you could buy, or you don’t have to buy. We lost – think of this, we lost billions and billions of dollars a day, billions, not millions, billions of dollars a day, and under Sleepy Joe Biden. What’s better, Crooked Joe or Sleepy Joe? Ready, a poll. A free poll. Because these pollsters are so corrupt, this is a real poll. Donald Trump: We’re going to poll Crooked Joe or Sleepy Joe. Ready? What’s – what’s a better name for us to call him, Sleepy Joe? [Audience calls out “Yeah”] Or Crooked Joe? [Audience calls out “Yeah”] That’s – I’m not surprised this happens. I sort of loved Sleepy Joe. You know, it just had a nice ring to it. Because he had one ability I didn’t have. Donald Trump: He goes to the beach, right? And he could fall asleep on a cottage drooling out of the side of his mouth. And he’d be sleeping within minutes, carrying the aluminum chair. You know, the kind that’s meant for old people and children to carry. It weighs like about four ounces. [Laughter] And he couldn’t get his feet out of the sand. Donald Trump: And he’d sleep. He’d fall on this thing, and within – and he’d have – you know, he’s president, so you’d have cameras. He’d be in a bathing suit. Somebody convinced him that he looks great in a bathing suit. He’s 82 years old. [Laughter; Audience boos] Cary Grant didn’t look great in a bathing suit when he was 82. You don’t look great. Donald Trump: You know, at some point you – you have other assets, OK, but that’s not one. [Laughter] But he’d – he’d go and he’d walk in the sand. And he’d fall into that thing. And within seconds, he was sleeping. I’d be tossing and turning and scheming and thinking and saying how am I going to beat China? How am I going to stop the war with Russia and Ukraine? Donald Trump: This guy could fall asleep with cameras blazing, right? Well, not too many cameras were blazing but enough were blazing that you saw it. I thought it was a great ability that he had actually. We’ve ended the radical left war on American energy. We’ve stopped their crusade on coal. Did you see what I did the other day? Donald Trump: Clean, beautiful coal. I said you’re not allowed to use the word coal unless you say clean, beautiful coal. So you have guys getting up, Department of Energy, we have great people at Department of Energy. They talk about clean, beautiful coal. You know, China uses coal. They’re opening up a coal plant every week, a massive coal plant. Donald Trump: But we’re not allowed to use it. But now we are, because last week, I gave it absolute total approval. And you know what, I don’t give approval to? Those stupid windmills that go round and round and round. And we’ve ended the green new scam. We’ve reopened ANWR, the greatest drilling site anywhere in the world in Alaska. Donald Trump: And implemented the new energy policy of the United States. You know what it is, we have a policy. It’s called drill baby drill. [Audience responds “Drill baby drill”] That’s our policy. That’s our policy, Michael, right? Great Michael Whatley, head of the Republican Party. He’s done a good job. Him and Laura. Donald Trump: They took the party by storm, right? He had – But he had a good candidate. But he had a couple of good candidates, didn’t he? Michael’s been incredible actually. Michael Whatley, North Carolina. He watched – in 2020, he did so good for me. [Audience boos] And you know, he was in North Carolina. He did so great. Donald Trump: What’s the problem over there? What’s the problem? Is that a radical left lunatic? [Audience boos] He’s just a child. All right, get him out. Yeah. [Audience boos] Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, ma’am. I thought it was a guy. [Audience boos] Thank you. [Audience boos] And she now has to go home to a mother who’s a big Trump fan. [Laughter] Her mother’s watching. Donald Trump: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I – I said he and it’s a she. I’m sorry. It’s good. To keep my promise to the great state of Michigan, I terminated Joe Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandate where you were mandated to buy an electric vehicle. You were mandated within just a few years to buy an electric vehicle. How about that? Donald Trump: And you know what? They’re great, but people don’t – not everybody wants them. You got to be able to buy a hybrid, a gasoline powered car. You can buy lots of different cars, but you can’t be mandated to do anything. And I’ve already proudly imposed a 25 percent tariff on all foreign automobiles. Any – Any foreign car like they do tires. Donald Trump: This is going to create more jobs in this state and this country. And to help these automakers bring their factories home as rapidly as possible, I’ve just signed an executive order to give partial tariff rebates to any company that assembles its cars right here in the USA. In other words – In other words, if they can’t make it in time because they have to do it here, otherwise, they have to – I’m giving them a little bit of a break, right? Donald Trump: They took in parts from all over the world. I don’t want that. I want them to make their parts here. But I gave them a little bit of time. It’s 15 percent and then 10 percent of the parts. So it’s not so bad. Somebody would say, oh, well, that’s a change, but it’s not. It’s called a little flexibility. The guys were crying. Donald Trump: They love it, everything’s good. But just in case we can’t get everything in time, we gave them a little bit. So it’s 15 percent of the parts and then it’s 10 percent of the parts. We give them a little time before we slaughter them if they don’t do this. Right? They’re going to make so much money. They’re going to have so many jobs. Donald Trump: No, but jobs are way up. Jobs are way up. We’re pleased to be joined tonight by Brian Pannebecker. Do you know who that is? Of the autoworkers for Trump. And Brian is a union guy. Loves the unions, loves everything. But he knew that Trump was right. Brian. Come up here, Brian. I got to see Brian. Look at the arms on this guy, look at the arms. Brian Pannebecker: Thank you, Mr. President. [Audience chants “Brian”] Thank you, Mr. President. It’s a great honor to be here on your 100th day in office of your second term. And I just want to remind you of something I told you at one of your last rallies before the election. I’ve got it on video. I’ve watched it dozens of times at home. Brian Pannebecker: After I was able to speak, I turned to you, and I said, Mr. President, Macomb County is going to win Michigan for you! And that’s exactly what happened. We had a margin of victory of 70,000 votes in this county alone. Thank you, Macomb County! You know, I met President Trump eight years ago in Novi. And we had never met before. Brian Pannebecker: And as I was stepping towards them backstage, to get my picture taken, I knew I only had 10, 15 seconds to say something to him before we got our pictures. Fortunately, my son was standing behind me, so I’ve got a witness to this. And I said, Mr. Trump, we’ve got the keys to the White House waiting for you in Macomb County. Brian Pannebecker: And he kind of chuckled. He said, oh yeah, how’s that? And I said, well, Macomb County is the home of the Reagan Democrats. If you come to Macomb County and you ask for their support and you get it, you might win Macomb County big enough to carry the whole state of Michigan. And that’s exactly what he did. Brian Pannebecker: Thank you, guys. So, I want to say thank you to the autoworkers, everybody who works in the automotive field, the suppliers, every one of you, the truck drivers. Thank you so much for supporting the greatest president in our lifetimes. Now I’ve got a little business announcement I want to make. I hope the President doesn’t mind, but when I was backstage with him earlier and got my picture taken, I said, Mr. President, I’ve got a deal that you can’t refuse. Brian Pannebecker: And he said what’s that? And I said, well, I’m writing a book and it’s going to be about my political journey. I’ve been involved in some things here in Michigan, conservative causes like Right to Work and the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. And I said, you have a publishing company, Winning Team Publishing. Brian Pannebecker: It’s run by Don, Jr. and his partner. I said I’ll agree to use your publishing company if you agree to write the foreword to my book. He stuck out his hand and said I’ll do it. That’s how you negotiate with the best negotiator in the world. So, listen, I’ve got one last thing to say, all of us have a job to do. Number one, we have to win the 2026 elections. Brian Pannebecker: It has to happen. Shri Thanedar, that lunatic Democrat [Audience boos] from Detroit, is already threatening to impeach President Trump if they get the majority back. But luckily, right now we’ve got good people in congress like Congressman John James over here who are stopping that from happening. But listen up. So, we’ve got to get out and we don’t have any time to waste. Brian Pannebecker: We’ve got to start talking to our friends, our neighbors, our family, our coworkers. The campaign for 2026 starts tomorrow. We’ve got to win that election. So, the work is not over. The work has just begun. November 5th, was not the end; it was the beginning of the golden age. And let’s all tell President Trump how much we support what he’s done the first 100 days in office? Donald Trump: Thank you. Brian Pannebecker: Oh, yeah, I forgot. There’s one other thing I wanted to say in front of all these thousands of people to President Trump. President Trump. I love you. Donald Trump: Thank you. That’s great. Thank you. Good, good man. He’s a great guy. You know, he was with me from day one 2015, before 2016. He was there from day one. He got it. He said we’re losing our car industry. That’s what he really cared about. He lost – he just said I had so many friends they were laid off. It’s horrible. Donald Trump: They lay us off like it’s nothing and the business went to China, it went to Japan, went to all countries all over the world. They’re laying us off, sir. Then he said we can solve that. I told him we can solve that so fast. He’s one of the early people that got it, and we’ve solved it. We’re going to be doing numbers that nobody’s ever believed. Donald Trump: We’ll be the number one in the world again, nobody can believe it, because we have been beaten up so badly by these countries that have rigged the whole thing. They fight like hell, they’re smart, their product is good, but our product is going to be a lot better. We’re going to do something that nobody believes. Donald Trump: And he saw it right at the beginning. So, I appreciate it, Brian, and he was there at the – I love the guys from the beginning. I love those early guys. Those guys are right there. They were there from the beginning too. No, you’re going to see numbers and you’re already seeing them. Look, you know, we have many Hondas coming in and they’re coming in. They can’t – we let them build their cars here. Donald Trump: We don’t want them to build them in Japan. We love Japan. We don’t want them building them in Japan. We want them to build them here. We want China to build them in here. We want them all to build them right in here. That’s what they’ve done to us for 40 years and they’ve drained us. Now we’re doing it to them at a better level than they ever dreamed possible. Donald Trump: To further rebuild the industrial bedrock of our country, I’ve imposed 25 percent tariffs on foreign aluminum and steel. It’s keeping our steel mills going. I did that – if I didn’t do that with steel in the first – my first term, we wouldn’t have a steel mill in the United States right now and everybody knows it. I did it for washing machines too, by the way, that’s why I asked the people at Whirlpool – they were going to close. Donald Trump: They were in deep trouble. I did it because they were dumping machines. I did a 50 percent tariff, was going to raise it to 100 percent. They didn’t even have to bother. They became a tremendously successful company overnight. They were ready to close. They came to me with tears in their eyes, in my office early on first term. Donald Trump: And we’re doing it now at levels never seen before. And the results are going to be even better, even better because we’ve been abused by friend and foe, and in many cases, friend has abused us more so than foe on trade. So, I want to just let you know you’re going to be very proud of this country very soon. Donald Trump: And with my China tariffs, we’re ending the greatest job theft in the history of the world. China has taken more jobs from us than any country has ever taken from another country and that doesn’t mean we’re not going to get along. We get along with China. I mean their tariff now is at 145 percent. So, essentially – that’s a big difference between that and zero. Donald Trump: But I think it’s going to work out, they want to make a deal and they’re going to – we’re going to make a deal. But it’s going to be a fair deal. It’s not going to be a deal that we lose $1 trillion a year like they did with Biden. That guy was so bad, he was so bad. Under Biden – and remember this, we were losing $5 billion a day on trade and now we’re making money, we’re actually making money instead of – do you know what $5 billion – think of that. Donald Trump: Mike, five – how many pillows do you have to make to lose $5 billion. You can make them for 1,000 years. No, we were losing $5 billion a year. Now we’ve got it where we’re making money, and the tariffs haven’t even really kicked in. The 25 percent on cars have. But you know what that means? That means that you’re going to make the cars. Donald Trump: We don’t need the cars from outside. When they say, oh, sir, we want to send you a lot of cars. I said we really don’t want your cars; we really don’t want – we want to make our own cars. That includes Canada, that includes Mexico who have taken tremendous – a tremendous amount of our business. Canada has taken off a tremendous like 10, 12 percent. Donald Trump: Mexico is 32 percent. They took 32 percent of our car production. We don’t want them to have that. We want that – why are we giving it to them? Why are we subsidizing Canada $200 billion a year? Why are we subsidizing Mexico for $300 billion a year? There’s no reason for it. I’m proud to be the president for the workers and not the outsourcers. Donald Trump: The president who stands up for Main Street, not Wall Street. You know, I like Wall Street, I like Wall Street. I have a gorgeous, beautiful building on Wall Street, 40 Wall Street. Anybody, you want a little space? I’ll get you some space real quickly. No, I’ve got one of the most beautiful buildings in the world on Wall Street, but I still like Main Street because you’re Main Street, I want Main Street over Wall Street. Donald Trump: And we want to protect the middle class, not the political class, that’s all. I haven’t done this very long. We want to protect – we want to protect our people. You know, this is the greatest – when you think about this, look here we are – it’s not even like election, it’s after the election and you have crowds like this and have them. Donald Trump: We’re going to do the commencement at University of Alabama and they just called and they said it’s going to be the biggest crowd we’ve ever had for – we’ve never had a crowd like this. And I’m doing it at West Point and they called and said the same thing. We love West Point. We love University of Alabama. Donald Trump: We love Alabama. You know what I won Alabama by? Like almost 50 points. So, when they called and they said would you like to do the commencement? I said, OK, I’ll do it, but they’re going to have the biggest crowd they ever had by maybe four or five times they told me. Thanks for all of the things that we’ve done and to our policies, trillions of dollars are now pouring into the United States because of common sense. Donald Trump: Just common sense. Apple, great company, was building everything in China. Now they just announced that they’re spending $500 billion to invest in America, not in China. My friend Jensen from NVIDIA, they’re spending – you know what NVIDIA is, they’re spending $500 billion. TSMC, the biggest chip maker in the world by far from Taiwan, they’re spending $200 billion in the United States. Donald Trump: Amazon, $21 billion. Johnson and Johnson, $55 billion. The Mac, $20 billion, Merck Stellantis, General Motors are putting in billions and billions of dollars. And many other companies. And as a result of our policies, for the first time in modern history, more AmAricans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. Donald Trump: They have a poll, a crazy poll probably a fake poll too. So I don’t know, I don’t care. But first time ever in I think ever that they’re saying the country is headed in the right direction. Has never happened before. I don’t know why. But we’ve accomplished more in three months than most administrations accomplished in four years or even eight years. Donald Trump: And we’re just getting started. Believe me, we’re just getting started. We’re pleased to be joined by some great people. A person that I, number one, I have so much confidence in him. The fake news is after him, really after him, but he’s a tough cookie. They don’t know how tough he is. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Donald Trump: Pete. [Audience chants “Pete”] Wow, that’s pretty good. How are the Houthis doing? Not too good, right? Our new administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, somebody that everybody knows, but this guy, you know, the show was a big success, but sometimes it hurts your image to have a television show. Donald Trump: He’s the top – I mean, he went to Harvard. I shouldn’t even mention that anymore because that used to be a good thing. Today, it doesn’t mean much. [Laughter] But he went to University of Pennsylvania Medical School, top student, top doctor, top everything, one of the smartest guys in medicine. Also a big star, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Dr. Oz. Thank you, doctor. Donald Trump: Thank you. A man who waited today just came here. He was all sweaty and grimy. I said what the hell happened. He ran into the building because he wanted to vote in Congress. And I hear we passed the vote, John James, by a lot, right? And thank you for making it here. He wanted – he had to vote. I said John, do me a favor, stay and vote. Donald Trump: We’re voting essentially on the big, beautiful – that gorgeous big, beautiful bill. I said, you know, I want you there badly, but you got to vote please. So thank you very much, John. Good job. Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall. Matt, thank you. Thank you, Matt. Michigan Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt. Donald Trump: Thank you, Aric. Thank you very much. Michigan GOP Chair Jim Rundstedt. Thank you, Jim. Good job. Nice tight. Thank you, Jim. Great job. One of my favorite people. I mean, we just had such success. You know, we had so many votes stolen in 2020. And then this guy came in. And they didn’t steal him from his state, North Carolina. Donald Trump: I told you. But they didn’t steal them. He had 601 lawyers. And they had lawyers at every voting booth. And I said who is that guy that did so well because we won the state? Other states, you know, they inched us out. And you know, at the end, they inched us. They just inched us out. Crooked as hell. But this guy didn’t let that happen. Donald Trump: His name is Michael Whatley, North Carolina. And now he’s the head of the Republican Party, RNC. And he’s great. And I must tell you, he worked with a great woman, my daughter in law, Laura, who was unbelievable. He’s got a very successful television show. That was a tremendous combination. That was a very important combination. Donald Trump: Also, the great, and you see him on television, he’s unbelievable. Hey, Stephen, come up here, fast. The great Stephen Miller. Do we like Stephen? Where is Stephen? Come here, Stephen. I love this guy. I love this guy. There is nobody smarter or tougher than Stephen Miller. Stephen, say – Stephen Miller: Who is enjoying 100 golden days of AmArica? President Trump has achieved the most secure border in American history. He’s fighting violent crime. He’s fighting the drug cartels. He’s cutting your taxes. He’s cutting wasteful spending. He’s draining the swamp. He’s standing up to the radical left. He’s standing up to the communists. Stephen Miller: And he’s making AmArica stronger than it’s ever been. President Trump will never stop fighting for you, your children and your family. And President Trump will make sure that in this country not illegal aliens, not criminals, not gangbangers, but AmArican citizens come first, last and always. Thank you. And thank you, President Trump, for being the greatest president in American history. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] He’s great. This guy, he is something special. And he’s been with us right from day one. Right from day one, Stephen’s been there, right. He’s been great. A man who put on about 928 rallies for me. And they – we didn’t have – we didn’t have a glitch. Justin Caporale. Justin, thank you wherever you are. Donald Trump: He’s probably backstage working. He did – we did over 900 of these. Thank you, Justin. And Margo Martin. Does anyone know Margo? Beautiful Margo. I call her the world’s greatest photographer. Where is Margo? Margo is great. Where are you, Margo? And she’s very shy, actually. She’s both beautiful and shy. Donald Trump: Thank you. Margo Martin: Over here. Donald Trump: Where? Where? Margo! Come up here, Margo. Come up. Come on. You got to. This is the most beautiful – now look, I’m not allowed to say this. It’s the end of my political career, but I’m going to say it anyway, she’s the most beautiful photographer in the world. I don’t know if she’s the best, but she’s the most beautiful. Margo Martin: Trump 2028, anybody? Donald Trump: People love Margo. And how about, Karoline? How’s Karoline doing, huh? How is our Karoline doing? Karoline has taken the world by storm. She’s taken it. And you know, we have a man here that I don’t know, but he’s defending me all the time on CNN, and he defends me really well, but he can’t go too far because if he goes too far, he’ll get fired. Donald Trump: I said you’re amazing. You can take it right to the edge. And he really does a good job. He’s not allowed to go any further. He would be off, you know, if he really went totally crazy, which he’d like to do. But I think he’s terrific. Scott Jennings. Where’s Scott? Where are you Scott? Come here, Scott? This guy really, I’ve watched him for years. Donald Trump: I don’t know him, but he likes Trump. Come here, Scott. Oh, CNN, this is the end of Scott. Who cares? Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you, Scott. Scott Jennings, really great. Scott Jennings: Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Michigan, we were flying in here today and I said look at these farms, I got to get a farm in Michigan. Because when you own as many libs as I do, you got to put a place to put them all. Thank you all very much. [Inaudible] Thank you. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Thank you. Thank you, Scott. And I also want to thank the rest of the Michigan Republican delegation for all the work they do in Congress and who are back in Washington working on the big, beautiful bill. The big – we’re going to name it, I think, the big, beautiful bill. In 100 days, I’ve taken more than 1000 executive actions. Donald Trump: And I could recite our accomplishments all night long. And by the way, did you just see what I did? Straws, I wiped out the paper straw, a little thing. These are the little things. You sink. Have you ever tried buying a new sink and no water comes out? Your showerheads, your toilets, the whole thing, it’s a disaster. Donald Trump: We now have it so you can have as much water as you want. Because it’s not an environmental problem. You have areas that can’t get rid of their water and yet they have – they put restrictions on them. You used to take them off, but now you can’t because they’re welded in. But now you don’t have to worry about that because we’ve opened up your faucets and we’ve opened up. Especially me, I don’t like taking a shower where the water goes, drip, drip, drip onto my luxuriant hair. [Laughter] I need a lot of water. Donald Trump: I need everything I can get. I don’t need to be under a shower trying to get water to come out of that damn thing. So we’ve opened up the showerheads, the faucets, the toilets, the washing machines that don’t give you water. All of that stuff has been opened up. And we’re giving you gas ovens, gas stoves, if you’d like. Donald Trump: No more electric. You can have electric if you want. I have a lot of friends, they like gas better. You’re supposed to sell your gas stove or get it – I don’t know, who do you sell it to? Maybe another country because we’re the only country that would be so stupid to that. But the stoves, now you can have gas stoves, all you want. Donald Trump: Put four of them in your kitchen. I couldn’t care less. [Laughter] It’s all common sense. People were so angry about that. Remember? They were all angry. Get rid of your gas stove. You have to go to electric. There’s something they have with – I think that’s amazing. And by the way, Elon makes a great car, but not everybody’s going to want it. You know, they all say, oh, well, Trump is – maybe he’s under the thumb of Elon. Donald Trump: Do you think Elon was happy about ending the all-electric mandate? I don’t think he was too happy, but he’s a great guy. You know, honestly, never said a thing. He says, let me just compete fairly. By the way, it’s not fair what they’ve done to him too. That is a disgrace [Audience boos]. That is a disgrace. Donald Trump: But he’s a great guy and he’s really helped us. And you know, they’ve saved $150 billion on waste, fraud and abuse, DOGE. So, we want to thank him. He’s an incredible guy. Anybody that can land a rocket ship. I saw this thing come in. I said you’ve got to be kidding, this rocket’s coming in. You know, most of them go right into the ocean, but he lands it. I was on the phone with somebody talking and I saw this thing coming in. It’s spinning out of control coming down. Donald Trump: It’s all burning. It’s on fire, looks like hell. I said, well, just another rocket going into the ocean. And then all of a sudden you see the fire pouring out of the engines and it starts to slow up, slow, then it’s straight. Then it starts moving over a little bit. Then I say, oh no, it’s hitting the gantry, it’s going to hit. Donald Trump: And the engines go errr, straightens it out and it gets hugged, like you hug your beautiful little baby, right? And I said, who the hell did that? It was Elon. And he told me you don’t have a space program if you have to drop a $1 billion machine into the water every time you fly, you have to save those suckers. Donald Trump: So, he does. He’s an amazing guy and he’s a great American and he loves our country, he loves you. And he’s paid a big price to help, but I have a feeling it’s going to end up being good for him, actually. I really do. I established the new Presidential Commission to Make America Wealthy again chaired by our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He’s doing a good job, Dr. Oz, right? Donald Trump: He’s doing a good job. And he’s a little bit different, but I want to tell you he’s a great guy. He’s a great guy and he loves this country. Just last week, Bobby announced that we’re banning eight major artificial dyes from our food supply. Sounds good to me. And on day one, I created that very – right now, very successful Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon. Donald Trump: That was a big thing, doing that. I mean, the numbers are really incredible – DOGE. So, it was a very big thing. We terminated the left-wing money laundering scam known as USAID. How about the money that was going out? How about the money that was going out, billions and billions. They were giving individual people billions of dollars. Donald Trump: Can you believe it? People that had nothing, they got $1 billion, they got – one got $2 billion, $2 billion for the environment. Had $100 in the bank, they got $2 billion – not $2 million, you know $2 million would have been a lot, $200,000 would have been a lot, but it would have been fine. $2 billion. Donald Trump: And we directed all federal workers to return to the office in person or unfortunately they’re fired. You’re fired. You know, some of these guys got their golf handicap way down during the so-called time where they’re supposed to be working at home. You know, they weren’t working at home. Who the hell would work at home? Donald Trump: How do you work at home? They’re terrible. And we found a lot of them where they had second jobs. They were just taking us for a ride. They’re all taking us for a ride. The foreign countries were really taking us for a ride, both on military and on trade. But we stopped it and we’re stopping it. I withdrew from the unfair and ridiculous Paris Climate Accord where we were paying trillions of dollars. Donald Trump: We would have spent numbers like you wouldn’t believe and China wouldn’t have spent anything. Russia wouldn’t have spent anything. India wouldn’t have spent, but we would have spent over $1 trillion. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization where we were paying $470 million and China was paying, with a population quite a bit larger than ours, thank you, where let’s – the problem with us, we have no idea what size our population, they allowed so many people in under Biden. Donald Trump: But let’s assume it’s 325 million. China’s 1.4 billion. We were paying $470 million, and China was paying $39 million, and China was running the whole show. So, I said no thank you. I withdrew. They offered me to sign up at $39 million. I still said no, because it was sort of scammy, I didn’t like it. And Biden came back in and he signed up, and they knew we could have signed up for $39 million or less. Donald Trump: He came back in and he signed up for the same as what they were paying before, almost $500 million. Now, that’s a lot of money, but it’s nothing compared to the trillions of dollars that they waste. But that’s the way it is. They know they can sign up for less. They don’t even care. It’s like they don’t want to have the conversation. Donald Trump: And you’re talking about a $450 million difference. But they came up right in the first week. He said no, no, we’re going right back in. OK, I can understand that. But you go in for $39 million, they could make a deal for $39 million. They signed up for $472 million. And I withdrew from the anti-American UN Human Rights Council, which is totally disgusting. Donald Trump: In three months, my administration has brought home 46 American hostages and citizens detained abroad. We paid nothing. We don’t pay. We don’t pay. You know, if you pay those kidnappings go way up, we don’t pay. Every time Biden brought people back, he’d pay $6 billion. $6 billion, $6 billion. Three times they brought back three hostages. Donald Trump: Oh, how is it? Well, I think it’s a fair deal. What do we pay? $ 6 billion. Wait a minute, for three people, $6 billion – $ 6 billion. It’s not right. I mean, it’s just not right, they have no idea. Honestly, grossly incompetent, stupid people. More than Biden brought home in four years; we brought more back in just a matter of weeks than Biden brought home in years, and he paid a fortune, and we paid nothing. Donald Trump: We got Mexico to turn over 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country. And we’re charging Mexico and Canada and China big tariffs because of the fact that they’ve allowed fentanyl to come in and poison our country. They’re paying a lot of money for that. And because of that, you watch, it’s going to stop, it’s already slowing down. Donald Trump: Within six weeks we also apprehended the terrorists responsible for the attack that killed 13 American service members known as Abbey Gate. I got to know them. I got to know those families very well, they’re devastated – during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and brought him home. I mean, we brought this guy home to America. Donald Trump: We got the guy that did it, we got him. They were looking for years, but we got him. It took us to get him. We got him in the first month, brought him home to face justice. And it was that gross incompetence that probably led Putin to go in and attack Ukraine because they were never going to – that was never going to happen. Donald Trump: If I were president, the Ukraine-Russia war would have never, ever happened, not even a little chance. We have ended the weaponization of law enforcement and fired Joe Biden’s hand-picked crooks. These are pro-crime US attorneys, except if it’s a political person like me. You know, I was under investigation more than the late great Alphonse Capone. Donald Trump: Al Capone was the greatest gangster of them all. If he had dinner with you and if he didn’t like you, you were dead. You were a dead person; you’d be under a foundation somewhere in a nice big building or sports center going up. And I spent far more time under investigation than Alphonse Capone. How about that? Donald Trump: You like that? I didn’t like that. I didn’t like it. We removed senior FBI officials who were corrupt and misdirected the resources. They sent SWAT teams after grandmothers and J6 hostages. What they did to those J6 hostages [Audience boos]. And they did nothing to the people that took over Portland and took over Seattle. Donald Trump: They literally took over a big portion of Seattle or in Minnesota, Minneapolis, you remember that disaster where they said no, this is a peaceful rally. The CNN lunatic anchor, the guy has about the personality of an ant. This is not a man meant for television. He said, no, the rally is quite peaceful, then he got hit with a brick or something. Donald Trump: And over his shoulder, the entire skyline of Minneapolis was burning. You remember that one? The entire skyline was burning. And I have to be careful because that gentleman right there, one of the greatest purchasers of advertising in the history of the world, Mike Lindell, there has never been a better purchaser. Donald Trump: He comes from Minnesota. No Congratulations. He’s the greatest purchaser of ads in history. If he would have bought my ads, I could have had ten times more ads on. There’s never been – is there any station that doesn’t have a pillow ad on it? But he’s great, and he’s doing great. And he’s got a beautiful new wife and all that stuff. Donald Trump: And I’m proud of you. Look at them, holding hands. They’re still holding hands. I’m very proud of you. That’s nice. Usually, by this time, – Usually, in a lot of people I know, Mike, by this time, it’s over. It’s over. Look at you holding hands. I love that. I saw that. I pardoned hundreds of political prisoners who had been grossly mistreated. Donald Trump: We created a brand new DOJ task force on anti-Christian bias. It’s a big problem. I stripped the security clearances of the disgraced intelligence agents who lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell. Remember the laptop from hell? Remember the laptop from hell? When you had the 51 agents, they said, oh, Russia did it. Russia? Donald Trump: Russia did it. Russia did everything. Russia did it. And it was all like horrible, disgusting stuff. You hadn’t seen the worst of it, but it truly is the laptop. By the way, a very brilliant reporter for the New York Post wrote a book called The Laptop from Hell. You ought to read that book. It is really – it tells you the facts, OK? It tells you the facts. Donald Trump: It’s divine. The great – the great Ms. Divine. She wrote an amazing book, actually, The Laptop from Hell. We also terminated the clearances of the Biden crime family and Joe Biden himself because he’s corrupt. And I banned all government censorship and restored free speech in America. We have free speech. Donald Trump: We didn’t have free speech. I ended all of the lawless so-called diversity, equity and inclusion bullshit. All across the entire federal government and the private sector. And I made it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. And a really easy one, this was the easiest one I had. Donald Trump: I banned men from competing in women’s sports. You know, they always say that’s an 80/20 issue. No, it’s about a 97/3 issue. I also proudly banned the use of puberty blockers and other chemical and surgical – , right? All these mutilations of our minor youth, I banned it all. I signed executive orders to abolish critical race theory and transgender insanity from our schools and from our military. Donald Trump: We fired the woke boards of visitors at our military academies. We have great people running our military academies now. And I’ve directed the reinstatement of patriots expelled from our military by the Biden vaccine mandate with full back pay. After years of missed targets, our military suddenly has the best recruiting numbers in 30 years. Donald Trump: Every branch is setting records. Don’t think of that. Six months ago, you and I were reading that nobody wanted to join the military, right? Now, we’ve just set a record of recruitment that’s stuck. We have a waiting list of people that want to go into our military. And we have a waiting list, including for police and firefighters because our country has spirit again. Donald Trump: We have spirit. Our country has great spirit again. Last month, I signed a historic executive order to begin the process of eliminating the federal Department of Education, and send education back to Michigan. We’re going to send it back to our states, right? We’re going to send it back to our states to run. Donald Trump: I mean, how the hell bad can we do? We’re like in last place. They do badly, you’re going to do better. They’re going to do great though. I think they’re going to do great. I’m very proud of it. Linda McMahon, by the way, is doing a phenomenal job. And I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America. Donald Trump: I ordered the release of all remaining files related to the assassinations of presidents John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. And they’re all out there. And I made myself very unpopular in Mexico by renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. And we are restoring the name of a great president, William McKinley to Mount McKinley in Alaska. Donald Trump: He was a very good President. And you Italians are going to love me. Because just yesterday, I brought back Columbus Day in America, especially for Italian Americans who were so badly treated by its removal. I also signed an order to require proof of citizenship to vote in American elections. That was easy. Donald Trump: And the Democrats fought me on that. Think of it, why would they want no voter ID? Because they want to cheat. Why would they want to have no proof of citizenship? We don’t want it. We trust everybody. No, they want to cheat. That’s all they want to do. Think of that, no voter ID in Michigan. You must never allow ranked choice voting to be here. Donald Trump: Never. We’ve done this all in 14 weeks. That’s one – remember that, 100 days, we’ve done all of the things that I named and a lot more. And we’re counting and it’s going to be – it’s going to be better. Wait till you see the results of some of the things that we’re doing. In the coming weeks and months, we will pass the largest tax cuts in American history. Donald Trump: And that will include no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime. It’s called the one big, beautiful bill. And it will be the biggest bill ever passed in our country’s history. It will include the biggest tax cuts, regulation cuts, military supremacy and just about everything else. We will cut more than $1 trillion in wasteful and unnecessary spending. Donald Trump: And in the next fiscal year, it will all be done. We’re going to have something that you won’t even believe. We will end inflation. Slash prices. We’ve already ended inflation, raise wages, and give you the greatest economy in the history of the world. That’s already happening. With our tax bill, the average family’s take home pay will be at least $5,000 more than it was just a couple of months ago. Donald Trump: We will always protect Medicare and Social Security for our great seniors with no cuts. And we will defend Medicaid for those great people that are in need. House Republicans are working to invest more money in Medicaid than we spend today. The only thing we’re going to cut is the corruption and the crooks that take advantage of some of the illegal schemes. Donald Trump: So we want to preserve Medicaid for the most vulnerable for our kids, pregnant women, the poor and disabled Americans. We will fully and permanently secure our border. We will make the largest ever investment in US military and build the Golden Dome Missile Defense Shield. That’s going to protect us, so we live a long and beautiful life. Donald Trump: It’s going to be made in Michigan. And it’s going to be made right here in the USA. And one hour ago, I just made a speech at Selfridge Air Force Air National Guard Base, announcing that we are saving it, keeping it open, including thousands of jobs with a brand new state of the art F-15s, which are coming to Selfridge. Donald Trump: And we will crush violent crime and give our police the support, protection, resources and respect they so dearly deserve. I will defend religious liberty. And I will defend the right to keep and bear arms. We will celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s founding in 2026. And we will teach our children to love our country, honor our history and always respect our great American flag. Donald Trump: And one day soon, American astronauts will plant the flag on the planet Mars. That’s going to happen very soon. Every single day of my administration, we’ll continue to live by the motto promises made, and you’ve seen it before, promises kept. From Marquette to Midland from Mackinac to Saginaw and from Lansing to right here in Macomb County, we stand on the shoulders of red blooded Michigan patriots. Donald Trump: What great people. I love you, Michigan! Who laid the railroads, worked the factories, tilled the field, forged the steel, fought the battles and won the victories that built the Motor City and made this state into the pride of the American Midwest. And you know what? We’re going to make it better than it ever was. Donald Trump: It’s already happening. You see what’s happening. Michigan is the state that gave us the assembly line, Motown, Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and put the world behind the wheel of an automobile. And under our leadership, we are making greater every single day, and the automobile business in Michigan will soon – and it’s going to happen really soon. Donald Trump: It’s already happening. They’re signing left and right – because of my taxation and tariff policies, which are policies of common sense and genius, be bigger and stronger and better than ever before. It’s going to get better than ever before, and it won’t even be close. Companies will be pouring back into Michigan. Donald Trump: It was hard working patriots like you who built this country. And on November 5th, 2024, it was hard working patriots like you who saved our country. So, thanks to your help, your love and your support, after 100 days back in the White House America is a free, proud and sovereign nation once more and our magnificent destiny is closer than ever before. Donald Trump: It’s closer than ever before. You have no idea how close it is. Our golden age has only just begun. We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God. We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never back down. We will never ever surrender, we will fight, fight, fight and we will win, win, win. Donald Trump: Together we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. I love you, Michigan, I love you. Have a good time. Donald Trump: Thank you. God bless you all, God bless you.
Date: 2025-04-30
Donald Trump: Thank you very much everybody. And we’ve just completed what many are saying is the most successful – what was that noise? [Laughter] That must have been Elon. What was it? Elon Musk: Bobby’s feeling [Inaudible; Laughter] Donald Trump: Strange. That’s all right. We’ve just completed what many consider to be the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country. And we’re just getting started. Things are happening that are amazing, and I would not say it if it were in fact. In a few short weeks, we’ve achieved the most secure border in American history by far. 99.9 percent, which is a number that nobody thought was doable. Donald Trump: Biden thought you had to go back to the legislature to get legislation passed in order to create a secure border. You didn’t. You just had to have the right president and the right people working it. Congratulations, by the way, and to Tom. For two months in a row. We have set the all time records for the lowest number of illegal border crossings ever recorded. Donald Trump: The number of illegal border crossers released into the United States is down 99.999 percent. That is usually 100 percent. So I think it’s an amazing tribute and, Kristi, congratulations, and Tom and everybody else. That’s an amazing job, actually. And it was done very quickly. We officially designated Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and we’re expelling these monsters from our country rapidly and working with the Department of Justice. Donald Trump: Pam, you’re doing fantastic. Your people are amazing. We’re having some judge problems. Everybody’s reading. [Laughter] We’re having some judges that don’t like, you know, killers murderers being thrown out of the country. So I don’t know what their problem is, but we have a little difficulty. We won on the basis of a great border and of getting criminals out of our country. Donald Trump: That was why we won every swing state. We won by millions of votes. We won everything. Every – every metric, we won by a lot. It was a massive victory and we won, I think, largely because of this issue. I put this issue as number one issue, and they don’t want us to do what we’re supposed to do. And I don’t think that can be. And I hope the Supreme Court is going to fully understand what’s going on. We have to get the criminals out of our country, and that’s the basis under which we won the election. Donald Trump: Core GDP – and this is, you know, you probably saw some numbers today. And I have to start off by saying that’s Biden. That’s not Trump because we came in on January. This is quarterly numbers and we came in and I was very against everything that Biden was doing in terms of the economy destroying our country in so many ways. Donald Trump: Not only at the border, the border was more obvious, but we took over his mess in so many different ways. Core GDP, removing distortions from imports, inventories, and government spending was up plus 3 percent when you add it. We had numbers that, despite what we were handed, we turned them around and we were getting them really turned around. Donald Trump: Gross domestic investment was a whopping 22 percent. Now that is a number that people are coming in at numbers. For instance, I just walked in, I heard Samsung is now, because of the tariffs, they’re going to build massive facilities in the United States. If we didn’t do the tariffs, they wouldn’t be doing that. Donald Trump: So it takes a little while to get those facilities built, but they’re coming in with big, big numbers. They’re all coming in with big numbers. We have more money being spent than any – at any time in the history of our country. We’re up to close to $8 trillion, I think I can say. And really, it’s going to be a lot higher than that. Donald Trump: Those are just the ones that we know about. $8 trillion. I – I’m not going to say, but I don’t think – I’m not sure if Biden did $1 trillion for four years. Donald Trump: $1 trillion, but we’re at $8 trillion for two months because let’s give us a pass on the first month. We were sort of getting a little bit used to things, right? But after two months we have $8 trillion. There’s never been a number like that. And that includes chip companies, car companies, every form of manufacturing, high tech companies, nobody’s ever seen anything like it. So $8 trillion. Donald Trump: I can talk about gross domestic product, gross domestic investment. I can talk about a lot of things, but to me the biggest number is the kind of numbers that are – and these people are coming in. Our Secretary of Commerce spent the weekend, he went down to Arizona to see what was happening with the chip – the biggest chip company in the world. Donald Trump: And he said – Howard, you said you’ve never seen anything like it. Amazing. You want to just describe what you saw? Howard Lutnick: So they’re investing $165 billion in 1,100 acres in Arizona and they’re building the highest tech chip manufacturing semiconductors and 4000 employees. You know, American tradecraft, right? Technicians doing every kind of work. The classic foundation of America. He’s building it. They had 14,000 people. They were expecting 40,000 people to build the rest of their plants and to employ 20,000 people for the rest of time. Donald Trump: And you never – Howard Lutnick: – This is all driven – Donald Trump: – You never saw a site like that. Howard Lutnick: No. And this is all driven by your tariff policies. No chance this be happening without you. Donald Trump: It’s going to be about 40 percent of the chip market from that one section, and this is the biggest chip maker. They have 99 percent of the market. They come from Taiwan and, unlike the CHIP Act, which was done by Biden where they hand everybody billions of dollars, the thing they don’t need is money. They got plenty of money. Donald Trump: What they need is an incentive to come in and the tariffs – they’re building because of the tariffs. If – without the tariffs – and I’d like to say they’re building because of November 5th, the election and the tariffs. But I’m going to be a little more blunt. They’re building because of the tariffs in November 5th gave him the tariff. Donald Trump: So the – it’s amazing when you look. And these are not companies that go out and say, well, we’re going to build, we have to go get our financing. Let’s go. Like we would, in New York, everybody would look, you know, you’d get a building site and then you’d look around for money, you’d look around for financing for six months, you’d get your financing, you’d build your building, the market would be good, you’d make money, the market would be bad, it wouldn’t be so pretty. Donald Trump: You’d have to negotiate, bah, bah, bah. This is different. These people have so much money. They don’t know what to do. They – I asked Howard, did they finance it? No, they do it through cash. And they say that site – and they just started, you know, they just announced it like a month ago and they’ve already started. Donald Trump: He said I’ve never seen a site like it so big. So you know, you’re talking about a 50 – essentially a $50 billion building. Now, if you build a warehouse for $50 million, that’s a big warehouse, Scott. But a $50 billion building, that’s a lot. They’re building the electric. They’re building – they’ve become a utility. Donald Trump: And I’m giving him the right to become – they’re going to build their own electric, they’re going to build their own electricity, which they need tremendous amounts of electricity. They’re going to build it themselves. Anything they have looked, you know, left over, they’ll hook that into the grid. But the grid is old and they’re unreliable and bad things can happen to grids. Donald Trump: I said if you want, you can hook into the grid, but that’s a little bit risky or you can build your own electricity or become your own utility. And they, I think in all cases, are deciding to do that. So it’s very exciting and we have a lot of things going. We took over on January 20th, these are quarterly reports. Donald Trump: We took over on January 20th. The tariffs haven’t kicked in yet. I know that – and I don’t want this to happen, but I know that China is doing very poorly right now. I just saw some reports coming out, and I don’t want that to happen to China. I like the president a lot, President Xi. I don’t want it to happen. Donald Trump: I was – I was actually saddened to hear it, but they are getting absolutely hammered in China and, you know, they’re sending boats the biggest boats in the world carrying cargo like nobody’s ever seen before. These are the biggest boats in the world. Biggest cargo ships in the world and they’re coming – and they’re turning around in the Pacific Ocean. Donald Trump: They’re doing a big U-turn and going back because they don’t want the goods because 145 percent tariff. But at a certain point, I hope we’re going to make a deal with China. We’re talking to China, but their factories are closing all over China because we’re not taking their product. We don’t want their product unless they’re going to be fair with us. And that includes intellectual property and other things. Donald Trump: There are a lot of things far beyond just buy/sell. So we’ll see what happens. But you know, I was not – because somebody said, well, were you happy? I said I am not happy. I want China to do well. I want every country to do well, but they have to treat us fairly, also. So with that, I think we’re going to maybe go around and we have some letters where the secretaries and people around the table are making statements about how they’re doing and what’s happening. Donald Trump: And I could start with Pete on the left because he’s my least controversial person at the table. [Laughter] Pete Hegseth: Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: They don’t know how good he is. So we’ll go around the table and you can hear it. And these are cabinet meetings where they’re very open and transparent. And I can guarantee you Biden didn’t do this. He didn’t do this. Go ahead, Pete. Pete Hegseth: Well, Mr. President, I think we’re controversial because we’re over the target. And like so many things, Mr. President, you inherited a demoralized military that couldn’t recruit, that was perceived as weak after what happened in Afghanistan and elsewhere because of Joe Biden. And what we have seen since your election and the inauguration was – has been nothing short of a recruiting renaissance. Donald Trump: It’s true. Pete Hegseth: Decades – it has been – been decades since we’ve seen this kind of recruiting in the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force. The men and women of America want to join the United States military led by President Donald Trump. Donald Trump: And the police, by the way. Pete Hegseth: Absolutely. Donald Trump: And fire. I always mention the fire, but the police and fire. But the police and fire, likewise, are – I mean, they have waiting lists now and six months ago it was a disaster. Pete Hegseth: Truly historic. We can barely absorb the volume, and retention as well. Men and women in the military who don’t want to get out now that they have a real Commander in Chief. We’re reinforcing standards, we’re going to be fit, not fat in our formations. We’ve welcomed back all the COVID – the folks that were forced out because of the COVID mandate. Pete Hegseth: We ripped wokeness out of the military, sir. DEI, trans, and it’s Fort Benning and Fort Bragg again at the DOD. We’re rebuilding the military, sir. The Golden Dome is well underway. F-47 reassuring allies and deterring enemies. We found nearly $6 billion in DOGE savings that we’re going to reinvest, including $50 billion from the Biden administration focused on things like climate that have nothing to do with lethality and warfighting. Pete Hegseth: And we will have, as you said, sir, the first $1 trillion budget that we plan to spend wisely on behalf of our warfighters from day one. Sir, we’ve gotten 100 – helped get 100 percent operational control of the border, come alongside DHS and CBP. We’ve got 11,000 troops on the border who now, because of the new national defense area, sir, can help detain illegals at the border and hand them over to CBP. It used to be, if you saw camouflage on the border, they could hold binoculars and that’s it. Now, we can detain and assist, and we are. Pete Hegseth: We’re going to get 100 percent operational control of that border. Our NATO allies know they have to step up. The Houthis in the Middle East are feeling the weight of American power and we’re deterring Communist China. So because of your leadership, sir, I believe we’re making the military great again. I thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Howard? Howard Lutnick: So I have the pleasure of running the investment accelerator, which gets to recruit these companies and you’ve never seen anything like the companies committed to building in America. Technology companies have committed over $2.5 trillion to build in America based on your tariffs, right? Sovereign countries all backing, the whole Middle East and all these countries backing their sovereign wealth funds. Howard Lutnick: They all want to invest in America and they’re coming in. Again, over $3 trillion committed. So just those two topics. You had $5.5 trillion and then you’ve got the whole pharma industry knows it’s got to come home because America pays for all the drugs of the world. So, the pharmaceuticals have to come home, right? Howard Lutnick: Autos coming, home, industrial is coming home. So you know, we’ve got to train and your great Secretary of Labor together and Secretary of Education together, we’re going to train the workforce to build America. It’s unbelievable. We’ve got so much, as I travel around, the attention on the Trump gold card. Howard Lutnick: I mean, it makes me very popular. Last night, I was out to dinner and someone came up and said, can I buy 10? And how do I buy 10? And I’m like that’s pretty good. That’s $50 million for dinner. So you know, it’s paying – paying for my dinner. [Laughter] The External Revenue Service, right? You’ve got the tariffs and the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars coming in to build the External Revenue Service. Howard Lutnick: That our objective of course is to replace the External Revenue Service and let those outside countries trading with us, let them pay their fair share to America. And then, of course, you got rid of de minimis. And what happened is these foreign countries were sending in little packages for free and knocking out our mom and pop businesses across America. Howard Lutnick: You put an end to it and you’re going to rebuild the mom and pop and the Small Business of America. You’re their president, and I’m proud to support you. Donald Trump: It’s very important. De minimis. It’s very – it’s a big deal. It’s a big scam going on against our country, against really small businesses and we’ve ended it. We put an end to it. Sean Duffy: Mr. President. Donald Trump: Please. Sean Duffy: So uh, cafe standards uh, we have the fuel economy standards on vehicles that are going to go to 50 miles per gallon. We are going to rewrite those standards, bring it down to something that’s far more reasonable. Uh, Elon’s fine with that, I hope. [Laughter] But – but it’s going to drive down – it’s going to drive down the price of a car in America, making cars more affordable for families. Sean Duffy: Uh, also Biden had the social cost of credit when we build infrastructure, roads and bridges, adding three to five percent on infrastructure costs. Uh, we’ve gotten rid of the social cost of carbon, driving down the cost to build roads and bridges across the country. Uh, we have, uh, what is called follow the law. Sean Duffy: So we have so many states and municipalities that don’t follow the law. So whether it’s DEI discriminating against Americans, whether, uh, they, uh, they, uh, give illegals driver’s license or their sanctuary cities or states, if you don’t follow the law, if you’re given license to illegals, if you’re having DEI policies, we’re not going to fund your projects. Sean Duffy: So you got to certify in your state or in your city to get road and bridge money or rail money that you’re actually following the law, which includes the executive orders from you, Mr. President. We’re cutting back funding. We – we send research money, Mr. President, to – to – to universities to do research on, uh, more equitable and sustainable transportation systems. Sean Duffy: Projects that will use data and public opinion to inform policy and infrastructure and technology benefiting diverse communities including women and gender nonconforming people. Just stupid waste of money. We’re pulling that money back from universities. We should do good research. Uh, if we’re – if we’re doing research in universities. Sean Duffy: And then one last thing, uh, air traffic control. We don’t have enough air traffic controllers, about 3000 short. We’re working on an agreement with the union, so when – when controllers become retirement eligible, we’re going to cut a deal to try to get them to stay longer, stay in the tower. And then we have a plan to put more butts in seats in Oklahoma City, so we can get more students through the academy and into towers as well. Sean Duffy: It’s going to take us a while to do that, to train them up. But we’re in the process before – before our four years are done. Well, before that, we’re going to be at full capacity. Donald Trump: John, do you want to tell them about, I think we have to bring it up. We have very obsolete equipment for air traffic controllers. The equipment, the towers have horrible equipment. It’s been renovated for years. The money they spent over the last four years. This Buttigieg did a horrible job. They wasted billions and billions of dollars hooking up wire equipment to non-wire equipment to satellite equipment. Donald Trump: And you’re not – a third grade student would know it doesn’t work. You can’t work. And they spent – they wasted tens of billions of dollars. But we want to put a brand new air traffic control system in. And you might want to describe that this. Sean Duffy: You and I have talked about this, it’s a state of the art system. It’s the envy of the world. And it’s – I mean, listen, I don’t – our system is safe, but you would have hoped someone would have seen that there’s a problem with – with fixed wing aircraft and helicopters coming in at DCA. Someone should have seen that before we – we lost almost 70 lives. Sean Duffy: It’s our job to look and see that we have an aging infrastructure around air traffic control. And so if we don’t – if we don’t build a brand new system, there’s going to be failures and people will lose their lives. And so we need the help of congress to – to help fund this, but it’s going to be all brand new. Sean Duffy: And after you build a brand new system, we have the bedrock and the foundation to actually build on top of it. But no one has done this, Mr. President. There’s – there’s Band-Aid fixes that have happened over the course of 20 years. You can’t have a Band-Aid fix. It doesn’t get done. It has to be brand new. Sean Duffy: We – the technology, it looks like it’s out of a 1980s movie, old computers, floppy disks. Um, we’re using copper wires, not fiber. So there are – there are great solutions we have available that – by the way, everyone’s sick of their delayed flights or their canceled flights. Unidentified: That’s right. Sean Duffy: Um, we have more capacity in the airspace and if we – if we rebuild – not rebuild, if we build this brand new system, what you’ll have is more efficiency in the airspace. And it will be safer, so the economy will be stronger. We can have more flights and less delays. So I appreciate your support on that, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Rebuilding that is very important. You wouldn’t have had the helicopter crashing into the plane at 400ft up where it’s supposed to be 200ft. That would have – bells and whistles would have been gone over. And you would have heard you would have heard the screaming equipment saying there’s a problem coming up in 15 seconds. Donald Trump: You got to do something about it right now. And it would have – it would have also sent the word right into the helicopter because I guess you’ll be doing the full report on that. But it was pretty obvious what happened. Sean Duffy: That’s right. Donald Trump: And they were supposed to be a 200ft, they were at 400ft and a terrible thing. That wouldn’t have happened if we had the right equipment. If we had the right equipment, you would have heard bells and whistles going off. And it would have alerted them long before that would have happened, two minutes before. Donald Trump: It would have gave a lot of time. So we have to do this. We have no choice. And we’re going to do it. And we’re going to be very proud of it. They did old equipment in new equipment. And you can’t hook in old equipment to new equipment because it’s different, some is satellite and some is ground. The satellite doesn’t work. Donald Trump: This man would know that better than anybody. But you can’t hook up a satellite system to a ground wired system. And if you do, you’re wasting a lot of money. They spent billions, this is Buttigieg. They spent billions and billions of dollars trying to patch a system together. They had hundreds of different contractors. Donald Trump: And the contractors were all fighting with each other. We’re going to have one great big contractor like the great big, beautiful bill. [Laughter] Which we’re working on, which is going along very well. I guess I like great, big, beautiful, but we’re going to have one great big, beautiful contractor, whether it’s maybe Raytheon, maybe IBM, maybe it could be any one of four or five different groups. Donald Trump: But you put one in charge. They’re very big, very powerful monetarily. And they give you a guarantee, and they hook up everything. They do every single thing. So they’re responsible for the digging of the ditches and the fiber and every single element. And it’s one system that’s hooked in. It’s not all these hodgepodge systems that don’t work together. Donald Trump: And it’s just a shame. I mean, it was – it’s basic construction, but it’s complex stuff. And there are a few companies that do it unbelievably well. And we’re going to have that. So good job, Sean. I know that’s your – that’s your big project. Sean Duffy: Mr. President, no one has done it because it is complex. It’s hard to do. Because as you’re – as you’re building a brand new system, you have planes taking off and landing. And so because it’s complex, no one has done it. And you’ve given the directive and the support to make this happen, so thank you. Donald Trump: Well, ours is going to be an all new system. It’s going to all hook up. It’s going to be the same. The same tower is going to have the same equipment and all towers all over the country all over the world actually mostly are going to be hooked in together. And when there’s a problem when planes are too close, you will hear a sound that’s very ear shattering. Donald Trump: And I’ve heard it. And it’s amazing. I mean, honestly it’s amazing, it’s real genius stuff. And we didn’t do that. What we did was just waste money. You could have just thrown it right out the window with what they did. What they did in this last four years was disgraceful, whether it was the border or this you could name a hundred different things. Donald Trump: The worst administration ever. OK. Sean Duffy: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. Douglas Collins: Hey, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Secretary, thank you Douglas Collins: Mr. President, thank you. And I think one of the things that I wanted people to understand about the VA is we’re part of the national security interests you have. And you’ve laid the groundwork for that. If leadership and making sure that uh, the secretary of Defense and myself, we take care of veterans on two ends, one when they come in and one when they serve and they’ve earned the benefits that we have. Douglas Collins: And one of the things is if we’re not doing our job on our end, then the recruitment and all goes down on the other end because we have a full spectrum. That’s what leadership is about. What we found, speaking of the last four years, is we found an administration that wanted to throw money and people at problems, but they didn’t want to put leadership in it. They just put money in people at it. And we saw wait times stay the same. Douglas Collins: We saw issues of suicide rates, death by suicide not change. We saw homelessness issue barely go down. We saw disability claims skyrocket. When you took place, over 250,000, uh, which we’re already bringing down almost 40,000 so far just in the last couple of months. But we’ve also put back what you and I was in congress when this happened, and I was glad to see the MISSION Act is back front and center at the VA. We’re actually doing community care. Douglas Collins: We’re actually giving the veteran the choice that they’ve earned, and they deserve when they can get their VA care inside our facilities or in the community. It’s their choice. It’s VA care. We’re going to give them the highest quality care wherever they want to go. Also, we’re expanding out options for treatments and others for those that are new. Douglas Collins: We’re experimenting and looking at new counseling ideas on new drug techniques that we can help with PTSD, TBI, the things that are affecting our veterans right now. But also we’ve taken the leadership to take people and bring them back into work where they’re actually communicating. They’re back in our offices. Douglas Collins: We put thousands of people back in. We’re processing more claims daily than we were in the last little bit, hit a million before has ever happened and we’re actually bringing that down. And I’ve actually taken our deputy secretary and he is actually handling a strike force now to bring down that disability claim, plus our regular work that we’re having done. Douglas Collins: We’ve also taken almost $300 million plus and taking it out of contracts that we’ve all heard about so far. We were doing contracts for meeting notes and PowerPoints. And if our folks didn’t know how to do meeting notes and PowerPoint, go online and learn yourself. We’re not going to pay for it anymore. And we took $360 million and put it back into community care and also our health records management system that we have. Douglas Collins: We’ve opened six new facilities just in the last little bit for – so all the media who wants to talk about how we’re hurting healthcare, we just opened six new facilities. Douglas Collins: By the way, thank you. You’re welcome. As we go from that, do we continued? We’ve also took $11.6 billion in sealing values of contracts and terminated that we did not need resulting in significant cost avoidance for the future, but also still maintaining the ability to take care of our patients and also our disability benefits. Douglas Collins: We’ve also gotten unity again. We did away with $14 million in DEI spending. We’ve ended gender dysphoria treatments. We phase that out. All directed the savings from that go to paralyzed veterans and amputees. We’ve also continued to work toward, as you’ve – anti-Semitism and also anti-Christian bias that we saw. Douglas Collins: The biggest thing though, Mr. President, I wanted to say, as you told me when you said for me to take this job, you said take care of my veterans. Well, we’ve done something in taking that step forward. The veteran is back first at the VA. The VA is not about itself anymore. We’re not a self-feeding animal. Douglas Collins: It’s about a service organization that takes care of one of the best that we have, and that’s our veterans. And with that, Mr. President, we’re just getting started. Donald Trump: Thank you, Doug. How are you doing with the suicide rates? Douglas Collins: We’re getting – it’s tough, Mr. President. That’s something that we’re looking at. We’ve – this is something for – that we’ve had $588 million has been spent over the last four or five years to – to do prevention. And yet, the numbers stayed at 17 or 21, wherever you want to have it. We’re now opening that back up, taking in nonprofits. Douglas Collins: We’re bringing in others who have things that are actually looking at. I’ve worked with Kennedy – Senator Kennedy and others on the idea of we’re opening up the possibility of psychedelic treatment and others that give us an opportunity. We’ve got to research it, make sure it’s good, but it’s opening up that possibility. Douglas Collins: And I think, again, veterans are understanding now that we’re putting them first. I’m getting – when I go to these hospitals, they’re actually coming up saying thanks. We’re back in where we need to be and we’re seeing a workforce develop. So suicide is going to come down. It’s also going to take some transition stuff that your Secretary of Defense has been very helpful on. We’ve got to transfer them out of the military so they come to us better, but we’re working on that. Donald Trump: Very good. Thank you. Jamieson. Jamieson Greer: Mr. President, it may come as a surprise, but this has been the busiest 100 days – [Laughter] In the history – Donald Trump: – By the way, in history. You know this is the biggest deal ever done. If you sold IBM, ExxonMobil, and five other companies together, it’s peanuts compared to what we’re doing. This is the biggest deal ever done financially in the history of the world, and we’re doing – I think we’re doing great. You’re going to see some big, big results. Donald Trump: Go ahead. Jamieson Greer: And I’ll just say something that Secretary Duffy said in his context. Because it’s complex, no one has done it. So this is something a reordering of global trade that hasn’t happened since the end of World War II. And it’s long overdue because we’ve seen manufacturing offshore under the old global trading system when the net result of the global trading system is that all the manufacturing goes to Asia and other places. Jamieson Greer: That’s the system you have to replace. That’s what you’re doing. They said you wouldn’t be able to do global tariffs. We did it. They said everyone would retaliate. No one retaliated outside of China. They said no one would come to negotiate. We’re talking to dozens of countries. They said no one would have offers. Jamieson Greer: We have dozens of written offers. We have lots of countries in this week. This is like a break for me to come – [Laughter] Donald Trump: Do you have the list [Inaudible] – Jamieson Greer: – Sure – Donald Trump: – With all the countries that want to negotiate? Jamieson Greer: Sure. So this is – Donald Trump: They all want to negotiate. They want to make a deal. Jamieson Greer: Don’t zoom in on this. Yeah, this is just a – this is like a tracker, right, with all these columns of – of which countries have come in. When we started negotiations, who gave us an offer, are we in technical talks, and when do we expect to have deals done? Those are some some weeks out, but we’re working very quickly on this. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you, Jamieson. You’re going to have a lot of fun for the next three weeks. [Laughter] Jamieson Greer: It will be fun. It will be fun. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Mike Waltz: Mr. President, the last four years, the world experienced a total lack of leadership under – under Biden, and then we’ve had 100 days of your leadership with – with respect, with strength starting with they’ll be all hell to pay if you don’t let our people go. Dozens, over 40 Americans, have come home under your leadership are. Mike Waltz: Far more terrorists are no longer threatening the homeland under your leadership, pulling all of these agencies together, including the person, the evil individual responsible for the Abbey Gate bombing and to sit with the 13 Gold Star families and you showing that follow up and that – and that justice has been incredible. Mike Waltz: But pulling this great team together, Mr. President, everything from revitalizing shipyards to cyber to space that takes this entire team working together, it’s an honor to serve you in this administration, and I think the world is far better, far safer for it. Unidentified: Amen. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. The Abbey Gate is really important. This is a horrible thing. Destroyed the image, frankly, of the Biden administration. What happened there was a disgrace. It should have never happened. And Pam is working very much on prosecuting that person. We have the person and he’ll do well. I have no doubt about it. Thank you very much, Michael. Donald Trump: So the CIA, I don’t know, Ratcliffe, I don’t know if he’s going to say anything. [Laughter] He’s probably the one person here that’s not allowed to talk about the great job he’s done, but go ahead anyway. John Ratcliffe: Mr. President, as you know, at your direction, the CIA has deployed our unique covert action authorities in various places and continents to successfully advance your national security and foreign policy priorities, to advance peace, to end wars, to take terrorists off the battlefield, and to keep illicit drugs from coming into this country and harming Americans. John Ratcliffe: Unfortunately as much as I would love to detail your accomplishments in that regard, we can’t do so with this crowd. [Laughter] But you and I both know Mr. President that you have had a profound positive impact on America’s national security posture and Americans are safer because of your leadership. What I can talk about publicly is, as has been mentioned, the CIA provided the intelligence that led to the apprehension of the Abbey Gate bomber who is now being prosecuted by our great Attorney General and providing a measure of justice to those 13 families that suffered as a result of that disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal during the last administration. John Ratcliffe: In addition, at your direction, Mr. President, the CIA has negotiated and secured the release of Americans like Marc Fogel and Ksenia Carolina who have been wrongfully detained, sending the message that you will forget about no Americans that are being held in other places unfairly and unjustly. And finally, Mr. President, the CIA is being restructured at your direction to focus on our core mission and to eliminate the political – the well-documented politicization that has taken place in the intelligence community from bad actors in the past to focus on our core mission and to make America safe again. John Ratcliffe: Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Good job. You’re doing a great job. Thank you very much. Russell. Russell Vought: We’re obviously involved in a number of budget bills that are moving, trying to make sure all of your priorities are reflected in the reconciliation working on our upcoming budget. Wonderful job by the entire cabinet on that front. Details soon on that front. Sending up precisions bills to Congress for things that Elon has found. Russell Vought: But the regulatory aspect is something we don’t talk about enough. And right now, you’ve given us a goal of 10 for 1. We are working right now with all of the agencies to rack up how big of a deregulatory agenda that we can have. When you came into office, you basically stopped $200 billion, in cost to American families just by stopping the Biden regulatory agenda. Russell Vought: That’s about $2,000 per family. We think when we’re going to hit these 10 for 1 goals that we could be in the neighborhood of about $900 billion in savings to American families that would be substantially bigger than that $2,000 number. And the point that I would make in addition to just savings cheaper to the American people, there’s an aspect of – of wisdom when you’re enforcing these rules that comes into play. Russell Vought: And I’m your regulator for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and we found this – this small mortgage lender in Chicago. His name is Barry Sterner. He had a firm called Townstone and CFPB had gone after him because he complained about crime in Chicago, literally the same thing that the Democrat mayor had talked about, and they came after him for seven years on a redlining disparate impact claim and ruined his life. Russell Vought: We overturned that. We apologized on your behalf to that individual. And we basically, without having to go through notice and comment, we ended the policy that set that in motion. And so that’s happening across these agencies with how they are using their enforcement discretion and it will only continue based on the – the – the stone wall of backing that you’ve given us to make these hard calls. Russell Vought: I don’t think they’re actually that hard, but no one’s done it to this point. And we have – we were able to go forward and do that because of the backing that you’ve given us. Donald Trump: So maybe the biggest thing we’re working on, maybe bigger than tariffs at a certain sense, is the – we call it the one big beautiful bill and that’s wielding its way right now through the Senate. And John Thune has been actually amazing. And the speaker has been so great, Congress Mike Johnson has been – really two guys that they get along great and it’s just been a beautiful, unified attack, really because we have to attack because the Democrats are trying to stop it at every – every turn. Donald Trump: It would mean a 58 percent tax hike if they were successful and lots of other bad things beyond the tax hike. But with us, it will be the biggest tax cut in American history. How are we doing with the bill? Russell Vought: We’re doing great. We’re day in day out hour by hour negotiations to make sure your stuff is in there and to make sure we have the border resources, the defense resources and to save the American people some tax money. And – and make sure all those tax cuts that you ran on are in there that help get people back into the workforce. Russell Vought: And I think we’re making a ton of progress. Donald Trump: OK, very good. I think we’re doing well. Um, like I said, the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. And it would be the biggest tax increase if the Democrats are successful. They’re the only people I’ve ever seen running for office where they want to increase taxes. But this would be a 58, maybe a 60 percent tax increase. Donald Trump: Unsustainable for the American people. Thank you very much. Great job. Susie, the most powerful woman in the world, I’d say. I agree with that. [Laughter] I agree. Susie Wiles: I’ll be brief so you can hear from these amazing people. Um, congratulations to everyone on a – on 100 days that’s been unparalleled in – in my memory and best I can tell ever. Um, but it hasn’t been busy for busy sake. The president’s promises made to the American people have been kept time and time and time again. Susie Wiles: I all You all have been out there spreading the word with community groups and states and media. Um, it hasn’t gone unnoticed. And um, let’s – let’s work hard for the next 100 and have equally as much success then. Thank you. Donald Trump: And you’ve done a great job, Susie? Susie Wiles: Yeah. Donald Trump: I think everybody agrees, right? Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: We have – do we have anybody that disagrees, please? [Laughter] In front of the media. Unidentified: [Inaudible; Laughter] Donald Trump: Please raise your hand if you have the courage to do so. Anyway, go ahead. Unidentified: She’s the best. Scott Turner: Yes, sir, Mr. President. Thank you. And you made it very clear that you wanted to put America first. And also from day one you wanted to make housing affordable again because we do have a housing affordability crisis in our country. And so at HUD, we’ve been cutting all the red tape and bureaucracy as it pertains to housing affordability and unleashing the creativity of our builders and developers around our country and restoring local control. Scott Turner: We took down the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule as you know, which was a zoning tax from Washington. Donald Trump: Yeah. Scott Turner: So no longer will Washington be picking winners and losers, but localities and elected officials in different states and cities will have that flexibility. Also you alluded to securing the border. And such a great job have been done with all of our partners at the table. And at HUD, we want to make sure that the resources that we have now, which is American taxpayer dollars and the Biden administration, they prioritize illegal aliens over the American people. Scott Turner: And so we signed an MOU with Secretary Noem at DHS to make sure that HUD funded housing only goes to American citizens. And no longer will it go to illegal aliens coming across our border. We have about 9 million people living in subsidized housing in our country. 59 percent of illegal alien families use some sort of welfare program costing us $42 billion a year. Scott Turner: And so we have prioritized American and American people only to live in HUD funded housing. And also to make housing affordable, we also signed a partnership with Secretary Burgum at DOI to use underutilized federal lands as you campaigned on and promised to identify those lands to build affordable housing in our country so that people can realize the American Dream. Scott Turner: We also restored biological truth, as you did in sports. Uh, we have the equal access rule at HUD, which we take – we took that rule down to ensure that at women shelters, uh, that those that enter – enter those shelters would be of the same sex. And that we would protect the ladies of our country. Uh, no longer will those that identify as women, but are not women be able to enter our shelter so that we can protect the ladies, uh, that we serve. Scott Turner: Along with our DOGE task force, we identified over $2 billion in savings at HUD, $260 million at HUD was just in contracts, $4 million were DEI. And so we took those contracts down and re-obligated and sent back $1.9 billion back to the Treasury for the American people. Again, we want to be good stewards of the American taxpayer dollars. Scott Turner: And so Mr. President, thank you for your leadership in this. And we have a tremendous team at HUD. And I’m so grateful to be part of this team around this table to take care of the American people. And I consider it a great honor and humble to do so. Donald Trump: Good job. Scott Turner: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Donald Trump: Appreciate it. Brooke? Brooke Rollins: Well, I’m not sure if anyone’s heard, but the price of eggs is down. [Laughter] I mean, that’s news. I know it’s news. Listen, sir, today on – as we celebrate the 100th day, I think that it’s just such a joy and an honor to – to continue to do this work. So thank you for that. We have been obviously very focused on the cost of groceries, specifically eggs led the way as you have so eloquently discussed over the last few months. Brooke Rollins: And – and we’re holding tight on a very significant decrease, which is great and – and investing where we need to there. As I mentioned before, the press came in, we have had a massive issue with Mexico on water, getting water to our farmers along the border for decades. When I worked in Texas 25 years ago, we were fighting with the Mexican government over the water then. Brooke Rollins: You got involved about two weeks ago. That evening I started conversations. And as of just a few days ago, thanks to Secretary Rubio’s great deputy secretary and I have been negotiating. And we hit the best deal, I believe, in history on behalf of our farmers. And thanks to your leadership and your strength on that. Brooke Rollins: And that’s a – that’s a really big deal long term for those farmers in the South, in the southern part of the country. On the energy side, I know we’ve got Secretary Burgum and his partner Secretary Wright, but we often forget that agriculture has a major piece of the energy dominance agenda, not just timber, not just minerals, but biofuels. Brooke Rollins: So we continue to support that great leadership coming from those agencies and – and doing hopefully our part as well. And they’ve been incredible in that. Uh, our farmers have been hurting. Under the Joe Biden administration, there was a 30 percent increase in the cost of inputs. So the cost of doing business for these farmers over those four years. Brooke Rollins: When we left the White House the first time four years ago, we had a $0 trade deficit with our agriculture products. After four years of Biden, that hit $ 50 billion because they just didn’t make an effort. And so obviously that’s $50 billion less dollars at a time of very thin profitability for our agriculture community. Brooke Rollins: So the Congress passed a – because the last administration didn’t get a farm bill done either, the farmers were hurting there. So congress stepped in. I say all that and uh, basically said $10 billion to move out USDA fastest in history. That money went out to those farmers that couldn’t make their – plant their crops. Brooke Rollins: And so I’m really proud of that. And you’ll hear a lot of that from farmers today that this USDA is moving more quickly than any ever before. And we’re not, we’re not organizing money based on the color of skin and other ways, which was how the last administration was moving out. Um, we have canceled $6 billion in contracts, thanks to our great friend, Elon Musk and his DOGE team. Brooke Rollins: A lot of those were DEI, gender, studying transgender mice. You know, who knew the – the racism in pest management. We’ve canceled all of it. Uh, we’re going through a major, major restructuring. USDA is one of the biggest agencies. It’s sort of a catch all. And uh, and we’re really, really downsizing and aligning around putting farmers first, which is really, really important. Brooke Rollins: A big part of USDA is food stamps. It is perhaps one of the largest if not the largest welfare program. Uh, and – and it’s a supplemental nutrition program. Uh, Secretary Kennedy and I have been working very closely. We were in Texas yesterday talking about nutrition and agriculture. You can’t make America healthy again without your farmers and ranchers as your partner. Brooke Rollins: So ensuring that our food stamp program, uh, and those at the bottom end of the socioeconomic ladder really have access to nutritious foods as we’re facing an obesity crisis and a chronic disease crisis, which I’m sure Secretary Kennedy will touch on. And the final thing I’ll say is this morning Secretary Noem and I, together, and I brought a picture because I think this is important. Brooke Rollins: And it goes to why we’re here. This is a South Dakota ranching family named the Maudes. They are a fifth generation fifth generation ranching family. Charles Maude, in his 30s, bought the ranch from his granddad, I’m going to show the press, when he was 17 years old. Those beautiful children Kyle, Lyle and Kennedy, his wife Heather. Brooke Rollins: Um, under the Biden administration, they had – of their several hundred acre operation, they used about 20 acres and had a fence that had been there since 1910 when their family took over – took over the ranching operation. There had never been really any – any problem that had been brought to their attention. Brooke Rollins: Perhaps there was a minor dispute over 20 acres. Uh, this family was indicted, prosecuted, threatened with jail time, told to find guardians for their children over a fence line disput that the Biden, DOJ pushed forward. So this morning and the steps of the US Department of Agriculture with Secretary Noem, who was their governor as the governor of South Dakota, which is where these great people are from, all charges – criminal charges were dropped and really appreciate the Department of Justice. Brooke Rollins: It was a – a really big day as we sent the signal that the over criminalization and using government – government, and you know this better than anyone because you were in the crosshairs for so long, that those days are over and the regulation through prosecution is no more. And so this family is one of many that will now be talking to, to ensure that never happens again. Donald Trump: Good. Thank you. Brooke Rollins: Thank you. Donald Trump: Great job. Please, Scott. Scott Bessent: Sir, it’s been a momentous 100 days with you at the helm, and I view this 100 days as setting the table for peace deals, trade deals, tax deals. So the next 100 days will be harvesting. You’ve created negotiating leverage and leadership. They’re going to yield remarkable results. Energy costs have plummeted. Scott Bessent: Mortgage rates are down. Food costs are moving lower and American families are finding their financial footing again. I had a group in today. We are – America under your leadership is on the verge of becoming an AI superpower that our economy had become barbelled. We had high tech and finance on one side, natural resources led by energy, which the previous administration tried to kill on the other, and you’re filling in between the – with precision manufacturing that we’re going to be bringing back through good trade policies, good tax policies. Scott Bessent: The – under the DOGE at Treasury and the IRS, cost, tech support, and efficiency have increased. We have – the IRS revenues are up and, thanks to the young man sent over by DOGE, the IT update that began in 1990, which is – [Laughter] Which was begun before he was born, is going to be finished during your term. Scott Bessent: So trade – you couldn’t make it up. Trade, taxes, and deregulation, the one big beautiful bill under your leadership, Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune have done a great job. But they – they have you as the closer on many of their members. And I’ll just close by saying economic security is national security. Scott Bessent: National security is economic security, and it’s never been better. We’re rebuilding it. And as I said last week, the IMF and world Bank conferences America First does not mean America alone. Under President Trump, it means leadership. Unidentified: Yeah. Well said. Donald Trump: Are you busy enough? [Laughter] He’s doing a great job. Thank you very much. J.D. Vance: Mr. President, thank you and thanks to the cabinet. So at the risk of insulting everybody else at the table, I believe that I am the youngest member sitting at the table. [Laughter] And you know, it occurred to me that from the time that I was born to the time that Donald J. Trump was inaugurated just a few months ago, we went from, again, 40 years, we went from the world’s manufacturing superpower to one in which we depend on the People’s Republic of China to make the things that we need. J.D. Vance: We went from the proudest military in the world to one in which we fail to meet our recruiting goals. And we went from one in which bipartisan border policy was the consensus of both Democrats and Republicans to one in which we allowed 20 million people to run roughshod illegally over the countryside causing crime, causing distress in the welfare system. J.D. Vance: And again, that happened over the lifetime of the youngest member of the cabinet. And what has happened in 100 days is that we’ve started to reverse every single one of those negative trends. And I think what it shows to me is that the president, and you sit in the Oval Office and you see these portraits of presidents past. J.D. Vance: And let’s be honest, most of them have been placeholders. They’ve been people who have allowed their staff to sign executive orders with an autopen instead of men of action. And the reason the media attacks this administration as chaotic is because the president is solving the problems the American people set about to solve. J.D. Vance: He’s actually doing the things that he promised that he would do. And Mr. President, it’s been an honor to be part of it for the past 100 days. And let me just make one other observation because it’s interesting. I’ve seen the data, I’ve monitored it. I’ve looked at it, but the most underreported fact of the first 100 days is that we came in with a massive recruitment shortfall. J.D. Vance: And in 100 days of Secretary Hegseth and President Trump’s leadership, we now have people breaking down the doors to join our military. To the media assembled here, it’s a really interesting question. Why has that happened? Completely aside from the fact that I think it’s a good thing or I think that President Trump deserves political credit for it, why did we go from a military where people didn’t want to serve to now all of a sudden they do want to serve? J.D. Vance: That’s a story you guys should cover. But compared to that, how much time have you instead focused on the fact that we deported an MS-13 gang member with a valid deportation order? And why is it that the press is so focused on the fake BS rather than what’s really going on in the country? I think that what we’ve shown, sir, is that you can do a lot. J.D. Vance: You can do a lot in 100 days, but you’ve also unfortunately revealed that too much of the American media hasn’t learned the lessons of the past 40 years. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Pam? Pam Bondi: Mr. President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country ever, ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you. Your directive to me was very simple, make America safe. And despite that, we’ve still been defending over 200 civil lawsuits filed against you on top of everything else. Pam Bondi: I think I’m representing every one of you in this room in some capacity. [Laughter] And no, you will not be arrested by the US Marshals. [Laughter] Over 200 lawsuits, over 50 injunctions, and now we’ve got multiple cases in front of the Supreme Court and we will succeed and we are doing great in front of the Supreme Court, President, and we’ll continue on with that. Pam Bondi: I was at DEA yesterday and they said to me, you, Donald Trump, have taken the handcuffs off of DEA agents. And as a result of – since you have been in office President Trump, your DOJ agencies have seized more than 22 million fentanyl pills, 3400 kilos of fentanyl. Since you’ve been – your last hundred days, which saved, are you ready for this, media? 258 million lives. Pam Bondi: Kids are dying every day because they’re taking this junk laced with something else. They don’t know what they’re taking. They think they’re buying a Tylenol or an Adderall and a Xanax and it’s laced with fentanyl and they’re dropping dead. And no longer, because of you, what you’ve done. ATF, since you’ve been in office, President, along with DOJ agencies, seized 14,500 guns off the streets. Pam Bondi: Why aren’t people reporting that? 651,000 rounds of ammo. That’s up 151 percent from 2024. That’s keeping America safe. We’ve rescinded death penalty – we are now seeking the death penalty on cases. I’m signing death warrants. We are going after terrorism. We are going after arsonists. Whether you’re burning Teslas – we will – we’ve arrested 9 people so far in 7 jurisdictions, no negotiations, 20 years in prison, or you’re burning down the governor’s mansion in Pennsylvania, we will be there to protect you. Pam Bondi: And I’ve been talking to Governor Shapiro and he greatly appreciated you reaching out as well. ISIS terrorist. We got one in New York. Right around the corner. We got an ISIS terrorist in New York. We have an October 7th task force. We just broke up a huge human trafficking ring by the Sinaloa cartel. 1,000 pounds of meth, meth, methamphetamine on our streets. Pam Bondi: A ton of fentanyl. 20,000 molly pills. Those are the drug of choice among clubs and bars for young kids. They were fake, but you know what they had in them? Fentanyl. That’s 20,000 lives saved because of you right there. We brought back 29 cartel members from Mexico at your direction. And one killed the Kiki Camarena, a DEA agent in 1985. And many of us got to talk to his widow and his son, who is now a judge, and they started crying. Pam Bondi: They have tried to get that guy back forever and thanks to so many of you in this room working together, they have justice. They were crying on the phone because of what you did, President Trump. Thank you. We’re going after antisemitism. We’re unleashing everything you told us. No more DEI, no more weaponization. Pam Bondi: We have rescinded, as I said, 200 policies. And I could go on all day long, but we are doing everything in our power to keep America safe at your direction. Donald Trump: Thank you, Pam. Pam Bondi: Thank you, President. Donald Trump: You really did a great job. Thank you very much. OK, let’s go. Kristi Noem: Nice to see you, Mr. President. Well, first of all, I think what you’ve heard amongst this team is the leadership because it’s given us the latitude really to collaborate amongst each other. Not only in this room, as Jamieson mentioned, we kind of get a break for a couple of hours here, but we stay in contact. Kristi Noem: Actually every other day that that we’re working for you. And I think what that says is I was speaking to, for instance, the Farm Bureau of Texas yesterday. I’m not the ag secretary, but it matters to the workforce. I’m working with the other secretaries, Lutnick and McMahon on education and the workforce investments that you’ve asked me to do. Because as you’ve come in and negotiated these great repatriation of these companies and the investments we’re going to need that workforce to build back this economy. Kristi Noem: And I couldn’t see that more as I kicked off my 50 state tour. We’ve been in five states so far. We’ll finish all 50 states by the end of the year. And what we’re talking to is the American workforce and these companies about what the market demand is. That’s the difference that we finally have made that connection. Kristi Noem: What do they need? How quick do they need it? And how fast can I get these? Either apprenticeships toward that million that we’ve put that lofty goal. We’ve already added 80,000 new apprenticeships already just since January. Um, so at the Department of Labor that tour has kicked off. And I couldn’t be more honored to be on the ground and see my colleagues that were passing in the skies. Kristi Noem: But we’re on the ground together because we’re all collaborating together. One of the things that we’re talking about illegal immigration, I have put states on notice. I warned all 50 governors that if they continue to reward illegal immigration by treating unemployment benefits as a handout, they’re going to lose their federal funding as well. Kristi Noem: We can no longer continue to give unemployment insurance to illegal immigrants. And so I’ve let those governors, and I sent out that letter last week. We also eliminated discriminatory – discriminatory DEI offices within the department, specifically the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Most of our federal contracts were really just to focus on DEI enforcement. Kristi Noem: We were really punishing a lot of these companies. If they weren’t complying, they weren’t going to have a federal contract. We’ve – we’ve let go of that program completely. Um $4.4 billion in unspent COVID funds came back to the Treasury from the CARES Act. Um billions were collecting dust in these coffers in the state coffers. Kristi Noem: We’ve asked for that money back to return to the Department of Treasury. We saved $250 million by canceling America Last, is what I call it, foreign handouts, including funding for things like transparency and accountability for Uzbekistan cotton industry. It doesn’t make sense that we’re funding, you know, these foreign, uh – and thank you to DOGE and to the government efficiency. Kristi Noem: What we have found with the fraud that we’re seeing. Elon Musk: Yeah, I mean, some of these things are so ridiculous, you can’t believe it. Kristi Noem: No, I write them down and I read them more than once. Like, this can’t be true. Elon Musk: Cotton farmers? [Laughter] Kristi Noem: Yeah, it doesn’t – It doesn’t make sense. Elon Musk: It sounds like a comedy sketch. [Laughter] Kristi Noem: That’s right. And so again with the executive order, preparing Americans for high paying skilled trade jobs of the future, that’s our goal. Um, the trades is where we’re being focused, but all companies and we want to make sure we’re on hand for that. And uh, you know, what I want to say is, thank you, uh, to government efficiency because you asked us, um, when this transitions out will our departments and our agencies continue that government efficiency? Kristi Noem: And I think that we’ve surpassed that in the Department of Labor. Out of our 14,000 federal employees, 3000 have taken the DRP. And we offered it again. So over 21 percent have taken that offer and we’ll keep our critical workforce, MSHA, OSHA, wage and hour and make sure our workers stay safe. So with your leadership, Mr. President, I couldn’t be more honored to serve. Kristi Noem: I know we were probably the last to know each other, but we’re getting to know each other well. And the team that you have assembled is really an honor to serve with, so thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. You’re doing great. Thank you, very much. Chris, please. Chris Wright: Mr. President, you ran on unleashing American energy. And 100 days have shown the tremendous impacts that can arise from the unleashing you have enabled. I’ll hit a few highlights. Number one, oil, gasoline and diesel prices are the lowest they’ve been in years. How does that happen in 100 days? That’s a messaging. Chris Wright: Your message that we’re pro-energy. We’re not against energy, we’re for it. That sends a message to the marketplace that supply is easier to grow now. And supply will be coming. And that’s already – already led to tremendous savings for American consumers across the country. And we need not only more affordable energy, but we need a lot more energy. Chris Wright: I want to highlight a couple of us have touched on is AI. This is a new emerging critical industry that’s very energy intensive. It is not acceptable for the United States to not be the leader in AI. We must win the AI race and lead in that. And that’s going to take a lot more energy. If you had not won election, we would not have won the AI race. Chris Wright: Full stop. Energy would not have been there to enable us to win. Um, reshoring of manufacturing. These trillions of dollars you led off with, it’s going to come back to our country to make chips, to make steel, to make automobiles, to make artificial intelligence, to make all of these industries we’ve outsourced. Chris Wright: That’s only going to be possible with way more American energy. But we have that energy. We have those resources. We have those businesses. We have those capitalists. We just need to stop standing in the way of them. And follow the – the – the lead you’ve set, which is to enable them. Not to subsidize them, not to help them to enable them to invest American money and create American jobs here. Chris Wright: Regarding our balance of trade, the second largest export of the United States is liquefied natural gas, second fastest. In the next few years, it’ll be our largest export in our country. But yet, 18 months ago, the Biden administration had said we’re going to stop issuing permits for new LNG export terminals. Chris Wright: That’s just nuts. That’s great competitive advantage we have, a huge balance of trade driver, a huge industry just coiled and ready to go. I just came back from Poland last night. They are thrilled that America is back in business again and that the rest of Europe can get off of Russian energy and can enable their own economic growth with secure, reliable, affordable energy from the United States. Chris Wright: I also witnessed the signing ceremony for a deal between two large American businesses to build a huge nuclear power plant in Northeastern Poland. The first of this design built in Europe. It will be the first of many. I spoke with many other nations over there. They want to buy more American gas. They want to get American technology. Chris Wright: They want to have a partnership with us. And they shared – the message I delivered to Europe in my keynote remarks is, is that unleashing energy is the way you make your society safer, more prosperous, more free. And that these sort of over the top climate alarmism doesn’t do anything to help the environment of our world, but it does impoverish people. Chris Wright: It does reduce the security of your nation. And it makes you weaker. I think that’s a constant message many of us around this table have brought to Europe. We want our friends in Europe standing up again and leaning in. Uh, a lot great is happening. Under your leadership, we’re unleashing consumer products that Americans wanted to buy that Biden was making illegal. Chris Wright: I’ll be in Georgia on Friday at Reni’s manufacturing plant, tankless natural gas water heaters. Incredibly popular product. They almost became illegal. The return of commonsense is incredibly welcome across this country, across the world. And back to – back to – back to Elon, that extra thing, we’re going to deliver all of this with less people, less money, less burden on the US taxpayers. Chris Wright: Not smaller departments and smaller services, better, more thoughtful services, done more efficiently and smarter. The way you’d have to run a business. We’ve got to get our fiscal house in order. And you and the people around this table are making it happen. Thank you, Mr. President, I’m honored to be here. Donald Trump: Great job. Thank you, very much. Please. Tulsi Gabbard: Yes, Mr. President, you are 100 percent correct, the border is 99.99 percent safe, under control. You have completely reversed the entire situation. In fact, the day before yesterday I was down in El Paso. And those Border Patrol agents are so impacted by how you have changed things in a year. They have put up huge pictures that say under the Biden administration, the mobs of people that were pushing through razor wire and trampling children and the chaos and the violence that was happening at that same location, they have a picture there that says this is what the Biden administration looks like and this is what the Trump administration looks like. Tulsi Gabbard: It’s peaceful. People who do business between Mexico and America are coming through. They’re doing it legally. They’re following the law. And it’s all because of what you’ve done and what you’ve empowered them to do. The recruitment for Border Patrol is through the roof. For ICE agents. They want to be a part of ICE because they recognize they actually get to do their jobs. Tulsi Gabbard: I have the Coast Guard, too. Coast Guard recruitment is up over 20 percent just in the last 60 days. Everybody wants to be a part of what the heritage is of this country. We’ve repositioned the entire Coast Guard fleet to focus on border and drug interdiction. As we’ve secured the border, the cartels have gone to the water and are going out in maritime waters to move their drugs into this country. Tulsi Gabbard: The Coast Guard, just in the last two months, has taken into custody over 126 tons of cocaine, millions of doses of fentanyl. It’s just amazing. And the aliens that they are deporting is incredible, too. We’ve been working with all of them. The one thing that I want to point out is the fake news has been saying that Biden deported more people than you, and it’s an absolute lie. Tulsi Gabbard: And they’re letting the Biden administration get away with manipulating and cooking the books. What they’re counting for the Biden administration is every single person that came to that border that they processed and let into this country. They’re allowing Biden to say that was a deportation just by processing somebody and letting them come into the country. Tulsi Gabbard: It’s absolutely false. It’s not true at all. You have deported over 250 known terrorists. You’ve deported foreign terrorist organization members and gang members, hundreds of thousands of people that were in this country illegally. We’ve collected $30 billion worth of tariffs through CBP and we’ve also collected millions and millions, hundreds of millions of fines and penalties from people that have overstayed here in this country. Tulsi Gabbard: So I just want to thank you. You have been a game changer. I want to thank Pete for his leadership at DOD and what they’ve done. I want to thank Marco for his diplomacy in getting US travel documents into these countries. Mexico has finally come to the table and now is going to take a lot more people that were able to send back to that country. Tulsi Gabbard: And the President of Mexico told me, sir, she turned around over a half a million people in Mexico before they ever reached our border. We should be counting those as deportations because they never even made it to the border because she turned them around because you forced her to. So those are all people that never even came here because they got the message because you were so aggressive. Tulsi Gabbard: So thank you for what you’re doing and every day we get to get up and do jobs that matter and we appreciate that. Donald Trump: And Tom is doing a great job. Tulsi Gabbard: Oh, yeah. Tom’s a great messenger for us. He just – yeah, he’s hardcore. Yeah. Thank you. Donald Trump: Very much. He is hardcore. [Laughter] Tulsi Gabbard: Yeah, he is. No question about it. Donald Trump: Kelly. Kelly Loeffler: Mr. President, it’s such an honor to serve in this administration. And on behalf of Main Street America for our 34 million small businesses that make up 99 percent of all businesses in this great nation. I have to tell you, under your leadership, Main Street is open for business again. They’re thriving and they’re investing. Kelly Loeffler: And the data that we have at the Small Business Administration, the loans that we’re putting out, a record 26,000 loans in your first 100 days means that 2000 small businesses each week are receiving that funding, that investment in the future. Small businesses create two out of every three new jobs in this country. Kelly Loeffler: And we’ve already seen under your leadership, the jobs economy is back, manufacturing jobs are back. We’ve seen a 38 percent increase in manufacturing loans. We put out 1500 manufacturing loans in your first 100 days. We saw startups increase by 54 percent and we saw businesses under five people increase by 95 percent. Kelly Loeffler: So your leadership on the economy matters to every region of this great nation. I’ll tell you on the manufacturing front, I’m not on a national manufacturing tour, we’ve met with 250 manufacturers. And as I walk through the factory floors, they all ask me to thank you for fighting for their jobs, for these industries, and for the people who are creating things from pharmaceuticals to aerospace to food and all these essentials that this nation needs to be independent and strong. Kelly Loeffler: And to that end, I’m working with Congress. We’ll be announcing tomorrow an upsizing of our manufacturing loans to make sure that that economic engine, because 98 percent of all manufacturers are small businesses. It’s incredible to walk through these factories that are really creating what you had in your first administration, the blue collar boom. Kelly Loeffler: It’s now a new collar boom because it’s the intersection of technology and manufacturing. And what they can create for our warfighters, for our aerospace, for pharmaceuticals with less than 3 to 500 employees, sometimes 100 employees. I was at a factory in Georgia on Monday that is creating machines to help with the Iron Dome in Israel, less than 50 employees. Kelly Loeffler: This is the engine of our economy. It’s the heartbeat of our communities. It’s the small businesses that helped elect you because they needed your economic agenda. So thank you, Mr. President. It’s such an honor. And congratulations on an epic 100 days. I do have to thank Elon. I do want to note we just cut $3 billion in contracts because of DOGEs work. Kelly Loeffler: That’s $3 billion that hardworking families that won’t have to work until April 15th to pay for the waste, fraud, and abuse that we continue to find in this government on behalf of taxpayers. So again, thank you, Elon. Elon Musk: Thanks, Kelly. Kelly Loeffler: Thank you. Donald Trump: Great job, Kelly. Thank you very much. Elon, I love the double hat, but I – [Laughter] Elon Musk: Thank you. Donald Trump: He’s the only one that and get away with it. [Laughter] Elon Musk: Well, Mr. President, you know, they say I wear a lot of hats. [Laughter] And as you can see, it’s true. Even my hat has a hat. [Laughter] So you know, the American people voted for secure borders, safe cities, and sensible spending and that’s what they’ve gotten. A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days. Elon Musk: As everyone has said, it’s more than has been accomplished in any administration before ever. Period. So this – this portends very well for what will happen for the rest of the administration. I think this could be the greatest administration since the founding of the country. Donald Trump: Well, we all want to thank you for your help. You know, you – you really have sacrificed a lot. Been treated very unfairly. Elon Musk: Well I do like to rent my cars, which is not great. You know, could be better. [Laughter] Donald Trump: But you have been treated unfairly, but the vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you and this whole room can say that very strongly. You’ve really been a tremendous help. You opened up a lot of eyes as to what can be done. And we just want to thank you very much and, you know, you’re invited to stay as long as you want. Donald Trump: At some point, I guess he wants to get back home to his cars and his family. [Inaudible] he’s done an incredible job. $150 billion. Think of this. Elon Musk: $160 now. Yeah. Who’s counting? [Laughter] Donald Trump: Yeah, $160. And they said, oh, it could have been more. And a lot of, you know, a lot of stuff is being worked on, that number could be doubled and even tripled. A lot of things that are being worked on that we don’t count yet because it’s not quite there, but you’ve done a fantastic job and we appreciate it very much, Elon. Elon Musk: Thank you. It’s also an honor to work with your incredible cabinet. I just like to say thank you, everyone, for, you know, it’s great to work with you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Tulsi? Tulsi Gabbard: Mr. President, congratulations on this truly historic first 100 days of your administration. Really only made possible by your focused leadership on delivering the mandate the American people gave you. You’ve empowered all of us to – to deliver that mandate. And I’m grateful to have the privilege of leading the intelligence community towards ending the weaponization, politicization of the intelligence community that’s gone on for far too long and – and building out what is truly a lean and agile and effective intelligence community that is helping you deliver that promise to the American people of safety, security, and freedom. Tulsi Gabbard: So Mr. President, I’d like to highlight just three of the areas where we are helping to support your leadership and your work in making America safe again and bringing about these changes. First of all, because of your designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, I took immediate action with our National Counterterrorism Center to prioritize their focus on those terrorists and gang members who are trying to enter our country through legal or illegal means and to seek out those who already are here in our country because of the Biden administration’s four years of open borders. Tulsi Gabbard: We’ve been working very closely with your great attorney general’s team at the DEA to get these known cartels into our systems to be able to stop them at the border and turning over names to Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to be able to find those Who are already here in our country. Just the other day, we found 700 alien terrorists who have ties to MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and the Sinaloa Cartel. Tulsi Gabbard: Just yesterday, our NCTC identified almost 600 individuals with ties to other terrorists who came through our borders illegally, claimed asylum, and under the Biden administration were paroled here within our borders. Secondly, Mr. President, like too many organizations in the federal government, the ODNI has become very bloated with too much waste and abuse going on within the organization. Tulsi Gabbard: We’ve done a few immediate steps, we are doing more. The ODNI is 25 percent smaller and more lean today than it was when I walked in the door and when you took office. Secondly, we have just this morning actually shut down a human capital office. As soon as you issued the executive order to stop all DEI activities, we did that, shut down the DEI office, but we discovered this human capital office that was essentially a slush fund for DEI initiatives hidden under the guise of human capital that closed down this morning, saving taxpayers $150 million. Tulsi Gabbard: We’ll soon be announcing an additional $2.6 billion in savings with other programs and contracts that do nothing to ensure our national security interests. And lastly, we’re working every day to hold the deep state accountable, to end the politicization, weaponization of the intelligence community. This past week, I sent three criminal referrals for illegal and unauthorized leaks to the media of classified intelligence for prosecution. Tulsi Gabbard: We have 11 more that are under investigation. We’ve revoked, at your direction, 67 security clearances, and we continue the work of declassifying documents as we have already around the JFK assassination. We have more coming for the assassination of Bobby’s father, Senator Kennedy, and MLK assassination. Tulsi Gabbard: Related to election integrity, illegal abuses of FISA, Crossfire Hurricane, and others. Mr. President, under your leadership, we are working every day to bring about that transparency and accountability that the American people deserve. So thank you for the opportunity. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you very much. Lee? Lee Zeldin: Mr. President, at the Biden EPA, The Green New Deal was raging. At the Biden EPA, we saw billions of tax dollars burning. At the Biden EPA, we saw industries suffocating. But at the Trump EPA, the Green New Deal is dead. At the Trump EPA, we know that we can both protect the environment and grow the economy. Lee Zeldin: I have 13 pages of accomplishments from our first 100 days in here. And in it, part of it is 100 environmental accomplishments at the Trump EPA. You don’t have to take my word for it. We released it to the media this morning. Every single day that President Trump is in this office, there will be a major environmental accomplishment. Lee Zeldin: Every single day of the Trump administration. At the Trump EPA, we’re also launching what is the largest deregulatory action in the history of the country. We’re going to be giving our director of the OMB a whole lot of work because we inherited a big mess from the Biden EPA. And working with Elon and DOGE, I’ve canceled now $22 billion worth of grants. Lee Zeldin: Now today’s a special day for many reasons. The biggest reason why we’re here is that this is the 100th day of the most consequential historic first 100 days in the history of this country. Today, while we’re here, the House of Representatives is voting on Congressional Review Act bills considering the EPA waivers that were given to California’s tailpipe emissions where California set their own standards. Lee Zeldin: But there should be one national standard, and right now Congress on the House side is going to be voting on that today. On a personal note, while this is a bit outside of the EPA jurisdiction, today is my last day serving in the United States Army. And I first signed up in the – towards the end of the 90s and I’ve had a chance to see a lot of national security teams over the course of the last 27 years. Lee Zeldin: There has never been a national security team ever assembled that had the backs of our warriors like this national security team right now. And we have never had a president so deeply committed towards ending foreign wars instead of starting new ones. There’s a reason Mr. Vice President, why everyone is racing to join our Department of Defense. Lee Zeldin: We have a Secretary of Defense, who, with all due respect to our great president, would probably rather be swimming with Navy Seals right now, be running somewhere in the Middle East with our – with our service members. And from our Secretary of Defense to our Secretary of State, our vice president, and more, I just want to say thank you as a veteran of our military for assembling what is the greatest national security team that I have ever seen in my 27 years associated with the United States Army. Unidentified: Has Pete signed off on this retirement leave? [Laughter; Inaudible] Thank you for your service. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. You are doing a fantastic job. We appreciate it very much. So? Linda McMahon: Well, Mr. President, I don’t think I have ever worked so hard to try to fire myself. [Laughter] But we are certainly making great strides in that. We’ve – we’ve reduced the folks over at the Department of Education by about 50 percent now through our RIF program. And so we’ve closed a lot of the district offices, consolidated so there are – there are a lot fewer people working a lot more efficiently in the Department of Education. Linda McMahon: The commissioners of Education in every state, and I was at a meeting with them not too far along – not too long ago for not only our states but our territories. They are thrilled with the opportunity now to be able to have more control over the education in their states to get rid of a lot of the red tape and regulation that’s – that’s kept them from doing what they’re doing. Linda McMahon: So we’re seeing, I think, great improvements. We’ll see test scores, I believe – it’ll take a bit for them to be able to go up, but I think now that they’re going to have the opportunity to put in their own programs, we’ll see that grow. At the same time, we’ve been focused on higher education for our universities. Linda McMahon: We have – we’ve returned proper enforcement of Title IX protections to schools. We have stopped funding to Columbia, for instance, and some other schools for not only Title IX but Title VI infractions, and those are moving along. I think we brought people to the table. They know that you’re serious, you meant what you said. Linda McMahon: You’re going to make changes. They’re making their campuses safer again. Anti-Semitism was just out of control in many of our universities and so some tried to – in fact Harvard is sued and they’re saying that it’s, you know, First Amendment infraction. No, this is civil rights safety on our campuses for our young students, you know, who are there. Linda McMahon: And with – with Pam’s help and the task force that we formed with HHS, with GSA, with other agencies, we’re going to make sure that our campuses are safe. And so there’s a lot of good work going on. I think one of the biggest things, you’ll be very happy to hear this, Mr. Vogt, that we are putting back into place collecting on our student loans that have been – that have been delinquent since March of 2020. Been no effort to recollect on those loans. Linda McMahon: SO as of May 5th, the letter goes out that the loan recollection is beginning again. So for those people who have borrowed money and who have not been paying, that’s just not to be punitive. There are many ways that they can go online to understand how they can get back into the right payment structure because when they’re in default, they can’t buy a house, they can’t buy a car because their credit scores are down. Linda McMahon: So it’s helpful to them as well as to get this money back into the country. I mean, $60 billion of increased student loan debt since – since 2020. And in total, we’ve got almost $1.7 trillion in student debt. So we’re going to – we’re going to start getting that back and Scott and his team have been incredibly helpful. Linda McMahon: We appreciate that. So very, very much. And so a lot’s going on at the department. And what I would really like as I’m firing myself, I’d like for you to be known as the education president because of the best in practice systems that we want to put in every state to incorporate AI so that we are training these new entrepreneurs and business leaders in our country. Linda McMahon: We can’t do it with the infrastructure we have in place today, so we have to be working on that at the same time. So we’re going to be doing that. So thank you for your charge to – to elevate education so that we are providing for every student access to excellent education. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Linda. And what’s going on with Harvard and some of these colleges that are taking vast amounts of money who also have vast amounts? They’ve got $52 billion and really scamming the public and hiring people like de Blasio and Lori Lightfoot, who are certainly two of the worst mayors in the history of our country, paying them a fortune of salary and having them teach our children how to manage cities and how to manage government. Donald Trump: What’s the word as of this morning on, let’s say, Harvard? Linda McMahon: Well, we’re negotiating with them. When we went back to them to say we’d welcome them back to the negotiating table, their response was a lawsuit. So Pam and her team are helping – helping work with that. And I am, you know, enjoying the fact, not only am I firing myself, but I’m now being sued fairly regularly by – [Laughter] Different Departments of Education. Linda McMahon: But we’re – we’re staying tough with them. The other thing that we’re looking at also are the are the 117 violations of these big universities like Harvard and others who are not reporting, as they required to do by law, foreign money that comes in and how much that is and where it comes from. And so that is a very – Donald Trump: – And students. Linda McMahon: Yeah, and very serious. Donald Trump: Where are these people coming from? Linda McMahon: Yeah, exactly. Pam Bondi: We pulled back their grants because Harvard isn’t responding to US criminal activity by their students. And until they give us that list, they’re not getting any more grants from Homeland Security. Donald Trump: I think you should pull it back. The students they have, the professors they have, the attitude they have is not American and I think you should. A grant is a grant. We don’t have to give grants. Pam Bondi: Exactly right. Donald Trump: So we’ll pull back the grant. All right, very good. Thank you very much. Linda McMahon: Thank you. Donald Trump: Bobby. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Mr. President, thank you for your extraordinary leadership over the past 100 days. We are already making America healthy again. We announced last week the ban on the nine petroleum based synthetic dyes, food dyes. Within two years – within two months, we’re going to ban the worst two of them. I am working with Secretary Rollins on dietary guidelines, the dietary guidelines that the Trump – that the President Biden’s administration gave us were 453 pages. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: They’re basically unreadable. And they are the product of the same kind of politicized science that drove Froot Loops to the top of the food pyramid. [Laughter] And we are – we’re going to do real science gold standard science. We’re going to develop within – we have until December to do it. But we are working very, very fast. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Together, we’re going to get it done by the end of the summer in time to drive change, major dramatic changes in the school foods, the school lunch programs over the next – next school year. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I’m working also with – with Secretary Rollins on the SNAP program and the – to get sodas and – and – and candy off of the food stamp program. 10 percent of food stamps go to SNAP. And I want to thank you for your courage. You are a business friendly president, probably the most business friendly in our history, but you’re also willing to stand up to very, very powerful businesses. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And you’ve shown that again and again. Secretary Rollins had the soda industry come and knock on her door very much and very loudly. And they said to her, well, the SNAP program is not supposed to be about nutrition. She pointed out to them that there is no nutrition in a soda. And she – they said, well, it’s not supposed to be about nutrition. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And she said to them the name of the program is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, so it is about nutrition. [Laughter] And we shouldn’t – you know, we have 38 percent of our kids are diabetic or pre-diabetic. And we are paying at both ends. We’re paying for the food, the food like substances that make them diabetic. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And then we’re paying – we’re being bankrupted. We’re paying $1 trillion a year on metabolic dysfunction. It’s existential and it’s not sustainable. We have – I visited Arizona, West Virginia, Utah and Indiana in the last two weeks who have all applied for SNAP waivers were encouraging thanks to Brooke – Brooke Rollins leadership, all the states to apply for those waivers. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I also visited Utah, which is – which is the first state to ban supplemental fluoride. Florida yesterday, passed a bill to ban supplemental fluoride. I’m confident Governor DeSantis is going to sign that. I’m – we are working, Lee Zeldin and I are working together to change the federal fluoride regulations to change the recommendations. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And we’re looking at the science now. I want to point out that in August, the National Toxicity Program, which was an arm of the NIH, did a META review of all the science on fluoride and found that there’s a direct inverse correlation between fluoride exposure and lower IQ in children. So the more you get the stupider you are. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And we need smart kids in this country, and we need healthy kids. And thank you for your leadership. We’re going to get there. Reviewing the drass standards now to get – revamping them to get 10,000 ingredients that are in our foods that Europeans only have 400 ingredients. We have 10,000. There are chemicals we know nothing about. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And we are going to stop that process. And then we’re going to go back and look at these chemicals and make the companies either get rid of them or to label them. We are – we’ve launched Operation Stork Speed, and we’re going full speed ahead to make sure that we have good high quality milk for children. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: We have launched the Autism Study, at your direction. By September, will have some of the first answers. Within six months of that, we will have definitive answers not only for autism but for the etiology of a whole range of autoimmune diseases that have become epidemic in our children. We have ended HHS as the – the role as the vector – the principal vector in this country for child trafficking. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And during the Biden administration, HHS became a collaborator in child trafficking and for sex and for – for slavery. And we have ended that. And we’re very aggressively going out and trying to find these children. That’s 300,000 children that were lost by the Biden administration. And we are – we have ended funding for – for gender mutilation surgeries and – and other kind of gender dysphoria practices. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And thanks to Elon, we have saved $67 billion at our agency without compromising any of our critical programs. Um, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your vision, for your leadership, for giving me the 100 busiest days of my life. [Laughter] And – and most exciting and most rewarding. And there’s – over the next 100 days, we’re going to do much, much more. Donald Trump: That’s great. Thank you very much, Bobby. Very good, very important. Thank you. Doug, please. Doug Burgum: Well, President Trump, on your first day in office, you wisely declared a national emergency. And this was essential because it was the signal that we’re going to go 180 degrees from the disastrous and dangerous Biden policies that were based on a climate ideology that was the root cause of the inflation in this country. Doug Burgum: It was the root cause of wars abroad. It was the root cause of – of uh, of our manufacturing disappearing from our country. We can’t have energy security – without energy security, we can’t have national security. And you understood that. But now with everything that’s flowed from that uh, dozens of other EOs that you’ve done, uh, America is back in the energy business. Doug Burgum: As Chris said, there’s been a signal that’s sent around the world. Capital is flowing, coming back in. The smart money is coming to this country. And now, you’ve given us a chance to win the AI arms race against China. We know we’re up against a formidable competitor. China opened up 94 gigawatts of coal in the last year. Doug Burgum: That’s more than all of California and all of New York combined in the last year. We’ve had presidents in the past, the Biden administration that were running away again under this climate ideology. You’ve embraced baseload power in this country. I’ll never forget standing in the East Room with you surrounded by the coal miners around this country where you said, hey, big, beautiful coal. Doug Burgum: We’ve – as we work to try to identify the balance sheet of America, our earliest estimate is that the coal resources in America, just on public lands could be worth $8 trillion with a T. That was all going to be taken off our balance sheet if we weren’t going to touch it, but now we’re back in the business. Doug Burgum: I was 1800 feet underground in a coal mine in Alabama a couple of weeks ago. They do metallurgical coal. Without metallurgical coal, we can’t produce steel. This is a plant – this is a plant that would have been in a mining operation that would have been shut down under the Biden administration. What we’re doing here, back in the business, we’re doing leasing. Doug Burgum: We’re leasing for oil and gas. We’re leasing for timber with Brooke Rollins. We’re leasing for grazing. We’re leasing for critical minerals, which is key. And when we lease the public lands appropriately and by the law to do that, we’re bringing in revenue. We’re bringing in jobs. We’re helping strengthen America. Doug Burgum: And so we’re treating our natural resources like the American balance sheet they are. And America’s resources, the 700 million acres of surface that’s public, the 700 million of subsurface, the 2.5 billion offshore all contain what we need to have self-sufficient supply chains. And so in this, we’re focused deeply on critical minerals. Doug Burgum: The Biden administration put us in a real predicament right now, the whole trade team, the whole cabinet. Uh, Susie’s jumping in leadership across everybody, the National Energy Dominance Council. But of the top 20 critical and rare earth minerals that we need for defense that we need for industry, uh, China is controlling 85 percent of the refining for that. Doug Burgum: So we – we are running at warp speed seven days a week to try to put ourselves back in business in that way, so. And I want to just close out by saying a couple other things. One is – is the border. Few people realize that 41 percent of the southern border, uh, is in Department of Interior and then we’ve got a few more percent that come with Brooke and – and with the Forest Service. Doug Burgum: But that’s – that’s been a risk area. Part of the reason everyone was pouring into our country. Biden wasn’t enforcing the border laws. They definitely weren’t enforcing it on public lands. And so again, using uh, tying two presidents that had great propensity for action. Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 created what was called the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60 foot strip that go from Texas all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Doug Burgum: Because he was worried that in some future state there might be smuggling, I don’t think he was anticipating human smuggling and fentanyl trafficking, but that has been largely unused. You – he gave us the authority to transfer that. And so working with Kristi and working with Pete, we’ve transferred that to the DOD. So transferring land from the other agencies like Interior to the Department of Defense. Doug Burgum: Then as Pete said, they can do the detain and assist with the military. And having been down at the border multiple times in recent weeks, I can confirm everything Kristi said. Uh the – the enthusiasm, the morale of that group is exactly 100 percent opposite of when Kristi and I were down there as governors. Doug Burgum: I – I had Border Patrol people say that they were multi-generational service in that law enforcement that said, my wife and I are telling our children never to go into this – to go in – go into Border Patrol. But people this time were saying I got a 17 year old. As soon as they turn 18 year old, they’re signing – they’re signing up. My wife is thrilled. Doug Burgum: They’re going into law enforcement. They’re so proud to be serving with you. Everybody I’ve met, whether it’s in a coal mine or at the border, law enforcement, the one thing they say on those trips is please thank President Trump from all of us, the change that you’re making. Doug Burgum: And I want to say especially this became very dear when we last week renamed a US wildlife refuge in honor of Jocelyn Nungaray. Jocelyn Nungaray, of course, lost her life tragically to illegal Venezuelan gang members in this country in a horrific way, but her mother Alexis was at that ceremony. Her grandmother was there and Jocelyn’s great grandmother was there. Doug Burgum: There were three other generations of that family were there. They all wanted to pass on their thank you to you, too. And we’ve – we’ve secured her name forever as a sanctuary and really is saying that every child, every 12 year old, every child in America should be safe in their own communities. And you’ve – you’ve dedicated a beautiful piece on the coast in honor of her. Doug Burgum: So President Trump, in your first term when I had a chance to tour with you as governor, you were courageous. The thing that’s empowering this amazing group of people around this table and you’ve probably assembled the greatest cabinet ever is that this time, you’re not just courageous. You’re actually fearless. Doug Burgum: And it’s your fearlessness to take on the issues that other presidents would not touch, whether it’s the work that we’re doing with successfully streamlining and rightsizing government or whether it’s taking on the issues at the border or whether it’s embracing the power we need to win the arms race, you’re fearlessly doing that. Doug Burgum: And that creates a – just, all of us can sprint because you’re running ahead. So thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you, Doug. And you are doing a great job. And with Chris, that’s a pretty much unbeatable combination, I have to tell you. So thank you both very much. Thank you, Doug. It’s great. Marco? Marco Rubio: Well, it’s not easy to go last after all these reports – [Laughter] That have come here. First of all, it’s just – so it better be good and I’ll be short as well. A couple of things. Mr. President, I think you deserve a lot of credit for two things. The first is assembling this great team of people, some of whom I’ve owned for a long time. Marco Rubio: Others who I’ve gotten to know during this period of time. But putting together a team not just of talented individuals, but that work well together, it’s something never going to be reported on in the media or fully seen. But it happens every single day. For the most part, I interact with almost everyone around this table to some – at some level. Marco Rubio: And – and because of Secretary Kennedy, I’m afraid to eat anything. So – [Laughter] He said Tootsie rolls are OK in moderation. [Laughter] But – but it’s a great team. And here’s the second, and I tell this to people all the time. This is incredibly rewarding service, and you hear it in everyone’s voices. Marco Rubio: Traditionally in the past, and it’s one of the problems we got in as a country, is presidents would say, OK, let’s go do something and then they would have to do a study and then a study on the study and then a long internal deliberative process. And by the time you got to it, it was too late or somebody had forgotten it. And this administration, it’s moving – you know the direction because you know why you were elected. Marco Rubio: The American people elected you very clearly. And basically, it’s measured, I used to say by days and weeks, now it’s measured by hours and minutes. But action is happening, and that’s what people want to see. And let me talk about foreign policy in particular because I’m not sure this is fully appreciated. Marco Rubio: We have – this president inherited 30 years of foreign policy that was built around what was good for the world. In essence, the decisions we made as a government in trade and foreign policy was basically is it good for the world. Is it good for the global community. And under President Trump, we’re making a foreign policy now that’s was it good for America? Marco Rubio: I was appointed by you and confirmed by the Senate to be the – the head of the United States Department of State, not the world Department of State, not the global Department of State, the United States Department of State. And what that means is our foreign policy is guided by three things. Does it make America stronger? Marco Rubio: Does it make America safer, or does it make America richer? If something doesn’t do one of those three things and hopefully all three of those things, we’re not doing it. Now, we went out and hired a consulting firm to help us organize ourselves. Luckily, they were free. They’re called the Department of Government Efficiency – [Laughter] And they helped us do a couple of things. Marco Rubio: Number one is our foreign aid. We were funding some crazy stuff. Unidentified: Crazy stuff. Marco Rubio: Crazy stuff. You tell me how does a puppet show in – in some country around the world make a stronger, safer, and more prosperous? So we got rid of puppet shows and a bunch of other things. I’m sure there are very good puppet shows and I’m sure that a bunch of charities in the world can go pay for it, but the American taxpayer should not. Marco Rubio: We’ve also, by the way, Mr. President, under your direction reorganized the Department of State. We had offices within offices within offices that didn’t even know they existed themselves, not to mention the rest of it. And so we’ve begun to reorganize that as a way to be able to empower our embassies and our ambassadors and our regional bureaus to do what many of them signed up to do. And we have a great team of ambassadors you’ve appointed. Marco Rubio: They’re coming online every single day. Very talented people. Very talented people that are involved. Something else we got out of the business. It wasn’t widely reported, or maybe it was. We had a – we had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans. And by the way, I’m not going to say who it is, I’ll leave it up to them, there’s at least one person at this table today who had a dossier in that building of social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation. Marco Rubio: We have these dossiers. We are going to be turning those over to these individuals. Unidentified: Was it me or Elon? [Laughter] We can follow up with the media as well. Marco Rubio: Well, we are going to turn over these dossiers to the individuals and they’ll decide whether they want to disclose it or not. But just think about the Department of State of the United States had set up an office to – to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens to identify them as vectors of disinformation when we know that the best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency. Marco Rubio: And so that’s what we’re going to be in the business of doing. We’re not going to have an office that does that. Beyond that, Mr. President, and this will move quickly because this has been a team effort. We have gone to countries all over the world and said, hey, you want good relations with the United States, you need to take back your people that are here illegally and we’ve had historic cooperation. Marco Rubio: Beyond that, and I say this unapologetically, we are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries. So we are actively, not just El Salvador, we are working with other countries to say we want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries. Will you do that as a favor to us? And the further away from America the better so they can’t come back across the border. Marco Rubio: I’m not apologetic about it. We are doing that. The president was elected to keep America safe and to get rid of a bunch of perverts and pedophiles and child rapists out of our country. Here’s something else we’ve done. We stopped giving student visas to people who are coming here to burn down our universities and take over libraries and harass people. Marco Rubio: Why are we giving student visas to people who are coming here to create disruption? And we’ve taken away the student visas of people that are coming here to do that. It’s simple, if you’re coming to America to start riots, we’re not going to give you – we’re gonna take away your student visa. And by the way, every country in the world I that I travel, 14 countries in 14 weeks. Marco Rubio: You know what they all say to me? Yes, that’s what we would do, too. So the only people who seem to disagree with us are a handful of federal judges and a bunch of crazy people who get paid to write and report. So anyway, we’re getting rid of that. The last, but – now here’s some good news. You know, we’re going to have the World Cup, the FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Club Cup, and then we’re going to have the Olympics. Marco Rubio: So we have to have a Consular Affairs Bureau. We have very good talented people there, but we are going to infuse technology, again working with our consultants, to be able to – we’re going to have millions of people are coming into this country for this. And – but I also – we’ve done it to improve customer service. Marco Rubio: For some of us who served in Congress, recognize that about a year and a half ago, we had a meltdown under Biden. You couldn’t get a passport. You got people calling, I have a cruise on Friday, my passport expires. In the month of March, we processed 2.78 million Americans, their passports. That is the historic – never in any – it’s the largest single month processing of passports ever, and we think it’s a good way to build the momentum, to be able to do the visas. Marco Rubio: Two last points I want to make. We have a great team that you’ve built. I want to especially acknowledge Steve Witkoff. This is a person that doesn’t have to be doing what he’s doing. He has a very good life in Miami, my hometown as well. He has worked incredibly hard, has done it without any agenda, and I do – we need to acknowledge him. Marco Rubio: I want to acknowledge Mr. Boulos as well who did something really great last week. They told us this war between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda as an intractable. It can never happen. It will never happen. I sent Mr. Boulos your envoy. A week later, I look on my schedule, the signing of a declaration of peace between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. Marco Rubio: We signed it at the State Department last week. We hope it will lead now to a lasting permanent peace that we hope to invite them back to Washington to sign. So two great – and we have a lot of good people working on our teams as well. But these are two great people. Mike Waltz alluded to this earlier, and this is the last point. Marco Rubio: In the first 100 days of the 47th presidency, 47 wrongfully detained Americans have been returned to the United States, thanks to your leadership and the diplomacy that was exercised to make that happen. 47 for the 47th president in the first 100 days. And that’s all credit to you. Mr. President, thank you for the honor to be able to serve alongside you for you and alongside all these excellent people. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Marco. Really a great job. So you know, I’ve been involved in a lot of groups of people over the years, good groups, bad groups, all types of groups. But I have been involved in some incredible groups, but I’ve never been more proud and impressed, frankly, impressed is maybe even more important. Donald Trump: But I’ve never been more proud or impressed than I am with this group. This is an amazing group of people. And I hope some of those television cameras were blazing and it was on so people could watch this because, frankly, you know, no matter who you are no matter where you come from. This is an impressive group of people. Donald Trump: I said, or being somewhat competitive, I said, well, let’s see who did the best job, who did the worst job? [Laughter] And I determined that everybody is like the same and there was no worse job. Everybody was outstanding. Everybody did a job, you couldn’t – you couldn’t pick a winner. Donald Trump: The only thing you can say is nobody did a bad job or even a fair job. You’re outstanding. And so I want to just congratulate you all. This is really something. And you know, we have a job to do. We’ve done a lot of work in this 100 – this 100 days we’ve established things that are going to start taking place in the next 100 days. Donald Trump: I want to see what it’s going to be like. I think we’re going to have to do this in 100 days, Susie, and we’re going to see some very big results from the things that we’ve done. But I just want to thank everybody. This is really very impressive and I hope the people at home got to see some of it. Nobody’s ever done public cabinet meetings. Donald Trump: They were quiet for a reason because they weren’t impressive. [Laughter] And especially in the last administration, they were not impressive. But I just want to say that we’re very proud of you, and – and I am in particular. Thank you all very much. Great job. And I think we’re going to have some tremendous success for our country. Donald Trump: And I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like a time to be asking questions. That was so impressive that to be taking questions, why did you do this? Why did you do that? It’s just doesn’t seem to be appropriate. I guess we probably have to take a couple because that was the purpose, but if you’d like to ask some, I think they should be very respectful questions at this point. Donald Trump: This was an amazing meeting and so if you’d like to ask a couple, if you’d like to pinpoint them to some of the secretaries, et cetera, would be fine, yes. Question: Secretary Rubin, can I ask you a question? You brought up El Salvador in your remarks. Have you been in touch with El Salvador about returning Abrego Garcia? Has a formal request from this administration been made? Marco Rubio: Well, I would never tell you that. And you know who else, I’ll never tell a judge because the conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the President of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge. So we will conduct foreign policy appropriately if we need to, but I’ll never discuss it and no one will ever make us discuss it because that’s how foreign policy works. Question: Mr. President – – Mr. President, yesterday, you told ABC News, Mr. President, you told ABC News yesterday that you could get Abrego Garcia back if you wanted to. Do you think President Bukele would turn you down if you made that request? Donald Trump: I really don’t know. I know that he’s been a great friend of our country. He’s gotten a lot less money than this would take from us if we were going to build these jails and do what he’s doing and they run a very professional operation. I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to him. I really leave that to the lawyers. Donald Trump: And I take my advice from Pam and everybody that is very much involved. They know the laws and we follow the laws exactly. Question: Mr. President – – Mr. President – Donald Trump: – Yeah, please. Question: [Inaudible] transition, sir, you frequently took credit for the stock market highs. You said it was a reflection of how well you were doing in the polls and then after you were elected, you said the stock market highs were a reflection of how well the transition is going and the American people’s confidence in your incoming administration. Question: Now the stock market’s not doing so well and you’re saying that the Biden stock market, yet you are the president. Can you explain that? Donald Trump: Yeah, I’m not taking credit or discredit for the stock market. I’m just saying that we inherited a mess both at the borders. You could look at every single one of the people here and no matter who it is, they’re doing better and they are far superior to what took place for four years before us. When you look at prisoners being allowed to come into our country at will. Donald Trump: Just at will people from mental institutions, gang members, drug dealers, when you look at that, what they’ve done to our country and also having to do with finance. Look at what happened with inflation. We had the worst inflation probably in the history of our country, they say 48 years. But I would say in the history of our country. Donald Trump: It ate away at people. And even though you saw a stock market going up somewhat because, in my case, I had the biggest stock market increase 88 percent in the last term in my last term. But I don’t view the stock market as the end all it’s an indicator, but what the stock market really tells you and what you – when you look at the stock market in this case is it says how bad a situation we inherited. Donald Trump: I took place – this was a quarter that we looked at today and I took – we took – all of us together. We came in on January 20th, so this is Biden. And you could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden because it doesn’t just happen on a daily or an hourly basis. But we’re turning it around. It’s a big ship to turn around and we’re going to have the greatest country financially in the history of the world, I believe. Donald Trump: I think we’re going to do things that – and we had to do it. We reset the table. We were being ripped off by every single country with just about without exception. I can – I’d have to really think hard for who hasn’t taken advantage. And I don’t even blame those countries. I blame the person that was sitting right here where I am for allowing it to happen where our country was ripped off on trade hundreds of billions of dollars and now we’re doing better than we’ve done in a long time. Donald Trump: You know, we were losing 4 to 5 to even $6 billion a day on trade with Biden and now we have it down to a very manageable number and the tariffs, for the most part, haven’t even kicked in yet. So that’s the way – stock markets, to me, are an indication. But the big indication is what’s happening and the people around the table know what’s happening. Donald Trump: Yes? Question: Mr. President, one of the things, sir, you said that during – [Inaudible] Ukraine minerals deal is set to be signed in 24 hours or so. Donald Trump: What – say it. Question: Is it true that the Ukraine minerals deal is about to be signed in the next 24 hours or so? There’s some reports saying that. And if it’s true, has the deal changed at all from the last time we’ve heard about it? Donald Trump: Well, I’ll ask Scott to answer the question because he’s responsible for it. Scott Bessent: Yeah, our side is ready to sign. Ukrainians decided last night to make some last minute changes. We’ll – we’re sure that they will reconsider that and we are ready to sign this afternoon if they are. Question: Can you talk about those last minute changes, What was removed or put in its place? Scott Bessent: Nothing’s been removed. It’s the same agreement that we agreed to on the weekend. No changes on our side. Donald Trump: Just to put that in perspective though, when I came here, I said how much money have we given to Ukraine? The real number is about $350 billion. That’s unthinkable. And we had no security. We had no – nothing. We just pouring money there, unsecured money, putting it in banks and anybody could have taken it out. Donald Trump: You know, anybody over there. It was their decision. I’ve never seen anything like it. Europe on the other hand, which it’s – obviously that whole situation is much more important to Europe because we have an ocean in between. But Europe gave about $100 billion. It’s a lot of money, it’s a big sacrifice they made also, but they gave much less than we did. Donald Trump: And their money is secured, totally secured, by deposits in banks. The deposits are largely Russian deposits. That’s what Europe did, but their money is secured. So they gave $100 billion totally secured. We gave money like it’s throwing it out the window and it was done by Biden. And this is Biden’s war. Donald Trump: This isn’t Trump’s war. I’m trying to get out. And more than the money, they’re losing about 5000 young Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, mostly. There’s some people also being killed in towns where missiles should not have been shot. Small cities and towns. But we are trying to save the lives of about 5000 young, mostly soldiers that are losing their lives a week. Donald Trump: I see a satellite photos, probably of one of his satellites come to think of it, but I see satellite photos every week of fields with arms and heads and legs scattered all over. It’s a violent, violent horrible situation. And more important than the money I want to save the lives of people from other countries that are dying so stupidly, so needlessly, and they’re dying. Donald Trump: But I said what – what are we doing? How did we get into this war? It would have never happened if I were president. Everybody knows. And it didn’t happen for four years. It wasn’t even thought of. I discussed it with President Putin a lot. Ukraine was the apple of his eye, but there was no way he was going to do anything. Donald Trump: Zero chance. And I said, you know, we feel foolish. The Europeans are putting up money, it’s totally secure. They get their money back. We’re putting up much more money. We have absolutely nothing. And I didn’t want to make a complicated deal. I didn’t want to make a deal that couldn’t be made because Ukraine doesn’t have very much money. Donald Trump: They’re going through a very bad period of time. It’s been brutal, but I felt very foolish being in charge. So I said, well, we want something for our efforts beyond what you would think would be acceptable. And we said rare earth, they have very good rare earth. As you know, we’re looking for rare earth all the time. Donald Trump: Rare earth is rare for a reason and they have a lot and we made a deal where our money is secure, where we can start digging and doing what we have to do. It’s also good for them because you’ll have an American presence at the site, Chris. And the American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out of the area where we’re doing the digging. Donald Trump: So we made a deal and I assume they’re going to honor the deal and I put Scott in charge and Scott’s done it beautifully, but we haven’t really seen the fruits of that deal yet. I suspect we will. I suspect we will. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President, sir? Mr. President, sir, you made progress. You had said – you had set a 90 day deadline through an executive order for secretaries Hegseth and Noem to review whether to recommend to you whether to invoke the Insurrection Act to send troops to the southern border. Question: Is that something you’re still considering? Donald Trump: What I’m talking to them. And it’s not a hard and fast, but I’m talking to them. And I will tell you that the border is most secure it’s ever been. We have never had anything like it. And when – uh, when you said Kristi, before it’s 99.999. Kristi Noem: Um-hum. Donald Trump: And uh, I guess that means one person maybe or two people. Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: It’s actually turned out to be three people came across the border versus hundreds of thousands of people under Biden. And we’re talking about people coming, look people they have – they have souls, they – they have hearts, many of them are good. But we have a country that’s under siege. We have a country that really is under – I think it’s under attack. Donald Trump: In many ways, worse than under attack because there are no uniforms. You don’t know who the attacker is, so you really don’t – it’s not like you’re fighting an army. You’re fighting people, you don’t even know who they are. But 11,888 murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person are roaming. Donald Trump: Now, some of them have already been caught. A lot of them have already been caught and taken out. But we’re being impeded by judges from doing our job. And hopefully, that situation is going to be solved. Because I think nobody wants to have murderers and people from jail and – and I mean for serious, serious crimes. Donald Trump: I remember the Biden, people used to say no, these are aliens that came into our country. And they don’t commit crime. I said they don’t commit crime, they commit worse stuff. They make our criminals some of these people that they’ve allowed in through open border policies, the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Donald Trump: You can look at some of these people and you say this is not going to end well. But the people that they’ve allowed into our country are making our criminals look like the nicest people on earth. I will tell you, these are serious criminals. These are violent criminals. These are people that would kill you and wouldn’t lose an ounce of sleep. Donald Trump: And they wake up the next morning and they don’t even remember it. This is a rough, rough tough group of people. And we’ve got to get them out of our country. And the law says, I believe, I hope, and I think Pam will be very successful in proving it, but we’ve run into, I would call them rogue judges, somebody could criticize me for that. Donald Trump: These are rogue judges. These are radical left, generally, radical left, horrible judges. And we didn’t lose all of these people. You know, we’ve lost a lot of people to death and to rape all sorts of crimes committed by the people that poured into our country. And they came in totally unimpeded. Just come on in. And you see it every night. Donald Trump: You’d see thousands and tens of thousands of people pouring into our country. We have no idea who they are. And to this day, we’re looking for people we have no idea. We hear that we have terrorists in our country that are so bad they couldn’t stay in any other country, but we’re getting them out. And the group between Pete and Kristi and Tom Homan and everybody working together, people that you would least suspect are reporting them, getting them. Donald Trump: And the public is reporting them. The public is seeing them. The public is calling and they’re saying, you know, I live in a house. And next to me, moved in a group of people. And they are very violent. They would go and would find out and would say, yeah, you’re right. They were really violent. And we have information on most of them. Donald Trump: So I just think it’s incredible what’s taking place. But we right now have a very, very secure border. Right now, we have the most secure border in the history of our country. So I don’t think we have to worry about your question too much. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President – prime minister of Canada ran against not only against the conservatives but also against you. Yesterday – Donald Trump: Well, they were both parties. Question: Right, yeah. And yesterday he spoke about American betrayal. Are you interested in rebuilding relations with Canada? And if so, how? Donald Trump: No, well, I think we’re going to have a great relationship. He called me up yesterday. He said let’s make a deal, you know, he had – he was running for office. They were both – they both hated Trump. And it was the one that hated Trump, I think the least, that won. I actually think the conservatives hated me much more than the – than the so-called liberals. Donald Trump: [Laughter] He’s a pretty liberal guy. Question: Why do you think – Donald Trump: No, I spoke to him yesterday. He couldn’t have been nicer. And I congratulated him. You know, they – it was a very mixed signal because it’s almost even, which makes it very complicated for the country. It was a pretty tight race. But he’s a very nice gentleman. And we – uh, he’s going to come to the White House very shortly within the next week or less. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President? When will you speak to President Xi of China? When will that speech happen? Donald Trump: It’ll happen. I mean, look, right now, and I told you before, they’re having tremendous difficulty because their factories are not doing business. They made $1 trillion with Biden, $1 trillion, even $1.1 trillion uh, with Biden selling us stuff. Much of it we don’t need. You know, somebody said, oh, the shelves are going to be open. Donald Trump: Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. But we’re not talking about something that we have to go out of our way. They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which, not all of it, but much of which we don’t need. Donald Trump: And we have to make a fair deal. We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world, but China, I would say is the leading – the leading one, the leading candidate for the chief ripper-offer. [Laughter] There has never been – there has never been a country that’s been ripped off more than the United States of America under some of the dumbest leadership. Donald Trump: And it usually starts with the president. And you can go back and I’m not just talking about Biden, that’s been the worst. I mean, the trade deficits and everything else, he’s been the worst. But – but he had no idea what he was doing. And I think somebody ought to look at the autopen to find out who was really running this country. Donald Trump: Because it wasn’t Biden. Because nobody could agree to what he agreed to. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President, what’s your – what’s your message for the girl who doesn’t get – Donald Trump: He put our country at risk, at tremendous risk and fiscal risk, financial risk. So I think we have it very much. I really believe that the next 100 days is going to be, uh, even better than this. Look, I read an editorial yesterday from a group that normally wouldn’t write a good thing. This is the most consequential presidency in history, in the history of our country. Donald Trump: This is not a particular group that would write that kind of an editorial. But they see what we’re doing and what we had to do. And I believe if this group, not just me, if this group wasn’t here, I think our country was going to be in, if it was lucky, just serious trouble, but a lot worse than that. I think our country could have been a total disaster. Donald Trump: Bad things were happening with our country. And we’ve – we’ve stemmed the tide. We’ve turned it around. But we’re going to really turn it around over the next – over the next three years, three and a half years, we’re going to turn it around. And then hopefully, it will be in such great shape. That’s my goal to put it in such great condition that it can’t be destroyed. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Do you believe – You mentioned this last night in your speech in Macomb that we’re facing an unprecedented situation where there’s a lot of abuses of nationwide injunctions, sort of seemingly designed to curtail your power, uh, specifically when it comes to deporting these illegal violent aliens that came in under the previous administration. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: Have you spoken to your team about ways to mitigate this and continue to deliver for the American people? And – Donald Trump: Yeah, well, there are ways to mitigate it. And there are some very strong ways. There’s one way that’s been used by three very highly respected presidents. But we hope we don’t have to go that route. But there is one way that has been used very successfully by three presidents, all highly respected. And hopefully, we don’t have to go that way, but there are ways of mitigating that. Donald Trump: I want to thank you all very much. I thought this was an incredible cabinet meeting. I think there’s probably has never been a cabinet meeting like this. You’ve never seen it on tape. That I can tell you. [Laughter] And I want to just congratulate everybody at the table. But we have a lot of work to do, but we’re off to a great start. Donald Trump: Thank you very much everybody. Question: Do you enjoy, Mr. President, [Inaudible] second time? Aide: Thank you everybody. Question: Life here? Donald Trump: I’m working hard. Aide: Please leave out that door. Donald Trump: I like – I like my life. I’m working hard. But I like it because we’re doing a lot of good for a lot of people. Thank you very much. Aide: Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
Date: 2025-05-02
Note: [Donald Trump released a 48-hour “lo-fi” loop entitled “Lo-fi MAGA Video to Relax/Study To” at approximately 6 pm on May 2, 2025. It was turned off approximately 48 hours later on May 4, 2025 before business hours. The loop featured a 00:15:10 scroll of “Promises Made, Promises Kept” covering 55 topics. This video is the de-duplicated loop of the 55 topics. The transcript included here is verbatim, including typos and odd turns of phrase, as noted with a “[sp]” designation.] Note: [URLs in brackets at the end were added by Roll Call Factba.se and were not in the video. They link to the referenced article or the transcript, as appropriate. A complete spreadsheet with references is available here: https://f2.link/dt250502-google-sheet. A PDF of screengrabs with the full text is available here: https://f2.link/dt250502-pdf] Note: [Section: Closing The Border] The White House: Promises Made, Promises Kept The White House: Closing The Border The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Aurora, CO, 10/12/24: “We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our country.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241011#193] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: WSJ: Border Crossings Grind to Halt as Trump’s Tough Policies Take Hold [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wsj-20250419] The White House: DHS: Single Day Border Apprehensions Hit 15-Year Low Under President Trump [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dhs-20250225] The White House: CBP: March numbers show most secure border in history – operational control is becoming a reality [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cbp-20250401] The White House: House Homeland Security Committee Republicans: Border Brief: President Trump’s Enforcement Efforts Lead to Record-Low Illegal Immigration in February [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/house-homeland-20250314] The White House: The New York Times: Here Is How Trump Moved to Seal the Southern Border on Day 1 [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250122] The White House: Spectrum News 1: Trump signs another order aimed at shutting down southern border [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/spectrum-20250122] The White House: The New York Times: Trump declared an emergency at the southern border. Here’s what that means [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250120b] The White House: Fox News: Trump-era southern border sees migrant encounters plummet by over 60% as new policies kick in [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250128] The White House: The New York Times: ‘I Feel Rage, I Feel Sadness.’ With Border Closed, Migrants Face Few Options [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250121] The White House: CNN: Trump shuts down US-Mexico border for asylum seekers, leaving migrants in limbo [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cnn-20250121] The White House: CBS News: Amid Trump crackdown, illegal border crossings plunge to levels not seen in decades [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cbs-20250303] The White House: Axios: Border crossings plunge to lowest levels in decades: New data [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/axios-20250304] The White House: The Guardian: Trump authorizes US military to take control of land at US-Mexico border [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/guardian-20250412] Note: [Section: Onshoring Production] The White House: Onshoring Production The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “And just in conclusion, together, we’re going to cut your taxes, end inflation, slash your prices, getting them back down, raise your wages, and bring thousands of factories back to the USA, right where they belong. And that will be done hrough [sp] tariffs and smart policy. We will build American, we will buy American, and we will hire American.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#158] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Fox Business: Foreign and domestic investments totalling over $5T under Trump, adds 451k jobs for Americans. [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250422] The White House: Forbes: International Companies Bet Big On America: A New Wave Of US Jobs [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/forbes-20250331] The White House: Fox Business: Trump sees ‘manufacturing boom’ in first full jobs report of second term [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250307] The White House: Reuters: Trump and TSMC announce $100 billion plan to build five new US factories [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250303] Note: [Section: Ending Inflation And Making America Affordable Again] The White House: Ending Inflation And Making America Affordable Again The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Wilkes-Barre, PA, 8/17/24: “Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down and we will make America affordable again.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240817#7] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250120] The White House: The Guardian: Trump signs orders to try to tackle inflation and lower energy prices [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/guardian-20250120] The White House: The Wall Street Journal: March CPI Report Shows Unexpectedly Large Slowdown in Inflation [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wsj-20250410] The White House: Axios: Consumer prices fall in March, with much cooler inflation [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/axios-20250410] The White House: AP: Inflation fell last month as gas prices dropped sharply, a sign prices cooled beyond tariffs [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250410] The White House: Breitbart: Promises Made, Promises Kept: Consumer Prices Fell In March, Defying Predictions of Tarifflation [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/breitbart-20250410] The White House: Daily Caller: Trump Notches Win As Inflation Eases More Than Expected In March [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/daily-caller-20250410] Note: [Section: Launching The Largest Deportation Operation In U.S. History] The White House: Launching The Largest Deportation Operation In U.S. History The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Reading, PA, 11/4/2024: “And on day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241104b#64] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Homeland Security: “The Trump administration is attempting to amass a larger force of law-enforcement officials to help carry out deportations by granting is attempting to amass a larger force of law-enforcement officials to help carry out deportations by granting agents across the federal government the same owers [sp] as an immigration officer, according to an internal memo.” [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dhs-20250126] The White House: DHS: ICE Arrests in First 50 Days of Trump Administration [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dhs-20250313] The White House: The Wall Street Journal: Trump Gives Gun, Drug Agents Deportation Power [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wsj-20250122] The White House: BBC: Mass arrests in nationwide US immigration crackdown [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bbc-20250407] The White House: CNN: Trump administration launches nationwide immigration enforcement blitz [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cnn-20250126] The White House: Axios: ICE arrests 956 in 1 day as Trump admin immigration crackdown ramps up [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/axios-20250127] The White House: NBC News: Immigration enforcement operations ramp up in cities across the U.S. [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250127] The White House: Fox News: Trump ICE unleashes on Biden admin after arrests surpass all 2024 data: ‘Cooking the books’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250312] Note: [Section: Passing The Laken Riley Act] The White House: Passing The Laken Riley Act The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “With our actions tomorrow, my administration will deliver justice for every family whose loved one has been stolen from them by migrant crime, including justice for every family whose loved one has been stolen from them by migrant crime, including Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, Kayla Hamilton, and every other precious American soul that we have lost to these animals. Their memories will live in their hearts forever and our hearts forever, and we will never, ever forget them.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#66] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Homeland Security: President Trump Signs the Laken Riley Act into Law [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dhs-20250129] The White House: NPR: Trump signs first bill of his second presidency, the Laken Riley Act, into law [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/npr-20250129] The White House: Fox News: Trump signs Laken Riley Act into law the Laken Riley Act, into law [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250129d] The White House: Fox News: Trump signs Laken Riley Act into law as first legislative victory in new administration [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250129d] The White House: Newsweek: Laken Riley’s Mom Says Trump Didn’t Forget Her Daughter as Bill is Signed [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/newsweek-20250129] The White House: The Hill: Trump signs Laken Riley Act, marking first legislative win of second term [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/hill-20250129] The White House: Associated Press: While signing Laken Riley Act, Trump says he’ll send ‘worst criminal aliens’ to Guantanamo [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250129] Note: [Section: Ending Birthright Citizenship] The White House: Ending Birthright Citizenship The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Pickens, SC, 7/1/23: “To further deter illegal immigration, I will sign on day one, executive order, ending automatic citizenship for the children of illegal aliens. They come here illegally, they have children – We’re the only country in the world that does that. They come in, they have children, and now the children, you say,”Welcome aboard.” And then they bring their parents in with them later.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt230701#134] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Fox News: Trump signs order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250120] The White House: BBC: Trump declares border emergency and seeks to end US birthright citizenship [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bbc-20250127] The White House: ABC 7: Trump signs executive order ending birthright citizenship, other immigration actions [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wls-20250121] The White House: CNN: Trump signs sweeping executive actions on immigration, launches fight to end birthright citizenship [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cnn-20250120] Note: [Section: Demolishing The Foreign Drug Cartels] The White House: Demolishing The Foreign Drug Cartels The White House: Promise Made: President Donald J. Trump Declares War on Cartels, 12/22/23: “The drug cartels are waging war on America – and it’s now time for America to wage war on the cartels.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt230105#2] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: AP: Trump administration labels 8 Latin American cartels as ‘foreign terrorist organizations’ Washington Examiner: Why Trump’s decision to [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250219] The White House: Fox News: Bondi’s DOJ Day 1 directives: Fight weaponization of justice, eliminate cartels, lift death penalty ban [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250125] The White House: NBC News: Mexico deports 29 drug cartel figures to the U.S. as officials meet with Trump team [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250228] Note: [Section: Invoking The Alien Enemies Act] The White House: Invoking The Alien Enemies Act The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Aurora, CO, 10/12/24: “I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Think of that, 1798. This was put there 1798. That’s a long time ago, right? To target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241011#143] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: The New York Times: Trump Invoked the Alien Enemies Act to Speed Up Deportations: What to Know [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250321] The White House: BBC: US top court allows Trump to use wartime law for deportations [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bbc-20250120] The White House: NBC News: Trump administration touts deportations under Alien Enemies Act after a judge temporarily blocked its use [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250317] Note: [Section: Removing Tren De Aragua] The White House: Removing Tren De Aragua The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “We will expel every single illegal alien gang member and migrant criminal operating on American soil and remove the savage gang, Tren de Aragua, from the United States.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#46] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: The Hill: What is Tren de Aragua, Venezuelan gang targeted by Trump for deportations? [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/hill-20250317] The White House: Fox News: ICE arrests 3 Tren de Aragua gang members in mass deportation push [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250129] The White House: New York Post: Deported members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua arrive in El Salvador [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nypost-20250317] The White House: KDVR: ICE detains over 40 after DEA raid of ‘makeshift nightclub’ associated with TdA gang [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/kdvr-20250126] Note: [Section: Removing MS-13] The White House: Removing MS-13 The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Salem, VA, 11/2/24: “I’m going to work with your governor, and we’re going to get MS-13 out of Virginia within one month. One month… we’re going to get them the hell out of here in one month.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241102b#150] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: USA Today: Trump deports 17 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, MS-13 amid legal battle [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/usa-today-20250331] The White House: AP: Justice Department moves to drop case against alleged top MS-13 leader, seeks to deport him inste [sp] [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250410b] Note: [Section: Terminating Catch And Release] The White House: Terminating Catch And Release The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Aurora, CO, 10/12/24: “I will end catch and release.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241011#190] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: New York Post: Trump orders Border Patrol to immediately stop setting illegal migrants free in the US: ‘Catch and release is ended’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nypost-20250121] The White House: The Washington Times: Under Trump, border catch-and-release has dropped 99.99% from worst Biden month [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wash-times-20250421] Note: [Section: Shutting Down The CBP One App] The White House: Shutting Down The CBP One App The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Aurora, CO, 10/12/24: “… Kamala’s app for illegals will be shut down immediately within 24 hours.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241011#129] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: NBC News: Trump shuts down immigration app, dashing migrants’ hopes of entering U.S. [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250120] The White House: The New York Times: Trump Shuts Down Migrant Entry App, Signaling the Start of His Crackdown [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250120c] The White House: CBP: CBP Removes Scheduling Functionality in CBP One™ App [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cbp-20250122] The White House: Federation for American Immigration Reform: President Trump Shuts Down CBP One Add; New Data Reveals Hundreds of Thousands of Illegal Aliens Were in the Pipeline [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fair-20250127] The White House: Fox News: Up to 1M migrants who used Biden’s CBP One app ordered to deport by Trump admin [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250408] Note: [Section: Imposing The Death Penalty For Illegal Immigrants Murderers] The White House: Imposing The Death Penalty For Illegal Immigrants Murderers The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Aurora, CO, 10/12/24: “And I’m hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241011#146] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Bloomberg Law: Trump Directs Death Penalty for Police Killers, Illegal Migrants [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bloomberg-20250121c] The White House: Officer.com: Trump Calls for Mandatory Death Penalty for Convicted Cop Killers [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/officer-20250305] The White House: White House: Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250121c] Note: [Section: Delivering Justice For Victims Of Illegal Immigrant Violence] The White House: Delivering Justice For Victims Of Illegal Immigrant Violence The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “With our actions tomorrow, my administration will deliver justice for every family whose loved one has been stolen from them by migrant crime, including Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, Kayla Hamilton, and every other precious American soul that we have lost to these animals. Their memories will live in their hearts forever and our hearts forever, and we lost to these animals. Their memories will live in their hearts forever and our hearts forever, and we will never, ever forget them.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#66] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Washington Examiner: Trump administration reinstates ICE office for Americans victimized by illegal immigrants [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wash-exam-20250409] The White House: New York Post: Kristi Noem relaunches Biden-axed ICE office dedicated to migrant crime, helping ‘angel families’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nypost-20250409] The White House: DHS: President Trump Signs the Laken Riley Act into Law [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dhs-20250129] The White House: White House: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Honors Jocelyn Nungaray [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250305b] The White House: The Wall Street Journal: Trump Names Tovar Wildlife Refuge After Murdered 12-Year-Old Jocelyn Nungaray [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wsj-20250305] Note: [Section: Reinstating Remain In Mexico] The White House: Reinstating Remain In Mexico The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/20/25: “We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250120#18] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: NPR: Trump reinforces use of his ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/npr-20250120] The White House: The Guardian: Trump revives ‘remain in Mexico’ policy as part of anti-immigration crackdown [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/guardian-20250121] The White House: Reuters: Trump administration says it is reinstating ‘remain in Mexico’ program [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250121e] Note: [Section: Suspending Refugee Admissions] The White House: Suspending Refugee Admissions The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, St. Cloud, MN, 7/27/24: “On day one of the Trump presidency, I will… suspend refugee admissions, stop the resettlement, and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240727#220] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: NPR: President Trump’s suspension of asylum marks a break from U.S. past [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/npr-20250123b] The White House: Forbes: Trump Stops Refugee Admissions Indefinitely [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/forbes-20250121] The White House: AP: Appeals court allows Trump administration to suspend approval of new refugees amid lawsuit [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250325] Note: [Section: Imposing Tariffs On Mexico And Canada to Stop Fentanyl] The White House: Imposing Tariffs On Mexico And Canada to Stop Fentanyl The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Palm Beach, FL, 1/7/25: “And we’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada because Canada, they come through Canada too, and the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers, record numbers. So we’re going to make up for that by putting tariffs on Mexico and Canada, substantial tariffs. And we want to get along with everybody, but it takes two to tango.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250107#66] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: AP: Trump puts tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, spurring trade war as North American allies respond [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250201] The White House: Fox News: Trump imposes tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China: ‘National emergency’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250201] The White House: CBNC [sp]: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cnbc-20250201] Note: [Section: Imposing Tariffs On China To Address Fentanyl] The White House: Imposing Tariffs On China To Address Fentanyl The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/30/25: “And with China, I’m also thinking about something because they’re sending fentanyl into our country. And because of that, they’re causing us hundreds of thousands of deaths. So China is going to end up paying a tariff also for that and we’re in the process of doing that. We’ll make that determination of what it’s going to be, but China has to stop sending fentanyl into our country and killing our people.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250130#82] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Reuters: Trump vows March 4 tariffs for Mexico, Canada, extra 10% for China over fentanyl [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250227] The White House: Fox News: White House to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China due to ‘invasion of illegal fentanyl’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250131] The White House: Fox News: Trump imposes tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China: ‘National emergency’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250201] The White House: CBNC [sp]: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cnbc-20250201] Note: [Section: Reversing Biden’s Anti-Crypto Crusade] The White House: Reversing Biden’s Anti-Crypto Crusade The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 5/26/24: “I will also stop Joe Biden’s crusade to crush crypto. We’re going to stop it. I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the USA, not driven overseas. I will support the right to self-custody to the nation’s 50 million crypto holders. I say this with your vote.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240525#53] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Reuters: Trump orders crypto working group to draft new regulations, explore national stockpile [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250123] The White House: The Wall Street Journal: What Trump Means for Tech: Crypto Gets a Seat at the Table [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wsj-20250203] The White House: Reuters: Crypto leaders meet at Trump’s summit with strategic reserve in focus [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250307] The White House: Politico: Trump signs executive order to create ‘strategic reserve’ of crypto [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/politico-20250306] Note: [Section: Declaring A National Energy Emergency] The White House: Declaring A National Energy Emergency The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Phoenix, AZ, 12/22/24: “To rescue our economy, I will sign day one orders to… declare a national energy emergency.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241222#138] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Declaring a National Energy Emergency [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250121] The White House: White House: Unleashing American Energy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250121e] The White House: Real Clear Energy: Why Trump Needed to Declare a National Energy Emergency [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/rce-20250127] The White House: Reuters: Trump says he will unleash American fossil fuels, halt climate cooperation [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250120] The White House: Forbes: ‘Drill Baby, Drill’: Donald Trump Declares U.S. Energy Emergency [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/forbes-20250120] The White House: Argus Media: Trump sworn in with vow to ‘drill baby, drill’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/argus-20250120] The White House: Alaska News Source: President Trump Signs executive order declaring a national emergency: ‘Drill, baby, drill’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ktuu-20250120] Note: [Section: Ending The Electric Vehicle Mandate] The White House: Ending The Electric Vehicle Mandate The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Palm Beach, FL, 1/7/25: “We’re going to be ending the electric car mandate quickly, by the way.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250107#43] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Unleashing American Energy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250121e] The White House: Reuters: Trump revokes Biden 50% EV target, freezes unspent charging funds [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250121] The White House: Bloomberg: Trump Orders Removal of EV-Favoring Policies and Subsidies [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bloomberg-20250121] The White House: Innovation News Network: Trump reverses Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, shifting lanes on EV policy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/inn-20250121] Note: [Section: Expanding Oil And Natural Gas Extraction] The White House: Expanding Oil And Natural Gas Extraction The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Atlanta, GA, 8/3/24: “To bring down the prices of all goods, we will stop the Biden-Harris war on American energy. We will – American energy is such a big deal. We will drill, baby, drill.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240803a#232] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: President Trump in Unleashing American Energy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250305] The White House: DOE: DOE Issues Export Approval to Golden Pass LNG, Accelerating President Trump’s Pledge to Restore American Energy Dominance [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/doe-20250307] The White House: Reuters: Trump administration approves Venture Global LNG exports from Louisiana project [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250319] The White House: AP: Trump’s interior and energy secretaries cheer on natural gas export industry in Gulf Coast [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250307] The White House: Reuters: US LNG projects boosted by Trump’s export permit restart [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250121c] Note: [Section: Withdrawing From The Paris Climate Agreement] The White House: Withdrawing From The Paris Climate Agreement The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/20/25: “But I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair one-sided Paris Climate Accord ripoff. The United States will not sabotage our own industries while one-sided Paris Climate Accord ripoff. The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250120c#28] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: NPR: Trump is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement (again), reversing U.S. climate policy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/npr-20250121] The White House: AP: Trump signs executive order directing US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement – again [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250120b] The White House: The New York Times: Trump Orders a U.S. Exit From the World’s Main Climate Pact [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250120] Note: [Section: Ending The Natural Gas Export Ban] The White House: Ending The Natural Gas Export Ban The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Phoenix, AZ, 12/22/24: “To rescue our economy, I will sign day one orders to… cancel his natural gas export ban…” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241222#138] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: X: Secretary Chris Wright: “We are now today the largest net exporter of natural gas in the world.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250213c#98] The White House: US Department of Energy: U.S. Department of Energy Reverses Biden LNG Pause, Restores Trump Energy Dominance Agenda [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/doe-20250124] The White House: Bloomberg: Trump Approves Gas Export Project After Lifting Biden Pause [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bloomberg-20250214] The White House: Forbes: How LNG Exports Will Define U.S. Energy Policy Under Trump 2.0 [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/forbes-20250227] The White House: Huff Post: Trump Revokes Biden’s Pause On Gas Exports [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/huffpost-20250121] The White House: Reuters: Trump lists freeze on LNG export permit applications [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250121b] Note: [Section: Opening ANWR] The White House: Opening ANWR The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Palm Beach, FL, 1/7/25: “Well, we’re going to be drilling soon. We’re going to be opening up ANWR.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250107#40] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Reuters: Trump administration to open more Alaska acres for oil, gas drilling [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250320] The White House: Alaska Beacon: Interior secretary announces plans to advance new Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil leasing [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ak-beacon-20250505] The White House: Alaska’s News Source: Trump administration to open ANWR and NPR-A to oil and gas leases [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ktuu-20250320] The White House: The Washington Post: Interior to open millions of acres in Alaska to drilling and mining [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wapo-20250320] Note: [Section: Pausing Windmill Construction] The White House: Pausing Windmill Construction The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Palm Beach, FL, 1/7/25: “The only people that want them are the people that are getting rich off windmills, getting massive subsidies from the US government, and it’s the most expensive energy there is. It’s many, many times more expensive than clean, natural gas. So we’re going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250107#69] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Heritage: Why Trump Blew Away Biden’s Wind Energy Fantasy on Day 1 [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/heritage-20250130] The White House: White House: Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250121d] The White House: New York Times: Trump Administration Halts Building of Giant Wind Farm Off N.Y. Coast [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250416] Note: [Section: Terminating The Green New Deal] The White House: Terminating The Green New Deal The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Tempe, AZ, 10/24/24: “And I will… end the green new scam.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241024d#126] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Thomson Reuters: Executive Order Targets ‘Green New Deal’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250124] The White House: America First Policy Institute: The Green New Deal Is Gone: President Trump’s Golden Age of Energy Is Here [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/am-first-20250319] The White House: Politico: Trump order targets ‘Green New Deal’ programs with freeze to climate, infrastructure law funds [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/politico-20250120] Note: [Section: Reversing Biden’s Offshore Drilling Ban] The White House: Reversing Biden’s Offshore Drilling Ban The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Palm Beach, FL, 1/7/25: “President Biden’s actions yesterday on offshore drilling, banning offshore drilling will not stand. I will reverse it immediately. It will be done immediately…” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250107#16] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Bloomberg: Trump Orders US Waters Open to Oil Drilling, Reversing Biden [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bloomberg-20250121b] The White House: Vinson & Elkins: War on the Offshore – President Trump Restores Areas Withdrawn by President Biden from Offshore Drilling [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/vinson-elkins-20250326] Note: [Section: Ending DEI In The Military] The White House: Ending DEI In The Military The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/20/25: “And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It’s going to end immediately.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250120#28] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Restoring America’s Fighting Force [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250128] The White House: NPR: Trump signs executive order taking aim at DEI programs in the military [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/npr-20250128] The White House: BBC: Trump signs orders focused on reshaping US military [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bbc-20250120b] The White House: New York Post: Trump inks five new executive actions, including ones banning transgender service members, military DEI programs [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nypost-20250127] The White House: Reuters: Trump takes aim at DEI, COVID expulsions and transgender troops [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250127] Note: [Section: Ending DEI In Government] The White House: Ending DEI In Government The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “But we’re going to stop the destructive and divisive diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates…” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#85] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250121b] The White House: White House: Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250122] The White House: NBC News: Trump orders all federal diversity, equity and inclusion employees placed on paid leave starting Wednesday [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250122b] The White House: Associated Press: Trump administration directs all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on leave [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250121] The White House: NPR: Trump called DEI programs ‘illegal. He plans to end them in the federal government [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/npr-20250123] Note: [Section: Restoring Freedom Of Speech] The White House: Restoring Freedom Of Speech The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “I will restore free speech.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#166] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250120b] The White House: Associated Press: Trump orders government not to infringe on Americans’ speech, calls for censorship investigation to infringe on Americans’ speech, calls for censorship investigation [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250121b] The White House: The Washington Post: Trump signs order to end ‘government censorship’ of social media [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wapo-20250120] The White House: Daily Citizen: President Trump Signs Executive Orders Restoring Free Speech, Ending Censorship [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/daily-citizen-20250122] The White House: Alliance Defending Freedom: Trump’s Day-One Executive Orders Correct Course on Censorship, Gender Ideology, DEI [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/adf-20250127] The White House: American Legislative Exchange Council: President Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Free Speech [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/alec-20250122] Note: [Section: Deporting Pro-Hamas Radicals And Making College Campuses Safe And Patriotic Again] The White House: Deporting Pro-Hamas Radicals And Making College Campuses Safe And Patriotic Again The White House: Promise Made: NBC News: Trump’s plan to quell protests: ‘Deport pro-Hamas radicals’ [RCF Source Check: https://cqrc.al/nbc-20240813] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250129] The White House: Fox News: President Donald Trump to deport Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, defund CRT with new executive orders [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250129b] The White House: Reuters: Trump administration to cancel defund CRT with new executive orders [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250129b] The White House: Reuters: Trump administration to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250129] The White House: New York Post: Trump orders review to identify, punish and deport antisemites – including students on visas [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nypost-20250129] The White House: Fox News: Trump moves to deport Hamas-sympathizing students [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250130] The White House: The Hill: Trump signs order to combat antisemitism on campuses, vows action against ‘Hamas sympathizers’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/hill-20250129c] The White House: NBC News: Judge permits Trump administration to deport Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250412] The White House: Foreign Policy: Trump’s Deportations Come to Campus [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/foreign-policy-20250321] The White House: NBC News: Trump takes aim at foreign-born college students, with 300 visas revoked [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250328] The White House: Axios: Exclusive: Trump’s ‘pro-Hamas’ purge could block foreign students from colleges [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/axios-20250327] Note: [Section: Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports] The White House: Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 5/26/24: “We will keep men out of women’s sports.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240525#59] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: ABC News: NCAA changes transgender participation policy in response to executive order [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/abc-20250206] The White House: ABC News: Trump signs executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports, directing DOJ to enforce [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/abc-20250205] The White House: NCAA: NCAA announces transgender student-athlete participation policy change [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ncaa-20250206] Note: [Section: Protecting Our Children From Mutilation] The White House: Protecting Our Children From Mutilation The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Phoenix, AZ, 12/22/24: “And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation…” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241222#136] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: The New York Times: N.Y. Hospital Stops Treating 2 Children After Trump’s Trans Care Order [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250201] The White House: NBC News: Some hospitals pause gender-affirming care to evaluate Trump’s executive order [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250131] The White House: 9News: UCHealth and Denver Health pause gender-affirming care for trans youth [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wusa-20250129] The White House: Fox 59: Some hospitals pause gender-affirming care to evaluate Trump’s executive order [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wxin-20250130] The White House: The Washington Post: After Trump order, hospitals suspend some health care for trans youth [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wapo-20250131] The White House: The Guardian: Trump signs executive order to curtail gender transition for people under 19 [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/guardian-20250128] Note: [Section: Cutting Federal Funding To Schools Pushing Woke Agendas] The White House: Cutting Federal Funding To Schools Pushing Woke Agendas The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Atlanta, GA, 8/3/24: “On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory… and other inappropriate racial… or political content onto the shoulders of our children.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240803a#238] The White House: President Trump, Atlanta, GA, 8/3/24: “And I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.” The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250129b] The White House: The Hill: Trump signs executive order to defund schools teaching CRT, ‘radical gender ideology’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/hill-20250129b] The White House: USA Today: Trump says he’ll divert funds from schools teaching ‘discriminatory equity ideology’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/usa-today-20250129] The White House: Fox News: Trump signs executive orders stripping federal funding from schools that teach CRT, supporting school choice [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250205] The White House: New York Post: Trump orders defunding of K-12 schools that promote ‘radical’ gender and race ‘indoctrination’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nypost-20250129b] The White House: Reuters: Trump issues orders to promote school choice, end “anti-American” teaching [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250129b] The White House: White House: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Prohibits Federal Funding for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in Schools [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250215] The White House: CBS News: Trump bars federal funding for schools with COVID vaccine mandates [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cbs-20250214] Note: [Section: Recognizing Two Genders] The White House: Recognizing Two Genders The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/20/25: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250120#27] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Reuters: Trump declares ‘only two genders’ to be official US policy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250411] The White House: NBC News: Trump signs executive orders proclaiming there are only two biological sexes, halting diversity programs [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250122] The White House: BBC: Trump makes ‘two sexes’ official and scraps DEI policies [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/bbc-20250130] Note: [Section: Shutting Down The Department Of Education] The White House: Shutting Down The Department Of Education The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 5/26/24: “We will shut down our out-of-control federal Department of Education and give it back to the states and local governments.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240525#59] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: AP: Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping some core functions [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250319] Note: [Section: Ending Biden’s Racial Equity Taskforce] The White House: Ending Biden’s Racial Equity Taskforce The White House: Promise Made: Agenda47. Reversing Biden’s EO Embedding Marxism in the Federal Government, 3/2/23: “Joe Biden recently signed a very sinister executive order mandating that almost every federal department and agency establish a Marxist”equity” – this is something new-enforcement squad to implement a woke takeover of the entire federal government… With his action, Biden is weaponizing every tool of government power to push this racism and this Communism and Marxism… I will immediately… eliminate all offices and initiatives connected to it. We will not allow it to happen.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt230302#1] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Harvard Law School: Rollback: Trump Revoked Biden Executive Order 13985, Ordered Termination of Equity and EJ Offices [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/hls-20250120] The White House: The Federalist Society: Bye Bye, DEI: President Trump Issues Executive Order Revoking Biden’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Rules and Axing Affirmative Action [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/federalist-20250127] Note: [Section: Ending Biden’s Transgender Policy] The White House: Ending Biden’s Transgender Policy The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Atlanta, GA, 8/3/24: “On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing… transgender insanity and other inappropriate… sexual… content onto the shoulders of our children.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240803a#238] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Associated Press: Trump orders reflect his promises to roll back transgender protections and end DEI programs [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250120c] The White House: PBS News: Trump signs order to end federal support for gender transitions for people under 19 [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/pbs-20250128] The White House: France 24: Trump decrees end of diversity programs, LGBTQ protections [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/france24-20250120] Note: [Section: Removing Transgender Military Personnel] The White House: Removing Transgender Military Personnel The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Phoenix, AZ, 12/22/24: “With the stroke of my pen, on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy. And I will sign executive orders to… get transgenders out of the military.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241222#135] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: NBC News: Pentagon to ban trans people from joining military, pauses gender-transition procedures [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250210] The White House: DOD: Gender Dysphoria Incompatible With Military, Service Members Must Serve in Accordance With Sex [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dod-20250228] The White House: The Hill: Trump revokes Biden-era order allowing transgender members to serve in military [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/hill-20250120] Note: [Section: Ending Federal Censorship] The White House: Ending Federal Censorship The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Columbia, SC, 1/28/23: “We’re going to bust up the censorship regime and bring back free speech again.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt230128#31] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Dallas Express: Trump Signs Executive Order To Protect Free Speech Rights [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dallas-express-20250121] The White House: The Fire: Trump’s stated promise: ‘Stop all government censorship’ and his free speech Executive Order – First Amendment News 454 [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/the-fire-20250122] The White House: PC Mag: Trump Signs Order ‘Ending Federal Censorship’ on Social Media Platforms [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/pcmag-20250121] The White House: Akin Gump: President Trump’s Freedom of Speech Order Takes Aim at Social Media, Broadcasters Free Spee Center Trump Executive Orderin Order Takes Aim at Social Media, Broadcasters [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/akin-gup-20250127] The White House: Free Speech Center: Trump Executive Order on Restoring Freedom of Speech [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/free-speech-20250123] The White House: Politico Pro: Trump signs order ‘ending federal censorship’ of online content [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/politico-20250120b] Note: [Section: Defending Religious Liberty] The White House: Defending Religious Liberty The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “I will defend religious liberty.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#166] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: PBS: Trump signs executive order to establish a White House Faith Office [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/pbs-20250207] The White House: First Liberty: Understanding the Trump Administration’s Religious Liberty Initiatives [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/first-liberty-20250214] The White House: PBS: WATCH: Trump says he wants to root out ‘anti-Christian bias’ from U.S. at the National Prayer Breakfast [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/pbs-20250206] The White House: Alliance Defending Freedom: ADF commends Trump executive order protecting religious freedom for all [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/adf-20250207] The White House: Fox News: White House plans ‘extraordinary’ Holy Week as Trump honors Easter with ‘the observance it deserves’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250413] Note: [Section: Renaming The Gulf Of Mexico To Gulf Of America] The White House: Renaming The Gulf Of Mexico To Gulf Of America The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Palm Beach, FL, 1/7/25: “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America… What a beautiful name, and it’s appropriate.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250107#65] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: CNN: ‘Gulf of America’ arrives on Google Maps [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cnn-20250211] The White House: AP: Apple changes Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America on maps [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250212] Note: [Section: Restoring The Name Mount McKinley] The White House: Restoring The Name Mount McKinley The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/20/25: “A short time from now… we will restore the name of a great President, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250120#31] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Forbes: Trump Renames Denali To Mount McKinley – Here’s What To Know [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/forbes-20250120b] The White House: AP: Trump order seeks to change the name of North America’s tallest peak from Denali to Mount McKinley [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/ap-20250120] Note: [Section: Restoring Washington, D.C.] The White House: Restoring Washington, D.C. The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “We will rebuild our once great cities, including our capital in Washington, DC, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again. And we want to make this city again safe. We don’t want people coming to Washington and getting mugged, shot, killed. We’re going to stop it. Law enforcement – and they have very good police here, but they have to be allowed to do their job. We’re going to stop it. We’re going to beautify it. We’re going to make it the most beautiful capital in the world.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#162] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: White House: Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Works to Make Our Nation’s Capital Safe and Beautiful [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250327] The White House: Fox 5 DC: DC homeless encampments cleared out after Trump threatens Bowser [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wttg-20250307] The White House: The Washington Post: D.C. speeds up clearing homeless encampment after Trump notice [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wapo-20250306] The White House: NBC Washington: DC beautification crews clean up city amid threats of federal takeover [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wrc-20250304] Note: [Section: Enhancing Transparency] The White House: Enhancing Transparency The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Phoenix, AZ, 12/22/24: “We’re going to bring transparency and accountability back to our government.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241222#150] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Fox News: Karoline Leavitt: This is the most accessible and transparent administration in history [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250226] The White House: Politico: Trump briefing begins with pledge to boost outside media [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/politico-20250128] The White House: Axios: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt vows to hold media accountable for ‘lies’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/axios-20250128] The White House: Newsweek: White House Flooded With Thousands of Requests After Opening to ‘New Media’ [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/newsweek-20250131] The White House: New York Post: White House receives 7,400 requests for ‘new media’ seat in briefing room [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nypost-20250129c] Note: [Section break: Declassifying Government Documents] The White House: Declassifying Government Documents The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/19/25: “As the first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also reverse the over-classification of government documents. And in the coming days, we are going to make the over-classification of government documents. And in the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other topics of great public interest. That’s all going to be released.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250119#87] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: National Archives: JFK Assassination Records – 2025 Documents Release [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/archives-20250317] The White House: CBS News: JFK files related to assassination released by Trump administration [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cbs-20250319] The White House: Fox News: Trump orders FBI to declassify documents from ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ Russia Investigation [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250325] Note: [Section: Reestablishing Meritocracy] The White House: Reestablishing Meritocracy The White House: Promise Made: Agenda47 Reversing Biden’s EO Embedding Marxism in the Federal Government, 5/9/24: “… I will restore merit-based federal civil service.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt230302#6] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: National Review: ‘Restoring Meritocracy’: Trump Administration Cuts DEI as Factor in State Department Promotions Trump Administration Cuts DEI as Factor in State Department Promotions [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/natl-review-20250327] The White House: Washington Examiner: Trump brings back meritocracy and sanity [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/wash-exam-20250222] Note: [Section: Bolstering The Military] The White House: Bolstering The Military The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/20/25: “Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end and perhaps most importantly the wars we never get into.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250120#29] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: DoD: Trump, Hegseth Announce Air Force’s Next Generation Fighter Platform [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/dod-20250321] The White House: ABC News: Military officials say recruiting off to strong start in 2025, building on recent trends [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/abc-20250318] The White House: White House: Restoring America’s Fighting Force [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/white-house-20250128] Note: [Section: Building A Golden Dome For America] The White House: Building A Golden Dome For America The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Detroit, MI, 6/15/24: “… and my next term, we will build a great iron dome over our country like Israel has a dome like has never been seen before, a state of the art missile defense shield that will be entirely built in America and create jobs, jobs, jobs.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240615b#161] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Defense News: Iron Dome for America gets a golden makeover Defense Scoop: Hegseth highlights ‘Iron Dome for America’, other first priorities as new SecDef [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/defense-news-20250225] Note: [Section: Recovering Israel-Hamas War Hostage Corpses] The White House: Recovering Israel-Hamas War Hostage Corpses The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Newsmax Interview, 1/13/25: “And a lot of people have died, and the numbers are you know, part of the deal is we’re going to bring bodies out. You’re going to bring bodies out.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250113#95] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: NPR: Hamas returns bodies of four hostages and Israel releases hundreds of Palestinians [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/npr-20250227] The White House: CNN: Human remains returned by Hamas to Israel confirmed as those of former hostage Shiri Bibas [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/cnn-20250221] Note: [Section: Fixing The Broken Federal Bureaucracy] The White House: Fixing The Broken Federal Bureaucracy The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Palm Beach, FL, 11/14/24: “We’re going to clean out the corrupt, broken, and failing bureaucracies, and that’s what we’re going to be doing.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt241114#48] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: The Hill: Supreme Court clears way for Trump admin to fire some probationary workers [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/hill-20250408] The White House: The New York Times: Supreme Court Sides With Trump, for Now, on Firing Agencies’ Leaders [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nyt-20250409] Note: [Section: Securing Elections] The White House: Securing Elections The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 5/26/24: “And I will secure our elections.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240525#60] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: NBC News: Trump signs executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/nbc-20250326] The White House: Politico: Trump signs sweeping executive order targeting election rules [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/politico-20250325] Note: [Section: Maximizing Water In California] The White House: Maximizing Water In California The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Washington, D.C., 1/21/25: “So, we’re going to be issuing an executive order demanding that they immediately let that water come down to through California farmers, even people living in Beverly Hills.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt250121#87] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: Fox News: Smelt test: Trump order overrides California’s fish-protecting rules to maximize water supply [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/fox-20250129c] The White House: Los Angeles Times: Acting on Trump’s order, federal officials opened up two California dams [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/latimes-20250131] The White House: Los Angeles Times: Visiting L.A. after firestorm, Trump focuses on overhauling California water policy [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/latimes-20250124] Note: [Section: Promoting American Leadership In Artificial Intelligence] The White House: Promoting American Leadership In Artificial Intelligence The White House: Promise Made: President Trump, Asheboro, NC, 8/21/24: “It’s time to create the arsenal of the 21st century. We need that. That means aggressively shifting funding to keep America on the cutting edge, investing heavily in drones and robotics and artificial intelligence and hypersonics.” [RCF Source Check: https://f2.link/dt240821b#128] The White House: Promise Kept: The White House: GovTech: Trump Executive Order Aims to Position U.S. as Al Leader [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/govtech-20250124] The White House: Reuters: Trump announces private-sector $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure [RCF Source Check: https://fsc.al/reuters-20250121d]
Date: 2025-05-04
Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: I saw a friendly face over here. Question: A question about [Inaudible], there was an election in Australia – Donald Trump: Well he gave some information on the plane. I think we covered everything very carefully and uh, in great detail. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: You probably have seen it. Have you seen the information from the plane? Question: Yes sir, I have. But just a couple of questions. Where did you get the idea for reopening Alcatraz? Donald Trump: Just an idea I’ve had, and I guess because the judges, so many of these radicalized judges, uh, they want to have trials for every single – Think of it, every single person that’s in our country illegally, they came in illegally. That would mean millions of trials, and it’s just so ridiculous, what’s happening. Donald Trump: And it’s long been a symbol, Alcatraz, of whatever it is. I mean, you know, it’s a sad symbol- Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: – but it’s a, it’s a symbol of law and order and uh, it’s got quite a history frankly. Question: Yeah. Donald Trump: So, I think we’re gonna do that and we’re looking at it right now. Question: There was an election in the Australia this weekend – Question: What about the, the, the movie, the movie tariffs. Donald Trump: Yeah, the movie tariffs. What they’ve done is, other nations have been stealing the, the movies, the movie making capability from the United States. And I said to a couple of people, “What do you think?” I’ve done some very strong research over the last week and we’re making very few movies now. Hollywood is being destroyed. Donald Trump: Now you have an incompetent, grossly incompetent governor that allowed that to happen. So I’m not just blaming other nations but other nations, a lot of them, have stolen our movie industry. And I’m saying if they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States, then we should have a tariff on movies that come in. And not only that, governments are actually giving big money, I mean, they’re supporting them financially. Donald Trump: So that’s sort of a threat to our country in a sense. And uh, it’s been a very popular thing. I can tell you one thing- Question: Mr. President, Mr. President- Donald Trump: – movie makers, love it. Question: Mr. President there was an election in Australia this weekend – Mr. President will you bring that up with Canada? Will you bring that up with Canada tomorrow as the movie businesses is my as well? Donald Trump: Well, Canada’s only one of many countries. Question: But it’s one of many countries that takes the both of them and – Question: There was an election in Australia. Question: – Saudi Arabia. Will you meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia when you go? Donald Trump: I don’t know. We haven’t thought about it, but we’ll be leaving for Saudi Arabia pretty soon. Uh, I have not thought about it. We’ve had some good conversations on Russia and Ukraine over the weekend, over the last few days actually. But we’ve had some very good conversations on Russia and Ukraine. There’s a lot of hatred there, I will tell you, between the two parties and between, even the generals. Donald Trump: I mean there’s tremendous amount of hatred. But we’ve had some very good discussions over the last few days. Question: The Australian election Mr. President – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: A few Senate Democrats have withdrawn support for crypto bills, in part because they say, that you and your family should not be involved in crypto companies while in office and now the bills may not pass or have the support. What would you say to them about that? Donald Trump: Well, I, I haven’t heard that, but I’m a big fan of crypto because I wanna keep it away from China. Crypto is a whole new thing that started, you know, not so long ago, but I’m very much in favor of crypto, Bitcoin, all of the different things because otherwise China’s gonna take it over and just like AI, just like so many other industries or whatever you want to call them, crypto is very important, I think for our country. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: The Australian election, Mr. President. The Australian election, the conservatives did very badly. Just like in Canada they’re saying, “It’s the Trump effect again.” The Conservatives in Australia – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – there was an election this weekend. Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know, Albanese, I’m very friendly with, I haven’t – I don’t know anything about the election other than- Question: He just won again. He was re-elected. Donald Trump: – the man that won is very – He’s very good. He is a friend of mine. Question: He said that your tariffs were not the act a friend. Will you be speaking to him now, congratulating him on his win? Donald Trump: Well, uh, I can only say that he’s been very, very nice to me, very respectful to me. I have no idea who the other person is that ran against him. And you know, we’ve had a very good relationship. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: – there’s been cuts to the World Trade Center Health program and questions about the restoration of the director. Are you aware of- Donald Trump: Restoration of what? Question: The World Trade Center Health program that helped 911 first responders, 15 staffers were laid off on Friday. And, uh, activists in the United Nations- Donald Trump: Well I was the one in my first term that helped them get money and helped them really, uh, live a much better life. That was a very important thing I did in my first term, but I’m not aware of anything that may have been brought up recently. Thank you. Thank you very much. Question: Are you considering General Flynn? Donald Trump: I like General Flynn. Question: Might Flynn be NSA director? Donald Trump: I’m so sorry.
Date: 2025-05-05
Donald Trump: Hello everybody. [Audio gap] very important announcement. Very, very amazing, I think, for D.C., but even for the country, because it’s, to me, a very big deal. I’d like to thank NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris and Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Secretary Scott Turner, Secretary Doug Burgum. Donald Trump: And I see Howard Lutnick is here too, Commerce and some others that if I could see past the press, I’d name you, but I can’t. I’m pleased to reveal that the 2027 NFL draft, that’s a big thing, will be held right here in our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., on the National Mall. And you get a little glimpse of it. I was just saying to Roger, I don’t think there’s ever been anything like that. Donald Trump: That’s a good idea. In fact, maybe we could use it for other things also. I have an idea. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be something that nobody else will ever be able to duplicate that, I don’t suspect. It’s very exciting. Every year, hundreds of young football players have their dreams come true as the NFL teams across the land, and you just saw that last week, select the best young players in America to join their ranks. Donald Trump: Hundreds of thousands of football fans will travel all across our country to cheer them on in person. We expect, would you say, more than 100,000 people, I think? What is the capacity would you think it can hold, because the mall can actually hold up to a million people if you go all the way back, what do you think? Roger Goodell: Over three days, we’ll be over a million, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Oh, yeah, you’re going to be – you’re going to have – [Audio Gap] – local businesses and bringing jobs and tourism to the heart of our capital. The draft is a celebration of one of our country’s most cherished cultural institutions and the annual highlights for football fans everywhere. Everyone in the world is going to be watching. Donald Trump: We look forward to welcoming people from across the nation, from all over the world. Last month, the Washington commanders and the D.C. government also announced a major deal to build a brand new 65,000 seat football arena at the site of the RFK Stadium in eastern Capitol Hill. And I don’t think there is a better site anywhere in the world than that site. Josh Harris: Incredibly exciting. Donald Trump: He’s a friend of mine. He’s a very successful guy. There’s a reason for it. It’s amazing. It sat there for years and people were talking about stadiums and 25 different sites. I said, they’re not talking about the best site. That’s the best site there is, bringing professional football back into the district from Maryland. Donald Trump: And not only are these announcements great for the NFL, but they also advance the mission of making Washington D.C. safe and clean and beautiful. And we’re working very closely with the mayor, as you know. And we’ve made a lot of improvements in the last few months, and it’s getting to look really strong. Donald Trump: Crime is way down, and there’s a good relationship we have going with Muriel. So I want to thank you very much. And would you like to say a few words? Muriel Bowser: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: The mayor, please. Muriel Bowser: Thank you. Thank you. Well – sorry. Well, greetings. I’m Muriel Bowser. I’m the mayor of the best city in the world and also the sports capital. And we are delighted to be here with the Washington Commanders, the NFL and the president, to talk about this very exciting announcement for Washington D.C. We believe in investing in sports because they have helped us transform neighborhoods and the NFL bringing this event to the nation’s capital will help us fill hotel rooms, our restaurants, and Americans from all 50 states will come to their nation’s capital and enjoy our beautiful city and museum. Muriel Bowser: So we’re just delighted to be here and we want to thank everybody for all the hard work to get here. Donald Trump: Thanks, mayor. Muriel Bowser: Thank you. Donald Trump: Roger, please. Roger Goodell: Thank you. Well, Mr. President, thank you. We’re honored to be here in the Oval Office and to have you announce the 2027 NFL draft is a special treat, so thank you for your support. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Roger Goodell: Also, thank you for your support in the commander’s new stadium. We agree it’s going to be a great site. We think it’s going to be great for our fans here and it’s great to come back home, and so we’re very excited about that. Josh is leading the way on our behalf and the mayor, so we thank both of them for that. Roger Goodell: We also want to thank you because in the first term, you helped us get a Canadian trade deal, which we – Donald Trump: I did. Roger Goodell: We want to make sure we note again and make sure you know – Donald Trump: Canada does not like me too much. They gave a great American company, a lot of money that you deserved, frankly. Roger Goodell: Well, thank you. The draft has really become one of the great entertainment and sports events. Just a week ago in Green Bay, we had over 600,000 people attend. The year before, in Detroit, we had close to 800,000. As the president remarked, we believe it will be well over a million when we come here to D.C. in 2027. So we not only believe it’s a great site, we believe it’s consistent with what the president said, which is investing in our communities, investing specifically here in the nation’s capital, one that I grew up here, in Washington D.C. And it’s particularly important. Roger Goodell: We think we can have a tremendous impact on this community. And it will not just be an event. It will be something that will show the world how far the nation’s capital has come and where it’s going. So we’re very excited about that. And we thank everybody here. We thank you for your support. We know it’s going to be a great event. Roger Goodell: And Mr. President, we thank you again. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Roger Goodell: You’re welcome. Donald Trump: Good luck with it. Roger Goodell: Yes, thank you. Josh Harris: Mr. President, thank you very much. We wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you for your leadership in terms of the stadium. And now, what a great day for Washington, I mean, to host the NFL draft in 2027 on the mall. I believe we’ll get over a million people and it’s going to be an amazing day and it’ll showcase what Washington is all about, but it will also showcase what our country is all about. Josh Harris: Washington is the gateway city to our country and it’ll be an amazing day and we can’t wait to get started. And I couldn’t have done it without my partners, Roger Goodell, thank you, and Mayor Muriel Bowser. And we’re ready to get to work. And I can’t imagine RFK coming back. I grew up here. D.C. used to stop on Sundays, and everyone would be inside watching football or everyone would be at the stadium, and so we want to bring that back. Josh Harris: And football really is as essential to the culture of America. We all love it, we all watch it, and it brings people together. And so, what a great way to celebrate the United States of America, the NFL and the Washington Commanders. And President Trump, we leave on your desk a Trump jersey. You are the ultimate commander. Josh Harris: So, it is a commander’s jersey. There’s no bird on it. But do – we appreciate you and thank you for everything you’ve done and look forward to the future. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Josh Harris: Thank you. Donald Trump: And I have to say that uh, Josh had a very good draft a short while ago. You have a very good quarterback – great quarterback, I think, great. Any questions, please, about the stadium or any of it? Yeah, please. Yes. Thank you very much. Question: Thank you so much. About the draft, and I would like to – an event that it was already mentioned here, the World Cup. Although United States, the passion here is football; for the World Cup next year, how do you envision, Mr. President, this event here in The United States? Donald Trump: Well, it will be fantastic. I worked very hard to get the World Cup. It was – in fact, I think I have the trophy right here, right behind you. Don’t have a picture taken with Roger and that trophy, by the way. But no, they brought it in – Johnny, who’s a good guy, but he brought that in. That’s the actual trophy. Donald Trump: It’s interesting that you asked that. And it’s made at Tiffany’s and they’re leaving it here until just before the actual World Cup, then it goes to the champion. But that’s very exciting. We have the Olympics, so we have both of them. I worked very hard on getting both. And I said, you know, I’m not going to be able to be there as president. Donald Trump: And then a strange thing happened, and it turned out, I became president not for the term that I was supposed to be. I became president, well, we have the Olympics and the World Cup. And we have something that maybe surpasses everything, the 250th anniversary of our country. So, that’s going to be great. Donald Trump: That’s going to be a very big event, a year-long event. So, thank you for your question. Very nice question. Yeah, please. Question: So, you’ve often said you want US to be bigger, better and stronger. Currently, Russia is the biggest country in the world by landmass, followed by Canada and then China. So, when you say that you want to annex Canada, is it so that it would be the biggest country? Donald Trump: No, I never even thought of it that way. Although I am a real estate developer at heart, [Laughter] I’ve never heard that question. Yeah, please go ahead. Question: Mr. President, will you have to hire more security and police in order to accommodate the million people coming in for the NFL draft? Donald Trump: I think that there will be something, and I know Roger will work it out and Josh and all of us will work it out. It’s such an honor to have that. I think it will be great for everybody, great for our country. It’ll be something very special. There’s no scene like it. There’s no sight like it. I do – my whole life was based on sites, locations. Donald Trump: And as soon as I looked at that rendering, it’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to really be beautiful. You know, interestingly, I didn’t know exactly where it sat relative to the Capital. But the stadium, if you go back, is right behind the Capital – miles behind, but nevertheless visually right behind it. So, it’s going to be an architect’s dream, whoever the architect is chosen, and the owner, it’s going to be something special. Donald Trump: I think it’s going to be great for the area. It’s going to be – it will be top of the line. I know these people very well and they only know about top of the line. And I would say that more will be put into the stadium than would be put into an identical stadium of a similar size. I think they’re going to do a special – because of the importance of the location, I have no doubt they’ll do a special job. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Can you explain a little bit about how you would implement tariffs on the film industry, kind of how that would work? Donald Trump: Well, that’s a different story, but our film industry has been decimated by other countries, taking them out. And also by incompetence like in Los Angeles, the governor is a grossly incompetent man. He’s just allowed it to be taken away from Hollywood. Hollywood doesn’t do very much of that business. They have the nice sign and everything’s good, but they don’t do very much. Donald Trump: A lot of it’s been taken to other countries and a big proportion. And I’m actually going to meet with some because there are some advantages, I guess. And I’m not looking to hurt the industry, I want to help the industry. But they’re given financing by other countries, they’re given a lot of things. And the industry was decimated. Donald Trump: If you look at how little is done in this country now. You know, you think we were the ones – we used to do 100 – not long ago, 100 percent. Now we do almost, like very little. It’s shocking. Are you in that business too, because he’s in so many businesses. You could explain it, but it’s not a good situation. Donald Trump: So, we’re going to meet with the industry. I want to make sure they’re happy with it because we’re all about jobs. That’s all what I’m – you know, it’s very important. It’s a big industry, but it’s an industry now that’s – it’s really left. It’s abandoned the USA where it started, and we’ll get it. We’ll get it back. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. First, I just want to thank you for letting us in here. I’m with ZeroHedge and the last administration banned us on social media. So, we’re really grateful to be in the White House. And this is not exactly sports related, but I’ve been dying to ask you this question for a long time, which is that two and a half years ago, the Nord Stream pipeline blew up. And despite what people like John Brennan and all the hawks said, you were one person who said Russia probably did not blow up its own pipeline. Donald Trump: If you can believe, they said Russia blew it up, yeah. Question: And so, I’m wondering now that you’re president, if you would consider launching a formal investigation into what happened there and who actually did blow it up. Donald Trump: Well, probably if I asked certain people, I’d be able to tell you without having to waste a lot of money on an investigation. But I think a lot of people know who blew it up. But I was the one that blew it up originally because I wouldn’t let it be built. And then when Biden got in, he allowed it to be built. Donald Trump: And it’s very interesting. But I think Russia, with the price of oil right now, oil’s gone down, I think we’re in a good position to settle. They want to settle, Ukraine wants to settle. If I weren’t president nobody would be settling. They’re losing 5,000 people a day. Think of it, here we talk about football. Donald Trump: They’re losing 5,000 people on average a week, mostly Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers. 5,000 a week, not including people that are killed as missiles go into areas that they shouldn’t be. It’s a very terrible thing. And I think we’ve come a long way and it could be something will happen, but hopefully it will. Donald Trump: As you know, President Putin has just announced a three-day ceasefire, which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot if you knew where we started from because they were not – we had a president that for three years didn’t speak to Putin and it all shouldn’t have happened. This is a war that should have never happened. Donald Trump: And you’re going to be very disappointed when you find out the real number of people that were killed. It’s far greater, many times greater, I believe, but far greater than the numbers that you’re putting out. It’s a very, very deadly, horrible war. OK. Yes, ma’am. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Some Catholics were not so happy about the image of you looking like the Pope. Oh, I see, you mean they can’t take a joke. You don’t mean the Catholics; you mean the fake news media. Not – the Catholics loved it. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: I had nothing to do with it. Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the Pope and they put it out on the internet. That’s not me that did it. I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was AI. But I know nothing about it. I just saw it last evening. Actually, my wife thought it was cute. She said isn’t that nice? Donald Trump: Actually, I would not be able to be married though. That would be a lot [Laughter] I’d have – to the best of my knowledge, popes aren’t big on getting married, are they? Not that we know of, no, no. I think it’s a fake news media that – they’re fakers. Question: My question though, sir, was about the fact that it was put out on the White House account. Even though it was AI generated, it was a joke, it was a meme, does it at all diminish the substance of the official White House account to have it go out on that particular channel? Donald Trump: Give me a break. It was just somebody did it in fun. It’s fine, have to have a little fun, don’t you? Yeah, please go ahead. Question: Tell me about the program that’s just been introduced to give undocumented immigrants living in the United States – Donald Trump: About me? Question: $1,000 to self deport. Can you just tell us a little – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Oh, the new program. We have millions of people that have come into this country illegally through an administration that didn’t know what they were doing. They didn’t have a clue. And now we find out officially they didn’t because the president was incompetent, but I could have told you that before. And they’ve allowed millions and millions of people to pour in, murderers, drug dealers – the biggest drug dealers in the world actually, terrorists come in, emptied prisons from many countries, not just South America. Donald Trump: All over the world they emptied their prisons into our beautiful USA. And to get that many people out – 21 million people we think the real number is, but let’s say 3 million of them are serious criminals, 11,888 murderers, many of whom murdered more than one person. It’s hard to believe we have to even talk about this when we’re talking about something so beautiful. Donald Trump: But it’s something we have to talk about having to do with the country because it’s very important. So, they came in by the millions illegally into our country. They just float in through an open border policy that was insane. And what we’ve done is we’ve offered, you know the numbers, but we’ve – because we’re taking them out by the thousands. Donald Trump: We’re being obstructed. It’s very unfair what’s happening because the court system is being – it’s very unfair. We have to get them out fast. These are bad people. These are people that are killing and they’ve already killed many people in this country. Illegal immigrants that came in illegally through an open border policy, which is insane. Donald Trump: We talk about common sense. That’s not common sense. And they came in from the Congo, all over Africa, all over Asia, all over South America, parts of Europe. They flowed in and just walked right into our country. We had no idea who they were, 21 million, at least. That’s probably a low number. You know, you hear lower numbers than that, it’s not. Donald Trump: That’s a low number. But many are really serious criminals and terrorists and people from jails. They emptied out jails. You know, Venezuela, their crime is down 72 percent because they took all the criminals off the streets and the gangs and they dumped them into our country. So we’re getting them out. It’s a very difficult thing with the courts because the courts have all of a sudden, out of nowhere, they said, maybe you have to have trials, trials. Donald Trump: We’re going to have five million trials, doesn’t work, doesn’t work. You wouldn’t have a country left, but hopefully the Supreme Court will save it. But what they’ve done is a very, very serious thing. You know, past presidents took out hundreds of thousands of people when needed. You look at Eisenhower, you look at many of them and they took people out and they didn’t go through any of this. Donald Trump: But what we thought we’d do is a self-deport, where we’re going to pay each one a certain amount of money and we’re going to get them a beautiful flight back to where they came from and they have a period of time. And if they make it, we’re going to work with them so that maybe someday with a little work, they can come back in if they’re good people, if they’re the kind of people that we want in our company, industrious people that could love our country. Donald Trump: And if they’re not, they won’t, but it will give them a path to coming back into the country. If they miss that limit, they’re going to be taken out of our country and they will never get a path to come back in and it will be a much tougher process. And it’s called self-deportation. And by doing that, you know, you’re talking about so many millions of people. Donald Trump: By doing that we have – by the way, we’ve taken out thousands of terrorists, drug lords. What we’ve done is amazing. And as you know, Tom Homan and Kristi Noem have done an incredible job. They really have done an incredible job, but it’s a hard job. So we’re going to have a self-deportation where they deport themselves out of our country and we’ll work with them and we’re going to try and if we think they’re good, if they have – if they’re people we want in our country, they’re going to come back into our country, we’ll give them a little easier route. Donald Trump: But if they don’t work and if we take them out after the date, then they’re never coming back and that’s the least of the problems that they’re going to have. Yeah, please? Question: What’s your expectation for your meeting with the Canadian prime minister tomorrow? Donald Trump: I don’t know. He’s coming to see me. I’m not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal, everybody does. They all want to make a deal because we have something that they all want. We have something that they all want. China wants to make a deal very badly. You see what’s happening to China? Donald Trump: China is being decimated and I don’t want that to happen, but they have to make a fair deal. We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year. We were losing five, think of it, on our trade policies with Biden. We were losing $5 billion a day. I think Josh as a great businessman, would not let that happen too long, right? Donald Trump: How many groups could lose $5 billion a day? Josh Harris: [Inaudible] do that. Donald Trump: If you lose $5 billion in one day, that’s the end of that company, right? You’re fired. He says, you’re fired, get out of here. So we essentially did that and we have it down to a very low number. We’re doing really well, really well. Yeah? Question: How did you decide to reopen Alcatraz? Can you walk us through that decision? Donald Trump: Did I say what? Question: To reopen Alcatraz, how will you use it? How did you come up with the idea? Donald Trump: Well, I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker. We started with the movie making and we’ll end. I mean, it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order. Our country needs law and order. Alcatraz is, I would say the ultimate, right, Alcatraz sing, sing and Alcatraz the movies. Donald Trump: But it’s right now a museum, believe it or not. A lot of people go there. It housed the most violent criminals in the world, and nobody ever escaped. One person almost got there, but they, as you know the story, they found his clothing rather badly ripped up and it was a lot of shark bites, a lot of problems. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever escaped from Alcatraz and just represented something strong having to do with law and order. We need law and order in this country. And so we’re going to look at it. Some of the people up here are going to be working very hard on that. And we had a little conversation. I think it’s going to be very interesting. Donald Trump: We’ll see if we can bring it back in large form, add a lot. But I think it represents something. Right now, it’s a big Hulk that’s sitting there rusting and rotting, very – you look at it, it’s sort of an – I mean you saw that picture that was put out, it’s sort of amazing, but it sort of represents something that’s both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable, weak. Donald Trump: It’s got a lot of qualities that are interesting and I think they make a point. OK. Are you guys OK? I want to just say that it’s such an honor to be up here with my friends because this is a group of people that have done an amazing job and all we can do, Muriel and I, is give them the greatest sight there is, I think that I’ve ever seen for something like this. Donald Trump: And I did very well in the real estate business. I think this is the greatest site there is anywhere in the world for exactly what you guys are doing and we’ll work with you. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get it going, but we’ll work with you and we’ll try and make the dream come true. And I want to thank you all very much for being here. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. Question: [Inaudible] do you support Israel’s decision to expand the war in Gaza? Donald Trump: We’re gonna help – we’re going to help the people of Gaza get some food. People are starving and we’re going to help them get some food. Uh, a lot of people are making it very, very bad, what you – if you look, Hamas is making it impossible because they’re taking everything that’s brought in, but we’re going to help the people of Gaza, because they’re being treated very badly by Hamas. Donald Trump: Thank you very much everybody. Aide: Thanks, everyone.
Date: 2025-05-06
Note: [Video begins in progress] Donald Trump: Zach and Alex, my friends also by the way, Aach, Alex, thank you, fellas. His girlfriend Lauren, who’s a great golfer, I have to tell you, top of the line, and her daughter. Hi Finley, how are you? Finley, her daughter and his brother Robert. Robert, you’re much better looking than Steve, and his sisters, Amy and Suzy. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you both. His daughter-in-law Sophie. Hi, Sophie. His brother-in-law, Gary. Oh, there he is. Oh, hello, Gary, thank you. And his sister-in-law Elaine. There are also many others. Thank you all very much. I also want to thank our great Vice President JD Vance, Secretary Marco Rubio. And Marco, we’re having a big day, I think, Marco, we’ll find out. Donald Trump: We’re having a big period of time – I think that this is a potentially a great time for our country in solving a lot of problems that we inherited that we should have never had frankly. Attorney General Pam Bondi who is incredible and Senator Lindsey Graham – Senator Graham, where are you? Where is Senator Graham? Donald Trump: Hello Lindsey. Steve is a graduate of some great schools including Hofstra University where he studied political science and law. After graduating, he entered the real estate business, co-founding the Stellar Management Company in 1985 and launching a legendary career. He started off in a law office. In fact, he was one of my young lawyers and I said that guy is smart, but he just started. Donald Trump: It was a very smart firm, Dreyer & Traub, killers. They were total killers. They said he’s worse than all of them. But people don’t know that; they think he’s a nice guy, Pam. He’s not that nice actually, but he is something. Steve quickly established himself as one of the toughest, smartest and best negotiators in the business. Donald Trump: In 1997, he founded the Witkoff Group, which now owns dozens of the most beautiful and iconic properties in the entire world, he owns some incredible properties. As a businessman, he’s admired and respected by all. And now Steve is putting his talents to work for America as special envoy to the United States and making a lot of progress. Donald Trump: Our country is blessed to have a negotiator of such skill and experience who really selflessly steps up to the plate, puts himself forward all the time. Over the past few months, Steve has already helped negotiate the return of dozens of hostages from Gaza. And they come in and see me, many of them, and they are so thankful to Steve. Donald Trump: And also, hostages from other parts of the globe. He’s met with President Putin, Prime Minister, Netanyahu, representatives of Iran and many other places. He is meeting with people that he never really thought he’d ever meet just a few months ago. And he’s figuring it out. It takes him about an hour to figure it out. Donald Trump: After that, he’s brutal. He does a great job. He’s working tirelessly to end the bloody and destructive conflicts and one in particular with Russia and Ukraine and – where you’re losing 5,000 young people a week on average. Ukrainian soldiers, Russian soldiers and people in towns and villages that are being killed. Donald Trump: We want to bring it to an end and we’re working – Steve is in the Middle East where I think we’re having some very good success and you’ll be hearing about it as we go. We had tremendous success over the last month, and we’re taking the word of the Houthis, but they didn’t want any more and I understand that. Donald Trump: And they have decided that they don’t want to do this anymore. So, I’m proud to have him as a friend. Steve’s a very fantastic guy. I picked him out of a lot of people; I had a lot of choices. But I said we need somebody with two things, a great personality and somebody that could negotiate and he’s got both of them in spades. Donald Trump: He’s also really smart. So, I want to thank everybody for being here. And I want to – very, very importantly, I want to say to Marco Rubio, that you’re swearing in a very important person. And Steve reports to Marco. I said Steve, you better do a good job, or Marco will fire – he will fire you so violently, you have no idea [Laughter]. But Marco, if you could administer the oath. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Marco. Thank you, Steve. Steve Witkoff: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Marco Rubio: Stand in front here. Raise your right hand. I, state your name. Steve Witkoff: I, Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio: Do solemnly swear. Steve Witkoff: Do solemnly swear. Marco Rubio: That I will support and defend. Steve Witkoff: That I will support and defend. Marco Rubio: The Constitution of the United States. Steve Witkoff: The Constitution of the United States. Marco Rubio: Against all enemies. Steve Witkoff: Against all enemies, Marco Rubio: Foreign and domestic. Steve Witkoff: Foreign and domestic. Marco Rubio: That I will bear true faith and allegiance. Steve Witkoff: That I will bear true faith and allegiance. Marco Rubio: To the same. Steve Witkoff: To the same. Marco Rubio: That I take this obligation freely. Steve Witkoff: That I take this obligation freely. Marco Rubio: Without any mental reservations. Steve Witkoff: Without any mental reservations. Marco Rubio: Or purpose of evasion. Steve Witkoff: Or purpose of evasion. Marco Rubio: And that I will well. Steve Witkoff: And that I will well. Marco Rubio: And faithfully. Steve Witkoff: And faithfully. Marco Rubio: Discharge the duties of the office. Steve Witkoff: Discharge the duties of the office. Marco Rubio: On which I’m about to enter. Steve Witkoff: On which I am about to enter. Marco Rubio: So help me God. Steve Witkoff: So help me God. Marco Rubio: Congratulations. Donald Trump: Do you have any – good job. Thank you, Marco. Any questions for Steve? Question: Do you have any reaction to the attacks between India and Pakistan? Donald Trump: No, it’s a shame. We just heard about it just as we were walking in the doors of the Oval, just heard about it. I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time. You know, they’ve been fighting for many, many decades – and centuries actually, if you really think about it. No, I just hope it ends very quickly. Question: Mr. President, are you considering adding a stop in Israel during next week’s trip to the Middle East? And also, what’s your reaction to Israel’s plan to reoccupy Gaza if there is no ceasefire? Donald Trump: Well, the plan we haven’t talked about, but we’re not planning on stopping in Israel, but we will be doing it at some point, but not for this trip. Question: Mr. President, there’s a report that the UK is offering various trade concessions. What’s your response to that? Donald Trump: Who? What? Question: The United Kingdom. And can you also say if you were discussing tariffs with Mr. Arnault? Donald Trump: And what about the United Kingdom? Question: They’re offering various trade concessions, apparently cars, steel, digital services. Donald Trump: They’re offering us concessions? I hope so. They do want to make a deal very badly. Question: Did you say your guests here – are you discussing tariffs or business? Donald Trump: No, I think that the United Kingdom, like every other country, they want to go shopping in the United States of America. China wants to – very much wants to make a deal, they all do. But yeah, I would say that every country wants to make a deal, and not the ones they had in the past where we were like – look, we were being ripped off by every country, practically without exception, in the entire world. Donald Trump: And those days are over; those days are over. And you know, I said before in our meeting with the new and very talented Prime Minister of Canada that we have some very big announcement to make. It’s not about trade, it’s about something else, but it’s going to be a truly earth-shattering and positive development for this country and for the people of this country. Donald Trump: And that will take place sometime within the next few days. Question: Mr. President are there any plans for Mr. Witkoff to travel once again to Russia. And as you mentioned in your remarks, he’s traveled to Russia on a number of occasions. He’s met with President Putin. What type of progress is being made as it relates to all of those visits that he’s made to Russia? Donald Trump: I think a lot because I think Russia wanted to take all of Ukraine and they’ve stopped. That’s a lot of progress. You know, it’s small, it’s a portion of Ukraine. But no, I think a lot. I think if we weren’t here, they would be right now fighting to take the whole country and they’re not doing that. So, I think that’s a lot of progress. Donald Trump: Please. Question: Mr. President, does it frustrate you that Russia continues to attack civilian areas inside Ukraine without any reservation? It leads to scores of casualties almost on a daily basis. Donald Trump: I don’t like anything about that war. It’s a war. I don’t like anything about it and I’m not happy with that. No, not at all. Not even a little bit. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, you’ve said the Houthis are backing down. We’re seeing conflicting reports that they plan on continuing to attack Israel in support of Gaza. Does that change the equation? Donald Trump: No, I don’t know about that frankly, but I know one thing, they want nothing to do with us and they’ve let that be known through all of their surrogates, and very strongly. Question: You said that all hell would break loose if the rest of the hostages weren’t released. Is there a hostage deal that’s imminent? And are you talking to Netanyahu right now about their plan to level the rest of Gaza? Donald Trump: We’re talking to him about a lot of things right now. This is really crunch time. I would tell you for Iran and for their country, this is a very important time for Iran. This is the most important time in the history of Iran for Iran. And I hope they do what’s right. I’d love to see a peace deal, a strong peace deal. Donald Trump: They cannot have a nuclear weapon. But I would say that this is the single most important period in the history of Iran, which is a long history. And we want it to be a great country, let it be a tremendously successful, rich country. They have everything you need. The people are incredible. They have vast amounts of oil and assets. Donald Trump: We want it to be a successful country. We don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon. And if they choose to go a different route, it’s going to be a very sad thing. And it’s something we don’t want to have to do, but we have no choice. They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump: They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. Do you understand that? OK. Question: [Inaudible] Mr. President, but with regards to the Houthis, have you ever – have you told the military to stop attacks against – as of now? Donald Trump: We just – yeah, we just informed them a little while ago and all action is stopping. Some people probably haven’t heard yet. You know, there are various people in various rather strategic locations. But by this moment they should just about all know, Marco, I think that the attacks are going to stop both ways. Donald Trump: And that’s pretty much it. But we’ve just informed everybody just a little while ago. Question: To follow up on the previous question, Houthis continue to attack Israel, which you said you didn’t know about. But if they continue to attack Israel, just not attack – Donald Trump: Well, I’ll discuss that if something happens, OK, if something happens with Israel and the Houthis, yeah. Question: Do you expect to have a trade deal you’re able to announce later this week? Donald Trump: Well, I can announce all of them now, I can announce 50 to 100 deals right now because, you know, I’m the shopkeeper and I keep the store. And I know what countries are looking for and I know what we’re looking for and I can just set those terms. And they can go shopping or they don’t have to go shopping because everybody wants to shop here. Donald Trump: This is like a beautiful store. This is like one of Bernard Arnault, or maybe I should say Alex, even more importantly, young, the future. But Bernard, it’s an honor to have you. We’ll have a meeting after this. But he has the greatest stores in the world, and they want to shop. Our country is the greatest store in the world of that kind, and everybody wants a piece of it. And they took advantage of us for years because we allowed presidents – our presidents allowed it to happen. Donald Trump: You know, I don’t blame China, and I don’t blame Vietnam, and I could name every single country all the way up and down the line, South Korea, every single country took advantage of us without exception, Japan. These are friends of mine, but they took advantage of this country. They ripped off our country, selling us millions and millions of cars a year and we sold them none. Donald Trump: We weren’t allowed to sell them a car. They took advantage of us. I don’t blame them. I blame the people that sat behind that desk that allowed it to happen. But I don’t allow it to happen. I didn’t in the first term, but this is a much stronger position because we did – we had the greatest economy in history in our first term. Donald Trump: The stock market was up 88 percent, and we had numbers much better than that. But this is going to be, I think, a much better term. And I think the tariffs are coming in, starting to come in. We were losing $5 billion plus a day on trade. Now we’re not losing that kind of money and we’ll soon be making a lot of money a day and a year and a month. Question: President Trump, a question for you and perhaps the attorney general. The Justice Department recently received a criminal referral against New York Attorney General Tish James for fraud. We haven’t heard much about it. Could you or the Attorney General give us an update as to what’s going on with that investigation? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t want to get involved in something that Pamela is involved with. If you’d like to say something, Pam, or – Pam Bondi: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I can say unrelated to that, she’s a disaster for New York. She’s a horrible, horrible human being, and I think she’s a total crook. There’s no question about it, but that’s just my opinion. Pam is going to have to do what she wants. She’s a very bad person. She’s a very, very bad, a very bad person who campaigned solely on, I’m going to get Donald Trump, over and over again. Donald Trump: She’s a sick person. But that’s has nothing to do with what Pam does. Pam is going to do what’s right. She always does. I’ve known her a long time. Yeah, go ahead behind you. Question: Thank you. On Gaza, you said there’s been progress and progress in the Middle East, but at the moment, as a colleague said, Israel – Netanyahu is saying he now wants to conquer Gaza. Is there any prospect of any movement on that? Are you happy with what [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Well, we’ve gone very slowly because we want to try and get as many hostages saved as possible and we’ve done a good job in that regard. Two weeks ago, I had 10 hostages come in and they thanked me profusely. And I said, you have nothing to thank me about. What they went through is incredible. They lived in a pipe. Donald Trump: You know, they keep hearing about caves. It was a pipe, 3.5 feet high, and they didn’t know if they were going to breathe. They didn’t know if they were going to live to the next day. They lived like hell. I couldn’t believe the stories I was hearing. And they weren’t grandstanding; these were people that were seriously mistreated. Donald Trump: One was in for 512 days, one was in for 361 I guess days, and one was in for a shorter period of time. The stories were unbelievable. I said how many people are left. How many are left? They said 59. I said, oh, wow, that’s more than I thought. They said, well, only 24 are living, but now it’s 21. That was a week ago. Donald Trump: Now it’s 21 are living. And these are young people; these are – young people don’t die. Old people die; young people don’t die under these conditions. So, of the 59 people, and they said 59 and I said really, but they said only 24 are living. And I now correct, I say 21 because as of today it’s 21, three have died. Donald Trump: So, this is a terrible situation. We’re trying to get the hostages out. We’ve gotten a lot of them out. As the expression goes, there’s 21 plus a lot of dead bodies. You know, parents came up to me on numerous occasions, but a couple in particular. They came up to me two weeks ago and they said, please, sir, my son is dead. Donald Trump: Please get us back his body. They wanted his body. He’s dead; they know he’s dead. They wanted his body as much as you would want the boy if he was alive. It’s a very sad thing. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Date: 2025-05-06
Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. It’s a great honor to have Prime Minister Mark Carney with us. As you know, just a few days ago, he won a very big election in Canada. And I think I was probably the greatest thing that happened to him, but I can’t take full credit. His party was losing by a lot and he ended up winning, so I really want to congratulate him. Donald Trump: It was one of probably one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics, maybe even greater than mine. But I want to congratulate you. That was a great election actually. We were watching it with interest, and I think Canada chose a very talented person, a very good person, because we spoke before the election quite a few times. Donald Trump: And it’s an honor to have you at the White House, in the Oval Office and you see the new and improved Oval Office as it becomes more and more beautiful, with love. We handle it with great love and 24 carat gold. That always helps too. But it’s been a lot of fun going over some of the beautiful pictures that were stored in the vaults, that were for many, many years, in some cases, over 100 years, they were stored in vaults of the great presidents who are almost great presidents, all having a reason for being up, every one of them. Donald Trump: So it’s very interesting, but I just want to congratulate you and ran a really great race. I watched the debate. I thought you were excellent and I think we have a lot of things in common. We have some tough points to go over and that will be fine. We’re going to also be discussing Ukraine, Russia, the war, because Mark wants it ended as quickly as I do. I think it has to end. Donald Trump: We had some very good news last night. The Houthis have announced that they are not – or they’ve announced to us at least that they don’t want to fight anymore. They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that and we will stop the bombings. And they have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word. Donald Trump: They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. And that’s what the purpose of what we were doing, so that’s just news – we just found out about that. So I think that’s very, very positive. They were knocking out a lot of ships going, as you know, sailing beautifully down the various seas. It wasn’t just the canal, it was a lot of other places. Donald Trump: And I will accept their word and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately. And Marco, you’ll let everybody know that, OK. Do you have something to say about that, by the way, It’s a pretty big announcement. Marco Rubio: Yeah, this was always a freedom of navigation issue. These guys, these are a band of individuals with advanced weaponry that were threatening global shipping and the job was to get that to stop. And if it’s going to stop, then we can stop, so I think it’s an important development. Donald Trump: And we’ll have maybe before – we’re going to, as you know, the Middle East, Saudi Arabia. We’re going to UAE and Qatar and that will be, I guess, Monday night. Some of you are coming with us. I think before then we’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets and I won’t tell you on what, and it’s very positive. Donald Trump: I’d tell you if it was negative or positive. I can’t keep that out. It is really, really positive. And that announcement will be made either Thursday or Friday or Monday before we leave, but it will be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject, a very important subject. Donald Trump: So, you’ll all be here. Mark, would you like to say a few words? Mark Carney: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m on the edge of my seat, actually, but thank you for your hospitality and above all, for your leadership. You’re a transformational president, the focus on the economy, with a relentless focus on the American worker, securing your borders, ending the scourge of fentanyl and other opioids, and securing the world. Mark Carney: And I’ve been elected with my colleagues here, with the help of my colleagues here, I’m going to spread the credit, to transform Canada, with a similar focus on the economy, securing our borders, again on fentanyl, much greater focus on defense and security, securing the Arctic and developing the Arctic. Mark Carney: And the history of Canada and the U.S. is we’re stronger when we work together and there’s many opportunities to work together and I look forward to addressing some of those issues that we have, but also finding those areas of mutual cooperation so we can move forward. Donald Trump: Great. That’s great. Very nice. Thank you very much. Mark Carney: Thank you. Of course. Donald Trump: Anybody – Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President, is U.S. embassy [Inaudible]? Donald Trump: No, it was actually very effective and it’s still very effective, but people have to follow it. So that’s been a problem. People haven’t followed it, but it was a transitional step a little bit. And as you know, it terminates fairly shortly. It gets renegotiated very shortly, but I thought it was a very positive step from NAFTA. NAFTA was the worst trade deal in the history of our country, probably in the history of the world. Donald Trump: And this was a transitional deal and we’ll see what happens. We’re going to be start starting to possibly renegotiate that, if it’s even necessary. I don’t know that it’s necessary anymore, but it served a very good purpose. And the biggest purpose it served is we got rid of NAFTA. NAFTA was a very unfair deal for the United States, very, very terrible deal. Donald Trump: It should have never been made. It was made many years ago, but it should have never been made. Yeah. Question: [Inaudible] Canada and the United States, would you like to see your first trade deal be with Canada, our neighbors to the U.S.? Donald Trump: I would love that. Look, I have a lot of respect for this man and I watched him come up through the ranks when he wasn’t given much of a chance and he did it. He ran a really great campaign. He did a really great debate. I think that debate was very helpful. I was going to raise my hand. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Donald Trump: I shouldn’t say that. That might hurt you. But no, he ran a really great election, I thought. And yeah, something could happen, something could happen. Yeah, please. Question: What’s the top concession you want out of Canada? The top concession you want out of Canada? Donald Trump: Concession? Question: Yes. Donald Trump: Friendship. Question: That’s not a concession. Donald Trump: No, I just – we’re going to be friends with Canada. Regardless of anything, we’re going to be friends with Canada. Canada is a very special place to me. I know so many people that live in Canada. My parents had relatives that lived in Canada, my mother in particular. And no, I love Canada. I have a lot of respect for the Canadians. Donald Trump: Wayne Gretzky, I mean, the great one. You happen to have a very, very good hockey player right here on the capitals, who I have a lot of – he is a big tough cookie too, just broke the record and he’s a great guy. And we had the team here and I got to know a lot of the players, but no, Canada is a very special place. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister, I’d like to get your response to this too, but Mr. President, you have said that Canada should become the 51st state. Were you joking? Donald Trump: No, no. Well, I still believe that, but it takes two to tango, right? But no, I do. I mean, I believe it would be a massive tax cut for the Canadian citizens. You get free military, you get tremendous medical care and other things. There would be a lot of advantages, but it would be a massive tax cut. And it’s also a beautiful – as a real estate developer, you know I’m a real estate developer at heart. Donald Trump: When you get rid of that artificially drawn line – somebody drew that line many years ago with like a ruler, just a straight line right across the top of the country. When you look at that beautiful formation when it’s together, I’m a very artistic person. But when I looked at that beauty, I said that’s the way it was meant to be. But I do feel it’s much better for Canada, but we’re not going to be discussing that unless somebody wants to discuss it. I think that there are tremendous benefits to the Canadian citizens, tremendously lower taxes, free military, which honestly, we give you essentially anyway because we’re protecting Canada, if you ever had a problem. Donald Trump: But I think it would really be a wonderful marriage because it’s two places that get along very well. They like each other a lot. Mark Carney: Well, if I may, as you know, from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale. Donald Trump: That’s true. Mark Carney: We’re sitting in one right now, Buckingham Palace that you visited as well. Donald Trump: That’s true. Mark Carney: And having met with uh the owners of Canada, over the course of the campaign last several months, it’s not for sale, won’t be for sale ever, but the opportunity is in the partnership and what we can build together. And we have done that in the past. And part of that, as the president just said, is with respect to our own security. Mark Carney: And my government is committed for a step change in our investment in Canadian security and our partnership. And I’ll say this as well, that the president has revitalized international security, revitalized NATO. Donald Trump: It’s true. Mark Carney: And us playing our full weight in NATO, and that will be part of it. Donald Trump: That’s true and they have – I must say, Canada is stepping up the military participation because Mark knew they were low. And now they’re stepping it up and that’s a very important thing. But never say never, never say never. Question: What it would take to get the tariffs off of Canada? Donald Trump: Well, we’ll be talking about different things. You know, we want to protect our automobile business and so does Mark. But we want to protect – we want to make the automobiles and we want to – we have a tremendous abundance of energy, more than any country. We have, just in Alaska alone, Anwar has been reopened now. Donald Trump: Anwar is probably the largest find anywhere in the world. They say it’s larger than Saudi Arabia. I don’t know, but it’s a lot. But we have tremendous amounts of energy. Other countries don’t. We’re both lucky in that way. They have energy, we have energy. We have more than we could ever use and more than we could ever sell, actually. Donald Trump: And you have the same thing. So, we’re two countries that are very lucky. If you look at China, they don’t have that. It’s a big disadvantage. Other countries, most countries don’t have – most countries don’t have that. So Canada and us, we have a lot of advantages over other places. Question: Mr. President, when you consider what Mr. Carney just said, that Canada is not for sale, does this make the discussion a little more difficult to start on? Donald Trump: No, not at all. No, not at all. No, time. Time will tell. It’s only time, but I say, never say never. I’ve had many, many things that were not doable and they ended up being doable and only doable in a very friendly way. But if it’s to everybody’s benefit – Canada loves us and we love Canada. That’s, I think, the number one thing that’s important. Donald Trump: But we’ll see. I mean, over time, we’ll see what happens. China. Question: Mr. President, I was hoping you could clarify something. Earlier this morning on Capitol Hill, Secretary Bessent said that there had been no negotiations yet with China. You have said something different. Donald Trump: They want to meet and they’re doing no business right now. And those ships are turning around in the Pacific Ocean, big turn. Those are big ships. Those ships take about 10 miles to turn. And we lost $1 trillion to China on trade because of an incompetent president that we had, who proceeded me, grossly incompetent. Donald Trump: You’re finding it out more and more now. And by not trading, we’re losing nothing. So we’re saving $1 trillion. It’s a lot. But they want to negotiate and they want to have a meeting and we’ll be meeting with them at the right time. Question: But you haven’t met with them yet? Donald Trump: I have not met with them. No, of course, you would know if I met – I’d tell you. They want to meet, but we are, right now. Look, they’re suffering greatly. Their economy is suffering greatly because they’re not doing trade with the U.S.. And they made most of their money off the U.S.. Don’t kid yourself. Donald Trump: They don’t make the money off other countries like this. And they were making – we had a trade imbalance. We had a deficit, or they had a surplus, another way of saying it, of more than $1 trillion. Think of it, more than $1 trillion and because of 145 percent. That’s the only reason. But because of they have now 145 percent tariff, there’s no trading. Donald Trump: You can’t trade with 145 percent. We are therefore making, in a certain way, I guess $1.1 trillion. In other words, we’re not losing $1.1 trillion. Our deficit is much better. When I started, I say we were losing billions of dollars a day on trade. That’s rapidly turning around. We looked at numbers this morning. Donald Trump: So we were losing – the United States during Biden was losing more than – I won’t even give you numbers because they’re so embarrassing. But billions of dollars a day on trade, those numbers are rapidly turning between the tariffs. Don’t forget, we’re now getting 25 percent on cars, 25 percent on aluminum, 25 percent on steel. Donald Trump: And maybe more importantly, massive numbers of companies are moving into the United States, Honda. We have tremendous – the car companies are moving in at levels we’ve never seen before. The biggest investment ever made in the United States is being made right now, trillions of dollars. I would say we could be at $9 trillion, $9 trillion. Donald Trump: You could go back to other presidents. They haven’t had $1 trillion for their entire term. Look at Biden, he had bad numbers, people leaving. They weren’t coming in, they were leaving with Biden and he didn’t know the difference. The only thing he knew is people coming in. You know who they were, illegal immigrants, OK, from prisons, from mental institutions, from all sorts of places that weren’t good, from gangs from Venezuela. Donald Trump: They were coming in and they were criminals and murderers, 11,888 people that murdered and at least half of them murdered more than one person. This is what Biden let into our country. I’m bringing in big companies. Apple is investing $500 billion. We have Jensen, as you know, is going to be 500 – biggest chip maker or chip thinker, I call him. Donald Trump: He’s really a thinker more than a maker. But we also have the maker, Mr. Wei. I get to know them all in the last – it was a cram course, but they’re all moving into America because of the tariffs and the – I don’t think people have appreciated it. Some people do, some of the smart people do. So we have more money coming in. It’s really an amazing thing. Donald Trump: We have more money being invested in the United States now than at any time ever before in our history and it’s not even close. And I think the real number could be $9 trillion or $10 trillion. We don’t know everybody that’s doing it. We have many – I just heard about a plant that’s being built right now, a very, very top of the line company and they didn’t come to the White House. Donald Trump: They’re just doing it because – they’re making it because if they build here, there are no tariffs. And this is the big market, this is the market. That sets us apart from – this is the market where everyone wants to be. Now, if I didn’t come here and do this, all of a sudden, we wouldn’t be the market where everyone wants to be, so we’re able to do it in time. Donald Trump: But we’re going to have a great announcement. And I’m not necessarily saying it’s on trade. Going to the beginning, we’re going to have a great announcement over the next few days, an announcement that will be so incredible, so positive. And I’m not saying, I don’t want you to think it’s necessarily on trade. Donald Trump: Just to finish, we also have a situation, because everyone says when, when, when are you going to sign deals? We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now, Howard, if we wanted. We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don’t want a piece of their market. Donald Trump: We don’t care about their market. They want a piece of our market. So we can just sit down, and I’ll do this at some point over the next two weeks, and I’ll sit with Howard and Scott and with our great vice president who has done a really good job. We have some good news to report on a lot of fronts, but JD, will be there and Marco and we’re going to sit down and we’re going to put very fair numbers down and we’re going to say, here’s what this country, what we want and congratulations, we have a deal. Donald Trump: And they’ll either say great and they’ll start shopping, or they’ll say not good. We’re not going to do it. And I said, that’s OK. You don’t have to shop. Now, we may think – well, they have it right, maybe we were a little bit wrong. So we’ll adjust it and then you people will say, oh, it’s so chaotic. Donald Trump: No, we’re flexible. But we’ll sit down and we’ll at some point, in some cases, we’ll sign some deals. It’s much less important than what I’m talking about. For the most part, we’re just going to put down a number and say, this is what you’re going to pay to shop and it’s going to be a very fair number. It’ll be a low number. Donald Trump: We’re not looking to hurt countries. We want to help countries. We want to be friendly with countries. But you keep writing about deals, deals, when are we going to sign? It’s very simple. We’re going to say, in some cases, we want you to open up your country. In some cases, we want you to drop your tariffs. Donald Trump: I mean, India as an example, has one of the highest tariffs in the world. We’re not going to put up with that and they’ve agreed already to drop it. They’ll drop it to nothing. They’ve already agreed. They would have never done that for anybody else, but me. So, we’re going to put down some numbers and we’re going to say, our country is open for business and they’re going to come in and they’re going to pay for the privilege of being able to shop in the United States of America. Donald Trump: It’s very simple. It’s very simple. So I wish they’d stop asking how many deals are you signing this week, because one day, we’ll come and we’ll give you 100 deals and they don’t have to sign. All they have to do is say, oh, we’ll start sending our ships right now to pick up whatever we want or to bring whatever we want. It’s very, very simple. And I think my people haven’t made it clear. We will sign some deals, but much bigger than that is we’re going to put down the price that people are going to have to pay to shop in the United States. Think of us as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods. You’re going to come and you’re going to pay a price and we’re going to give you a very good price. We’re going to make very good deals, and in some cases, we’ll adjust, but that’s where it is. And we’ve been ripped off by everybody for 50 years – for 50 years, and we’re just not going to do that anymore. We can’t do that and we can’t let any country do that to us. We’re just not going to do it anymore. Question: Mr. President, on the Houthis, on the Houthis, can you tell us a bit more about the deal that you’ve reached with the Houthis that you mentioned at the top. Donald Trump: It’s not a deal. They’ve said, please don’t bomb us anymore and we’re not going to attack ships. Question: And where did you hear about that? Donald Trump: It doesn’t matter where I hear – a very good source, I can tell you. A very, very good source. Would you say, Marco? I would say pretty good, right, JD? A very good source. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: They don’t want to be – they don’t want to be – they don’t want to be bombed anymore. I sort of thought that would happen. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: No, no, behind you, please. Question: Clarify something you said on USMCA. Is the U.S. prepared to walk away from that pact? Donald Trump: What pact? Question: USMCA? Donald Trump: No, not – no, no, it’s fine. It’s there, it’s good. We use it for certain things. It’s there. We have – the USMCA is a good deal for everybody. I won’t say this about Mark, but I didn’t like his predecessor. I didn’t like a person that worked – she was terrible actually; she was a terrible person. And she really hurt that deal very badly because she tried to take advantage of the deal and she didn’t get away with it. You know who I’m talking about. Donald Trump: But so, I had a – we had a bad relationship having to do with the fact that we disagreed with the way they viewed the deal, and we ended it. You know, we ended that relationship pretty much. The USMCA is great for all countries. It’s good for all countries. We do have a negotiation coming up over the next year or so to adjust it or terminate it. Mark Carney: I’ll just say – I’ll say a word on USMCA, if I may, Mr. President. It is a basis for a broader negotiation. Some things about it are going to have to change. And part of the way you’ve conducted these tariffs has taken advantage of existing aspects of USMCA. So, it’s going to have to change. There’s other elements that have come and that’s part of what we’re going to discuss. Note: [Crosstalk] Mr. President, during the campaign, Prime Minister Carney talked about the American betrayal. How would you react if Canada decided not to shop in the American store as much as before and decided to partner with other countries? Donald Trump: Well, we don’t do much business with Canada from our standpoint; they do a lot of business with us. We’re at like 4 percent, and usually those things don’t last very long. You know, we have great things, great product, the kind of product we sell nobody else can sell, including military. Look, we make the best military equipment in the world and Canada buys our military equipment, which we appreciate. Donald Trump: But we make the best military equipment in the world by far, the missiles, the submarines, everything. Everything we have is really top notch. I rebuilt our military during our last term. Stupidly, we gave some away to Afghanistan, which shouldn’t have happened, but that was – I think it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Donald Trump: It was just very incompetent people. But if you look, the man that’s now the head of our Joint chiefs, he led the attack on ISIS for me, that’s why he’s the head of the Joint Chiefs and Razin Caine. He’s the – he was unbelievable. And as you know, we defeated ISIS in three weeks. It was supposed to take five years. Donald Trump: We did it in three weeks. And he ran the campaign, I said I like him, but I knew him before. I went to Iraq, and we agreed to a plan and that was the plan. And as you know, we did it in record time. So, we have the best equipment in the world. We have the best, a lot of things and – but Canada does a lot more business with us than we do with Canada. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, your investments, Mr. President? When do you think the investments that you’ve announced, the trillions, will finally hit the economic data this year? Donald Trump: When you’re saying about the tariffs – Question: No, no, about the investments that you’ve announced. You’ve announced – Donald Trump: Oh, it’s hitting right now. Look, they’re already starting AI plants. These are not people that look for financing, that’s a good thing. You know, in real estate you get a site and then you have to look for financing, you have to get your zoning, five years later you start building, you get a bank, then the bank’s no good. Donald Trump: These people have massive amounts of cash. The CHIPS Act was a ridiculous thing because that doesn’t get them to build. All we did is hand very wealthy companies money. The SHIPS Act that was done by Biden, billions – we give them billions of dollars. They don’t even have to do anything with it. And then if you weren’t – if you didn’t have, and I won’t – I don’t want to be a wise guy. Donald Trump: But if you didn’t go with DEI, if you didn’t go with all of the different things woke, if you weren’t woke, you couldn’t even use the money. You had to have a certain percentage of this and that and that and that – it’s impossible, impossible to have. The people, the companies actually complain to me. They said they gave me all this money, but nobody can get these people to do anything. Donald Trump: I mean, look, President Obama, and if he wanted help, I’d give him help because I’m a really good builder and I build on time, on budget. He’s building his library in Chicago. It’s a disaster, and he said something to the effect, I only want DEI, I only want woke. He wants woke people to build it. Well, he got woke people and they have massive cost overruns. Donald Trump: The job is stopped. I don’t know, it’s a disaster. And I don’t like that happening because it’s – I think it’s bad for the presidency that a thing like that should happen. He’s got a library that’s a disaster, and he wanted to be very politically correct. And he didn’t use good, hard, tough, mean construction workers that I love, Marco, I love those construction workers. Donald Trump: But he didn’t want construction workers. He wanted people that never did it before and he’s got a disaster on his hands, like millions of dollars, many, many, I mean really many millions of dollars over budget. And I would love to help him with it, or somebody else, I could recommend professionals, but it was not built in a professional manner. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: By the way, nor was in California, a little train going from San Francisco to Los Angeles that’s being run by Gavin Newscum, the governor of California. Did you ever hear of Gavin Newscum? He has got – that train is the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen. It’s like totally out of control. So, then they said, all right, we won’t go into San Francisco, we’ll stop 25 miles short, and we won’t go into Los Angeles, we’ll stop 25 miles short. Donald Trump: It’s hundreds of billions of dollars for this stupid project that should have never been built. And then they realized that it would have been a lot less costly if we just gave limousine service back and forth and gave it free, they would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. They have airplanes that go there for one 1/100 the cost and they have cars, they have a thing called the highway that goes back and forth that’s not fully utilized. Donald Trump: And they got involved with this project. And Gavin – you know, I always liked Gavin, had a good relationship with him. I just got him a lot of water, you know. I sent in people to open up that water because he refused to do it and we just got him a lot of water. If they would have had that water and if they would have done what I said to do, they wouldn’t have had the fires in Los Angeles. Donald Trump: Those fires would have been put out very quickly. But if you think about it and you’ve got to take a look at this, it’s the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched a lot of stupid people build a lot of stupid things, but that’s the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen, what’s happening between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Donald Trump: And you ought to ask about that because this government is not going to pay. I told our very great new Secretary of Transportation, he’s doing a good job, Sean Duffy. I said, we’re not going to pay for that thing, they are. Just – it’s out of control. This is something that you don’t have things like this. Donald Trump: It’s not even conceivable, like 30 times over budget, 30 times. It’s the craziest thing I’ve – and now it’s hundreds of – it was supposed to be a simple train, and I think the media should take a look at it. And I’d love him to run for president on the other side. You know, I’d love to see that, but I don’t think he’s going to be running because that one project alone – well, that and the fires and a lot of other things pretty much put him out of the race. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, what changes would you like to see to the USMCA? Or what changes would you like to make? Donald Trump: We’re going to work on some subtle changes, maybe. I don’t even know if we’re going to be dealing with USMCA. We’re dealing more with concepts right now. Look, right now, we’re doing trade, we have trade, they’re paying a tariff on cars and steel and aluminum. And I think we have a baseline of 10 percent or something like that for the tariffs. Donald Trump: But we’re getting along very well. Right now, going no further, but we have an agreement. We did something with even parts. You want to discuss that, Howard, with respect to Canada, which helps Canada out? Howard Lutnick: Sure. So, we’ve made an arrangement with the car companies that 15 percent of their, A, USMCA parts are included, and then 15 percent of foreign parts from the manufacturer’s suggested retail price are not tariffed to help domestic manufacturing really thrive. Donald Trump: So, it gave them a chance to be able to build their car parts factories if they’re going to – a lot of these companies already have factories. And what they have to do is just fill them out, but they’re able to build them in the United States. So, we gave them a pretty substantial period of time. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, is there anything the Prime Minister can say to you today to change your mind on tariffing Canada? Donald Trump: Tariff in cars. Question: Tariffing Canada. Is there anything he could say to you in the course of your meetings with him today that could get you to lift tariffs on Canada? Donald Trump: No. Question: Why not? Donald Trump: Just the way it is. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. Presiden, [Inaudible] 51st state? If Canadians don’t want it, would you respect that? Donald Trump: Sure I would, but this is not necessarily a one-day deal. This is over a period of time, they have to make that decision. Yes, go ahead, please. Mark Carney: Yeah, if I may. Well, I, respectfully Canadians view on this is not going to change on the 51st state. Secondly, we are the largest client of the United States in the totality of all the goods. So we are the largest client of the United States. We have a tremendous auto sector between the two of us and the changes made have been helpful. Mark Carney: You know, 50 percent of a car that comes from Canada is American. That’s not like anywhere else in the world. And to your question about is there one thing – no, this is a bigger discussion. There are much bigger forces involved, and this will take some time and some discussions and that’s why we’re here, to have those discussions. Mark Carney: And that is represented by who’s sitting around the table. Donald Trump: See, the conflict is, and this is very friendly. This is not going to be like – we had another little blow up with somebody else. That was a much different. This is a very friendly conversation, but we want to make our own cars. We don’t really want cars from Canada. And we put tariffs on cars from Canada. Donald Trump: And at a certain point, it won’t make economic sense for Canada to build those cars. And we don’t want steel from Canada because we’re making our own steel and we’re having massive steel plants being built right now as we speak. We really don’t want Canadian steel, and we don’t want Canadian aluminum and various other things because we want to be able to do it ourselves. Donald Trump: And because of past thinking of people, we have a tremendous deficit with Canada. In other words, they have a surplus with us and there’s no reason for us to be subsidizing Canada. Canada is a place that will have to be able to take care of itself economically. I assume they can. I will tell you that Trudeau, when I spoke to him, I used to call him Governor Trudeau. Donald Trump: I think that probably didn’t help his election. But when I spoke to him, I said so why are we taking your cars? Why are we taking your – we want to make them ourselves. I mean, I said, and if the price of your cars went up or if we put a tariff on your cars of 25 percent, what would that mean to you? He said that would mean the end of Canada. Donald Trump: He actually said that to me. And I said, that’s a strange answer, but I understand his answer. But no, I mean, it’s hard to justify subsidizing Canada to the tune of maybe $200 billion a year. We protect Canada militarily and we always will. We’re not going to – that’s not a money thing, but we always will, but it’s not fair. Donald Trump: But why are we subsidizing Canada $200 billion a year or whatever the number might be? It’s a very substantial number. And it’s hard for the American taxpayer to say, gee whiz, we love doing that. Thank you very much. We’re going to have a very [Inaudible] thank you. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-05-06
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much everybody, and I just presented Gianni with the, uh, charter, and the charter is a very big deal, and, just signed it. And Gianni, I want to congratulate you and your support in FIFA for the great success of what we’re going to be doing together. Very special. Very small signature. Donald Trump: That one got big. That means, I guess, I like the event even more so than usual. But I want to thank you all. And welcome to the first meeting of the White House FIFA Task Force. I’m thrilled to be joined today by Vice President JD Vance. Thank you, JD. FIFA President Gianni Infantino. FIFA Senior Advisor Carlos Cordeiro. Donald Trump: And CEO of Fox Sports Eric Shanks. Where’s Eric? Where is Eric Shanks? Hello Eric. You had a pretty good seat. I don’t know. It’s not bad. [Laughter] I’m looking for you at this table. You should be at this table. Hi, Eric. Along with members of my cabinet, Scott Bessent, Pam Bondi, Howard Lutnick, Sean Duffy, Kristi Noem, Russ Vought, Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau, and Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg. Donald Trump: I also want to welcome two of my very good friends, Bernard Arnault, and Alex Arnault. It’s, uh, they own a little company around the world. One of their smaller companies is Tiffany. And Tiffany made the beautiful trophy. And I guess it’s around here someplace. Not this one, the other one wherever it may be. [Laughter] Gianni Infantino: [Inaudible] right behind us, sir. Donald Trump: Here it is behind me. And it’s really a work of art, but I want to just welcome Bernard and Alex. Where are you? Donald Trump: Where are you? OK, good. They have no lack of cash. I know that. [Laughter] They’re great. And they’re great people. We’ve been friends for a long time. Thank you very much for being here. It’s a great honor to have you both. We’re also joined by Senator Shelley Moore Capito and Todd Young. Where are they? Donald Trump: Where are they? Hi, Shelley. How are you? Hi, Todd. How are you doing? You’re getting younger looking, Todd. I’ll tell you. It’s pretty young to start off with, right? [Laughter] Oh, you too. Shelley Moore Capito: Thank you. Donald Trump: She said – she said what about me? What are – you too. [Laughter] Even more so, Todd, right? Todd Young: Right. [Laughter] Donald Trump: That’s very cute. Representative Darin LaHood and Bryan Steil. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, fellas. Thank you. Good. FBI Director Kash Patel, who’s doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much, Kash, appreciate it. And our Executive Director Andrew Giuliani, just got the post and he’s going to be great. Donald Trump: I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a – he’s a highly competitive golfer, which I mean, really good. And he’s also a highly competitive person. And he loves what we’re doing. So I want to congratulate you and your family and your father. Your great father, who’s the greatest mayor in the history of New York. Donald Trump: So I want to congratulate the family. It’s a big – it’s a big post. You better do well, Andrew. [Laughter] Tell them, is my golf game OK, too? Andrew Giuliani: Fantastic. Donald Trump: I’ll say. He knew what to say. See? [Laughter] Well, he’s a smart person. That’s why I appointed him. [Laughter] Together, this group will help plan the biggest, safest and most extraordinary soccer tournament in history. And that’s what it’s going to be, Gianni. In my first term, I negotiated the return of the World Cup to America. Donald Trump: And now, in my second term, I’ll have the honor of hosting the World Cup for the first time of any president in more than 30 years. And remember, we also have a few other events. I must tell you that we have the 2028 Olympic Games. We have the 250 year celebration of America. That’s a big one. I don’t know, maybe that’s the biggest. Donald Trump: I don’t know, that could be the biggest. But that’s going to be unbelievable. It’s going to be essentially, Todd, that’s going to be a yearlong celebration. We have the G20. And that will be in December of ’26. We have the G7, it used to be the G8, by the way, and that’s in 2027. And uh, that’s a lot of action we have going for the next four years, three and a half years. Donald Trump: It’s really – it’s going to be amazing for the country, I believe. Starting this June, the United States will host the 2025 Club World Cup, which will feature 32 elite soccer clubs from all over the world competing in 63 matches across 11 American cities, including Cincinnati, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina – Charlotte, North Carolina; Los Angeles, California; Nashville, Tennessee; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Donald Trump: So, we have it in 11 American cities all over. And uh, these are great cities too. And they like soccer more and more. I guess that some of those cities in specifically, they really love it. And next summer, we’ll host the official 2026 World Cup Tournament, where 48 national teams will compete in 78 matches right here in the USA. And that will be uh, something very, very different and very special. Donald Trump: These events will attract millions of passionate fans around the world, including my son. I have a son that loves soccer. Barron. Nobody’s ever heard of Barron, right? Have you ever heard of Barron? [Laughter] He’s a good soccer player too. He’s a little tall for soccer, but that’s OK. And over 1 billion viewers. Donald Trump: You’re going to have one of the big – I guess, one of the biggest, uh, viewerships of any sport of – at any time. This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase the beauty and the greatness of America. And we can’t wait to welcome soccer fans from all over the globe. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say soccer or football. Donald Trump: Because every time I say soccer, Barron and Eric say you’re – you’re really saying it wrong. It’s supposed to be football. But we know it more soccer. Uh, these events will also generate tens of billions of dollars in economic activity for local businesses and create thousands and thousands of jobs for American workers. Donald Trump: I’ve directed my entire team to do everything within our power to make the World Cup an unprecedented success. And that’s what it’s going to be. We’re going to make sure of it. The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security in every part of the US government will be working to ensure that these events are safe and successful. Donald Trump: And those traveling to America to watch the competition have a seamless experience during every part of their visit. It’s going to be very special. Together, we will ensure that the 2026 World Cup will be the best run soccer tournament the world has ever seen. This is going to blow every other tournament you did. Donald Trump: You’re going to be saying – you’re going to say how terrible a job you did in the past because this is so much better, Gianni. This is going to blow them all away. I don’t want to insult my other friends from other countries, but we’re going to blow them away, right? So now I’d like to introduce, and he has been a friend of mine, we fought very hard to get the event. Donald Trump: And I think before the media came in, I said that uh, I was very disappointed because I got the event, Gianni. I think we can say that strongly. And then I said it won’t be in my term. And I won’t be able to see it. And then bad things happened with the election and now we do see it. So I just repeat that because for the press to hear, I’m sure they’re thrilled to hear it. But I’d like to ask FIFA President Gianni Infantino, really one of the most powerful men in sports. Donald Trump: It’s amazing because you’ve done such an incredible job with soccer, followed by Vice President JD Vance, then Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary Sean Duffy to say a few words. So Gianni and then we’ll go in that order. Thank you very much everybody. Thank you. [Applause] Gianni Infantino: Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, members of the cabinet members of the task force, the White House Task Force for this incredible event or events actually which will be happening here in America in – in the year to come. We were actually, Mr. President, so happy that the World Cup 2026 will take place in the United States, in Canada and in Mexico that we thought we’ll actually bring another World Cup as well here. Donald Trump: So you get two World Cups in the next year. The new FIFA Club World Cup, this is the trophy of the new FIFA Club World Cup. Did you notice the way he said that? In the United States, Canada, Mexico. [Laughter] That’s the way it’s supposed to be. I had to interrupt, I’m sorry. Go ahead. Gianni Infantino: No. Well, it’s 78 games will take place of the World Cup in – in the United States out of the 104 games. Um, but the Club World Cup, this year, is a new competition, will take place in the United States in 11 cities of the United States. It’s new. It will make history. In 250 years when they will celebrate the 250 years anniversary of the FIFA Club World Cup, well, they will speak about this meeting. Gianni Infantino: They will speak about the United States of America because it is a big event. The 32 best club teams in the world with players from over 90 different countries will come here for the first time in history to compete. And we will see who is the real world champion in club football. And this happens before the World Cup, of course, next year. Gianni Infantino: So in 40 days, less than – less than 40 days, um, on the 14th of June in Miami, we will open the FIFA Club World Cup. Opening game, the final on the 13th of July in New York, New Jersey and in between 63 top games of the best players of the best clubs in the world who want to win this trophy here crafted by uh, Tiffany. Gianni Infantino: Uh and I’m thanking as well the Arnault family for being here, they are in soccer as well now in Paris, they have just been promoted to the top division. So, congratulations for that. Actually, Mr. President, soccer or football, maybe we can clarify that here. Let me give it a try, if I may. So, we – basically everyone outside of this beautiful country, we call football a game we play with our feet. Gianni Infantino: That’s why we call it football. Donald Trump: Right, it makes sense. Gianni Infantino: Makes sense. You in this beautiful country, you call football a game you play with your hands, right? So, I don’t know who’s right. But the important, Mr. President, whether we call it soccer or football, is that we have fun, that we enjoy. And that’s what FIFA is about. FIFA is, I say this as well to all the media present because everyone else knows it, FIFA is an official provider of happiness to humanity. Gianni Infantino: And in the next year we are providing happiness to humanity from the United States of America. And that’s why we are happy to be here. So, we have the Club World Cup this year. We have the World Cup next year, United States, Canada and Mexico. Of course, 104 games, Mr. President, 104 Super Bowls, in one month, we’ll have six billion viewers. Gianni Infantino: The final alone will attract between two and three billion viewers. This is, I don’t know, 15, 20 times more than the Super Bowl. The entire world will focus on the United States of America, and America welcomes the world. I’m very happy to say that, Mr. President, because I know you, I’ve had meetings with several members of your cabinet as well. Gianni Infantino: You have established this task force. America will welcome the world, everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun, to celebrate the game. We’ll be able to do that in the host cities, in the 11 cities all over the country in all these fan festivals that we will create. We have 10 million tickets for sale, so anyone who doesn’t yet have a ticket, go on FIFA.com/tickets, 10 million tickets, 3.5 million for the Club World Cup, 6.5 million for the World Cup. And how do we measure success, Mr. President? Gianni Infantino: Well, in many ways of course. Full stadiums is one of that. Economic impact is another one of that. And dear Secretary, these two World Cups will bring almost $50 billion in economic output to the United States of America. They will create almost 300,000 jobs in America for the celebration of two World Cups, which will bring the world to the United States. Gianni Infantino: A few million fans will come, a few billion will watch it from home. But everyone will be happy, and everyone will be celebrating how the United States of America will put up the best events ever that the world has seen. Not just sport events but the best events. We are here for that. We are here to work for that. Gianni Infantino: We are here to work all together as a team to celebrate the United States, the 250th anniversary, as well to celebrate the world and the World Cup around a soccer ball or a football and to make sure that everything happens as well, as you said, Mr. President, in as safe and secure environment. So, we have, and the world has, of course, full and entire confidence in the United States and in all the partners, in all the agencies to make sure that we will bring to the world something that they have never seen and they will probably never see again. Gianni Infantino: Thank you very much. We are here for that and I’m looking forward to these two World Cups. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. J.D. Vance: Well, thank you, Mr. President, and thanks to this incredible group that we’ve assembled. I’m proud to be the vice chair of this for a couple of reasons. First of all, the last time the president had me around a national or international sports trophy was the College Football Playoff National Championship and I almost broke it. And so, I appreciate the president giving me a second chance here. J.D. Vance: But as all of you know, soccer is a sport of incredible grace and finesse and beauty. These are three things that have nothing to do with politics. And so, we’re thrilled to have the FIFA World Cup in the United States of America. I think that you’ll see the very best of the United States of America, both in athletic competition, but also in hospitality, something our boss knows quite a bit about. J.D. Vance: And so, we’re excited to have you. We’re excited for this event and we will do everything at the government level to make this thing as successful as we can. And I will say to – before I turn it over to the next speaker, that of course everybody is welcome to come and see this incredible event. I know we’ll have visitors probably from close to 100 countries. J.D. Vance: We want them to come. We want them to celebrate. We want them to watch the game. But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home. Otherwise, they’ll have to talk to Secretary Noem, who I’ll turn it over to now. Kristi Noem: Well, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you so much for dreaming, big dreams and doing unprecedented things. Your entire life you have stood for doing things that other people thought they couldn’t do and accomplishing unprecedented events and achievements. And so, this is one of those events that I think is going to be remarkable and will stand the test of time as the world’s greatest sporting event ever held and conducted. Kristi Noem: You are honoring us by agreeing to be the chairman of this event. The vice president has greatly honored us by being the vice chair. And also, we have a remarkable leader in Andrew Giuliani, who stepped up and will be the executive director of making sure that we’re not just conducting and hosting people from all around the world, but that we’re also doing it safely. Kristi Noem: You have tasked our department, the Department of Homeland Security, with making sure these events are safe and secure. And it will be a challenge, but one that we welcome because we know that America is a place where we invite people to be a part of our livelihood, we want to expose all of the American people to the wonders of this sport. Kristi Noem: And I believe the old proverb that says what you see with your eyes you carry with your heart is what will happen when we host this event. Carlos has agreed to step up and be a senior advisor as well to the task force. And his knowledge and expertise has been incredibly valuable in all of the meetings and organizational efforts that we’ve already put forward. Kristi Noem: So, sir, you know, as all of us do that have participated in sports, that there’s something that happens when you’re involved in competition. You spend time with people, you relax. You are out there enjoying success but also recognizing failures and challenges and overcoming them. There’s a bonding that happens among people. Kristi Noem: And I believe that’s what you are doing, is creating an opportunity for the world to become a friendlier place. We will welcome over two million visitors that will come here from other countries. We will have 10 million different tickets, 22 million people will interact with these activities, and it is an opportunity to have people bond with each other, to create a friendlier world where we will be able to do business. Kristi Noem: We’ll be able to enjoy their visits here. We will take care of their documentation and travel documents, and it will go smoothly, and we will make sure that they can come and enjoy and bring their families and friends and make memories together. It’s going to be incredibly special. So, thank you for leading at an unprecedented time and doing so with big visions for the future. Kristi Noem: Thank you for doing this. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Kristi. Appreciate it. Sean. Sean Duffy: Thank you, Mr. President. 11 US cities, 78 games in the US And I think you said it’s just like 78 Super Bowls next summer in the US. So, this is massive. Mr. President, thank you for putting together the task force. You know that great events don’t happen unless you have great planning and, starting well over a year in advance, putting your team together to make sure this event goes off without a hitch. Sean Duffy: I thank you for that. As part of the DOT, again, we’re going to move a lot of people around the country, a lot of American spectators, but a lot of foreign spectators are going to come into the country. And security and safety is key. We’re going to work with Homeland and Kristie to make sure we secure our airspace around these events. Sean Duffy: We’re moving people from city to city and from hotels to the fan festivals, to the stadiums, making sure we have enough transportation, whether it’s trains and buses in the cities that host this great event, we’re working through that, as well as making sure our airlines and our airports are ready to facilitate the travel throughout the country. Sean Duffy: And so, this is everyone working together. What I think is great, Mr. President – I have to imagine this was part of the plan – you’re like let’s bring in the World Cup in the year of America’s 250th birthday. So, not only is America going to celebrate our 250th, we’re going to bring in millions of people to celebrate with us. I know State and Homeland and DOT and all of us are going to work together to make sure it is seamless travel. Sean Duffy: We want everyone to come to America. We want everyone to spend a lot of money in America. By the way, as part of the DOTs 250 celebration, we’re going to encourage everyone to go on a road trip, Mr. President, to celebrate our great country. Sean Duffy: And so, if you’re coming to see some soccer not football or football or soccer. Um, go on a road trip, see America. Don’t overstay your visa, don’t stay too long. But when you come, actually see this great country that we’re going to celebrate over the course of the next year. And again, we welcome everyone. Sean Duffy: Uh, this team is going to work full heartedly together to make sure, uh, these events go off without a hitch. And we’re all able to celebrate the great athletes from around the world, 48 countries, coming in to compete in our great country. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Sean. Thank you. Would you have any questions of these great people or anybody around the table please? Yeah, please go ahead. Question: [Inaudible] prime minister of Canada – oh, OK. Mr. President, you [Inaudible] prime minister of Canada here today. And uh, with him and with also the president of Mexico, there has been some recent tensions between them and the United States. Are you worried about any problems with that joint partnership as co-hosts of the World Cup next year? Donald Trump: No. I don’t see any tension either. We get along very well with both. They just got to pay a little more money. You know, they just – they’re getting away with things that they shouldn’t be. And they understand. We had a great meeting today actually with the new prime minister who’s a terrific guy. And we had a very long session with JD and Marco and everybody. Donald Trump: And uh, it went very well. No, we had a very great meeting. And no tension. We want to do what’s right for respective peoples. And that’s what’s going to happen. And uh, also with Mexico, I think, uh, the relationship is really very good with the president of Mexico, as you know, you probably heard. Uh, and we’re going to have a very good relationship with regard to FIFA, I have no doubt about it. Gianni would know better than anybody. Donald Trump: But you’ll understand. I mean, I think the relationship is very good. Thank you very much. Question? Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, what will be the level of interaction, cooperation with Canada and Mexico as it relates to next year’s World Cup? Are you already talking to them – Donald Trump: Yeah, we are. It’s total. Complete. We talked about it even today at our meeting with, uh, with Canada. And the level is total. It’s going to be perfect. It’s going to be beautiful. They’re very excited about it. Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? [Inaudible] anything being done to expedite visa applications for people around the world who want to come to the United States for the World Cup? Donald Trump: Yeah, yeah. Question: And if I may, just a second question for maybe Mr. Duffy? Uh, Secretary Duffy? Is there anything long lasting transportation wise that Americans can expect from infrastructure being built for the World Cup? Donald Trump: So, I’ll start with Kristi in terms of the applications. Kristi Noem: Absolutely. This summer, um, by hosting the club championships, we’re processing those travel documents and visa applications already. And working with Carlos and Gianni and their team to make sure that they’re done timely. And being proactive of it. And – and that is obviously going to be a precursor to what we can do next year, um, for the World Cup as well. Kristi Noem: So it is all being facilitated. We appreciate the partnership that we’ve got on all of this with the State Department as well. Um, and I know we’ve got uh, the attorney general and Kash at the FBI, too, interested in being all hands on deck to make sure this goes smoothly. Donald Trump: Thank you. Sean? Sean Duffy: Yes, so basically these are going to be short term needs. So we’re going to have to bring in, you know, busses and additional forms of transportation. Most of Miami doesn’t have the capacity with – with their transit system to carry all of the people who are going to go from hotels and restaurants to stadiums and – and uh, the fan center. Sean Duffy: So, we’re going to have to manage those assets, bring them in from around the country to move people. But they won’t be needed there long term, uh, so again, I don’t foresee long-term changes. This is a short-term, uh, push of folks coming in to see great soccer matches and then they’ll go home. Donald Trump: OK. Yeah, please. Question: A question about your thoughts on Madison Square Garden. Uh, the Transportation Department recently took over the refurbishment of Penn Station. And I was wondering if you have an opinion on the proposal to move Madison Square Garden to allow for a more classical train station to be built – Donald Trump: To move it? Question: To move it. Yes, there’s – Donald Trump: That was taught – thought of years – Jim Dolan is going to have something to say about that. And I’ve not heard of any recent plans. They – they tried to do that. For years, they’ve tried to move it. But I think Jim probably likes his location sitting on top of all the trains. I can’t blame him necessarily. Donald Trump: There’s not too much of a move. They are going to do something with Penn Station. We’ll be involved in that. We’ll work with the governor, and we’ll be involved with that very much. OK? Thank you. Question: Mr. President? Mr. President? Donald Trump: Yeah, please go ahead. Question: [Inaudible] you have asked for more than $600 million in federal funding for security. Do you support that? And perhaps Secretary Noem can weigh in? Donald Trump: On security, yeah. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Yeah, I support – Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: I support really whatever that takes. And any money that’s spent will make up many fold in terms of all of the economic development. These events, especially what we’re talking. And you have FIFA and then you have the Olympics. And these events, if properly done, make a tremendous amount of money. And prestige. Donald Trump: I think it’s a great allure and prestige for our country and for the cities where they are. It’s going to be amazing, yeah. But we’re going to not – we won’t hold back at all on security most importantly. Thank you. Yeah, please. Question: First question, is there any reason you haven’t referred to Mark Carney as governor as you did with Trudeau? And the second question, you said earlier that you don’t have to sign any trade deals, of course. Is there any country you expect to sign a trade deal with this week as Secretary Bessent has indicated? Donald Trump: Well, we’re looking at a lot of them. We’re talking to a lot of them right now. And I think – I don’t want to bore people with that, but I gave a very long definition this morning in the Oval Office. We have – we’re in very, very good shape. This country has never been in better shape. And we’re doing great. Donald Trump: We were being ripped off by every country in the world virtually and now we’re not being ripped off anymore. It’s very simple. Very, very simple as far. As for calling him Governor Carney now, I haven’t done that yet. And maybe I won’t. I did have a lot of fun with Trudeau. But I think this is a – this is a big step up. It’s a good step up for Canada. Donald Trump: I watched – I watched very closely. I thought he did really terrifically in the debates. I like him. You know, he’s a nice man. We get along very well. We had a great meeting today, really good. I think the relationship is going to be very strong. Thank you. Yes? Question: Russia is banned from playing the next World Cup. What’s your position on this? Donald Trump: Say it again? Question: Russia has been banned from playing the next World Cup. What’s your position on that? Donald Trump: I didn’t know that. Is that right? Unidentified: Yeah. Donald Trump: Do you want to explain it? Gianni Infantino: That is right. They are banned for the time being here – Donald Trump: OK. Gianni Infantino: From playing, but we hope that, uh – Donald Trump: He’s the boss. I’m not the boss on that. I have nothing to do with that. Gianni Infantino: We hope – we hope that something happens. And peace will happen. And then we – Donald Trump: It’s possible. Gianni Infantino: Russia can be readmitted. So that’s what we hope. Donald Trump: That’s possible. Hey, that could be a good incentive, right? We want to get him to stop. We want them to stop. We want the 5,000 young people a week are being killed. It’s not even believable. They’re Russian soldiers and the Ukrainian soldiers, mostly. Also people in towns every once every two weeks. Horrible things going on over there, so, uh, we’re going to – we’re going to get that war stopped. Donald Trump: OK? Question: When you were talking about all of the events that will be happening here in the US over the next few years, you mentioned the G7, and you said it used to be called the G8. Donald Trump: Yeah. Question: As the host country, you can actually invite Russia to the G7 plus one. What’s your thinking on that right now, Mr. President? Donald Trump: Well, Russia used to be a member of what was called then the G8. And I don’t think I was really in politics at that point. But I know that President Obama didn’t like it. And they voted Russia out. I say if they didn’t vote Russia out, which I thought was a very foolish decision because it’s a group of people sitting around a table. Donald Trump: I’ve done it many times with them. And you get to know them. And I say that if Russia – if it was the G8, if Russia were in it, I think you probably wouldn’t have this ridiculous deadly war going on right now. I thought it was a very bad decision. It was headed by Trudeau, by the way, and Obama. They were the ones that really fought hard to get Russia out. Donald Trump: I think if Russia were in, you wouldn’t be – they threw him out. And because of that, maybe – millions of people are dying millions, you know, millions. The numbers are far greater than you think, but millions of people are dying. If you were sitting around a table with other people, seven people, hammering him and saying let’s not do this. Donald Trump: And you would have – I think you wouldn’t probably, you know, have had the – the problems that you’ve had. Question: So would you make the push, Mr. President, to get Russia back into this group? Donald Trump: No, I think it’s – I think it’s not good timing now. Not right now. It’s – uh, we missed that gate, didn’t we, huh? We missed that gate with another great decision by some people that shouldn’t have been making decisions. Yes, go ahead. Question: Mr. President, should people who have taken part in, for example, pro-Palestinian protest across the world, be concerned about being able to join the World Cup and watching here in the US? Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know what you mean by that, but people that have taken part in protests, I think people are allowed to protest. You have to do it in a reasonable manner, not necessarily friendly, but reasonable. Otherwise, Pam will come after you and you’re going to have a big problem. You’re going to have a big problem, right, Pam? [Laughter] She’s doing a good job, too. Donald Trump: Well, my whole team here is doing a fantastic job. We’re very proud of them. So, yeah, you have a right to protest. Yeah, thank you. Go ahead. Yeah. Question: Do you support Israel’s plan to conquer Gaza if Hamas doesn’t agree to a deal during your visit to the Middle East? Donald Trump: These are very strange questions, aren’t they? I never like when they read them off a machine. I don’t know – who’s sending the question to you. Let’s not talk about that now. We’re talking about the World Cup. Go ahead, what else? Anything else? I think we’re pretty well set. I want to thank everybody and we’re going to make this tremendously successful. Donald Trump: And you can see, Gianni is a very enthusiastic man. He’s got great enthusiasm. And that’s one of the reasons that you’ve had such success over the last number of years that you’ve been there, amazing. He’s like somebody that just woke up on Christmas morning as a young child and saw those toys under the tree. Donald Trump: And that enthusiasm really plays very well, I have to say. And you’ve done a fantastic job as the head and we’re going to do what we have to do, and thank you very much. Thank you, everybody, very much. Appreciate it.
Date: 2025-05-06
I look forward to meeting the new Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. I very much want to work with him, but cannot understand one simple TRUTH — Why is America subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection, and many other things? We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us! The Prime Minister will be arriving shortly and that will be, most likely, my only question of consequence.
Date: 2025-05-09
Karoline Leavitt: Good afternoon, everybody. Good to see all of you. Happy Friday. The president looks forward to embarking on his historic return to the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week where he will focus on strengthening ties between our nations. Eight years ago, President Trump’s first trip was to this same region of the world where he introduced his bold peace through strength foreign policy strategy. Karoline Leavitt: On that trip, the president laid out his goal of eradicating terrorism and extremism in the region, which he successfully accomplished over the course of his administration with the total defeat of ISIS in the historic signing of the Abraham Accords. Now, eight years later, President Trump will return to re-emphasize his continued vision for a proud, prosperous and successful Middle East where the United States and Middle Eastern nations are in cooperative relationships and where extremism is defeated in place of commerce and cultural exchanges. Karoline Leavitt: This trip ultimately highlights how we stand on the brink of the golden age for both America and the Middle East, united by a shared vision of stability, opportunity and mutual respect. The president greatly looks forward to visiting with our brave men and women in uniform at our US air base in Qatar throughout this trip. Karoline Leavitt: Yesterday, President Trump demonstrated the art of the deal and secured a historic trade agreement. Despite all of the naysayers who said no deals were coming, that of course turned out to be untrue. On the 80th anniversary of Victory Day for World War II, President Trump announced a great deal that provides American companies unprecedented access to the UK markets while bolstering US national security. Karoline Leavitt: This trade deal will massively expand US market access in the United Kingdom, creating a $5 billion opportunity for new exports for US farmers, ranchers and producers. This includes more than $700 billion in ethanol exports and $250 million in other agricultural products like good old American beef. The deal commits the United States and United Kingdom to work together to enhance industrial and agricultural market access and strengthens American competitiveness. Karoline Leavitt: Importantly, the deal also ensures streamlined customs procedures for US exports. The UK will also be purchasing $10 billion of American made Boeing planes as part of the deal. A trade agreement like this between the United States and the United Kingdom was being worked on for many years but continued to prove elusive. Karoline Leavitt: But because of President Trump’s bold negotiating approach, he got it done. All of this happened because of President Trump’s implementation of powerful tariffs to end the era of economic surrender and rebalance America’s trading agreements. American workers and companies are the best in the world, and they finally have a president who has their backs, fights for them and delivers good deals that put them first. Karoline Leavitt: This is just the first of many trade deals to come. Get ready for more historic deals and our country to boom like never before. On that note, treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ambassador Jamison Greer will meet with the lead representatives on economic matters from the People’s Republic of China over the weekend in Switzerland. Karoline Leavitt: As President Trump has said, the United States and China have been talking for some time over the course of the administration, and now teams from both countries will meet in person to continue discussions. You can be certain that President Trump and his trade team will ensure we work to achieve the best deal possible for America. Karoline Leavitt: In other news, the Trump administration just announced a new incentive for illegal aliens living in the United States to self-deport. Eligible illegal aliens who now use the CBP home app to self-deport will receive a clear, safe way to leave the United States. Their plane tickets home may be paid for, and they will receive a $1,000 stipend once we have confirmation that they have left our country. Karoline Leavitt: This new feature will allow illegal aliens to have a planned departure out of the country and to leave as soon as possible in a dignified way. If illegal aliens make the right decision here and submit their intent to depart through the CBP home app and pass extensive vetting, they will be temporarily deprioritized for ICE detention and enforcement action before their scheduled departure. Karoline Leavitt: And leaving voluntarily in this manner may improve their legal immigration options in the future. This initiative will also save massive amounts of money for American taxpayers. Voluntary departures are much more cost effective than traditional removals. By deploying the CBP home app in this new way, President Trump is aiming to reduce the need for costly arrests, detentions and court proceedings. Karoline Leavitt: Currently, the average cost of traditional removal is more than $17,000 per illegal alien. Our projections estimate that the use of CBP home app will massively reduce that financial burden by approximately 70 percent, so taxpayer dollars can be redirected, and our brave immigration law enforcement officers can focus on removing the most violent illegal aliens hiding in our communities. Karoline Leavitt: Finally, it was announced this morning that First Lady Melania Trump secured a $25 million investment in President Trump’s budget to provide housing and support for youth transitioning out of foster care. And in recognition of the 7th anniversary of Mrs. Trump’s Be Best initiative, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated funds toward the agency Foster Youth to Independence program. Karoline Leavitt: Yesterday, Mrs. Trump hosted a special celebration of military mothers with the president, bringing together 150 military moms from around the country to recognize their service, not just in their home, but for our country. For those of you who were there at the events yesterday like I did, I have no doubt you will join me in recognizing how truly special those moments were. Karoline Leavitt: So, let’s get to questions. Here in our new media seat today is Andrew Egger, the White House correspondent for The Bulwark. The Bulwark is a new media company launched in 2019 with hundreds of thousands of readers on Substack and more than a million subscribers on YouTube. Andrew, please kick us off. Thanks for being here. Question: Thank you for having me, Karoline. The president posted another ad this week for his Trump meme coin. The group that’s running that coin is encouraging people to buy in order to win a dinner this month with the president. Why is the president planning to attend a dinner for the top investors in his coin? Karoline Leavitt: Look, the president is abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws. The president has been incredibly transparent with his own personal financial obligations throughout the years. The president is a successful businessman, and I think frankly it’s one of the many reasons that people reelected him back to this office. Question: There are at least some people who are buying this coin who seem to view it as an opportunity to influence the president’s views. There was a logistics company this week that said they would buy $20 million in the coin in order to advocate for free trade between the US and Mexico. If buyers are buying for that reason, are they wasting their money? Karoline Leavitt: Look, I can assure you the president acts with only the interests of the American public in mind, putting our country first and doing what’s best for our country full stop. That’s his intention and that’s what he’s focused on. Kristen, good to see you here today. Welcome back. Question: Thank you, Karoline. I’m glad to be back. So, on those China talks, what does President Trump expect to come out of those talks? And is he going to be disappointed if his team can’t secure a deal? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, the president is very confident in his Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent, and of course Ambassador Jamison Greer, who has played an instrumental role in all of these trade negotiations as well. I think yesterday’s success, the announcement of a trade deal with the United Kingdom, is a great first step. Karoline Leavitt: Again, many said in this room, it couldn’t be done. Now we are moving forward with many other countries. We’re talking to dozens of our trading partners around the world. But of course, China is a major country, a major player in this space, and the president has said, and he’s right, China needs the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: They need our markets; they need our consumer base. And Secretary Bessent knows that he’s going to Switzerland this weekend with the full support and confidence and trust of the president here at home. Jack. Question: Thanks very much, Karoline, two questions. First, can you give us an update on US efforts to mediate or have an impact on the conflict between India and Pakistan? Karoline Leavitt: Sure, I absolutely can. This is something that the secretary of State and, of course, now our National Security Advisor as well, Marco Rubio, has been very much involved in. The president has expressed he wants to see this de-escalate as quickly as possible. He understands these are two countries that have been at odds with one another for decades, long before President Trump was here in the Oval Office. Karoline Leavitt: However, he has good relationships with the leaders of both countries and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, I spoke to him just yesterday. He has been in constant communication with the leaders of both countries trying to bring this conflict to an end. Question: Just one other question. Yesterday we saw the news of a new pope. Before Pope Leo became Pope Leo, there were some critical comments that he made about President Trump and about Vice President Vance on his X account, then X account. Does the White House have any reaction to those comments? Karoline Leavitt: The president made his reaction to Pope Leo’s announcement yesterday, very clear, he is very proud to have an American Pope. I think it was a surprise to everyone. I saw the news; media was surprised to report on that yesterday, but it’s a great thing for the United States of America and for the world and we are praying for him. Karoline Leavitt: Right here. Question: Thanks, Karoline. The president has been pretty firm on keeping these 145 percent tariffs in place on Chinese imports. Today, via Truth Social, he said that he’d be possibly open to lowering those to 80 percent. Why the change and how did the president land on 80? Karoline Leavitt: The president still remains with his position, that he is not going to unilaterally bring down tariffs on China. We need to see concessions from them as well. And again, that’s part of the reason that Secretary Bessent is going to talk to his Chinese counterparts this weekend to start those discussions in person. Karoline Leavitt: As for the 80 percent number, that was a number the president threw out there and we’ll see what happens this weekend. And always in the effort of transparency, I’m sure you’ll hear directly from the treasury secretary or the president after those negotiations conclude. Jackie? Question: Thank you, Karoline. Why did the White House announce this deal with the UK before all of the details were finished? Karoline Leavitt: That’s not true. Actually, I saw the fact sheet. I saw the deal as well before the president brought all of you in the Oval Office. In the effort of transparency, you had the president and the prime minister on the phone talking to all of you directly about how this was a great deal, a phenomenal deal. And discussions will continue. Karoline Leavitt: But as I spoke to our Ambassador Greer yesterday, this is how trade deals work. You set an initial agreement. You set the framework. You set up the deal. And then of course, um, you know, dot – t’s have to be crossed and eyes have to be dotted, but this deal is a good deal. And the numbers are determined and all of the market access that I just discussed will remain. Question: Does that mean that the 10 percent baseline is going to still be there at the end when all of the other details are ironed – ironed out? Karoline Leavitt: The president is committed to the 10 percent baseline tariff, not just for the United Kingdom, but for his trade negotiations with all other countries as well. Question: Permanently, even after the deals are done, that is going to remain. Karoline Leavitt: The president is determined to continue with that 10 percent baseline tariff. I just spoke to him about it earlier. Stephen? Question: Thank you, Karoline. I’d like to ask you about New York and about a personnel matter. On New York, the Mayor, Eric Adams is here today. Can you tell us anything more about the visit? Who initiated it? What they’re talking about? And also, is there any comment from the White House on the air traffic control issues in Newark? Karoline Leavitt: All I will say on Mayor Eric Adams is that he requested a meeting with the president. And the president was willing to take it. If the president wishes to discuss his private meeting afterwards, I will let him do that himself. Yes, I’m glad you asked about the FAA. There was a glitch in the system this morning, especially at Newark Airport. Karoline Leavitt: As you all know, I spoke to the Department of Transportation. That glitch was caused by the same telecoms and software issues that were raised last week. Everyone – everything went back online after the brief – brief outage and there was no operational impact. DOT and the FAA are working to address these – this technical issue tonight to prevent further outages as well as install new fiber from Newark Airport to Philadelphia. Karoline Leavitt: And the goal is to have the totality of this work done by the end of the summer. I want to add that this outage at Newark Airport speaks to why the secretary of Transportation yesterday made a massive announcement in investing in our aviation safety and our telecom system. There’s a four part infrastructure plan that was released by the secretary of Transportation yesterday to improve communications, surveillance, automation and their facilities. Karoline Leavitt: They want to replace the antiquated telecom systems with new fiber, wireless and satellite technologies. Replace more than 600 radars, which have gone way past their life cycle. And address runway safety. They want to build six new air traffic control centers for the first time since the 1960s. And replace towers as well. Karoline Leavitt: They want to implement – excuse me, new modern hardware and software for all traffic facilities to create a common platform system throughout the towers. These are much needed changes. This is a very bold plan by the Department of Transportation. I think it’s unfortunate that the previous administration sat on their hands into nothing, but how grateful we are that we have a Department of Transportation and a secretary and a president who’s willing to take bold action and change. Question: And on the personnel matter, Karoline? Could I ask – Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead. Go ahead. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Um, just going back to India, Pakistan. Can we expect President Trump to get in touch personally with the leaders of those countries to – to try and deescalate this situation? Karoline Leavitt: If and when that happens, we will certainly let you know. Natalie? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: I have a question about the Middle East trip. Will any of the president’s family members including Don Jr, Eric or Jared Kushner be joining him on the trip? Karoline Leavitt: I am not tracking any of the president’s family members joining us at this time. But of course, the first family is welcome to come. I hope they would. They are great people, great to be around, but I’m not tracking them on the manifest at this moment. Question: And given that you – you noted he is a successful businessman, do you know if the president has any plans to – to meet with any of the folks involved with any of the – the family businesses over there or see any of the sites that are going to be neutral – Karoline Leavitt: Not to – not to my knowledge. And let me just get to the premise of your question that both of you have raised. I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit. He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service, not just once but twice. Karoline Leavitt: And again, the American public reelected him back to this White House because they trust he acts in the best interests of our country and putting the American public first. This is a president who has actually lost money for being president of the United States. I don’t remember these same type of questions being asked of my predecessor about a career politician who was clearly profiting off of this office. Karoline Leavitt: That is not what President Trump does. And this White House holds ourselves to the highest of ethical standards. Phil? Question: Thank you. There’s this Reuters report that the US is in talks with Israel about an American led postwar administration in Gaza. Is that accurate? Are these talks ongoing? Karoline Leavitt: We are in constant communication and dialogue with our counterparts and our allies and friends in Israel. Ron Dermer was here at the White House yesterday meeting with members of President Trump’s team. As for the situation in Gaza, the president and his entire national security team have made it very clear. Karoline Leavitt: We want to see the hostages released from Gaza. That is a priority for this administration. As for what that looks like and even moving beyond that, I’m not going to get into the details of plans that frankly may or may not have even been proposed. But I can emphasize what the president holds closest to his heart right now, and that’s the release of all of the hostages in Gaza. Question: And then there’s been some conservative pushback to some of these SALT tax – uh, the SALT tax cap. For instance, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said that bringing back the state and local tax deduction would essentially mean, quote, “45 states are subsidizing five states that have very high taxes imposed by leftist governors.” Is he wrong? Question: Is it fair to ask Red Indiana to bail out Blue New York? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, this is an ongoing discussion on the Hill. There – there’s a lot of disagreement on Capitol Hill right now about the SALT tax proposal. And we will let them work it out. As for the tax provisions and the reconciliation bill, the priorities of this president, he has made them incredibly clear no tax on tips for our hard working service workers, no tax on Social Security for our well-deserving seniors who have worked their whole lives to pay into this system. Karoline Leavitt: No tax on overtimes for – overtime for hard working Americans as well. And there’s a plethora of other priorities the president wants to see in this bill. Anyone who opposes this bill will be opposing the largest tax cut in American history. They will be voting to raise taxes by the tune of $4 trillion on the middle class of this country. Karoline Leavitt: And we look forward to holding them accountable for that. Everyone on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle should be supportive of the President’s tax priorities. Question: Karoline? Follow up on that? Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead. Sure. Go ahead. And then I’ll go to your follow up. Question: Thanks, Karoline. So I want to follow up on the Truth Social post. So the president is saying 80 percent tariffs could come down, just an announcement would be enough to lower those tariffs. Is that what he’s looking for from the Chinese concessions? Karoline Leavitt: That’s not what the president said. He said that an 80 percent number may sound good to him, but again, he’s in constant contact with our secretary of Treasury who will be leading the negotiations this weekend. Question: And historically, the Chinese have made the meeting itself a win. What does a win look like out of these meetings for the president this weekend? Karoline Leavitt: A good deal for the American worker and the American people. Go ahead. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Yeah, back to the reconciliation bill, can you just clarify the president’s position though a little bit, specifically on the tax issue? Because in his Truth Social post, he said this morning that he would accept even a tiny tax increase for the rich, but then says Republicans probably shouldn’t do it. But I’m OK if they do it. So what is it that he wants? Question: Does he want them to increase the tax rates? Karoline Leavitt: The president wants tax cuts, the largest tax cuts in history. He wants to extend his historic tax cuts from 2017. And he wants to see all of the other tax priorities that I just laid out for you included in this bill as well. As for the policy proposal you’re talking about, the President has said he himself personally would not mind paying a little bit more to help the poor in the middle class and the working class in this country. Karoline Leavitt: I think frankly that’s a very honorable position. But again, these negotiations are ongoing on Capitol Hill and the president will weigh in when he feels necessary. Question: But has he encouraged them to have a higher bracket for top earners? Karoline Leavitt: The president has made his personal position on this matter clear. Michael? Question: And has he spoken with Chair Smith or Speaker Johnson? Mrs. Karoline, ahead of this president’s – Karoline Leavitt: The president’s in constant communication with leaders on the Hill. Question: Ahead of the president’s trip to the Middle East, he’s mentioned he wants to rename the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Arabia. Iran is now saying that doing so will bring the wrath of all Iranians. Can you talk about the support that the Gulf of Arabia has in the region and why this is important to the president? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all, the president has said he hasn’t made a determination yet. That was in the news that you guys all asked him about it. And he said he wasn’t quite sure. So he hasn’t made a definitive decision on that yet. Question: And secondly, Karoline, the president has shown support for South African refugees that are coming to the United States next week. Can you talk about what these refugees are fleeing? And why this is a priority for the administration? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has actually signed an executive order on that matter. My office can get it back to you, Michael. But South – this group in South Africa has faced racial persecution. In fact, the government there has vowed to take away their farm – farmland that they own. And so the president has talked significantly about this. Karoline Leavitt: As for further details on refugee claims and asylum claims, I would refer you to the State Department. Question: Can I follow up on that? Karoline Leavitt: Go ahead. No, in front of you. Question: Thanks, sorry. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Does the administration have any response to the news today that a federal judge has ordered the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk from detention and particularly his comments that the government submitted no evidence other than an op ed that was approved last year. Karoline Leavitt: I will have to check in with the Department of Homeland Security on that particular case, but I think our overall feeling we’ve made quite clear that lower-level judges should not be dictating the foreign policy of the United States. And we absolutely believe that the president and the Department of Homeland Security are well within their legal rights to deport illegal immigrants. Karoline Leavitt: As for visa revocations, the secretary of State has the right to do that as well. It is a privilege, not a right, to come to this country on a visa. But I’ll check in on the specific case. My office will get you details. Sure. Question: Karoline, yesterday, the administration appears to have started dismantling the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This is the federal agency, an independent one that does recalls and is responsible for product safety. Does the administration not believe that it’s important to keep toys and cribs – I mean, you’re a young mom – off of the market? Karoline Leavitt: It’s a federal agency within which branch? It’s the executive branch. Who’s the head of the executive branch? The president of the United States. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Congress. Karoline Leavitt: He has the right to fire people within the executive branch. It’s a pretty simple answer. Francesca. Question: Thanks. One foreign policy one and then a domestic policy thing if I could. As far as the president’s trip goes next week, is he planning to meet with the FIFA president in either Saudi Arabia or Qatar? And if so, could you give us some more details about that? Karoline Leavitt: The president has quite a few meetings with many people when he is there, we can certainly check out the itinerary and let you know if the FIFA president will be there next week. Frankly, I’m not quite sure, but we can certainly get you an answer. As you know, the president attended a FIFA task force meeting at the White House this week. Question: On the domestic front, could you explain why the FEMA administrator was removed from his position this week? Karoline Leavitt: Look, this is a personnel matter in regards to the Department of Homeland Security, but my understanding is that this individual testified saying something that was contrary to what the president believes and the goals of this administration in regards to FEMA policy. And so of course, we want to make sure that people in every position are advancing the administration’s goals. Karoline Leavitt: But as for specifics, I’d refer you to the Department of Homeland Security. We leave it up to our great cabinet secretaries when it comes to personnel matters. Sure, in the back. Question: Thank you. Aid hasn’t gone into Gaza in 10 weeks. Israel says that this is a policy to pressure Hamas in the negotiations – the ceasefire negotiations. Is this a policy that this administration supports? Karoline Leavitt: The president answered this this week. He said that he wants to ensure that aid can get into Gaza, but we have to do it in a responsible way to ensure it doesn’t end up in the hands of terrorists. So, this is something the administration is actively working on and when we have a policy to announce on this definitively, we can certainly let you know. Question: Can you talk about this effort for the US to take over the distribution of aid in Gaza to exclude Israel, but also international organizations said this effort militarizes aid? Karoline Leavitt: I would reject that characterization by whatever groups you are citing. Kelly? Question: Karoline, thank you. I want to get back to the First Lady Melania Trump dealing with foster children. That’s an important component in American life, to see what happens to the future of our children, particularly in foster care. Can you explain the significance of this development between the first lady and the Housing and Urban Development? Karoline Leavitt: Yes, absolutely, it’s millions of dollars that will go into a program that helps these children transition out of foster care to have productive and positive lives. And I’d like to share a personal story since you asked if I may. I hope the First lady won’t mind. I was at an event in Florida last year and I was approached by a gentleman who was a foster dad, and he had taken in, I think it was six or seven foster children. Karoline Leavitt: And he spoke to me; he had recognized me in my work for President Trump’s campaign at the time. And the little boy who was with him talked about the personal relationship that he had with First Lady Melania Trump and the conversation she had had with him. And how she really encouraged him to be the best that he could be during her first term here at the White House. Karoline Leavitt: And how even after she and President Trump left the White House, she kept in very close touch with this young foster child. It was a touching moment that I will never forget, and it speaks to the heart of this first lady and the great work that she is doing for foster children. And this is certainly a very big announcement that I know our secretary of Housing and Urban Development is, in particular, very excited about and we can certainly get you all the details on that program. Karoline Leavitt: John. Thanks a lot, Karoline. I want to ask you about the trade deal that the president announced yesterday with the UK as it relates to the auto sector. The trade group that represents the Big Three here in the US believes that it may put the Big Three automakers at a competitive disadvantage. What the trade group says is that it will now be cheaper to import a UK vehicle with very little American content than a USMCA compliant vehicle imported from Mexico or Canada with just 50 percent American content. Karoline Leavitt: What’s your response to that criticism coming from this trade group? Well, first of all, let’s be clear about what the deal does. It sets a 10 percent rate on auto imports for the first 100 cars that are imported into the United – 100,000 cars. Thank you. That would be very little, very few cars, 100,000 cars imported from the United Kingdom. Karoline Leavitt: After 100,000 vehicles, it goes back up to a 25 percent tariff. And as for our US auto manufacturers, our auto industry, the president wants to put them on the best pedestal to compete. And by the way, if they produce vehicles right here in the United States of America, they will face no tariff at all. I would argue of any industry the president has spent more time talking to and listening to the concerns of our auto industry here at home. Karoline Leavitt: He hears them, he believes in them, he wants to see them produce their vehicles here in the United States of America. This is a good deal for them too. Question: Is this a model for European and Asian vehicles as well, what we see coming out of the UK trade deal with the US? Karoline Leavitt: Look, all of these deals are going to be tailor made. The president has said that from the beginning. It’s very apropos that the first trade deal was announced between the United States and the United Kingdom, one of our oldest and greatest allies. But each country has unique concerns and challenges in terms of American industry. Karoline Leavitt: We need to open up markets in every single country and obviously the needs are unique. So, our trade team is looking at each country and the advantages that we can pursue for American industries and American workers. Sure. Question: Happy early Mother’s Day. Karoline Leavitt: Oh, thank you. Question: The president said yesterday that he would be speaking with Zelenskyy shortly. Did that call happen yesterday, or do we expect that to happen in the near term? Karoline Leavitt: The call happened yesterday. President Zelenskyy called the president to tell him that the critical minerals deal had passed the parliament in Ukraine. I talked to the president about that call. He said it was very good and productive and of course the critical minerals deal is great for Ukraine, but also of course for the United States of America and our taxpayers here. Karoline Leavitt: It was a good call, and they also spoke about of course the ceasefire that the president proposed, the 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, which we know Europe is on board with and we hope both countries will agree to. Question: On next week, do we expect President Putin – is there any chance that he could meet with Trump while he’s in the region? Karoline Leavitt: The president answered this yesterday, not going to happen. Question: A question on the ceasefire. Has he gotten any reaction from Zelenskyy or Putin on the proposal for ceasefire? Is he satisfied by the reaction to that proposal? Karoline Leavitt: Not to my knowledge, but certainly if there is a reaction and updates, I’m sure you’ll hear directly from the president. Question: Question – the president fired the Librarian of Congress, why did he choose to do that? Karoline Leavitt: We felt she did not fit the needs of the American people. There were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children. And we don’t believe that she was serving the interests of the American taxpayer well. Karoline Leavitt: So, she has been removed from her position and the president is well within his rights to do that. John. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Happy Mother’s Day as well. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you. Question: President Trump ran on delivering the biggest tax cut in history, got over 70 million votes. Right now, you’ve got a handful of obstructionists in the Republican conference that are saying they’re not going to go along with his tax cut package. You just said those that don’t will be held accountable. What is your description of being held accountable? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, I think they’ll be held accountable by the voters in their respective districts if they choose to vote for a tax hike to the tune of $4 trillion, which would raise taxes thousands of dollars per household in this country. The president has great political instincts, that’s why he’s back in the Oval Office, and Capitol Hill should follow his lead. Karoline Leavitt: As for the president, speaking of him, he will be signing executive orders later this afternoon. We are happy to provide more information on those executive orders if you wish. Thank you for the Mother’s Day wishes and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in the room. And don’t forget to call your mom this Sunday. Karoline Leavitt: We’ll see you guys later. Have a good weekend.
Date: 2025-05-12
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. It’s a big day. It should be fun. I don’t know. You’ll maybe find reasons why it’s not, but I can’t imagine because we have a lot of great things happening. It’s been a very strong week and a very strong weekend. Before we begin, let me say a few words about the historic events that took place over the last few days. Donald Trump: On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate cease fire, I think a permanent one between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons. And they were going at it hot and heavy. And it was seemingly not going to stop. And I’m very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering, powerful, but unwavering in both cases. Donald Trump: And having these, they really were from the standpoint of having the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation. And we helped a lot. And we helped also with trade. I said come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’re doing trade. Donald Trump: If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I used it. That I can tell you. And all of a sudden they said, I think we’re going to stop. And they have. And they did it for a lot of reasons. But trade is a big one. We’re going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. Donald Trump: We’re going to do a lot of trade with India. We’re negotiating with India right now. We’re going to be negotiating with Pakistan. And we stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it would have – it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed, so I’m very proud of that. I also want to thank Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio for their work and efforts. Donald Trump: They worked very hard on that. We also, as you know, created a situation where the Houthis, for the first time ever, have ceased firing. And they’ve let it be known that they’re not going to be firing at American ships anymore, not going to be firing at Americans anymore. This was a heavy barrage that lasted for approximately 50 days. Donald Trump: And as you know, they’ve been in war essentially for forever. But over the last 10 years, they’ve been very difficult for other countries. Nobody was able to do what we did. But they stopped. And we take their word for it. They – their surrogates and them directly said we don’t want to do this anymore. And so we were satisfied with that. Donald Trump: In addition, yesterday, we achieved a total reset with China. After productive talks in Geneva, both sides now agree to reduce the tariffs imposed after April 2nd to 10 percent for 90 days as negotiators continue in the larger structural issues. And I want to tell you that – a couple of things, first of all, that doesn’t include the tariffs that are already on that are our tariffs. Donald Trump: And it doesn’t include tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum, things such as that. Or tariffs that may be imposed on pharmaceuticals because we want to bring the pharmaceutical businesses back to the United States. And they’re already starting to come back now based on tariffs because they don’t want to pay 25, 50 or 100 percent tariffs, so they’re moving them back to the United States. Donald Trump: I spoke to Tim Cook this morning and he’s going to, I think, even up his uh, his numbers, $500 billion. He’s going to be building a lot of plants in the United States for Apple. And we look forward to that. I really do look forward to that. But the talks in Geneva were very friendly. The relationship is very good. Donald Trump: We’re not looking to hurt China. China was being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest. And they were very happy to be able to do something with us. And the relationship is very, very good. I’ll speak to President Xi maybe at the end of the week. We have some other things we’re doing. Donald Trump: But one of the biggest things that we’re doing, and I don’t know if people realize this, but uh, we made a great deal with China, a great trade deal. But it was a much bigger deal originally and then they canceled It right in the last day. Some of you faces, I remember were – were there when that happened. Donald Trump: I remember you. And we had a deal where they opened up their country to trade with the United States. And they took that away at the last moment. And then I canceled the whole thing. And then six months later, we ended up doing a smaller deal. But it was a big deal, it was $ 50 billion worth of product that they were going to purchase from our farmers, etc. Donald Trump: And we agreed to that. People thought it was 15 because they were doing 15. We made it 50 because I misunderstood the 15. I thought they said, I said you got to get 50. Because when I asked, if you remember the story when I asked, what are we doing with them? My secretary of Agriculture at the time, Sonny Perdue said, sir, it’s about $15 billion and we’re asking for 15. And I thought he said 50. So I said, so they came back with a deal at 15. And I said no way I want 50 because you said 50. They said sir, we didn’t say that. Donald Trump: Anyway, bottom line, I said go back and ask for 50. And they gave us 50. And they were honoring the deal. And we would call them up a lot for the corn and for the wheat and for everything. The – they were honoring the deal. And then when Biden got in, they no longer honored the deal. There was nobody to call. Donald Trump: I would call on an average of once every two weeks to say come on, you have to speed it up a little bit. And our farmers were doing great. I said to him buy more land and bigger tractors. If you remember. That’s what happened. But the deal was a very good deal. But the best part of the deal was that we opened up China. Donald Trump: China agreed to open itself up to American business to go in. And it would have been a great thing, I think, for China. They would be able to see things that they haven’t seen. They would be able to buy products that they had never been able to buy. It would have been great for American business. I think it would have brought unity between China, a better unity between China and the United States. Donald Trump: And the bottom line is that they canceled it the last day. We were all set to sign it. And I went a little bit angry. I got a little angry. I said they canceled the deal. The deal was done. It was all ready to be signed. And people went over, they came back to me, sir, they [Inaudible] I want to sign the opening up China. Donald Trump: Well, the biggest thing that we’re discussing is the opening up China. And they’ve agreed to do that, but it’s going to take a while to paper it. You know, that’s not the easiest thing to paper, but that’s the single, I think to me, some people would disagree, some people would say we’re getting a lot of money with tariffs or whatever. Donald Trump: But you know, especially when you add what we already have. Because remember, we’re already getting the 50 percent on steel and different things. That’s not included in these numbers. So you can add that. But – but the biggest thing to me is the opening up. It would be – I think it would be fantastic for our businesses if we could go in and compete and compete with China. Donald Trump: It would be a lot of jobs for China. It would be, I think, at a time when they can frankly use the jobs. And that’s what we’re talking about. So that’s a very, very important element to add. So when Scott, I watched him speak the other day, and I think he didn’t want to say it, but I said it’s okay to say it. Look, if we don’t get it, we don’t get it. But if we don’t get it, it won’t be a positive thing. Donald Trump: But if we do get it, I think it’s maybe the most important thing to happen. Because if you think about it, we opened up our country to China. They come – we don’t – I mean, they have very few restrictions. And they didn’t open their country to us. It never sense to me, it’s not fair. And they’ve agreed to open China, fully open China. Donald Trump: And I think it’s going to be fantastic for China. I think it’s going to be fantastic for us. And I think it’s going to be great for unification and peace. China will also suspend and remove all of its nonmonetary barriers. They’ve agreed to do that. Well, they’re very numerous. But again,, to me the biggest thing that came out of that meeting is they’ve agreed, now we have to get it papered, but they’ve agreed to open up China. Donald Trump: It’s going to be great for everybody. And third, I’m very happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who until recently most thought was no longer living, thought was dead, is going to be released in about two hours actually. And he’s going to be released before the eyes of Steve Witkoff, who has done a fantastic job. Donald Trump: I just, you know, I know a lot of people that have a lot of talent. I know Steve had a lot of talent. But I know a lot of people with a lot of talent, and but I had – there’s one that I thought had a special way about him, special personality, aside from being a good dealmaker, had a special way about him and it was Steve. Donald Trump: He knew very little about the subject matter. Who does? But he learned it in about two hours. And he’s been fantastic. So I want to just thank Steve. But they’re going to be releasing Edan in about two hours from now, or sometime today, let’s say. And again, they thought he was dead just a short while ago. Donald Trump: His parents are so happy. They’re so happy. So it’s uh, as you know, it ends. The only American citizen captured and held hostage by Hamas since October 7th, 2023. And he’s coming home to his parents, which is really great news. I mean, to me, it’s big news. They thought he was dead. So that’s that. So we’ll be heading there. Donald Trump: And we’ll be uh seeing three primary countries. You know all about that. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar. On Thursday’s meeting with uh, Russia and Ukraine is very important. I was – I was very insisted that that meeting take place. I think good things can come out of that meeting. Stop the bloodshed of the horrible – it’s a bloodbath, but that 5000 more, it’s really much more. Donald Trump: I’m trying to be conservative, more than 5,000 soldiers, Russian. They’re not American soldiers, they’re from Russia, they’re from Ukraine, but they’re people. They’re human souls. And they’re being killed at levels that we haven’t seen since the Second World War. And it’s every week, a lot of drone fighting. Donald Trump: It’s a whole new form of warfare. And it’s violent and vicious. And so that’s it. Uh, I’d like to go back to China just for a second. Uh, they’re very heavy on the fentanyl. Uh, we’re charging them, as you know, 20 percent for the fact that they send fentanyl into our country. And they’ve agreed that they’re going to stop that. Donald Trump: And you know, they’ll – they’ll be rewarded by not having to pay, uh, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. So the fentanyl should stop. It comes from China. It’s amazing. And it comes through our southern border, comes through our northern border too. Comes through Canada and comes through our southern border, more through – much more through the southern border. Donald Trump: But – so that’s a very important subject to me. Because everybody in this room has lost friends or people that have family members that have died of fentanyl. So there’s a big incentive for China to stop. And I take them at their word, they’re going to work on that, I think, very hard. And one thing, when they work on something they get it done. Donald Trump: So now I’m about to depart on a historic visit, some of you are going with us to, as I said, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. Before I do, I’ll sign one of the most consequential executive orders in our country’s history. I don’t think there’s ever been anything signed like this, certainly not with respect to healthcare. Donald Trump: Nothing even close. I’m delighted to be joined on this occasion by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was doing a really good job. I have to tell you that. And CMS administrator a friend of mine, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is a – an amazing guy. You know, uh, I was telling Bobby before Oz had a very successful show, but it hurt his reputation. Donald Trump: Because when you’re in show business, it hurts your reputation a little bit. It’s good for you – it’s good for you. But in terms of professionalism and being a doctor, it sort of hurts your reputation. This guy went to the best schools, was the best. I mean, top, top, top of the line. Then he did a television show, became a success, made a lot of money, all that stuff, but it sort of hurt him. Donald Trump: And you know, I compare that to – I hate to say this, but a special woman Jeanine Pirro. She was the toughest, smartest DA maybe in our country’s – in our – in our cities and states history, New York. She was really tough, really sharp. Then she did a show. And people didn’t think of it quite the same way. Donald Trump: She became more of an entertainment person like us. Oz is not an entertainment. He’s not really an entertainer, if you know the real story. And she isn’t either. She is unbelievable. She was one of the strongest district attorneys in the history of New York. Highly respected, very tough. Went after the drug dealers at a level that you don’t see today anymore. Donald Trump: And hopefully, she’s going to be – she’s given up a tremendous – she’s leaving the number one show on cable television, one of the number one shows on television period. The Five, but they’ve got great people left behind, but she was a big part of it. And so I equate it to that. Jeanine Pirro is unbelievable. Donald Trump: FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary with a reputation that second to none. And the job he’s doing already has been fantastic. Thank you, Marty. And director of National Institute of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, who has been, uh, as you know, from Stanford, so highly regarded. And they’ve all been working with us very hard on this. Donald Trump: And the question they would ask, being a little bit new to the government aspect of it is why hasn’t – why doesn’t somebody fight the drug price situation, meaning equalization? There’s a term. It’s called equalization. Nobody wants to mention that term. And I’m not knocking the drug companies. I’m really more knocking the countries than the drug companies because they’re forced to – to do things. Donald Trump: But the – the drug lobby is the strongest lobby in – in this country, they say, the drug lobby. It’s between that and lawyers. And uh, they have a lot of power. But starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries. Which is what we were doing. We’re subsidizing others healthcare. Donald Trump: Countries where they paid a small fraction of what – for the same drug that what we pay many, many times more for. And will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma. But again, it was really the countries that forced Big Pharma to do things that frankly I’m not sure they really felt comfortable doing. Donald Trump: But they’ve gotten away with it, these countries. The European Union has been brutal, brutal. And the drug companies actually told me stories. It was just brutal how they forced them. And European Union suing all our companies, Apple, Google, Meta. They’re suing all of our companies. They end up, they have judges that are European Union centric. Donald Trump: And they get rewarded $15 billion, $17 billion, $20 billion. And they use that to run their operation. It’s not going to happen any longer, that I can tell you. So what’s been happening is we’ve been subsidizing other countries throughout the world, not just in Europe, throughout the world. Donald Trump: The European Union was the most difficult from what I understand. I mean, I’ll tell you a story. A friend of mine who’s a businessman, very, very, very top guy. Most of you would have heard of him. A highly neurotic brilliant businessman, seriously overweight and he takes the fat – the fat shot drug. And he called me up and he said, uh, President. Donald Trump: He calls me – he used to call me Donald. Now he calls me president, so that’s nice respect. But he’s a rough guy, smart guy. Very successful, very rich. I wouldn’t even know how we would know this, but because he’s got comments. He said, President, could I ask you a question? What? I’m in London and I just paid for this damn fat drug I take. Donald Trump: I said it’s not working. [Laughter] He said – he said I just paid $88. And in New York I paid $1,300. What the hell is going on? He said, so I checked and it’s the same box made in the same plant by the same company. It’s the identical pill that I buy in New York. And here, I’m paying $88 in London and in New York, I’m paying $1,300. Now, this is a great businessman, so. But he’s not familiar with this crazy situation that we have. Donald Trump: But he was stunned. But it was just one of those stories. And I brought it up with the drug companies, represented by somebody who’s very, very smart. A good person, too. And we argued about it for about a half hour. And then finally, he just said – because they can’t justify it, he just said, look, you got me. You got me. I can no longer just – they’ve been, you know, they’ve been justifying this crap for years. Donald Trump: They said, oh, it’s research and development. I said, well, research and development, other countries should pay research and development too. It’s for their benefit. It was just one of those things. And the other countries would set a price. And they’d meet the price. And they’d say, uh, if you don’t meet the price, you can’t sell it in our country. Donald Trump: I said, well, then you walk away. And you know, they’ll call you back and they’ll sell it in the country. But now they’ll have to do that. So for the first time in many years, we’ll slash the cost of prescription drugs. And we will bring fairness to America. Drug prices will come down by much more really. Donald Trump: If you think – 59 – if you – if you think of a drug that is sometimes 10 times more expensive, it’s much more than the 59 percent. You know, it depends on the way you want to analyze it. But in one way you could analyze it that way. But between 59 and 80 and I guess even 90 percent. So when I worked so hard in the first term. Donald Trump: And if I got prices down, I – remember, I was the only one to ever get prices down for a full year. But I’d get them down like to percent. And I thought it was like a big deal. Well, we’re getting them down 60, 70, 80, 90 percent. But actually, more than that, if you think about it in the way mathematically. Donald Trump: And Pharma has to say we’re sorry, but we’ll not be able to do this any longer to these – to these countries that have been so tough. They’ve been very tough, nasty. It’s trade. It’s trade. And Pharma is also very powerful. And the Democrats have protected Pharma. The Democrats – this is – Democrats have protected Pharma. Donald Trump: These are the Democrats. And by the way, I just called the speaker of the House, and I just called the leader, our leader in the Senate John Thune, Mike Johnson. Spoke to both of them. I said when you score, you’re going to have to score two things. You’re going to have to, number one score that hundreds of billions of dollars of tariff money is coming in. But even bigger than that, you’re going to have to score that your – your costs for Medicaid and Medicare and just basically pharmaceuticals and drugs is going down at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Donald Trump: It will pay for the Golden Dome. I see the Golden Dome is there, see? That will easily pay for the Golden Dome, and we’ll have a lot of money left over. We need the Golden Dome, by the way, in this world. Although, this world’s a lot safer today than it was a week ago. And a lot safer than it was six months ago. Donald Trump: We had people that had no clue what they were doing. So today, Americans spend 70 percent more for prescription drugs than we spent in the year 2000. Think of that. Our country has the highest drug prices anywhere in the world by sometimes a factor of five, six, seven, eight times. It’s not like they’re slightly higher, they are six, seven, eight times. Donald Trump: There are even cases of 10 times higher. So that you go 10 times more expensive for the same drug. That’s big numbers. Even though the United States is home to only for percent of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two thirds of their profits in America. So think of that. With for percent of the population, the pharmaceutical companies make most of their money, most of their profits from America. Donald Trump: That’s not a good thing. Now I think, by the way, pharmaceutical, I have great respect for these companies and for the people that run them, I really do. And I think they did one of the greatest jobs in history for their company, convincing people for many years that this was a fair system. And never – nobody really understood why, but I figured it out. Donald Trump: For years, pharmaceutical and drug companies have said that research and development costs were what they are. And for no reason whatsoever, they had to be borne by America alone. Not anymore they don’t. This means American patients were effectively subsidizing socialist healthcare systems in Germany, and all parts of the European Union. Donald Trump: They were the toughest of all. They were nasty. And I see that. I see that with trade, too. European Union is in many ways, nastier than China, OK? And uh, we’ve just started with them. Oh, they’ll come down a lot. You watch. We have all the cards. They treated us very unfairly. They sell us 13 million cars. Donald Trump: We sell them none. They sell us their agricultural products. We sell them virtually none. They don’t take our products. That gives us all the cards. And very unfair. So they’re going to have to pay more for healthcare. And we’re going to have to pay less. That’s all it is. And believe it or not, you know, because it’s really the world we’re talking about, not just the European Union. Donald Trump: But because it’s the world, the numbers are uh, the numbers are for the healthcare company, not as bad as you would think. They’ll make the same. I think the healthcare companies should make pretty much the same money. I really don’t believe they’ll – they should be affected very much because it’s just a redistribution of wealth. Donald Trump: It’s a redistribution where it could be the same top line, but it’s going to be distributed differently. Europe’s going to have to pay a little bit more. The rest of the world is going to have to pay a little bit more. And America is going to pay a lot less. Again, because we – it’s a much smaller population than when you think of the whole world. Donald Trump: So uh, basically, what we’re doing is equalizing. There’s a new word that I came up with, which I think is probably the best word. We’re going to equalize, where we’re all going to pay the same. We’re going to pay what Europe’s going to pay. We’re going to all pay. Now, there may be some countries in dire need. Donald Trump: And I would be willing to sacrifice that but – and help them. But it’s called Most Favored Nation. We are going to pay the lowest price there is in the world. We will get – whoever is paying the lowest price, that’s the price that we’re going to get. So remember that. So we’re no longer paying 10 times more than another country. Donald Trump: Whoever is paying the lowest price, we will look at that price and we will say that’s the price we’re going to pay. Most Favored Nations. That’s what it is. One breast cancer drug costs Americans over $16,000 per bottle. But the same drug from the same factory manufactured by the same company is one sixth that price in Australia and one tenth that price in Sweden. Donald Trump: One tenth for the identical product. A common asthma drug costs almost $500 here in America, but costs less than $40 in the United Kingdom. So $40 in the United Kingdom, which is where this gentleman told me, he paid a small amount for his – his shot. But think of that. So $40 versus $500 here. That’s not even bad. Donald Trump: They’re much worse examples than the weight loss drug. Ozempic cost 10 times more in the United States than in the rest of the developed world. Ten times more. Why? Why? What did we do? Suckers. But we never had a president that had the courage to do this. And nobody knew the system like I do. I mean, I’ve gotten to know this system so well. Donald Trump: And I don’t think it’s fair that it benefits Obamacare. Obamacare is a failure. It’s not a good – it’s not a good healthcare. It works – I made it work. I had an obligation to make it work or an obligation to let it die. I chose that we had to make it work. I had to make it as good as possible. And uh, I had a choice. Donald Trump: I could have let it fail or make it as good as possible, as good as possible. Means it was still not very good, but it was – it survived, and we did the right thing. But this makes it – this makes everything work. And I don’t want to have a bad form of health care work because of the fact I was able to cut drug prices by 80 or 90 percent. Donald Trump: So, we’re going to maybe come up with something. I think this gives the Republicans a chance to actually do a health care that’s much better than Obamacare and for less money, which – if you guys would work on that along with Congress. But I do want to say that Democrats could have done this a long time ago. Donald Trump: They have fought like hell for the drug companies, and they knew they were doing the wrong thing. And it’s going to be very hard. I was just telling the leader and the speaker that how do – it’s going to be very hard for the Democrats to vote against the one big beautiful deal, the greatest tax cuts in history, greatest everything. Donald Trump: But now you have the big drug prices because that’s going to be included. It makes that whole situation different from a scoring standpoint. I just told them. I called them up about this, I said I’m going to do something that’s going to be very monumental, and you’re going to be scoring – you better tell your people that this is going to score really well. Donald Trump: And then add – add hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs to your list also. But as big as the tariffs are, this is something that really hits quickly. Five years ago, I signed an executive order to confront this disaster, but only confront it in a minor way. It was – it was a good confrontation, but never to this extent. Donald Trump: And it took people a little while to understand a very complicated system. But Joe Biden, without any knowledge of what he was doing, terminated the policy and then pretended to negotiate under a new system. And then you take a look. Five out of the 10 drugs that he negotiated are now over 200 percent more expensive in America than the rest of the world, and far more expensive than when he even got involved, much more expensive than when he got involved. Donald Trump: Joe Biden’s plan was, as you know because you wrote about it, you don’t say it very loudly, but it was a very big failure, as was his whole presidency. First, I’m directing the US Trade Representatives and Department of Commerce to begin investigations into foreign nations that extort drug companies by blocking their products unless they accept bottom line and very low dollar amounts for their product, unfairly shifting the cost burden onto American patients. Donald Trump: And we’ll be taking a look at that very strongly. The biggest thing we’re going to do is we’re going to tell those countries, like those represented by the European Union, that, you know, that game is up, sorry. And if they want to get cute, then they don’t have to sell cars into the United States anymore. Donald Trump: It’s a very big subject. And they won’t get cute because I’ll defend the drug companies from that standpoint. They were given a price by the European Unions and other countries. This is what you do, this is what we’re going to pay, we’re not going to pay any more. Let America pay the difference, because it was a big shortfall. Donald Trump: Let America pay it. And that’s what we did, but we’re not doing it anymore. Next, my administration will secure what we’re calling most favored nations drug pricing. The principle is simple, whatever the lowest price paid for drug in other developed countries, that is the price that Americans will pay. And we’re using the term “other developed countries” because there are some countries that need some additional help. Donald Trump: And that’s fine. I think that’s very good. Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90 percent. Big Pharma will either abide by this principle voluntarily, or we’ll use the power of the federal government to ensure that – that we are paying the same price as other countries. Donald Trump: To accelerate these price restrictions and reductions, my administration will also cut out the middlemen. We’re going to totally cut out the famous middlemen. Nobody knows who they are. Middlemen, they’ve – I’ve been hearing the term for 25 years, middlemen. I don’t know who they are, but they’re rich. That I can tell you. Donald Trump: We’re going to cut out the middlemen and facilitate the direct sale of drugs at the most favored nation price directly to the American citizen. So, we’re cutting out, Bobby, the middlemen. It’s so important, right? You gotta do that. They get – they get – they’re worse than the drug companies. They don’t even make a product and they make a fortune. Donald Trump: They – it’s very smart business people, that I can tell you. If companies make no significant progress toward most favored nation pricing – which we will insist that they do. So, I think I’m wasting time talking about it. We’re going to insist upon it. And we’ll insist – and we’re going to help the drug companies with the other nations, because those other nations do a lot of trading with us. They need our trade, just like China needed us very badly. Donald Trump: They need us just as badly. And we will do whatever we have to with trade, just like we did some great things with trade with India and Pakistan. Really helped the situation, very heated situation. Could have lost millions of people – more than millions, I mean, many millions of people. And they want to do business with America. Donald Trump: But we never used our powers that way. We never knew how. We never had people that knew how to do that. We’ll also open up America’s market to safe and legal imports of affordable drugs from other countries, putting dramatic downward pressure on prices. And if necessary, we’ll investigate the drug companies, and we’ll in particular investigate the countries that are doing this. Donald Trump: And we will add it on to the price that we charge them for doing business in America. In other words, we’ll add it on to tariffs if they don’t do what is right, which is everybody should equalize. Everybody should say – pay the same price. And special interests may not like this very much, but the American people will. Donald Trump: I mean, I – I am doing this for the American people. I’m doing this against the most powerful lobby in the world, probably, the drug lobby, drug and pharmaceutical lobby. But it’s one of the most important orders, I think, that’s ever been signed, certainly with regard to health care or health, in the history of our country. Donald Trump: And it’s an honor to be a part of it. And I’d like to ask Robert F Kennedy to say a few words, please. Thank you. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Thank you, Mr. President. This is – this is an extraordinary day. This is an issue that – you know, I grew up in the Democratic Party, and every major Democratic leader for 20 years been making this promise to the American people. This was the fulcrum of Bernie Sanders’ runs for presidency, that he was going to eliminate this discrepancy between Europe and the United States. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: But as it turns out, none of them were doing it. It’s one of these promises that politicians make to their constituents knowing that they’ll never have to do it. And the reason they’ll never have to do it is because they know that Congress is controlled in so many ways by the pharmaceutical industry. There is at least one pharmaceutical lobbyist for every congressman, every senator on Capitol Hill, and every member of the Supreme Court, by some estimates three. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Pharmaceutical companies, the industry itself spends three times what – what the next largest lobbyist spends on lobbying. So, this was a – this – this was an issue that people talked about, but nobody wanted to do anything because it was radioactive. They knew you couldn’t get it by Congress. We now have a president who is a man of his word, who has the courage. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: President Trump was taking money from the pharmaceutical industry too. I think they gave you $100 million. But he can’t be bought, unlike most of the politicians in this country. And he is standing here for the American people. I don’t know what – you know, there’s – there’s writers like Elizabeth Warren or Robert Reich who are saying that President Trump is on the side of the oligarchs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: There has never been a president more willing to stand up to the oligarchs than President Donald Trump. And I’m very, very proud of you, Mr. President, for your courage, for – or I’ll say, because I don’t want to be crude, your intestinal fortitude, your stiff spine, and your – your willingness to stand up for the American people. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: We have 4.2 percent of the world’s population. We – our country represents 75 percent of the revenues for pharmaceutical companies. We spend, in our country, $1,126 per capita on drugs. In Britain, they spend about $240. They spend one-fifth of what we do. And this is true across Europe. And this – and the drug companies – Europeans, if you ask them, it made no sense what they were saying. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Well, America has to pay for this innovation or it’s not going to happen. President Trump is saying to our European partners is, you’ve got to raise the amount that you’re paying for those drugs and pay for your share of the innovation, that the United States is no longer subsidizing that. If the Europeans raise their – the price of their drugs by just 20 percent, that is $10 trillion that can be spent on innovation. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And the health of all people all across the globe is going to increase, because we’re going to have better products. So, I am – I’m just so grateful to be here today. I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime. I have a couple of kids who are Democrats, or big Bernie Sanders fans and when I told them that this was going to happen, they had tears in their eyes because they thought this is never going to happen in our lifetime. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: And we finally have a president who is willing to stand up for the American people. Thank you, and Dr. Oz. Mehmet Oz: Thank you, Secretary Kennedy. This is the most powerful executive order on pharmacy pricing in health care ever in the history of our nation. And it’s only happening because we have a president with the fortitude, the guts to stand up to the withering criticism and lobbying that’s going to occur as soon as folks hear about the executive order. Mehmet Oz: So on behalf of the child in Philadelphia, who’s got an autoimmune disease with $1,000 a month drug or the older woman in Los Angeles who’s on a blood thinner who can’t afford her co-pay, I want to thank President Trump. God bless you for having the guts to take on this industry. Thank you, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Mehmet Oz: So let’s talk about the details a little bit, and this is primarily about equalization. As President Trump said, it’s about fairness. Think of NATO as a metaphor. When President Trump said, you’ve got to pay a little more so it makes sense for all of us, they came up and the European countries contributed. Mehmet Oz: The same thing we believe will happen in this situation. Most people who have thought about this process agreed that it is patently unfair to tolerate the numbers that Secretary Kennedy and President Trump have reflected to you. On this chart to my left is a list of the 10 drugs that were negotiated in the IRA. Again, this is the bill, the law that regulates a negotiation process. Mehmet Oz: This is the best price that was able to be obtained by the Biden administration. And if you look at these numbers, they actually reflect how much on top of the most favored nation price was being paid by the United States. So the closest to me, Bob, you can point to the closest one, 289 percent, the one that’s closest to you. Mehmet Oz: That means that we are paying in America four times more than that drug costs in other countries. Again, 100 percent is the baseline. It’s 289 percent above that baseline. It goes all the way down to where we’re paying 50 percent more than any other country. That’s the range. As was pointed out by President Trump, half the time we’re paying three times more than is paid in other countries. Mehmet Oz: It doesn’t make any sense for the system. That stated, President Trump has over and over again indicated, and Secretary Kennedy reflected as well, we want innovation. We want our technology partners doing the best they can to make the best solutions for drugs to cure as many people in America and around the world as possible. Mehmet Oz: By getting our allies to pay a bit more, as they should be, and they should have for many years been doing, will course correct a problem that has gotten out of hand. And by doing that in a thoughtful, effective way, we’re going to be able to get the pharmaceutical industry whole. Those jobs will still be here, we’ll still be productive, we’ll still be curing cancer in a slew of other ailments that plague humanity. Mehmet Oz: America will still be the leader in this space, but we’re paying the appropriate amount, the right sized amount for those tasks. So over the next 30 days, the four of us up here, together with people who are standing in the back of this room who are doing a lot of the heavy lifting are going to be approaching pharmaceutical companies to talk specifically about what we want the most favored nation price to be based on the best data we have. Mehmet Oz: We’re looking forward to a thoughtful interaction with these corporate leaders, many of whom we’ve spoken to and in quiet will agree, the system is not right the way it is. They’re patriotic Americans. They want what’s right. But the fact that in my lifetime, as Secretary Kennedy said, for the first time, we have a thoughtful and aggressive approach thanks to President Trump on taking on these special interests. Mehmet Oz: It should give all Americans confidence that this is an administration that stands for fairness and it should chill the waters for those who believe they can push us away from our North Star, which is to take care of the American people. Mr. President, God bless you. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Mehmet Oz: Jay, you want to go next? Jay Bhattacharya: Sure. So I teach economics at Stanford, as well as health policy. And one thing that’s really, really simple in economics is that when you have a persistent price difference for the same product between two countries, there is something deeply wrong. And what President Trump has done is a historic measure that should have been done a long time ago. Jay Bhattacharya: What we’re going to do is make sure that those prices become much closer to equal, like a competitive market you’d expect. Right now, what’s happening is the American people are subsidizing in large fraction, the research and development efforts for drug companies around the world, by the higher prices that we pay. Jay Bhattacharya: With this new order, Europe will share the burden of that. And in fact, you may think of it as somehow it’s going after drug companies, actually it’s helping drug companies. Because what we’re also going to do with this order, what President Trump has done with this order, is he’s said to European governments, look, if you are taking advantage of the drug companies by forcing them to charge very, very low prices, we’re going to defend American drug companies in Europe. Jay Bhattacharya: At the same time, we’re standing up for the American consumer who’s been paying far too high prices for far too long. I can go back decades to point to congressional reports after – government report after government report of tremendously high drug prices, much higher than the rest of the world and nothing has been done about it until this moment. Jay Bhattacharya: And I’m really, really proud, President Trump, that you’ve done this. I’m really proud to be included in this and looking forward to the work ahead. Donald Trump: Thank you. Marty? Marty Makary: Thank you, Mr. President. On behalf of the many doctors I’ve talked to about this very issue, thank you for taking the bull by the horns Presidents on both sides of the aisle, have talked about this and floated it and said they wanted to do it, so you’ve had the courage to do it. Thank you. I’ve been a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins for 22 years and I have seen patients suffer. Marty Makary: We didn’t take an oath to heal patients and then watch their life get ruined financially with their home, mortgage, retirement going down the drain with GoFundMe campaigns, raising money from church communities and synagogues and friends they haven’t seen in 20 years, to try to raise money for what, for a system where Americans have been getting ripped off by 10, 12, 15 times higher prices than we see in other countries? Marty Makary: The fundamental problem in healthcare is that we’ve had noncompetitive markets and we can do little things around the edges or we can transform those markets to competitive markets, and that’s what this executive order does today. Imagine buying a Ford for $175,000, a regular car, and then hearing that people in London are buying it for $10,000 every day, all day long. Marty Makary: That is the craziness of this system. We’re going to do everything we can at the FDA to support this executive order. It’s transformative. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. So thank you very much, everybody. I think it’s a very important day, in many ways. We’ll start with the Houthis. We go to Pakistan and India. We go to what we did with China, the trade deal and with UK. And by the way, many other deals are coming in very much. At a certain point, we’ll just set the price because we know where we are, but we’ll just set the price. Donald Trump: But world trade is going to be terrific and our country is going to be making a lot of money. Taxes are going to go down. Taxes are going to go down very, very substantially. But you look at all of the things that we’ve done, and now today I’m heading over, we’ll see what we’re going to do with respect to Iran. Donald Trump: I think you have very good things happening there too, by the way. Can’t have a nuclear weapon, but I think that they are talking intelligently. We’re in the midst of talking to them and they’re right now acting very intelligent. We want Iran to be wealthy and wonderful and happy and great, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump: It’s very simple. So I think they understand that I mean business and I think they’re being very reasonable thus far. And don’t underestimate Thursday in Turkey. President Erdogan is going to be a great host. And we are doing some work with him having to do with Syria, too, by the way. We’re going to have to make a decision on the sanctions, which we may very well relieve. Donald Trump: We may take them off of Syria because we want to give them a fresh start. But President Erdogan has asked me about that. Many people have asked me about that, because the way we have them sanctioned, it doesn’t really give them much of a start. So we want to see if we can help them out. So we’ll make that determination. Donald Trump: But I think you’re going to have maybe a good meeting. You have the potential for a good meeting, that a meeting wasn’t going to take place. I insisted that that meeting take place and it is taking place and I think you may have a good result out of the Thursday meeting in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine. Donald Trump: And I believe the two leaders are going to be there. I was thinking about flying over. I don’t know where I’m going to be on Thursday. I’ve got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done. Donald Trump: We’ve got to save 5,000 lives a week, 5,000 lives, really more than that. It’s worse than that. And when you see the – and you don’t want to see it, but when you see the satellite photographs of the battlefield with arms and legs and heads all over the place, separated by 30 yards from bodies, it doesn’t make sense. Donald Trump: Doesn’t make sense, so we’re working very hard to see if we can end that bloodbath. OK, there shouldn’t be too many questions. It’s been covered pretty well. Question: Mr. President, thank you for taking questions. Two quick ones for you, starting on trade. If a longer term deal is not reached with China at the end of these 90 days, can the American people expect those tariffs to go back up to 145 percent? Donald Trump: No, but they would go up substantially higher. Question: OK. And then, on – Donald Trump: You know, at 145, you’re really decoupling because nobody’s going to buy. But they can go – they got very high because of additional tariffs I applied during the course because of fentanyl and other things. But no, but they’d go substantially higher. Yeah. Question: And then on Qatar, Mr. President. Donald Trump: I think you will have a deal, however. Question: OK, you – you’re confident that there will be a deal on Qatar. Has Qatar asked for anything in exchange for that $400 million luxury jumbo jet? And how can the American people be so sure that they will not in the future? Donald Trump: Well, I think what happens with the plane is that, you know, we’re very disappointed that it’s taking Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One. You know, we have an Air Force One that’s 40 years old. And if you take a look at that compared to the new plane of the equivalent, you know, stature at the time, it’s not even the same ball game. Donald Trump: You look at some of the Arab countries and the planes they have parked alongside of the United States of America plane, it’s like from a different planet. And it’s close to 40 years old, might be more than 40 years old now. And we – uh, when I first came in, I signed an order to get it built. I took it over from the Obama administration. Donald Trump: They had originally agreed, I got the price down much lower. And then uh, when the election didn’t exactly work out the way that it should have, a lot of work was not done on the plane because a lot of people didn’t know. They made change orders that were so stupid, so ridiculous. And it ended up being a total mess, a real mess. Donald Trump: And when I came back, I said by the way, what’s going on with the – the Boeings that are coming in? Well, sir, they’re way behind. And they are, they’re way behind. They were way behind. Another mess that I inherited from Biden. And it’s going to be a while before we get them. And I think Qatar, who has really – we’ve helped them a lot over the years in terms of security and safety. Donald Trump: I feel they – I think they – and very, very nicely. And I have a lot of respect for the leadership and for the leader of Qatar. And I think they very – they knew about it because they buy Boeings. They buy a lot of Boeings. And they knew about it. And they said we would like to do something. And if we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they’re building the other ones, I think that was a very nice gesture. Donald Trump: Now I could be a stupid person and say, oh no, we don’t want a free plane. We give free things out. We’ll take one too. And it helps us out. Because again, we’re talking about we have 40 year old aircraft. The money we spend, the maintenance we spend on those planes to keep them tippy top is astronomical. Donald Trump: You wouldn’t even believe it. So I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person say, no, we don’t want a free very expensive airplane. But it was – I thought it was a great gesture. And I think it was a gesture because of the fact that we help – have helped and continue to. We will – we will continue to. All of those countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and others, we keep them safe. Donald Trump: If it wasn’t for us, they probably wouldn’t exist right now. And I think this was just a gesture of good faith. And I don’t get it. Someday, it will be like Ronald Reagan, they decommission them. You know, they get to a certain age, they decommission them. It’ll go to my library. They’re talking about going to my library in years out. Donald Trump: But I thought it was a great gesture. And it’s something that was done by Ronald Reagan. They actually decommissioned the plane and he put it in his library. And it actually has made the library, I think a Boeing 707, it’s actually made the library more successful. So it was good. Question: Do you plan to use it? But do you – Do you plan to use the plane after you leave office? Donald Trump: No, I don’t. No. It would – it would go directly to the library after – after I leave office. Question: Mr. President? Donald Trump: I wouldn’t – I wouldn’t be using it, no. Question: Mr. President, on the hostage? On the hostage, you said that the release of the American hostage Edan Alexander is a step in good faith to end this war. Do you expect any progress and perhaps announcement on ceasefire during your trip to the Middle East? Donald Trump: We hope that we’re going to have other hostages released too, as you know, so. When I met with the hostages three weeks ago, that were there for quite a while, you remember the ten people that came in. Mostly young people, one or two were a little bit older. They went – they were explaining the trials and tribulations. Donald Trump: They went through hell. And I said, how many are there? They said 59. I said that’s a lot. I didn’t realize. Because we got a lot out. You know, we got a lot of hostages out. I think you will acknowledge. They said 59, but then they said they followed that up by saying 59 of which 24 are living, the rest are dead. Donald Trump: But the people whose son, mostly son, I think one daughter, in this case, but mostly sons are there or husbands are there. Those people want the dead bodies as much as they want the live body. I was – I have a mother that calls me but came up to me when I first met her and she said, sir, please, please get my son out. Donald Trump: He’s dead, but they have his body. And I asked her about that. And it’s as though he were alive. The level of – of wanting that body back is, is the same, it couldn’t be any more, as though he were alive. So you know, getting the bodies back is very important. That could be a thing having to do with the religion. Donald Trump: It could be – I was – I was amazed at the level of importance. It’s the same as if the son or husband or whatever was alive. So they said 59. In fact, they came out – they came in with a number 59 written out on like a sign on their chest. They came to thank me for getting them out. And uh, I said what is the 59 mean? Donald Trump: They said, well, that means there are 59 people. But then they said, but 24 are living. Now, it’s 21, the number is 21. So now it’s actually – well, we’ll get Edan today. We think we’re getting him today. So it’s 20. So they have 20 live hostages there. The rest are dead bodies. Question: Mr. President, are you open to – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, are you open to negotiating your tariffs on cars, steel and aluminum with China or any other country? Donald Trump: Well, we’re not even talking about that. We’re bringing the car back – business back into this country. We have commitments and not only commitments, they’ve already started construction on many plants. They’ve left Mexico in a few cases and a few cases they’ve left Canada. They’re not going to build in Canada. Donald Trump: They’re going to build here. Because we have the market. And the tariffs have been amazing. The election and the tariffs. November 5th was a big day. And on top of that, of course, you wouldn’t have the tariffs without the election, I guess if you look at it. But we have at least 11 committed massive car factories that are going to be built, that are going to be – that are in the process of being built and some are going through – some have actually started. Donald Trump: We also have renovations of existing factories where they weren’t utilizing the full factory from years gone by. And now they’re under full renovation. They’ll be opening up full factories in a very short period of time. Our car industry is – I think we’re going to have the number one industry. You know, if you look at Japan and these others, they – they do tremendously with cars. Donald Trump: And – and they can do that too. But you know, when they – if they want to sell cars in the United States, they’re going to have to build factories in the United States. Because I’m interested in cars for the United States. And one other thing is, in our tax bill, we’re giving not only no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, but also we’re going to get a deduction for people that borrow money to buy a car, if, if it’s made in America. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: If it’s not, we have no interest. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: On the meeting – on the meeting with – between President Putin as well as President Zelenskyy, if President Putin doesn’t show up to these talks in person in Turkey, will you join Europe in putting higher sanctions on Russia? Donald Trump: If they – if I felt it would be important toward getting the deal done. I’m the one that insisted on the meeting. They couldn’t get a meeting because one said cease fire. One said no cease fire. It was going back and forth. I said, look, at this point, we got to stop it. Just go to the meeting. The meeting’s been set. Donald Trump: Go to the meeting on Thursday. And if I thought it would be helpful, I don’t know where I’m going to be at that particular point. I’ll be someplace in the Middle East, but I would fly there if I thought it would be helpful. Yeah, please. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: On refugees, I want to ask you about South African refugees. Dozens of African – Afrikaners who claim discrimination in their home country are heading to the United States. Donald Trump: Right. Question: Where your administration is going to welcome them as refugees. Now this comes as you’ve halted virtually all refugee admissions for people fleeing famine and war from countries like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Why are you creating an expedited path into the country for Afrikaners but not others? Donald Trump: Because they’re being killed. And we don’t want to see people be killed. Now South Africa leadership is coming to see me, I understand sometime next week. And you know, we’re supposed to have a guest a G20 meeting there or something. But we’re having a G20 meeting. I don’t know how we can go unless that situation’s taken care of. But it’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about. Donald Trump: But it’s a terrible thing that’s taking place. And farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or Black makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa and the newspapers and the media, television media doesn’t even talk about it. If it were the other way around, they’d talk about it. That would be the only story they’d talk about. Donald Trump: And I don’t care who they are. I don’t care about their race, their color. I don’t care about their height, their weight. I don’t care about anything. I just know that what’s happening is terrible. I have people that live in South Africa. They say it’s a terrible situation taking place. So we’ve essentially extended citizenship to those people, to escape from that violence and come here. Donald Trump: Yeah? Please Question: Mr. President, thank you. Are you letting China off the hook for these 90 days? And do you really believe that they will follow through with non-tariff barriers and remove those? Donald Trump: Non-monetary tariffs. Yeah, yeah, I think they’re going to follow through. I think they want it very badly. I think they want the deal very badly. Again, this doesn’t include the steel tariffs that I put on a long time ago, that Biden tried to get off, but he couldn’t get them off because it was too much money. Donald Trump: I took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China. What a lot of people don’t know, but we put on tariffs originally and if I didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have a steel industry today. Now we have a thriving steel industry. It’ll be thriving much more with what we’re doing because this is the next level. Donald Trump: But it doesn’t include that, doesn’t include cars, doesn’t include pharmaceuticals when we do that. And the reason we’re doing that will be to get them to come back into the country. There are – again, I always say it because a lot of people forget, but if a company like Eli Lilly, which is making a massive investment in the United States right now, they’re building many, many plants. Donald Trump: They’ve already started like seven of them, many plants, but they are not going to be tariffed. There’s no tariff cost, so they’re all doing that. They’re all coming back to the United States. I mean, I’ll tell you what, I hope I get the benefit of watching this as president, because you know it takes a little while to do this stuff and we’re doing it early in the administration. Donald Trump: If you think of it, we have – I believe if you look at the real total, it’s over $10 trillion committed for plants and factories. Other administrations haven’t had $1 trillion over a four-year period, even over an eight-year period. We have over $10 trillion committed in one form or the other over two months. Donald Trump: Give me a break – I’m here three, but let’s give me a break on the first month. We want to get acclimated. But if you think about it, it’s really two months. And so in two months, we have an investment already of over $10 trillion and other presidents haven’t had that done over a year, over four years in some cases. Donald Trump: It’s unprecedented. There’s never been anything like it. It’s a very exciting time in America. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Question: Mr. President, who’s in charge of the budget bill while you’re gone, sir? Donald Trump: I’ll sign that. Yeah. Question: Mr. President, are you ready to impose sanctions on Russia if Putin doesn’t agree with the 30-day cease fire? Donald Trump: I have a feeling they’re going to agree. I do. I have a feeling. Let’s see what happens. Say it. Question: The budget negotiations are taking place. Who in your administration is in charge of that while you’re gone? Is it JD Vance, Scott Bessent? Donald Trump: Well, everybody. Bobby, from the standpoint of medical. This group behind me, I mean, I think it’s the best group ever assembled in terms of medical. I think you’re going to see a tremendous cut. I don’t think, I mean, I know you’re going to see it in Medicaid and Medicare. That cut will be massive because drugs are 50, 60 percent of the cost. Donald Trump: So Medicaid costs are going down and Medicare costs are going down because of what we’re doing today. And it’s not like, oh, gee, well, maybe it won’t happen. It’s going to happen because the other countries have no choice. No, the drug companies are going to have to say, listen, if you don’t pay more, we’re not going to give you the drug and they’re willing to do that. Donald Trump: So that’s it. We have to equalize. Question: How do you respond to [Inaudible] price controls? Donald Trump: Say it. Question: How do you respond to the fact that this – Donald Trump: It’s not price control. No, no. Price control is before, if you want to talk about – price control is what they were doing. They were making us pay. They set a price and they said, here’s what we’re going to pay and anything else, charge America. Because at that time, they had a very stupid president and it really went crazy during the last four years. Donald Trump: And remember this, the Democrats are the ones that allowed this to happen. They were the ones that were the protector of this pricing system. And I think it’s going to be very hard. You’ll have to ask Democrats, are they going to vote against the one great, big, beautiful deal that’s being negotiated now, tax cuts, etc. Donald Trump: We’re now, on top of the tax cuts and regulation cuts, all the things, now you’re going to say that the price of your medicine is going down by 60, 70, 80 percent. You’re going to vote against it. I think a lot of Democrats are going to be forced to do something that their leaders are going to beg them not to do, and that’s vote for the bill. Donald Trump: I don’t see how they can vote against it. How can they vote against it when drug prices, drugs and pharmaceuticals are going to be down 70, 80 percent? It’s going to be very interesting. Question: Mr. President, what do you say to people who view that luxury jet as a personal gift to you? Why not leave it behind – Donald Trump: Your ABC fake news, right? Because only ABC – well, a few of you would. Let me tell you, you should be embarrassed asking that question. They’re giving us a free jet. I could say no, no, no, don’t give us – I want to pay you $1 billion or $400 million or whatever it is or I could say thank you very much. Donald Trump: There was an old golfer named Sam Snead. Did you ever hear of him? He won 82 tournaments. He was a great golfer and he had a motto, when they give you a putt, you say thank you very much. You pick up your ball and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say no, no, I insist on putting it, then they putt it and they miss it and their partner gets angry at them. Donald Trump: You know what, remember that, Sam Snead. When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say thank you very much. Question: Respectfully, sir, as a businessman, some people may look at this and say, have you ever been given a gift worth millions of dollars and then not received any – Donald Trump: It’s not a gift to me. It’s a gift to the Department of Defense. And you should know better because you’ve been embarrassed enough and so has your network. Your network is a disaster. ABC is a disaster. Here is the bill. Bobby, come on over here. Now you’re talking about trillions and trillions of dollars. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Question: Mr. President, quick question about – Donald Trump: Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-05-20
Question: Mr. President – Mr. President, Andy Harris said you didn’t convince enough people to vote for the bill in there. He said you didn’t adequately convince enough people to vote for the bill. Question: Mr. President, should Republicans that hinder this bill be primaried? Question: Mr. President? Mr. President, what’s your message to the holdouts? Donald Trump: What was your expression you used now? Were you embarrassed? Donald Trump: Possibly. Possibly. We’ll have to see. I think we have great – we have a very, very united party. This man has done a fantastic job. And so have you, Lisa. Donald Trump: Well, it’s not a question of holdouts. We have a tremendously unified party. I don’t think we’ve ever had a party like this. There are some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don’t like or that they’re not going to get, but I think we’re going to have tremendous – not luck. We have tremendous talent. Question: No, I said Andy Harris said that you didn’t adequately convince enough people to vote for the bill, The House Freedom Caucus. Lisa McClain: Thank you. Donald Trump: This man has done an incredible job as speaker. You know, we had a majority of one. We were one heart attack away from losing the House. OK? Now we have seven. That’s a big – because we won some elections, as you probably noticed, and we’re going to win a lot of elections. We have an economy that’s roaring. Donald Trump: You mean, after this speech? Donald Trump: But this man has done a fantastic job. He’s a real unifier. I don’t think anybody else could have done it. We had – I just said to your cohorts downstairs, we had a majority of one for a period of five months. And he kept it together. And we actually passed things. And nobody else could have done that. He’s done a fantastic job, the speaker. Donald Trump: We took out $5.1 billion, if you take a look, $5.1 trillion with a T, not a B, $5.1 trillion out of the Middle East, and they’re investing more than that. It’s going to be ultimately more than that. But 180 widebody Boeing aircraft. They’re spending money at levels that nobody’s ever seen. Usually, a president goes for a trip and he loses money. Question: After this speech – Donald Trump: We have a very, very unified party. Remember we had one and now we have seven. We won elections. Won elections. We’re going to win a lot of elections. The economy is good. I just had my highest poll numbers ever, ever. And we had a big trip to the Middle East. We took in $5.1 trillion. We brought it back to our country. Donald Trump: In other words, he gives money. We went for a trip and we took out $5.1 trillion. Nobody has ever seen anything like it, and that’s just the beginning. So I think we’re a very unified party. The Senate’s doing great. John Thune is doing fantastic. He’s a great guy and we’re going to have a bill, the one big, beautiful bill. Donald Trump: Yeah. Well, why don’t we see how the vote is? I think it was a great, great talk, wasn’t a speech, we talked about [Inaudible] Who do you work for? Donald Trump: 180 Boeing aircraft are being built now because of that trip and many other things. That’s the least of it. The economy is, you know, doing great. The stock market is higher now than when I came to office. And we’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff money. And we’ve had no inflation. You know, they kept saying inflation. Donald Trump: I think it’s going to be – it’s the biggest bill ever passed and we got to get it done, tremendous tax cuts for people, tremendous incentives, tremendous regulation cuts, all these regulations that are so horrible. And now you found out and find out what happened, because Biden – look, it’s a very sad thing what happened. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: There’s no inflation, groceries are down, gasoline is way down, way down. Everything is down. All energy costs are down. The – I’ll tell you, to me, maybe the most respected thing, you saw the way they respected me between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and UAE, the – probably the richest, certainly the richest of their type nation. Donald Trump: But I really – we’re going to start looking into this whole thing with who signed this legislation, who signed legislation opening our border. I don’t think he knew. I said, there’s nobody that could want an open border, nobody. And now I find out that it wasn’t him, he autopenned it. Who was operating the autopen? Donald Trump: I don’t even know what that is. Get yourself a real job. Let me tell you, let me tell you, I think we have unbelievable unity. I think we’re going to get everything we want. And I think we’re going to have a great victory, and this man has done a great job. And I think this was a tremendous session. You may want to say something, yeah. Donald Trump: Great places. Unbelievable amounts of money. They respect our country again. They were going to go to China. China was going to take over those countries 100 percent. They were dealing with China because they weren’t treated right by the last administration. And they have tremendous economic power. They have more money than anybody. Donald Trump: This is a very serious thing. We had a president that didn’t sign anything. He autopened almost everything. He opened the borders of the United States of America and I kept saying, who would do such a thing, allowing criminals to pour in from all over the world, not just South America, all over the world. Mike Johnson: It was a great meeting. The party is unified; the House Republican Conference is excited, multiple standing ovations. They love this president; the people back home love what he’s doing. It’s historic and everybody understands the scope and the meaning of this. If we do not accomplish this mission, every one of you, all the American people are going to have the highest tax increase that you’ve ever had. Donald Trump: We probably have more money, but we have other things – that they are very, very – uh, they are very cash rich to put it mildly. And they’re spending $5.1 trillion, probably it’s going to be $7 trillion by the time we stop. And you know, somebody said every other president goes and leaves and spends money gives other countries money. Donald Trump: They came in from Africa. They came in from Asia. They came from the Congo, the prisons in the Congo in Africa. These are rough people. The prisons from the Congo are empty. You know where they are, they are in this country. Who would sign this? Nobody would sign it. No sane person would sign it. You know who signed it, radical left lunatics that were running our country and the autopen signed it and they didn’t want him. Mike Johnson: Among the debt ceiling cliff that’s approaching and all the other problems, this is the bill to do it. I think we’ll get it done, Mr. President – Donald Trump: I’m the only one that goes and takes money back. [Laughter] You know, when you think of it, I said that’s an interesting statement. I never thought of it that way. But uh, we have a good – this is really just a pep talk. We have a very unified House, and we have a very unified Senate. And Mike is doing a phenomenal job as speaker. Donald Trump: And they were disappointed in getting him because they wanted Bernie Sanders. And then after about two weeks, they said, wait a minute, this is a gift. He’ll do anything. We’re going to use the autopen. And they use the autopen in on everything. He didn’t approve this stuff because when Joe Biden was with it, he would never have approved that. Donald Trump: The Democrats want to raise your taxes. If this doesn’t work, this doesn’t get the numbers that the Republicans want, and I think it does, I think all Republican votes. The Democrats are going to be raising your taxes by 68 percent. And they will not do the – we’re going to have an 85 percent cut in drug costs, 85 percent cut in drug costs. Donald Trump: He’s going to be there a long time. And we have a man in the Senate, our Leader Thune. Mr. Thune is doing a great job. I’ve gotten to like him a lot. And he’s doing a fantastic job. Between the two guys, uh, very different personalities actually in certain ways, but uh, they are doing a fantastic job. Uh, I don’t think the Republican Party has ever been so unified. Donald Trump: You take a look, he would have never approved open borders. Go ahead, another one. Donald Trump: The Democrats, the drug prices are going to go up. I can’t imagine a Democrat not voting for this. I think the Democrats, if they don’t vote for it, that means they’re voting for an increase in drug prices. Think of that, versus an 80 to an 85, maybe 75, but could be 85 percent cut in drug costs, OK? Donald Trump: It’s become a much bigger party. You know, we’re winning the labor vote, we’re winning – we won the Teamsters. We won votes that nobody – look how well we did with the automakers. And by the way, the president of the automakers is now my biggest fan. He said he did tariffs. Do you know how many auto plants are being built now in this country because of the tariffs? Question: Are Republicans still grandstanding in your view? Question: Mr. President, will you have someone reach out to individual members? Will you need to make a pitch to individual members? Donald Trump: Three, just announced yesterday that they’re building. There is a revolution going on, a positive one, in our country and I love it. And we’re – we’re doing really well. Donald Trump: Oh, yeah, sure. You have a couple that will grandstand. But I think even the grandstand issue, look, the alternative is a 68 percent tax increase, and you can blame the Democrats for that, and one or two Grandstanders. We only have one or two, but we have tremendous support. But you’ll have a 68 percent tax increase or you’ll get a massive tax decrease. Donald Trump: I don’t think so, no, that’s what I did. That’s really what we did today. I think it was a really great – that was a meeting of love. Let me tell you. That was love in that room. There was no shouting. There was – I think it was a meeting of love. There were a couple of things that we talked about specifically where some people felt a little bit one way or the other, not a big deal. Question: Mr. President – Mr. President – Donald Trump: You’ll get a tax cut, the likes of which we’ve never had before. This is bigger than any Ronald Reagan tax cut. It’s even bigger than the tax cut that I gave, because as you know, that’s being extended and increased. So this is the biggest tax cut in the history of our country, or you’ll get a 68 percent tax increase. Donald Trump: And I covered them; it wasn’t so much a speech I covered certain points. And I think there was – I’d be very surprised – Donald Trump: And we’ll – Donald Trump: And if that happens, I mean, what Republican could vote for that to happen because there wouldn’t be a Republican much longer. They would be knocked out so fast. But we’re going up the details. I’m a cheerleader for this party and I’m a cheerleader for the country. Much more importantly, for the country, but I’m a cheerleader for the party and we’re going to go up and I think we’re going to have a very good discussion. Question: You told them [Inaudible] Question: Do you want the negotiations to stop, Mr. President? Mr. President? Do you want the negotiations to be over now? Donald Trump: There are one or two points that some people feel strongly about, but maybe not so strong. Donald Trump: No, I didn’t tell them. Who told you I said I’m losing? Donald Trump: Which negotiation? Question: On one of those points, do you consider some of the proposals on the table like [Inaudible] provider tax as a benefit cut? How are you viewing this? Question: That’s what we heard inside the room – Question: Over this bill? Donald Trump: No, we are looking at one thing. We’re not doing any cutting of anything meaningful. The only thing we’re cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. With Medicaid, waste, fraud and abuse. There’s tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. There’s incompetent things. We have illegal aliens that are multiple killers with multiple murder records getting Medicaid. Donald Trump: But that’s a lie. Wait a minute, wait, wait, who told you that? Donald Trump: Oh, yeah, well, it’s going to be. We’re going to be putting it in soon. And I think we’re going to have great support. Donald Trump: I don’t think anybody minds if we cut that. The Democrats on the other hand, they’re going to destroy it because they’re going to leave these people on. We’re cutting three things, waste, fraud and abuse. We’re not changing Medicaid and we’re not changing Medicare and we’re not changing Social Security. And if I wanted to do those things, I would have done it during my four years that we were there. Question: We heard from people inside the room. It’s not true? Question: Are you going to – Question: Mr. President, what’s your message to your fellow New Yorker Republicans who are hung up on the salt issue? Donald Trump: Oh, it’s totally true, I never used the term. I didn’t say losing – I didn’t even talk about it. In fact, it’s the opposite. I think we’re going to get it done. I’m not losing patience. We’re ahead of schedule. Anybody that told you that is a liar. I never meant – wait a minute, wait a minute. I never mentioned the word losing patience because I’m not losing patience. Donald Trump: We are going to – we’re going to make a couple of tweaks. I mean, we don’t want to benefit Democrat governors, although I would do that if it made it better, but they don’t know what they’re doing. And you know, the radical left – Donald Trump: Well, salt is a very interesting thing because the governors of New York and Illinois, the big JB who’s going nowhere, I’m probably right now, he could be the worst governor in the country. But Illinois and Gavin Newsom [misprounounced “Newscum”], those are the people that want this and they’re Democrat states. They’re all Democrat states. Donald Trump: We’re ahead of – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: You know, Ronald Reagan tried very hard to get this passed. He was unable to do it the way we have it, where we’re basically everybody is treated equally. He tried it so hard and he never got it done. He was always disappointed. He never got it done. We got it done. Now people want to change it, so we’re going to be talking about that. Donald Trump: – why don’t you go back to your source and tell them they’re liars, if the source even exists. Donald Trump: And we don’t want to – we don’t want to – we don’t want to do any damage to a state. Donald Trump: But the biggest beneficiary if we do that, are governors from New York, Illinois and California, and those governors are the ones that blew it because they weren’t able to get it. So I think we’re going to be explaining that these are all very blue states, that I don’t really believe – if we had honest elections, I don’t actually believe – I think I would have won California, I would have won New York. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: We want to help all the states. But we have governors that are from the Democrat Party, let’s say New York, and Illinois, big ones. And let’s say Gavin Newsom who’s done a horrible job in California. Um, you know, we want to benefit the company – we want to benefit Republicans because they – they are the ones that are going to make America great again. Donald Trump: I even think I would have won Illinois. I think – we’re going to start this after. I was talking to Mike and again, I’m his biggest fan. I love this guy. He’s the only guy who could have walked in with a one – think of it, you can’t be a guy like me and have a one majority. You have to be a guy like him, a nice person. Question: If the bill passes the House, Senators are already talking about making a number of changes [Inaudible] Donald Trump: The Democrats are destroying our country. And you see that with the past administration with an open borders policy that allowed 21 million people into our country. And many of those people are stone cold murderers, killers and trouble. Yeah? Donald Trump: He’s very religious. He prays. He’s a man of God and so am I, but he’s really to a new level, I will tell you. He is a great guy. They love him in Louisiana and they love him in – that’s the only kind of guy. Somebody said, oh, well, we want somebody to – if you put a certain personality in there, you would have never – look at what he got passed, what he’s gotten past. Donald Trump: Sure, always have. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: And just so you understand, he’s gotten this passed too. And I don’t think there’s anybody – I could give you guys that are so tough you guys would run if you ever looked at him. If you ever saw some of these guys, you would not ask them questions, you’d be afraid to. This guy did something that I don’t think there’s anybody that’s more well suited to be speaker of the House, especially in a case like this. Question: Is that OK? Do you want them to swallow this bill? Question: What are you planning to tell the fiscal hawks who wanted to – Donald Trump: Remember, we had a majority of one for six months and that was a very frightening thing because the Democrats have really hurt our country and we are going to go into very much – remember what I said, the autopen. This government was illegally run for four years. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Donald Trump: Yeah, in some cases, they have things that I like even better. No, it always happens. There’ll be some – there’ll be some changes. John Thune and Mike have been very closely aligned on this. They’ve been moving it up together. Donald Trump: Say it – Note: [Crosstalk] Question: What are you planning to tell the fiscal hawks that wanted to – Question: Apparently, you said don’t [Inaudible] with Medicaid apparently. You did say in the room there is some concern among some Republicans, including Senator Josh Hawley, that this could impact benefits and they could amount to hidden tax on the – Donald Trump: I’m a fiscal hawk. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Here’s what I said, here’s what I say. Do you want to hear what I said? I said waste, fraud and abuse for Medicaid. If you find waste or fraud or abuse, we want to strengthen Medicaid. We want to strengthen Medicare. Waste, fraud and abuse. The Democrats will let illegals be armed, they’ll destroy it, it will be destroyed. Donald Trump: I’m a bigger fiscal hawk. There’s nobody like me as a fiscal hawk. Donald Trump: They want to have illegal immigrants be armed, and if you do that, because that’s not – it wasn’t designed for that. Waste, fraud and abuse. Question: Thomas Massie said – Mr. – More deficit than Biden did. And this bill kind of – Question: Do you guarantee that your voters who supported your election, particularly working-class voters, will not lose health insurance under this bill? Donald Trump: Because we have to fix the country. Donald Trump: Oh, they won’t lose health insurance. Not only that, remember I’m cutting drug prices by 85 percent. And right now I’m saving it, I’m saving the whole thing because I did something that nobody was willing to do. Other countries pay a tiny fraction of what we do, and I instituted favored nations. We’re now going to pay the lowest in the world. Question: Do you think that Thomas Massie is correct in saying that this is adding – Donald Trump: We’re going to be the equivalent of the lowest country in the world. People go to London, they go to Canada, they go to other countries, many other countries because they want to buy their pharmaceutical products, their drugs at a fraction of the cost. Now we’re going to have the lowest cost anywhere in the world and nobody else will do that, but me. And that might be an election by itself, might be election winning. Donald Trump: No, I don’t think Thomas Massie understands government. I think he’s a grandstander, frankly. Uh, he’ll probably vote. We don’t even talk to him much. I think he should be voted out of office. And I just don’t think he understands government. If you ask him a couple of questions, he never gives you an answer. Donald Trump: Now when you add that in, when you put that into Medicaid and Medicare, we’ve just strengthened Medicare, Medicaid and the Democrats won’t do that. You know why? Because they’re taken care of by the drug companies. And the ones that are taken care of are hard line. Some Republicans get money from drug companies and that’s OK because they’re OK with it. I talked about it. The drug companies take care of everybody. Donald Trump: He just says I’m a no. He thinks he’s going to get publicity. And you have that, you have that. They’ve got some, too. Go ahead. Donald Trump: It’s the biggest lobby, most powerful lobby in the world. There’s no lobby like that. But the Republicans are okay with it, not only okay with it, they love it, it was time. So, we’re going to cut drug prices by from 75 to 85, in some cases even more than that. You know, I was telling the story that – and some of you were at that news conference. Question: Mr. President, on Medicaid, do you want work requirements phased in next year? Do you think – Donald Trump: I gave a news conference where I was the first one in 18 years to cut drug costs for the year. And they were like a quarter of a point to half a point less. And I was very proud of that. Now I’m cutting them by 80, 85 percent because I stopped the scam. This was a scam between the middlemen and the drug companies. Donald Trump: Here’s what I want on Medicaid, we’re not touching anything. All I want is one thing, three words. We don’t want any waste, fraud or abuse. Very simple. Waste, fraud abuse. Other than that, we’re leaving it. Medicare we’re leaving it. All were, after, and this is for the good of it, there’s a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. Donald Trump: This was a giant scam. And by the way, and other countries, because other countries fought for this, this was a giant scam and we’re not going to have it. So, remember this, go back and tell your people, if you’d like to, that the Republican Party is cutting the cost of drugs by as much as 85 percent. Not 8 percent, not 5 percent, not 1 percent – 85 percent. Donald Trump: That’s all we’re doing. We’re not touching it. The Democrats are going to destroy it. Thank you very much. We’ll see later. Donald Trump: And you’re going to have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world because I’m doing favored nations. And it’s all done, I signed it. And the Democrats will unsign it and the drug prices are going to go up. And I think on that issue alone, you can’t lose an election. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, you say that your DOJ is weaponizing with the arrest of a Congresswoman – Democratic Congresswoman. Donald Trump: What? Donald Trump: Oh, give me a break, did you see her? She was out of control. You know, those days are over. The days of woke – the days of woke – Question: There are conservatives in this room who want to go further – Question: Did you tell her to do that? Donald Trump: Waste, fraud and abuse. That’s all the cuts we’re doing. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: No, I didn’t. The days of woke are over. That woman, I don’t – I have no idea who she is. That woman was out of control. She was shoving federal agents, she was out of control. The days of that crap are over in this country. We’re going to have law and order. Question: Mr. President, thank you very much. You campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. How can you justify cutting food assistance in this bill? Donald Trump: Let me – let me just tell you, the cut is going to give everybody much more food because prices are coming way down, groceries are down. Eggs, you told me about eggs, you asked me a question about eggs my first week. You said eggs, I said I just got here, tell me about eggs, and it was going through the roof. Donald Trump: You know that eggs now – way down, everybody’s buying eggs. Groceries down, energy is down. Gasoline is now – they’re buying gasoline now for $1.99. When I – if you look back you’ll see $3.50, $4.00. This country, we’re going to lose this country. Our country now is respected all over the world. All over the world we’re respected. Donald Trump: We were a laughingstock. The entire world was – we were a laughingstock. I went to the Middle East and those rulers of those three countries are very powerful people, very big people, very rich people. They respect our country again. China was going to take them over. You know, China was going to get all – they were going to get into the – if you look, Saudi Arabia, you take a take a little look what was happening with Qatar, UAE, great people, unbelievable people, unbelievable leaders. Donald Trump: But they were abandoned by this country and they’re not going to China anymore. They love us, we love them. We’re going to take care of them and they’re going to take care of us. We came back with $5.1 trillion – trillion. Every other president would have come back having spent $5.1 trillion as usual. And remember this, we were losing $5 billion a day under the past administration. Donald Trump: I have to be a little careful the way I talk because there’s a lot of anger about that administration. And by the way, the real question – who ran the autopen, OK? Who ran the autopen? Because the things that were signed were signed illegally, in my opinion, I think we’ve just proved that. But our country is respected again. Donald Trump: All over the world were respected. We were laughed at seven months ago, then you had November 5th, and our country is respected again. Thank you very much.
Date: 2025-05-20
Donald Trump: Thank you very much and thank you for being here in the Oval Office, and the great places of the world, as we make a historic announcement about the Golden Dome missile defense shield. That’s something we want, and Ronald Reagan wanted it many years ago, but they didn’t have the technology, but it’s something we’re going to have. Donald Trump: We’re going to have it at the highest level. I want to thank Secretary Hegseth who has been fantastic and Secretary Rubio; and Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations, General Mike Guetlein. I also want to recognize Senators Dan Sullivan, Kevin Cramer and Jim Banks – fantastic Senators, great talents, great political talents and people that love our country. Donald Trump: In the campaign, I promised the American people that I would build a cutting-edge missile defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack, and that’s what we’re doing. Today, I’m pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for the state-of-the-art system that will deploy next generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors. Donald Trump: And Canada has called us and they want to be a part of it. So, we’ll be talking to them. They want to have protection also. So, as usual, we help Canada, do the best we can. This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term. Donald Trump: So, we’ll have it done in about three years. Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space, and we will have the best system ever built. As you know, we helped Israel with theirs and it was very successful and now we have technology that’s even far advanced from that, but including hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, all of them will be knocked out of the air. Donald Trump: We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland and the success rate is very close to 100 percent, which is incredible when you think of it, you’re shooting bullets out of the air. I’m also pleased to report that the One Big, Beautiful Bill will include $25 billion for the Golden Dome to help construction get underway. Donald Trump: That’s the initial sort of a down posit. And we have – probably you’re talking about – general, we’re talking about $175 billion, total cost of this when it’s completed. This afternoon I’m also announcing that I will appoint, very importantly, General Guetlein to lead the ambitious new effort as the direct reporting program manager for the Golden Dome, a very talented man and I’m very honored to have been the one that helped or really created Space Force. Donald Trump: Space Force has turned out to be a tremendous success. We were third in space and now we’re number one in space by a lot. It’s not even close. And Mike is a four-star Space Force general. The recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, one of the most respected people in the world having to do with defense. Donald Trump: You know, we have offense, we have defense, but he’s good at offense. And he is an unmatched background in missile warning technology and defense procurement. General Guetlein also knows that we need to move fast. No one is more qualified for his job and everybody, this was a universal acceptance of General Guetlein. Donald Trump: Everybody that knows him and knows everybody else. They said there’s only one man for the job. So, I have a feeling we have the right guy. But now I’d like to invite Secretary Hegseth and the general to please say a few words and describe the system a little bit. And we appreciate you being here and the press has really been very fair over the last period of a couple of months. Donald Trump: I don’t know what happened to you. It was so much more exciting the other way, but you’ve been very, very fair. We have very high poll numbers, the highest we’ve ever had. And I think we’re doing a great job. We had a tremendous trip to the Middle East, as you know, it was a really amazing trip. And now I came home and this is the one – I was really looking forward to this day because this is very important for the success and even survival of our country. Donald Trump: It’s a pretty evil world out there. So, this is something that goes a long way toward the survival of this great country. And as I said, we’ll be discussing Canada, they want to hook in and they want to see if they can be a part of it. That sort of makes sense. I guess that’s what I was talking about from day one. Donald Trump: You know, it just automatically makes sense and it won’t be very difficult to do, but they’ll pay their fair share. Thank you very much, everybody, and, Pete, go ahead. Pete Hegseth: Well, Mr. President, add this to the long and growing list of promises made and promises kept. Ultimately this right here, the Golden Dome for America is game changer. It’s a generational investment in the security of America and Americans. Mr. President, you said we’re to secure our southern border and get 100 percent operational control after the previous administration allowed an invasion of people into our country. Pete Hegseth: President Reagan, 40 years ago, cast the vision for it, the technology wasn’t there. Now it is and you’re following through to say, we will protect the homeland from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones whether they’re conventional or nuclear. And it’s not lost on me, sir, also that you had the vision to start the Space Force. Pete Hegseth: And here we are in the – when others said we didn’t need it, here we are in the Oval Office with one of the leaders of the Space Force in General Guetlein, leading the charge on putting in place a game changing Golden Dome for America. So, sir, it’s an honor to be a part of this bold initiative. We’re going to get to work on it. We have been since you signed that executive order on January 27th, we’ve been fast forward on this. Pete Hegseth: We’re here on this day and this is just one stop in delivering this defense of the homeland, which is something you’ve charged us with doing and we’ll keep going until it is complete, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you, Pete. Pete’s doing a great job by the way. Thank you very much. General, please. Michael Guetlein: Mr. President, today is a great day for the nation as we double down on protection of the homeland. As you’re aware, our adversaries have become very capable and very intent on holding the homeland at risk. While we have been focused on keeping the peace overseas, our adversaries have been quickly modernizing their nuclear forces, building out ballistic missiles capable of hosting multiple warheads, building out hypersonic missiles capable of attacking the United States within an hour and traveling at 6,000 miles an hour, building cruise missiles that can navigate around our radar and our defenses and building submarines that can sneak up on our shores, and worse yet building space weapons. Michael Guetlein: It is time that we change that equation and start doubling down on the protection of the homeland. Golden Dome is a bold and aggressive approach to hurry up and protect the homeland from our adversaries. We owe it to our children and our children’s children to protect them and afford them a quality of life that we have all grown up enjoying. Michael Guetlein: Golden Dome will afford that. I greatly appreciate your trust in me and your nomination of me and your trust in the team to deliver this. It is a great day for America. Donald Trump: And also, very importantly, we’re the only ones that have this, we call it super technology, nobody else has it. And nobody else has nearly – really near what we have. So, this is a very exciting project. This is something that will – I mean, the general said close to 100 percent protection, so that’s something we need. Donald Trump: I think it’s a very – and everything is going to be made in the USA by the way, very importantly. So, it’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. And I just notice you too, Jim, you’re standing there and behind you is a very important document, Declaration of Independence, and that was in the vault for many decades under – right under this area. Donald Trump: We have vaults with pictures on top, you have Abraham Lincoln, you see that was the original Abraham Lincoln, the original Washington, and does everybody know who the middle was? General Grant. And so, it’s very exciting. And so, you look over here and above Ronald Reagan, you have Thomas Jefferson. That’s Monroe from the Monroe document. Donald Trump: And you know who that is, right? Andrew Jackson. So, we have a lot of very exciting pictures and on the other side likewise. So, just some great, great presidents and great people on these – many of these, because people were asking about them, many of them, almost all of them were in the vaults or nearby. Donald Trump: But generally in the vaults downstairs, where we have some great, so it’s very exciting. The place has become a little different than you first saw it, Jim, right? Jim Banks: Yes, much better. Donald Trump: A little bit different and slightly better, but I think we had them. And some were in the vaults for over 100 years. So, it’s pretty cool stuff. Everybody knows Jim Banks, he’s a great Congressman and now he’s a great Senator from Indiana, and you might want to say a few words. Jim Banks: Well, your legacy with Space Force, Mr. President, is already big, but the Golden Dome is going to be an even bigger legacy for our country. And Indiana is going to help you make it. The space satellites that are made in Fort Wayne, Indiana by L3Harris, all the work done at Crane Navy Base in southern Indiana is going to be a big part of it and Hoosiers are very proud of that. Jim Banks: We’re proud of you. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: It’ll be a big factor. Thank you and good luck and congratulations. You won that race by a lot. That wasn’t even a contest, right? Jim Banks: Well, thank you. Thanks to you and all of your support. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thanks. Please go ahead. This is Senator Cramer and he’s one of our best, can’t get any better. Go ahead. Kevin Cramer: Well, you’re very nice, Mr. President. And thanks for this. And um, I remember the day, in your first term when you called, and I was a brand new baby freshman senator on the Armed Services Committee. And said, uh – you said I want to have a Space Force, would you lead the effort on the Senate Armed Services Committee? Kevin Cramer: And I felt so proud thinking that you chose me. Only to find out later, no one else would do it. [Laughter] But – but nonetheless it worked out really, really, really well. [Laughter] Donald Trump: You still like that. Kevin Cramer: Because – because – North – North Dakota has some great space assets. And um – Donald Trump: Yeah. Kevin Cramer: That – that contribute to that. And to Golden Dome. No surprise that you would be the one, the president that would come along and put the homeland first. And – and this is just one more example of that. So thanks for – for this and for – for allowing me to the stuff you did. And by the way, let me just add my strong endorsement of General Guetlein’s, role in leading this. Donald Trump: Good. Good. Kevin Cramer: I don’t know anybody better. For sure, better equipped to do it than he is. Donald Trump: Everybody said that. Kevin Cramer: Yeah, that’s for sure. Donald Trump: Dan Sullivan, Alaska Senator. Dan Sullivan: Thank you, Mr. President and thank you for your continued leadership on missile defense. We were talking earlier how in 2019 at the Pentagon you laid out a speech about the missile defense review that had all these principles on missile defense. You articulated then during your first term and now the Golden Dome is all of that. Dan Sullivan: So you’re continuing to lead. We really appreciate it. Uh, you know, the Congress is stepping up, as you mentioned right now in the budget reconciliation bill. Donald Trump: Right. Dan Sullivan: $25 billion for the Golden Dome. And what Senator Cramer and Senator Banks and I and many others, we’re working on our – and I briefed you on this before, sir, on our Golden Dome Act, which we think will have in terms of legislation that can help cement what you’re doing right here, getting the Congress behind it, not just with the funding but with authorization. Dan Sullivan: So we’re working closely with Secretary Hegseth, General Guetlein and the whole team. So we’re very honored to be here, sir. And you know, Alaska is the cornerstone of missile defense right now in terms of ground based missile interceptors. Donald Trump: Right. That’s right. Dan Sullivan: In terms of radar systems to track incoming missiles. So my state is honored to continue to play a critical role in all of this and build on it. Donald Trump: Right. Dan Sullivan: And we’re really excited to be here. Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Dan. Great. Any questions for us? Question: Mr. President, you had mentioned at the beginning of your remarks that this was a campaign promise of yours. Have military commanders asked for this system specifically? Because NORAD had said previously that the current system was adequate, so what does this get the United States? Donald Trump: Somebody said the current system is adequate? Question: That isn’t already in before? Donald Trump: There really is no current system. We have certain areas of missiles and certain missile defense, but there’s no system. We just have some very capable weapons that hopefully we never have to use. But we have some very capable weapons. Now this is a different league. There’s never been anything like this. Donald Trump: This is something that’s going to be very protective. I think you can rest assured there’ll be nothing like this. Nobody else is capable of building it either. Yeah, please, go ahead. Question: Was it something the military commanders asked you for? Did – did they ask you to do this? Donald Trump: Uh, well, let me – Question: At the Pentagon? Donald Trump: Put it differently. I suggested it. And they all said, we love the idea, sir. Unidentified: [Inaudible] That’s right. Donald Trump: That’s the way it’s got to be, right? But they want it. And they wanted it badly once it was suggested. I don’t know if they ever thought they would be lucky enough to have it, but we were able to get it done. And we have all the funding, so, pretty much tucked away. I think most people feel it’s very important to have. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. When you first announced this idea, critics said it would be prohibitively expensive, potentially ineffective and could trigger an arms race in space. What do you say to those critics about that? Donald Trump: Well, they’re wrong. It’s about as close to perfect as you can have in terms of real production. I told you Canada wants to be a part of it, which would be, you know, fairly small expansion. But we’ll work with them on pricing. We’ll be dealing with them on pricing. They know about it very much. They’ve asked to be a part of it actually. Donald Trump: They’ve asked us to be a part of it. Um, I think it’s something that is great if you can afford to do it. And we can afford to do it. You know, we took in $5.1 trillion in the last four days in the Middle East. And when you think about it, that’s – this is a tiny fraction of that. But we’d make it all here. Donald Trump: We’re going to make it all here. We have – when – I will tell you an adversary told me, a very big adversary told me the most brilliant people in the world are Silicon Valley. He said we cannot duplicate them. We can’t. This was somebody that I won’t tell you who it is, but you’d be amazed. We have the most brilliant minds in the world doing this kind of thing. Donald Trump: The equipment, the space, the computers, everything. But I said that we just can’t duplicate what you have there in Silicon Valley. We never have been able to. And this is a very strong group of people and very strong minds, but they can’t. So we have things that nobody else can have. You see what we’ve done helping Israel with that. Donald Trump: You probably wouldn’t have an Israel. They launched probably 500 missiles all together. And I think one half of a missile got through. And that was only falling to the ground as scrap metal. It’s pretty amazing. And this is a – this is a – in terms of technology, far advanced from that system. Question: Would you – And just wanted to follow up on the adversaries. Have you addressed Russia’s ventures in space with a space based nuclear weapon and told Putin to stop in your conversations with him? Donald Trump: We haven’t discussed it. But at the right time we will. Yeah? Question: Mr. President, on Russia – Mr. President, keeping Americans – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Yeah, go ahead. Question: The goal of keeping Americans safe with this, can you talk about the timeline? How long will this take to complete? Donald Trump: We think it’s going to be about a little bit less than three years. And we’ll have a big phase in very early. You know, we’re starting immediately with $25 billion. It’ll cost about $175 billion completed. But we think in two and a half to three years. Yeah? Question: Are you confident that you can get the funding needed from Congress quickly? Donald Trump: Yeah. It’s amazing how easy this one is to fund. You know, some funding is tough, and some is easy. And when we say we’re going to save everyone’s lives in a crazy world, it seems to be very easy to get. Yeah, we’ve already spoken to everybody that we have to speak to. Everybody’s in. I would say, Dan, everybody’s in line here, right? Dan Sullivan: Yes, sir. $25 million is a down payment in the budget reconciliation bill right now. Donald Trump: Yeah. So I think the people’s – Question: Mr. President, on the – Donald Trump: People actually love it. Question: Mr. President, on Russia, are you worried about the reports on a military buildup along the borders towards Finland and Norway? Donald Trump: No, I don’t – I don’t worry about that at all. It’s going to be a very safe. Those are two countries that are going to be very safe. Question: And then secondly, sir, if I may, Zelenskyy – Volodymyr Zelenskyy is saying today that he’s hoping for you to impose new sanctions on Russia. Are you considering that? Donald Trump: Well, that’s going to be my determination. That’s going to be nobody else’s determination. We’ll see how Russia behaves. We see what’s going to happen. You know, we have a pretty – Question: [Inaudible] That’s off the top, sir. Donald Trump: We have a pretty critical time right now. I had a talk yesterday for 2.5 hours with President Putin. As you know, I also spoke to all of the European or to many of them, leaders, but they were representing the whole. And I think we had a very good conversations yesterday. Please? Question: Thanks, Mr. President. Um, what companies have asked to be involved in building this system? And have you decided on who will be building it at all? Donald Trump: Yeah, I think what – I’ll let you answer that. You can mention some of your – yours from Alaska’s involved. And Alaska is a big part of it because locationally they’re sort of perfect. I think that’s your first line of defense in certain instances. And Kevin will tell you that, uh, his state’s involved. Donald Trump: But honestly, all – Georgia’s going to be very big. Uh, Florida is going to be very big. They’re all going to be very big. Jim, do you want to talk about Indiana? Jim Banks: Yeah. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I live, we make all the space satellites at L3Harris. Um, across the board, we – we’re the top manufacturing state in the country. By the way, the tariffs have been very good for auto manufacturers. Donald Trump: Oh, yeah. They’ve been so good. Jim Banks: But this is going to be really good for the defense industry in my state. There – there’s a – there’s so much money involved here. There are going to be a lot of American companies involved in making the Golden Dome. Donald Trump: You might also say you’re talking about the tariffs, he has some of the biggest auto plants in the world moving into Indiana. Only for one reason, maybe two reasons, November 5th, and the tariffs, OK. [Laughter] Jim Banks: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: But the tariffs have driven a tremendous business into this country. But you have one of the biggest in the world being built. Jim Banks: Honda Civics. Donald Trump: Right. Jim Banks: The new Honda Civic made in Indiana. GM has added jobs. Eli Lilly moving pharmaceutical manufacturing from China to the United States, $27 billion. You could go on and on with good news in Indiana and across the country because of the tariffs. Donald Trump: Our country was cold as ice a year ago. And now, we have the hottest country in the world. This is the hottest country in the world. Nobody even close. If you look at even this last trip that I made. The respect that is paid to our country. We went from being laughed at all over the world, and now we’re the hottest country in the world by far. Donald Trump: Dan, go ahead please. Dan Sullivan: Yes, sir, Mr. President, I – I think when you look at the system that you’ve laid out, it’s an idea in your executive order of a layered defense. So you have initial ground based missile interceptors which are made by some of the big defense companies, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon. But the beauty of your vision, Mr. President, is that it’s layered, it’s open architecture and it goes up into space. Dan Sullivan: So this is going to be some of the new defense tech companies that are very interested in it. And can bring missile defense at a cost that I don’t think you said, Mr. President, is unimaginable in terms of how much lower the cost is. So it’s all across the board in terms of companies, Senator Cramer, I just met with a bunch of them last week that are interested in this. Dan Sullivan: And you said it earlier, Mr. President, our technology sector is head and shoulders above any other place in the world. And they’re going to be a key part of this. And I think that’s what makes it so exciting. Kevin Cramer: – Mr. President, I think one of the things that’s – that defense ecosystem is more about Silicon Valley than it is about big steel – big metal, right? Donald Trump: Yeah. Kevin Cramer: And – and so what’s exciting about this is it makes it available to everybody to – to participate to compete. Big companies, mid-size companies, small companies. But General Goodline’s the perfect person again to sort all that out. Because he understands how it has to work together ultimately. Donald Trump: And Pete, maybe we’ll close with you. Pete Hegseth: Sure. Donald Trump: Um, we have been discussing this for a long time. Pete and I used to discuss it. When I was going to go on a show that he did very well, and had tremendous ratings. [Laughter] But all he wanted to talk about was the military. They didn’t want to talk about anything else. We used to talk about this. Uh, how about you closing it out? Pete Hegseth: Yes, sir. I mean, like I said, without your vision willing to say and do things when other people wanted to look away and pretend like the threat didn’t exist or be focused on foreign adventurism, some other threat that we’ve been told is affecting us. When you looked at the data, sir, from Russia to the Communist Chinese and other their capabilities, what they’re trying to do to supersede us and threaten us how do we find the best innovators, the best military leaders, the best companies, tech companies. Pete Hegseth: You mentioned open architecture, that’s exactly right. So multiple companies can pour into this, sir. It’s a layered defense. So if you miss that one, you catch at the next. And it integrates existing technologies that can speak to each other. So it moves quickly while also investing in further ranging space based interceptors. Pete Hegseth: So our – our enemies, our adversaries are going to pay a lot of attention to this. Just like they have to President Trump from day one. Sir, you’re defending the homeland, defending the American people. It’s going to benefit my kids grandkids, all of ours in this room. So thank you for your leadership. Donald Trump: Thank you all. Pete Hegseth: And we’re going to charge ahead as fast as we can. Donald Trump: Very good. Great job everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible, about Medicaid and the budget] Donald Trump: Thank you. No cuts to Medicaid. Aide: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.
Date: 2025-05-22
Karoline Leavitt: Good afternoon, everybody. How are we, good? Good. President Trump is saddened and outraged over the brutal murder of two Israeli embassy staff in – here in Washington, DC last night. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were a beautiful young couple. In fact, we learned that Yaron was planning to propose to Sarah next week in Jerusalem. Karoline Leavitt: Yaron’s father, Daniel, spoke about the young couple’s devotion for one another this morning. He said they were in love, one for the other. The embassy told us they were like a star couple at the embassy. I never expected something like this. He had his whole life before him. These words, especially every parent knows, are heart wrenching. Karoline Leavitt: The evil of antisemitism must be eradicated from our society. I spoke to the attorney general this morning. The Department of Justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator responsible for this to the fullest extent of the law. Hatred has no place in the United States of America under President Donald Trump. Karoline Leavitt: Everyone here at the White House is praying for the victims’ friends and families during this unimaginable time. Now for some scheduling announcements, on Saturday morning, President Trump will deliver the commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Karoline Leavitt: On Monday, to commemorate Memorial Day, the president will visit Arlington National Cemetery and participate in a wreath laying ceremony. The president will further honor our military next month on June 14th when he hosts the 250th anniversary of the United States Army with a grand military parade celebration right here in our nation’s capital. Karoline Leavitt: President Trump will be joined by veterans, active duty troops, wounded warriors, Gold Star families and patriotic Americans from across the country to celebrate our heroes, who have kept us safe. Tickets for the parade and the celebration are available through the America 250 Commission’s event registration portal. Karoline Leavitt: It will be a truly historic and special day for our country. After the parade, President Trump will travel to the G7 Leaders Summit in Canada from June 15th through the 17th. We will be sending additional logistics information out after the briefing. Last night Republicans in the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the most significant piece of legislation in years. Karoline Leavitt: There were – there were a lot of good faith negotiations in the Republican conference leading up to the final passage but, as always, President Trump came in at the end to bring all sides together and get this deal done. This One Big Beautiful Bill will implement President Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda by delivering the largest tax cut in American history for middle class families, the working class and small businesses. Karoline Leavitt: The One Big Beautiful Bill fulfills President Trump’s promises of no tax on tips, which was applauded today by the CEO of Uber, no tax on overtime, a made in America auto tax break, Trump savings accounts for newborn babies, and substantial tax cuts for our amazing senior’s Social Security benefits. The One Big Beautiful Bill was – will permanently secure the border by delivering the largest border security investment in history, funding at least one million annual removals of illegal aliens to carry out the largest deportation campaign ever, finishing the Trump border wall, and giving pay raises and bonuses for our incredible ICE and Border Patrol agents. Karoline Leavitt: The One Big Beautiful Bill protects the Medicaid program and its benefits for the most vulnerable Americans that the program was designed for by kicking off 1.4 million illegal aliens from receiving benefits and implementing common sense work requirements for able-bodied Americans. The One Big Beautiful Bill also helps get our fiscal house in order by carrying out the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years with $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings. Karoline Leavitt: Every single Democrat in the House of Representatives who voted against all of these common sense and massively popular policies, the Democrat Party has never been more radical and out of touch with the needs of the American people. The One Big Beautiful Bill is the final missing piece toward ushering the Golden Age of America. Karoline Leavitt: The Senate should pass this as quickly as possible and send it to President Trump’s desk for a final signature. After today’s briefing, President Trump will hold a Make America Healthy Again event alongside Secretary Kennedy and several other cabinet secretaries to unveil the MAHA Commission report. President Trump wants every child in America to grow up and to live a long and healthy life. Karoline Leavitt: That’s why he’s working alongside Secretary Kennedy to end the chronic disease epidemic, to keep our children healthy, safe and disease free. The MAHA Commission report is a historic assessment, the first of its kind by any presidential administration, of current evidence and research about the health crisis affecting America’s children. Karoline Leavitt: This report is a review of preexisting research to comprehensively assess what we understand about our health problems and what we don’t understand and how we can find those answers. All of the findings will be based on the gold standard of science. And I think I speak for all MAHA moms across the country when I say we look forward to the president’s event and remarks later this afternoon. Karoline Leavitt: And as we head into the Memorial Day weekend, a quick update on gas prices. According to the fuel savings platform GasBuddy, the national average price of gasoline is expected to be $3.08 on Memorial Day. We expect that to continue to decline because of the president’s energy policies, but this is down from Memorial Day last year. Karoline Leavitt: And adjusted for inflation, it’s the second cheapest price for a gallon of gas on Memorial Day since 2003 thanks to President Trump. And finally, in other news, the Department of Homeland Security conducted a deportation flight from Texas to remove vicious illegal criminals in the United States. All of these individuals home – all of these individuals were sent or are trying to be sent to a third country. Karoline Leavitt: And President Trump promised to get vicious illegal alien murderers, rapists and pedophiles like these out of our country, and he is delivering – trying to deliver on this promise. But no matter how upset this makes Democrats, we will continue to deport these monsters to keep Americans safe. And here are the heinous individuals who were on that flight: a Cuban national convicted of homicide armed robbery, false impersonation of an official kidnaping and robbery, strong arm; a Cuban national convicted of attempted first degree murder with a weapon; a citizen of Laos convicted of first degree murder and robbery; a Mexican national convicted of second degree murder; a citizen of South Sudan convicted of robbery in the possession of a firearm; a citizen of Burma convicted of lascivious acts with a child less than 12 years old; a citizen of Burma convicted of first degree sexual assault involving a victim mentally and physical incapable of resisting, it’s disgusting; and a Vietnamese national convicted of first degree murder. Karoline Leavitt: Now a liberal activist district court judge in the city of Boston, Massachusetts is trying to force the president of the United States to bring these monsters back to our country. Judge Brian Murphy is ordering the Department of Homeland Security to give these illegal criminals 15 days to reopen their immigration cases, with access to phones and attorneys. Karoline Leavitt: Every single one of these individuals, I will had – I will add, had final orders of removal from our country, and now Judge Murphy is forcing federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks, threatening our US diplomatic relationships with countries around the world and putting these agents’ lives in danger by having to be with these illegal murderers, criminals, and rapists. Karoline Leavitt: This is completely absurd. Judge Brian Murphy is not the secretary of State. He is not the secretary of Defense or the commander in chief. He is a district court judge in Massachusetts. He cannot control the foreign policy or the national security of the United States of America, and to suggest otherwise is being completely absurd. Karoline Leavitt: According to new reporting about this judge, he’s a registered Democrat in Massachusetts who, during his Senate confirmation hearings, failed to disclose his ties to a radical left wing organization that claimed the word illegal to describe illegal aliens was inherently prejudicial. This massive judicial overreach by Judge Murphy is part of the same opposition our administration has faced since day one. Karoline Leavitt: Radical left wing judges are egregiously trying to stop President Trump from using his core constitutional powers as head of the executive branch and commander in chief. These judicial activists want to unilaterally stop President Trump from deporting foreign terrorists and keeping the American people safe. Karoline Leavitt: Nearly 80 million Americans reelected this president to deport illegal criminals from our homeland. And polling consistently shows that 90 percent of Americans want illegal alien criminals, especially those with final orders of removal from our country who have chosen to continue to stay here illegally, Americans want these people sent home. Karoline Leavitt: We hope the Supreme Court will continue to rein this in as soon as possible to restore proper constitutional order in our country. We’ll take some questions. And here in our new media seat today, we have Jillian Michaels. She’s a renowned personal health expert. I know all of you know her. I certainly do, watching fitness videos growing up, and a media powerhouse who has – continues to expand her reach with her podcast, Keeping It Real. Karoline Leavitt: Jillian, I know you’re here today for the Make America Healthy Again event. We’re proud to welcome you to the White House. Thanks for being in the briefing. Why don’t you go ahead? Question: Thank you for having me. As a MAHA mom yourself, how do you interpret the significance of this report in terms of delivering measurable health improvements for Americans and their kids? And what specific actions does the administration plan to take in response to it? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Well, thank you for the question. And again, thank you very much for being here. I would like to emphasize we held a call earlier today with Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Rollins, Administrator Zeldin and other officials at Health and Human Services to talk about the gravity of this report. When the president took office, he promised to make this country healthy again, and the president signed an executive order directing this commission. Karoline Leavitt: And now less than 100 days later, the commission is delivering this report. It’s another promise made, another promise kept. And the report identifies four major factors that are contributing to the rise in childhood chronic disease. Again, this is the first time the federal government has really recognized in a single report that we have a problem in our country. Karoline Leavitt: Our children are getting sicker, not healthier. This is not just a crisis, a health crisis, but it poses national security implications as well, and this administration is focused on ensuring we understand why. The four factors contributing to the report, as you will all hear from the president later, are, number one, poor diet, a robust discussion about ultra processed food that are dominating our children’s diets; environmental chemical exposure, plastics and other chemicals that are unfortunately a part of our daily American life. Karoline Leavitt: We talked about the lack of physical activity and chronic stress, and how technology driven lifestyles are contributing to the decline of our children’s physical and mental health. And then lastly, the report touches on the overmedicalization that’s taking place in our American society, nowhere else in the world, but just right here in the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: And the report directs the entire administration to understand why these issues are happening and what public policy can the administration implement to ensure that we are fostering a more healthy country for our children. So, I’ll leave it at that and let the president, and his team, speak more about this historic report later. Karoline Leavitt: But this should be good news for everyone. I don’t care what your politics are, we should all agree that we want our children to be healthy and safe, and we want our food supply to be healthy and safe. We have the best farmers and ranchers in the world right here in the United States of America and we have the best workers in the world. Karoline Leavitt: We have the best people in the world, but unfortunately, we have a health crisis that’s been plaguing us for too long and this report speaks to the heart of it. Thank you. You’re welcome. Thanks for being here. Garrett, go ahead. Question: Karoline, you guys are very proud of your record on transparency. I have two transparency-related questions for you. On the president’s dinner tonight, will the White House commit to making a list of the attendees public so people can see who’s paying for that kind of access to the president. Karoline Leavitt: Well, as you know, Garrett, this question has been raised with the president. I have also addressed the dinner tonight. The president is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner. It’s not taking place here at the White House. But certainly, I can raise that question and try to get you an answer for it. Question: OK, and on the Qatari aircraft, the Air Force has said they’re going to classify all the information about the work that has to get done to bring it up to snuff to be Air Force One. Previous Air Force One contracts, including the one that the president entered into in 2018, are public; that’s available knowledge. Question: Will the White House commit to releasing who’s doing that work and the cost of that work? I understand that some elements might be classified about specific systems, but will you commit to releasing that basic information so people can see ultimately what this costs. Karoline Leavitt: Well, Garrett, as you know, that’s a question for the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force who is accepting this jet as part of their fleet. Question: You can declassify anything you want. Karoline Leavitt: Well, you’ll have to ask the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force who is accepting this jet as part of its fleet. Peter? Question: The president can declassify anything that he wants. Has he looked to see if there are any records here that would contradict what we’ve been told about Joe Biden’s decline? Karoline Leavitt: He has not directed anyone, to my knowledge, to look into that, but surely, I can ask him if he intends to. I think the president has spoken on this pretty extensively, and I have spoken about it extensively from this podium as well, how it was truly one of the worst political scandals this country has ever seen. Karoline Leavitt: That the previous administration covered up the decline in the former president’s mental and physical ability, and it’s now all coming out. But the American people knew the truth and that’s one of the many reasons why President Trump won the election on November 5th. Question: And President Trump says that he basically thinks unelected Biden staffers concealed his decline so that they could use the levers of power for their own personal gain. Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, that’s not just the president thinking that, Peter. There’s a new book out; I don’t know if any of you have heard about it. Again, a little bit too late because the American people knew the truth on this from the very beginning. And there were reporters in this room, including some from your network, Peter – I’ll give you a little bit of credit here – who have said that clearly Joe Biden’s staffers were engaging in this coverup. Karoline Leavitt: So, this is common sense. This isn’t the president making it up. These are facts that are now finally being revealed. Question: Right. And I’m not saying the president is making it up, but he specifically talks about the autopen. He thinks that staffers were using this autopen. Is there some kind of like a badge that you have to swipe to use an autopen? Is there a record of that? Karoline Leavitt: I can tell you here at this White House, the president signs any document that has legal implications. The president signs every executive order, he signs every proclamation, he signs pretty much every document that is needed for the president’s signature, with the exception of maybe some letters to children. Karoline Leavitt: From what we have heard and seen, that was not the case in the previous administration, and the president is raising good questions that are worth looking into. And as for MAHA, I’m going to take a sip of water, if that’s OK with you guys. [Laughter] Go ahead. Question: Thanks Caroline. Back to the presidential gala tonight, did anyone in the White House or in the White House counsel’s office advise the president against holding this sweepstakes, whereby people who spent the most money on his Trump coin would then have access to the president at this dinner. Karoline Leavitt: Again, the president has been asked about this, he has addressed this. I have also stated previously from this podium that the president is abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws that are applicable to the president. And I think everybody, the American public believe it’s absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency. Karoline Leavitt: This president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly. And not only has he lost wealth, but he also almost lost his life. He has sacrificed a lot to be here and to suggest otherwise is frankly completely absurd. Libby, go ahead. Question: Does the White House have any concerns – Thank you, Karoline. The first round of nuclear talks between Iran and the US is going to take place on Friday in Rome. What is the president anticipating ahead of that? And if a deal doesn’t come from that meeting, is he going to walk away? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I’m glad you brought up Iran because I do have an update. The president spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. They had a productive discussion. They discussed many things including, of course, the tragic shooting that took place here in Washington, DC last night. But they also did talk about a potential deal with Iran, which the president believes is moving along in the right direction. Karoline Leavitt: And as the president told me, and he’s told all of you, this deal with Iran could end in two ways. It could end in a very positive diplomatic solution, or it could end in a very negative situation for Iran. So, that’s why these talks are taking place later this week. Yamiche, good to see you. Question: Thanks for taking the question. The president showed a video that he said showed more than 1,000 burial sites of white South Africans that he said were murdered. We know that that was not true and that the video wasn’t showing that. So, I wonder why did the president choose to show that? Karoline Leavitt: What’s not true, Yamiche? Question: It’s not true the video was showing a burial site; it is unsubstantiated that that’s the case. Karoline Leavitt: No, it is true that that video showed the crosses that represent – Question: It’s not a burial site which is what the president claimed. Karoline Leavitt: The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin. And those crosses are representing their lives. Those crosses are representing their lives and the fact that they are now dead and their government did nothing about it. Are you disputing that there is no – Question: I’m disputing the fact that the video showed what the president claimed it showed because it did not show that. But even more, what I’m asking you is who at the White House – Karoline Leavitt: It did show that. It showed white crosses representing people who have perished because of racial persecution. Question: Can the White House verify the video that the president shows? And what protocols are in place when there’s unsubstantiated information being put out for the world and world leaders to show? Karoline Leavitt: Yamiche, what’s unsubstantiated about the video? The video shows crosses that represent the dead bodies of people who were racially persecuted by their government. In fact, the Associated Press, of all places, has a picture of that very monument in the caption from the Associated Press is, each cross marks a white farmer who has been killed in a farm murder. Question: I think that it was a burial site, but it’s not. Karoline Leavitt: So, it is substantiated not just by that video and the physical evidence that everybody saw on display in the Oval Office, but also by another outlet in this room, the Associated Press. So, you should take it up with them if you believe the claim is unsubstantiated and that’s a ridiculous line of questioning. Karoline Leavitt: Jon, go ahead. Go ahead, Jon. Question: Thank you, Karoline. The Big Beautiful Bill now goes to the Senate. Karoline Leavitt: It does, yes. Question: A lot of the Republican senators have promised amendments that will water this thing down dramatically. What is the president’s level of tolerance for their amendments to water it down? And what will be the action taken for some of the amendments that the president does not want? Karoline Leavitt: Sure, well, the One Big Beautiful Bill is named the One Big Beautiful Bill for a reason, because it is a – One Big Beautiful Bill that encompasses just about everything this president could want for the American public. It delivers on so many of his core campaign promises. So. surely we want to see those campaign promises signed into law. Karoline Leavitt: And as the president put in his Truth Social post this morning, and as he said to me, we can celebrate this passed the House for a couple of hours, but now it’s time for the Senate to get to work. The president has great relationship with Senator – Senate Majority Leader Thune and, of course, so many friends on the Senate side of the Hill. Karoline Leavitt: And he’s expecting them to get busy on this bill and send it to his desk as soon as possible. Phil. Question: Thank you. Thank you. Given that the president said the other day of the SALT cap, we don’t want to benefit Democratic governors. If the Senate was to reduce that SALT cap or make any type of changes, would he support that? Or is this a situation where done is beautiful and he just wants to pass it? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, it’s a hypothetical question, obviously. Negotiations – Question: [Inaudible] what the president said. Karoline Leavitt: Well, correct and the bill passed, didn’t it. So, now it’s off to the Senate where additional negotiations will take place and we’ll see how it goes. Michael. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Two questions on the Beautiful Bill. One of the campaign promises from President Trump was no tax on Social Security. Now due to congressional rules that wasn’t able to be included in this bill. How does the president plan to follow through on that campaign promise? Karoline Leavitt: Well, this bill did address taxes for our seniors, it actually allows them to take off significant money from their Social Security payments – get more money back, I should say, put more money in their pockets for various reasons. So, this bill delivers on that promise. That’s the view of the White House. Question: You had two Republicans last night that voted against this bill, Congressman Massie and Davidson. Does the president think that they should be primaried? Karoline Leavitt: I believe he does, and I don’t think he likes to see grandstanders in Congress. What’s the alternative, I would ask those members of Congress? Did they want to see a tax hike? Did they want to see our country go bankrupt? That’s the alternative by them trying to vote no. And the president believes the Republican Party needs to be unified, and the vast majority of Republicans clearly are and are listening to the president. Karoline Leavitt: They are trusting in President Trump, as they should, because there’s a reason he’s sitting in this Oval Office. It’s because he’s the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party, not just a president for Republicans but all Americans. The president’s approval rating is at an all time high right now, and it’s because he knows how to deliver. Karoline Leavitt: And Republicans like Thomas Massie and others should take note. Stephen? Question: Thank you, Karoline. Building on the question about Social Security, the bill includes the president’s promises to address taxes on tips and overtime. Can – can you say his feelings about the income cap? Is he – is he satisfied where that landed? And also, on a different matter, can you comment on the investigation that the Justice Department has into Andrew Cuomo? Karoline Leavitt: As for the first question, the president is clearly satisfied where the bill landed, because it passed. Again, now it has to go to the Senate so changes could certainly be made. As for your second question, I would defer you to the Department of Justice. Christian? Question: Yeah. Thanks, Karoline. Can you explain the decision to totally shake up FEMA leadership just a week before hurricane season? Karoline Leavitt: Well, you’d have to ask the Department of Homeland Security in terms of leadership. But certainly, the administration, and I know the National Security Council here at the White House, is monitoring storms and natural disasters that are happening across the country at all times. We’re briefed on those. The administration is briefed on those. Karoline Leavitt: And Secretary Noem is leading that effort for sure. Go ahead. Question: And just switching gears, Karoline? Karoline, just following up on – on Warren Davidson, I wanted to read you his quote that he posted online. “While I love many things in the bill, promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending. Deficits do matter, and this bill grows them.” Why should that get a Republican primaried? Karoline Leavitt: This bill saves $1.6 trillion for the American taxpayer. It saves more than any bill that has ever passed Capitol Hill has, in fact, by double. The next bill saved $800 billion. This bill saves $1.6 trillion. So, this is a very good bill for the American people, the American taxpayer. And I believe as an outlet put it with a headline this morning, it might have been Politico, actually, they wrote that the American people are going to be flush with cash when this thing is signed into law. Karoline Leavitt: And that’s a good thing for American taxpayers. Question: [Inaudible] Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Go ahead. Question: Karoline, what is the president doing to win Senate passage by July 4th? And does that include work to eliminate carried interest and make business tax cuts permanent? Where is he on those issues? Karoline Leavitt: Well, look, this bill literally just passed the House of Representatives, so now our team is suiting up for discussions with the Senate side of Capitol Hill. The president again said this morning he hopes to see this bill at his desk as soon as possible. And he’ll be engaged in the process to get it through the Senate, just like he was to get it through the House of Representatives. Question: Can I ask what kind of assurances did he give the Freedom Caucus members to – to kind of ensure that this would get through last night? Was – was changes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac part of that equation, changes administratively to Medicaid as well? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I was in that meeting yesterday with the president and House Freedom Caucus, and he told them how he wants to be a cheerleader for them, a cheerleader for the Republican Party and for the country. And Republicans faced a pivotal moment yesterday. They could have voted to bankrupt the country and increase taxes by $4 trillion, or they could vote for this One Big Beautiful Bill, which cuts taxes and saves American taxpayers money. Karoline Leavitt: And he put that proposition before them, and clearly they heeded the call because the bill passed last night. Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. On the – Karoline Leavitt: Or this morning, rather. Question: The – Karoline Leavitt: Every day is going into the next. Go ahead. Question: On the Netanyahu call, just curious, did the president raise the flow of aid into Gaza? Is he happy with where that situation is right now? Karoline Leavitt: Not to my knowledge, but I can certainly go back and check. Question: And did you have any reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling about the – the religious charter school today, as well as Justice Coney Barrett’s decision to recuse herself? Karoline Leavitt: We’ll get you an answer on that case specifically. Sure. Question: You mentioned the president has a good relationship with Leader Thune. Has he talked to him specifically about the plan to get this through the Senate? Does he plan or is he going to reach out to Republicans who have voiced concerns? Karoline Leavitt: Not to my knowledge has he spoken to Leader Thune this morning. He very well could have. I just wasn’t briefed on that call. We can go back and check for you. The president did speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning. He also had a call with President Sheinbaum this morning. He was receiving his intelligence briefing. Karoline Leavitt: He’s been very busy all morning. But again, he certainly intends to remain active and engaged in these negotiations with the United States Senate to get this bill done. Question: And just following up on the dinner tonight, you mentioned this is not a White House dinner. But the president is always the president, and the Trump family is making money off of this. So, can you just explain how is this not the president using the office to enrich himself? Karoline Leavitt: Well, all of the president’s assets are in a blind trust which is managed by his children. And I would argue one of the many reasons that the American people reelected this president back to this office is because he was a very successful businessman before giving it up to serve our country. Reagan? Question: Thanks, Karoline. Last week the president told Brett Bayer that he trusts his people, but thinks that the official narrative on his assassination attempts are “a little bit odd.” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said days later that there’s no conspiracy to find and, as he put it, “The there there that you’re looking for is not there.” My question is, is the president personally satisfied with the investigations into the attempts on his life? Question: And does he agree with deputy FBI director or does he think there’s more to it? Karoline Leavitt: Well, in the lead up to your question, you answered your own question with the president’s own words, and I’ll leave it at that. Question: Karoline? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Go ahead, Hayley. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Hayley, go ahead. Question: Oh, thanks. I wanted to follow up on his call with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his effort to deal with Iran. Does he feel like he has the prime minister’s support in this effort at this point, or did the prime minister raise concerns to him in this conversation? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I won’t get further into the private discussion between the president and the prime minister, but surely they have a good relationship, one that’s built on transparency and trust. And the president has made it very clear to not just Prime Minister Netanyahu but also the world that he wants to see a deal with Iran struck if one can be struck. Karoline Leavitt: He does not want to have to take the latter option, the more severe and negative option. He wants to see a deal. The president is a deal maker, and he believes strongly in diplomacy. And he’s made that clear to the prime minister, but also to all of you and, frankly, the rest of the world. Mary? Question: Thank you, Karoline. Two questions, one on the terror attack last night and then another on the Big Beautiful Bill. Do you or President Trump have a message to politicians like Ilhan Omar, who only this morning explicitly avoided condemning this act of terror? Karoline Leavitt: It’s despicable. And frankly, we have seen a rise in anti-Semitic protests of – pro-Hamas protests of terrorist sympathizers. We saw them on our college campuses, and we’ve seen the Democrat Party turn a blind eye and, in some cases, actually embrace such anti-Semitic illegal behavior. And that’s why this administration has done more than any administration in history to crack down on antisemitism. Karoline Leavitt: As you know, in January when the president took office, he signed a new executive order to combat antisemitism. He created a commission focused on doing just that. The Justice Department announced their task force as well. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has revoked thousands of student visas from campuses where these pro – pro-Hamas terrorists, campus agitators and – and violent protests took place. Karoline Leavitt: And we’ve also withheld funding from those very campuses as well in an effort to combat antisemitism. So, the president’s made it very clear that such hatred will have no place in our country. Question: Thank you. And then on the Big Beautiful Bill, I know there’s a provision in the House included that defunds Planned Parenthood, not only because of the fact that it’s the nation’s largest abortion provider but also because it’s, I think, the biggest distributor of transgender hormones right now, even to minors, according to Live Action. Question: So, is the president committed to making sure that provision stays in in the Senate? Karoline Leavitt: The president has maintained a very clear commitment to ensuring that this administration and the American people’s tax dollars are not funding any institution, that includes hospital systems, that are funding the chemical castration and mutilation of children. We’re not going to tolerate taxpayer dollars going to such efforts. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. You mentioned at the top of the briefing that the migrants were to be sent to a third country. I was just wondering, could you share any more on, you know, which countries the administration has struck these agreements with, and what that agreement with South Sudan specifically looks like? Karoline Leavitt: Well, first of all, I won’t litigate foreign policy from the podium. But what I will reiterate is the absurdity of this ruling from a district court judge in Boston, who is just creating new immigration laws out of thin air. This administration – let me be very clear because there have been a lot of fake headlines about this deportation flight over the last two days. Karoline Leavitt: This administration has complied with all court orders. And the individuals, whose names I just revealed and whose criminal histories I just spoke of that are on this flight, every single one of them had a final order of removal from our country. In fact, one of them, one of these violent illegal criminals had a final order of removal given to him in 1999. It’s two years after I was born. Karoline Leavitt: This individual, this criminal, has been living in our country for an entire generation. And now we have a district court judge who is trying to tell the president and the secretary of state and the secretary of Homeland Security that illegal criminal murderer who’s been hiding in the shadows in our country for nearly 30 years cannot be deported from United States soil. Karoline Leavitt: That not only is undermining our entire immigration system, but it is also undermining our diplomatic negotiations with countries around the world. How are countries on this earth supposed to trust the United States government and these good faith diplomatic negotiations when these countries accept these repatriation flights? Karoline Leavitt: How are they supposed to trust us if we have radical district court judges who are going to say no, you can’t do that? And now these illegal criminal murderers and rapists have to sit in Djibouti with our ICE agents who now have to sit there for more than two weeks without the proper resources. This judge is not only undermining our immigration system, undermining our foreign policy and our national security, but this judge is undermining the safety of the ICE agents who are putting their lives on the line to remove this list of illegal criminal terrorists. Karoline Leavitt: It’s truly despicable what’s happening in our court system and the president and this administration hope that the Supreme Court will do what it needs to do to rein in these liberal activist judges. And the Supreme Court has already said it is well within the president’s purview to dictate foreign policy, and a radical district court judge should not be getting in the way of that. Karoline Leavitt: We’ll see you all later at the MAHA event. Thank you.
Date: 2025-05-22
Note: [Event audio is missing the first 45 seconds] Donald Trump: [No audio] Nice group, what a brilliant group and a nice group. Nice to see you all. Thank you very much. Please, sit down. I have to be a gentleman. Brooke Rollins: [No audio] Yes, thank you, sir. Always. Donald Trump: [No audio] So, we have a lot of press outside. I thought maybe we’d talk to friends before the press comes in. I don’t know if this seat can be any lower. I think Bobby set it up – Note: [Audio gap] Donald Trump: [No audio] Brought $5.1 trillion back with us, we – Note: [Audio gap] Donald Trump: [Audio begins] Our country is hot and hot as it can be. It’s amazing, if you go back six months, it was cold as could be. It was an embarrassment what was happening. And now I think we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. I don’t even think it’s close. I was told that also in the Middle East, three rulers, three very good men that were very nice to us. They said this is amazing, the transformation of the United States of America, they’ve never seen anything go so quickly and it’s literally over a period of four or five months, but really since November 5th. And I think we have the hottest country in the world right now. Donald Trump: So, we’re doing well, and we’ll keep it going and we’re going to have a lot of fun. We’re going to make a lot of people happy, a lot of people well, that’s why we’re here. And I want to thank you all for being with us in the Great White House. Donald Trump: There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like – every time I walk in, I say, man, this place is something special. You never get used to it. It really is. As we mark a historic milestone in our mission to Make America Wealthy Again. You know, we started Make America Great Again. Bobby, I’m not sure you can get away with that without having to make a major payment because you know, this was – [Laughter] Robert Kennedy Jr.: I copyrighted it. [Laughter] Donald Trump: – MAHA. He goes to MAHA. [Laughter] But no, MAHA has become hot. Over the past few years, we’ve built an unstoppable coalition of moms and dads, doctors and young people and citizens of all backgrounds who have come together to protect our children. Very importantly, keep the dangerous chemicals out of our food supplies, get toxic substances out of our environment and deliver the American people the facts as to really where we’re going. Donald Trump: And we want to have what we deserve. And we want to be healthy. And we want to have a lot of good things happen. And I think we’re going to have that. I think this is just the beginning. We have some of the most brilliant people sitting on this panel. And likewise, in the audience. I recognize so many. Many of them are in the administration. Donald Trump: With us today is the man who fought harder than anyone I know to bring these issues to the center of American politics, our Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bobby, thank you very much. And we’re also joined by Secretary’s Brooke Rollins, Scott Turner, Linda McMahon, Doug Collins, Doug Burgum, Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Donald Trump: You’re doing a very good job, Lori. You know, she’s – considering she’s a Democrat, you know. [Laughter] The unions say she’s really good. I did it. You know, I took a lot of heat for doing it. And then they were all saying what a great job we did. Now they are – everybody’s happy with you. Great job. Thank you very much. Donald Trump: As well as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Budget Director Russ Vought, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. Kelly has been amazing. She runs small business, which is actually the biggest business there is, right? She had no idea how big it was. She’s doing great.. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary. Thank you, Marty. Donald Trump: NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. Thank you very much, Jay. Thank you And let’s see, who do we have here? CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. A tremendous guy actually. Thank you very much, Mehmet. A friend of mine, a really great Senator, Roger Marshall. Roger, thank you. Governors Mike Braun, Jim Pillen, Patrick Morrisey, Representative Vern Buchanan, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Donald Trump: Newt is a very quiet man. A silent man. [Laughter] Nice to see you Newt. Four months ago, I created the Presidential Commission to Make America Wealthy Again. And today, the commission officially delivers its first report on childhood health. Here are just some of the alarming findings. And they really are alarming, unbelievable, terrible. Donald Trump: More than 40 percent of American children now have at least one chronic health condition. Since the 1970, rates of childhood cancer have soared, in many cases, by nearly 50 percent. Five zero, 50 percent. Wow. In the 1960s, less than five percent of the children were obese. Now over 20 percent are obese. Donald Trump: A few decades ago, one in one – think of this one, this is to me the one that gets me every time and it seems to be getting worse. Just a few decades ago, one in 10,000 children had autism. Today it’s one in 31. Last time I heard the number is one in 34, right? Now it’s one in 31. There something wrong. Donald Trump: And we will not stop until we defeat the chronic disease epidemic in America. We’re going to get it done. For the first time ever, this report examines some of the root causes that many believe are making our children sicker and our population sicker. I guess it just doesn’t stop with the children. So population also. Donald Trump: Such as the ultra-processed foods over medicalization and over prescription and widespread exposure to potentially toxic chemicals. Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interests. And I want this group to do what they have to do. We have to spell it out. Donald Trump: In some cases, it won’t be nice, or it won’t be pretty, but we have to do it. When you hear – when you hear 10,000, it was one in 10,000, and now it’s one in 31 for autism. I think that’s just a terrible thing. It has to be something on the outside. It has to be artificially induced. It has to be. And we will not allow our public health system to be captured by the very industries it’s supposed to oversee. Donald Trump: So we’re demanding the answers. The public is demanding the answers. And that’s why we’re here. Already, we’re phasing out eight of the most common artificial food dyes. And we ended the most serious conflicts of interest at the FDA. We had a lot of conflicts over there. Earlier this week, we approved a SNAP waiver request from Nebraska so they can stop taxpayer dollars from being used to make our children obese. Donald Trump: I understand requests from three more states will be approved shortly and more are expected to come in the following weeks. Over the next 80 days, the commission will build on its work in this report to develop a roadmap to bold and transformative public health reforms for our consideration. It’s a consideration, and we’ll lay out the facts. Donald Trump: Let me say congratulations to the entire MAHA movement. This movement has become very hot. People are – people are really, I tell you, they’re going crazy over MAHA. They’re going crazy, right? And I look forward to continuing the historic progress. And I will say this. This whole group, this whole table, they’re very – you know, I use a word, it’s – because it’s a beautiful word actually. Donald Trump: The Democrats took it and they used it, instead of the word liberal. They used the word progressive. And normally I’d say you’re very progressive, meaning you’re far. They’re not progressive. You are progressive. They shouldn’t be allowed to use that word. And I’m – And so therefore, I’m not going to use it to describe you. Donald Trump: But you are far forward thinkers. You’re amazing thinkers. And we appreciate having you. It’s just tremendous talent around this table. The most respected people – Anywhere in the world actually. And – and you know, I’ve – I’ve been a fan of Bobby for years. He came up to see me 13, 14, 15 years ago, I remember. Donald Trump: And he left. And I made a couple of the statements that he made because I agreed with the same thing. And we both went through hell. Do you remember that? Robert Kennedy Jr.: I do remember that. Donald Trump: It was a massive. But you know what? We turned out to be right. It was sort of interesting. [Laughter] But I’ve been a friend of Bobby. And he’s been a foe, too. You know, he’s tried to stop a couple of my jobs. [Laughter] In one case, he did stop a job. And I was really angry. And then about four months later we went into like a depression. Donald Trump: And I saved a hell of a lot of money by the fact that he stopped – [Laughter] Robert Kennedy Jr.: You’re welcome. [Laughter] Donald Trump: So, I never minded it. I always said thank you very much for stopping that big job I was going to do. [Laughter] But he’s a fantastic guy. And Bobby, we’re with you all the way. And your beautiful wife is right sitting in the front row. And she’s always been right there with you. And you know, it was very interesting when Bobby came, I really wanted Bobby to join. Donald Trump: And he was doing very well as a candidate. Really well. He was being treated very unfairly by the other side, but he was doing so well that they treated you unfairly. They had no choice. [Laughter] I think they said in order to qualify, Newt, you had to have 80 percent of the vote. OK. Do you remember that deal? Donald Trump: You had to have 80 percent of the vote in order to qualify to run against Joe Biden. [Laughter] Robert Kennedy Jr.: Yeah. [Laughter] Donald Trump: And Bobby thought that was a little unfair. And that was about it. [Laughter] And he came on board. And we got very lucky. But you really helped, and I want to thank you very much really. [Inaudible] Thank you very much. So – so Bobby, if you’d say uh, give them – give them your thoughts, please. Robert Kennedy Jr.: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. And I – I do want to say something because I get a lot of credit for steering this administration toward the MAHA movement. And I joined the campaign in August. I joined President Trump in August and became, you know, went from independent to his campaign. And – but it was in June, so I saw and he made a speech specifically on this issue. Robert Kennedy Jr.: It was a MAHA speech before MAHA existed. And that – I took note of that speech at the time and thought there is a potential here for a common ground. I want to thank you for your vision for your courage for standing up. You know, President Trump is a populist president. He’s a president – he’s blamed for giving money to billionaires and all this stuff. Robert Kennedy Jr.: We hear about that all the time. But he is on the side of the middle class, the working class, the poor in this country, people – And – and following, I’ve met every president since my uncle was president, and I’ve never seen a president, Democrat or Republican, that is willing to stand up to industry when it’s the right thing to do. And willing to talk about really difficult issues and to hold his stand on those issues. Robert Kennedy Jr.: I’ve never seen anything like it and I’m very, very grateful to you. I’ve sat with industry again and again in a room with him and heard him say we can’t do that, we’re going to do something different, deliver news that they didn’t want to hear. So, I’m grateful to this. This is a milestone. There’s – never in American history has the federal government taken a position on public health like this. Robert Kennedy Jr.: And because of President Trump’s leadership, it’s not just one cabinet secretary, it’s the entire government that is behind this report. And I can say again – I talked a little bit about when I met Rachel Carson as a boy, my uncle tried to do this, but he was killed and it never got done. And ever since then, we’ve been waiting for a president who would stand up and speak on behalf of the health of the American people and say there is no difference between good economic policy, good environmental policy and good public health policy and good industrial policy. Robert Kennedy Jr.: We can have all of them, but we need a united cabinet, and we need to go forward as a single people. I want to thank you for that, President Trump Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Robert Kennedy Jr.: At its core, this report is a call to action for common sense. We’ve relied too much on conflicted research, ignored common sense, or what some would call mother’s intuition. It’s common sense that ultra processed, nutrient poor food contributes to chronic disease. It’s common sense that excessive screen time and isolation lead to anxiety and depression, especially in children. Robert Kennedy Jr.: It’s common sense that exercise and healthy foods should come before prescriptions and surgery. It’s common sense that not all calories are equal in nutritional value. It’s common sense that overmedicating kids is dangerous. It’s common sense that we can celebrate the innovations of modern life while also demanding fearless inquiry into ameliorating the negative effects of medication, agriculture and environmental practices. Robert Kennedy Jr.: It’s common sense that research funded by corporations deserves more scrutiny than independent studies. I’m so proud of this cabinet, and particularly Secretary Rollins and Administrator Zeldin who, again, I’ll say it a third time, worked late, late nights early into the morning to make this happen. And to all the leadership from the White House staff beginning with Stephen Miller and Heidi Overton – Dr. Heidi Overton with Vince Haley Their leadership and their steady hand in getting us to the goal line was – we could not have done it without them. Robert Kennedy Jr.: They helped us grapple with weighty issues and committed this administration to solving large, complex challenges like children’s health. We’re joined here by senators, advocates, governors who I have worked with and CEOs who I know who are all ready to begin carrying out this mission. This is the beginning of a conversation, a national conversation that we are going to have with maturity, with nuance for the first time in history, thanks to your leadership, President Trump. Robert Kennedy Jr.: There is a reason that the MAHA moms sided with you, President Trump. It’s because this administration has the bravery to tell the truth and solve problems through innovation and not nanny state regulation. President Trump, I’m honored to present you the MAHA report and work with this incredible cabinet that you have brought together to make our children healthy again Donald Trump: Thank you. Brooke Rollins: Three things – first, on behalf of an extremely grateful nation, and on behalf of a lot of extremely grateful MAHA moms who are out there, Secretary Kennedy and Mr. President, thank you. I see a MAHA mom and grandma in our amazing Chief of Staff right there, Susie Wiles. I see a MAHA mom and Karoline Leavitt and all across our cabinet. Brooke Rollins: Sir, my oldest son Luke is here. Stand up, Luke. I am a MAHA mom of four, and this hits particularly close to home for every single one of us in this room. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that you mentioned, sir, in your remarks that we are on track to sign multiples of SNAP waivers to get junk food and sugary drinks out of our food stamp system and I am so proud. Brooke Rollins: I am so proud to announce that on Monday I was in Nebraska with Governor Pillen where we signed the first one. An hour ago, I signed the second one for Governor Braun in Indiana. He may not even know that, I’ve got it right here, sir. I also signed the third one, Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa, about an hour ago with a half a dozen more coming down the line. Brooke Rollins: And, sir, that has never happened before – under Republican or Democrat administrations, we have never made that happen before. So, I am so proud and so grateful for your leadership. Robert Kennedy Jr.: We have Governor Morrisey here, who is the first one to apply, from West Virginia. Brooke Rollins: Oh, Governor Morrisey. We will make sure you’re at the top of the pile, sir. I apologize. Governor Sanders has been a leader, Governor Polis from Colorado. It has been remarkable how these governors have stood up. That’s the second thing. The third and final thing, sir, is we all know that at the center of making America healthy again is making American agriculture great again Without American agriculture at the center of this discussion, we have the most robust, the safest, the best agriculture system in the world. Brooke Rollins: And in partnership with the amazing Secretary Kennedy and all of these incredible patriots sitting around this table, under the leadership of the Extraordinary President Donald J. Trump, we will make America wealthy again. And what an honor it is to be a part of that. Thank you, sir Donald Trump: Thank you. Mr. Policy Man, do you want to say something? Big, big policy man here well? Vince Haley: Well, so much has already been said, but in your remarks, Mr. President, you made clear – Robert Kennedy Jr.: This is Vince Haley by the way. Vince Haley: In your remarks and in the report, it’s very clear that there are no sacred cows when it comes to our children’s health. We are showing the courage to turn over every stone to figure out, to investigate what is behind the chronic childhood disease crisis and that’s what this report represents, sir. Donald Trump: Thank you, Vince, very much Are you going to have other people speak? Robert Kennedy Jr.: I had everybody speak. Donald Trump: Oh, good, most have already spoken, that’s very good. But the fake news wasn’t here [Laughter] What’s going on? I mean – I want to thank you for your work. Would you have anything to say to the media? Mehmet Oz: Thank you, sir. I think it’s a moral failing if we don’t address this, but it’s definitely a financial failing as well. 50 percent of children are on Medicaid or on the CHIP program. It is an obligation we all have to address this reality. As you know, the cost of Medicaid has gone up 50 percent in five years. Donald Trump: Right. Mehmet Oz: I thank you very much for having the bravery to commission this report. And Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Rollins, Lee Zeldin, everybody else on this panel, for being able to effect what has not been done since this law for Medicare and Medicaid was written in 1965. God bless you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much, Oz, thank you. A man who’s just so highly respected, Dr. Marty Makary, would you say a couple of words, please? Marty Makary: Thank you, Mr. President. The United States is the best in the world when it comes to proton beam therapy, CAR T, sophisticated operations. But when it comes to the health of the population, it’s been a 50-year failure. And we have got to change course, and it’s not until you have had the courage to let us take on these giant issues. Marty Makary: As Vince Haley said, without any sacred cows that we’ve been able to change. And I think this will transform our health care system from a reactionary system where doctors are playing whack-a-mole to a proactive system. So, thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you, man. Highly respected man, Jay, please say a few words. Thank you. Jay Bhattacharya: Thank you, Mr. President. I said earlier already that uh, it’s shocking to me that what this report says, which is that our kids will live less long, less healthy, more unhappy lives than we will as parents. We can’t have that. Uh, I’m so proud to be part of this moment. Because that doesn’t have to be the future. Jay Bhattacharya: We can change things by doing excellent gold standard science, understanding the root causes of all these problems, reversing it. And Mr. President, this is an enormously important moment. Because it’s – from this moment forward, we will reverse course, so our kids will, will live longer than us, will live more healthy than us and will be happier than we have been. Jay Bhattacharya: Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Good job. I have to say we have the greatest farmers in the world. And we love our farmers. And we want to pay respect to our farmers. And we always will. And we won the farmers by a lot in the election in all – in every election, all three elections. And we won by a lot. Donald Trump: And I will never forget that. And they are foremost in our thought. And representing uh, I think, the farmers better than just about anybody can do as Senator Roger Marshall. Could you say a couple of words, Roger, please? Roger Marshall: [Inaudible] Mr. President – Mr. President, we’re not tired of winning yet. [Laughter] Congratulations. What – what a week you’ve had. Overseas one win after another, one big, beautiful bill across the House floor this morning. You’re the best closer in the game. And – and this is one of the greatest days of my life, professionally speaking as well. Roger Marshall: And I just want to acknowledge my MAHA mom out here as well. That my wife, Lana, was a MAHA nurse and a MAHA mom and a MAHA grandma. Now, Lana, will you please stand up as well? My wife. Mr. President, as you know, I spent 25 years delivering babies most every day. We saw a huge epidemic of diabetes of pregnancy. Roger Marshall: And – and this has exploded in so many different directions now. We have an epidemic of – in mental health, uh, in our – in our youth. Obesity rates, 20-30 percent, 20 percent of our children on a prescription drug, 60 to 70 percent of adults on our prescription drug. We can do better than this. And it does start with the farmer. Roger Marshall: It starts with – with soil health. And I just want you to know that our farmers are so committed to this as well. And so many of them are already doing great things. They’re making the soil – soil healthier. They’re using less pesticides. They’re doing all the right things. It’s going to take a little bit more effort and time to get everybody with those practices. Roger Marshall: But the American farmer and rancher were the original environmentalists, the original conservationists. And they’ll be right here working beside us. And we appreciate your support of them as well. Donald Trump: Thank you, Roger. Great. Thank you. So, I think I’ll close by just saying that something happened a week ago that was very, very important, profound, but very important in so many ways. For years, I noticed that other countries paid much less for drugs and pharmaceuticals than we did. But I don’t mean to percent less or 10 percent, which would be good. Donald Trump: But I don’t mean 20 or 25 or 30 percent. I mean sometimes we paid ten times more, 12 times more, 13 times more than other countries where people from our country would be seen going into Mexico and seen going into other countries leaving on trips and bringing their drugs home because they’d get – in London, they’d be able to buy a drug for one tenth the price of what it cost to New York City. Donald Trump: And I watched this. And I watched it during my term. And I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it. And it’s a very complex system. But you know, we’re smart also, maybe much smarter than they are. And at some point, we had to figure out. I heard it was the middleman. Nobody told me who the middleman was. Nobody knew who the middleman was. [Laughter] Nobody ever heard. Donald Trump: All I heard is the middleman. I said they’ve got to be the richest people in the world, whoever they are. We don’t even know if there is a middleman. All I know is that the drugs were ten times higher and sometimes more than that. And I really got into it over the last year, and I figured the whole system out. Donald Trump: And uh, for various and sundry reasons, the United States of America was being screwed. And we were being taken advantage of and being laughed at for years and years. And I said it’s not going to happen anymore. And I brought a great gentleman, the head of Eli Lilly in, who’s great. He really is. He’s great. Donald Trump: He’s done a fantastic job. And others also of the companies and I have it out with them. I had debates with them actually. And pretty much it was a debate that was impossible to lose. You had to be a real bad debater to lose that debate. [Laughter] Because they couldn’t justify it. They tried to say, well, you know, we pay for research and development and the United States has agreed to pay for 100 percent. Donald Trump: I said why? Why are we paying that? And by the way, that wasn’t even the number because it’s still way too high if you took all the research and development. But you have other countries that are a lot more vicious than us in terms of their representatives. And they’d set a price for a drug. And they’d say, tell the United States to pay for the rest. Donald Trump: We were subsidizing the whole world. And I said we’re not going to do that anymore. We’ve been a laughingstock for so many years. The last four years we’ve been a laughingstock. I said it, we’re a laughingstock. And now we’re the most respected. And we’re the hottest country in the world. We’re going to remain that way. Donald Trump: And we’re going to do that with drug costs too. And so I said I’m going to do something that’s a very unpopular thing to do with a small number of people, mainly the people that own the drug companies and others. And I’m not even blaming them. They were able to get away with it. But it was really other nations that took advantage of us. Because the drug companies were under their thumb. Donald Trump: And they would say this is what I’m going to pay. And the European Union was right at the top of the list. Let me tell you. We’re going to pay $20 for this, and we’re not going to pay any more. And America would pay $240 for the same thing that they’re paying $20. They said tell America to pay for the rest. Donald Trump: And for years they went along aimlessly, and they did it. And I started making changes. And I’ll never forget the end of my first term, which was very successful. We had the best stock market ever. We had the best economy ever of any president. We went up 88 percent in the stock market as an example. And I think 116 percent in one or the other indices. Donald Trump: And we had – we’re doing well, but I never – this whole thing with the drug costs. It always bothered me. And I started really studying it. And it’s very complicated stuff. And I said, you know what? We are paying so much more. And I demanded favored nations. We’re the biggest buyer. We’re the best buyer. Donald Trump: We’re the most solid buyer. We’re the one that paid for all of the research and development. And I said, we’re going to do something that’s earth shattering. So at the end of my first term, I was so proud because it’s the first time in 28 years that any president reduced drug prices during the course of four years. Donald Trump: And you know what that number was? One fourth of one percent, but it was down one fourth, think of it a quarter of one percent. Very little. Essentially they remained the same, but I wanted to get it down. And I was so proud. I thought I was the greatest guy in the world. [Laughter] I took it down one quarter of a percent. Donald Trump: And I had news conferences. I was bragging. I’m the only one that did it in 28 years. And then I said that’s not very much. Because we were still paying so much more. And I decided I’ve got to break the system. And it’s the most powerful lobby in the world, the drug company. Most powerful, they are. The most powerful. Donald Trump: And I’m not saying bad, good. I’m not saying anything. But they have tremendous power over the Senate, over the House, over the governors, over everybody. And they spend more money, billions and billions of dollars. And I said I don’t care. I’ve got to do what – I have to do what’s right. And I declared a favored nations, most favored nations where the United States from now on is going to pay the exact same price as the lowest price anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: In other words, if you take – Brooke Rollins: That’s amazing. Donald Trump: Right. In other words, if you take the uh, the country that’s paying – and let’s say in a certain part of, you know, there may be some country out there that pays a little bit less for very good reasons because of the fact a thing called poverty or whatever. But we take the lowest countries, say European Union countries as a whole. Donald Trump: That will be fine, or take individual countries within the European Union. Or take various countries that nobody’s even heard about. We pay the lowest. And what that’s going to mean and I’d like to put somebody to police it because it should start immediately. It shouldn’t start in two years, three years, five years, they’ll say, yes, it kicks in. They always say kicks in, Marty. [Laughter] It kicks in, sir, in four years, you know. [Laughter] And then four years they get it changed. Donald Trump: It should mean – so remember I told you I was happy with one quarter of one percent. It could mean anywhere from 70 percent to 89 percent reduction in drugs and pharmaceuticals. That’s a little different, right? And I’ve actually had some congressmen call me. And they say, sir, look, can we talk about this? Donald Trump: I said no. [Laughter] Donald Trump: They wanted to talk because you know it’s uh, it’s tremendous power against them. And I understand that, and every one of them was covered, Senators were. I see Roger smiling and Roger probably was too. But you know what? He wants to do the right thing, right? He wants to do the right thing. And we’re doing the right thing. Donald Trump: We were taken advantage of. And forget the drug companies, we were taken advantage of by other countries that insisted, with the drug companies, that they were going to pay X dollars and we’re not paying any more and you’re not doing business here. And they were nasty about it, because these people are almost sort of afraid of them. Donald Trump: And we are going to now get a reduction in drug costs of up to 89 percent in some cases, but 50 percent would be a low – a bad number. So, think of that, 50 percent versus one quarter of 1 percent. Think of that, 85, 89, 91, 72 percent. It’s going to be massive numbers. It’s going to be incredible for Medicaid, incredible for all forms of healthcare. Donald Trump: Medicare is going to be – it’s going to have a huge impact, so big that nobody can calculate it. I mean, this thing could drop by 25, 30 percent. The drugs are, Oz, a very big part of it, right? So, very big part. So, it’ll affect everything. It’ll affect your whole life. The amount of money you’re going to be saving is going to be incalculable. Donald Trump: Nobody can believe I had the courage to do it. I don’t think it’s courage. I think it would have been courage not to do it. I tell you what, not to do it would have taken far more courage because I was tired of it and I was listening to these guys. And they are – you know, they make a lot of money every year, millions and millions of dollars a year. Donald Trump: And I agree because at the beginning, because of the complexity, you’d walk out of a room, you’d hear them talking and they’d almost convinced you that it’s a great system, it’s a wonderful system, even though we were paying ten times more. That’s why they make $30 million a year. Because they were good but not any longer. Donald Trump: And one of them just threw up his hands after I was just pounding on him. He said I can’t do it anymore. It’s the hardest thing I have to do is trying to justify this damn thing. I can’t do it anymore. One of the biggest companies, I just can’t do it anymore. You’re right. And as soon as he said that that was like incredible, because I understood exactly, he couldn’t do it. He said it’s the hardest thing he had to do is trying to justify why we’re paying $200 for something and somebody else is paying $12, that is a neighboring country. Donald Trump: Take Canada, I mean people go up to Canada to shop because their prices are so much less and it’s not going to happen anymore. So, we’re going to take the lowest country anywhere in the world and that’s what we’re going to be paying, and we’ll be saving from 50 to 89 percent. And these are big – these are tremendous numbers. Donald Trump: There’s not going to be anything where we’re paying 10 times more than somebody else. And one thing that is very important and it’s got to be implemented – it’s done. I’ve done the order, it’s done. But we have to get somebody that’s got a lot of strength and a lot of power because you have to implement it because these countries are going to go down fighting. Donald Trump: They don’t want this to happen because they’re going to go up. Now, there are many more people involved in the world than there are here. So, they’ll go up a little bit, maybe 15, 20 percent. And we’re going to go down 60, 70 or 80 percent. But they will fight the drug companies. The drug companies are very worried that they’re going to fight and that’s OK. If they fight, we’ll just say that’s OK. We’re not going to let you sell any more cars into the United States, or we’re not going to let you sell anymore wine or liquor or alcohol or something that’s actually much more important to them than the drugs. Donald Trump: And we’re going to be able to force that issue if we need to. They should do it. We’re basically equalizing. They should do it, and you know the drug companies should do just as well. This shouldn’t be a hit on their stock. I don’t think it will be. It’s basically – it’s going to be the same amount of money, but it’s going to be redistributed and it’s going to be redistributed so they’re going to pay a little bit more and we’re going to pay a lot less. Donald Trump: A little bit more because there’s so many more. You know, it’s a bigger number. And so, Bobby, I’d like to ask you and Dr. Oz and Marty perhaps and Jay and maybe representing the world’s politicians, I can ask Roger, who’s so great with this whole subject, if you would be very, very tough and very, very – very powerful in a sense. Donald Trump: It’s not easy. You know, you’re going to have to get this done. The drug companies are going to say, well, they won’t do it, and maybe they won’t. And if they don’t do it, we’re going to not do business with that country or those countries. But we’re going to have to be very tough until it’s totally stabilized and equalized. Donald Trump: And Oz, I mean, I see your eyes are gleaming because you’ve been talking about this for a long time, but you’ve never had anyone willing to do it, but I’m willing to do it. And I think it’s going to go down as one of the most important things we’ve ever done because drug costs are going down. Think of it, every year for 21 years, the costs have gone up, and now they’re going down maybe by 85, 80 – I’m telling you, 89 percent in two instances, 89 percent cut. Donald Trump: Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. So, I’d like to ask Oz in particular, because you and I know each other. He’s a very tough hombre this one. He’s tough as hell. And so, if you can lead the group – and it’s not going to be easy, you’re going to have to get in and you’re going to have to fight. If you do it, you can have – within a period of weeks, you can have drug costs that drop like a rock, OK? So, you as a group I have great confidence. Donald Trump: And if you don’t do it, I am firing every single one of you right? Good luck, Oz. All right. Can you handle it? Mehmet Oz: [Inaudible] The companies are all coming in. We’ve had some very promising interactions. Give me a little time to be a tough hombre. Donald Trump: You’ll do a great job; I have no doubt about it. Thank you very much. Any help, I will be there to help you, OK? Mehmet Oz: Well, your part – you mentioned something that has not been discussed in the past. People have talked about drug prices in a silo and in isolation. But when you start going to the countries where they give discounts to you because they’re getting beaten up there and you support these companies, they see huge upside potential, even greater than the numbers you mentioned. Mehmet Oz: They should be able to charge more than what they would historically have been tolerant of if they have the support of the US government and you. And Secretary Kennedy is aware of all these discussions. Donald Trump: Well, they were artificially low and artificially high. We were artificially high. They were artificially low. We’re not going to let that – and I think you’re going to be able to handle it pretty easily. But speed is very important because we can do this immediately. This doesn’t take two years, three years. Donald Trump: It doesn’t take a month. So, do the best you can. Thank you very much Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bobby. Are we concluded, Bobby? Robert Kennedy Jr.: Yes. Donald Trump: Go ahead, why don’t you finish it off? Robert Kennedy Jr.: Thank you, Mr. President. Let’s all give a hand for President Trump for his leadership Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much.
Date: 2025-05-23
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much. We have a very big announcement today. It has to do with nuclear energy and other things, and this is all nuclear. It’s a hot industry. It’s a brilliant industry. You have to do it right. It’s become very safe and environmental, yes, 100 percent. So I’m going to ask Doug Burgum to talk about it a little bit to start and maybe, Will, you’ll follow him up. Will Scharf: Yes, sir. Donald Trump: And we’re going to have Pete Hegseth speak from a military standpoint, but this is very all-inclusive. We’re signing tremendous executive orders today that really will make us the real power in this industry, which is a big industry. Doug, why don’t you go ahead? Doug Burgum: Well, thank you, President Trump. This is a huge day for the nuclear industry. Mark this day on your calendar. This is going to turn the clock back on over 50 years of overregulation of an industry. American greatness has always come from innovation and we were very innovative. We led post-World War II in all things nuclear. Doug Burgum: But then we’ve been stagnated, we’ve choked it with overregulation. Today, Will is going to walk us through a series of four executive orders. Each of these help attack separate issues that have held back this industry. And with us today, we’ve got a number of CEOs from the industry representing some of our largest nuclear providers, but also a big change. Doug Burgum: This is a time when capital and competition is finally come to this industry. We’ve got venture capital. We’ve got startups coming into all aspects of small modular nuclear and we’ve also got an EO that’s talking about the importance of us having a secure supply chain of being able to get that fuel load here in the United States as opposed from foreign sources. Doug Burgum: This has impacts on national security, on our defense. And again, President Trump here today has committed to energy dominance and part of that energy dominance is that we’ve got enough electricity to win the AI arms race with China. What we do in the next five years related to electricity is going to determine the next 50, because this is the first time in history where electricity can be translated into intelligence and we need that intelligence for every aspect of our economy, but also for defense. Doug Burgum: Pete Hegseth and Department of Defense has been a key part of this, and this is going to help us make sure that we’re providing the defense we need, where we need that AI, need the electricity, but also to secure our bases here at home and around the world. Secretary? Pete Hegseth: Sure, I’ll just add to that before going to Will. Energy security is national security. If we don’t have reliable energy for our basing, for our troops, whether forward deployed or domestically, we’re vulnerable. So by having small modular nuclear capabilities which are rapidly being fielded that we can use on our bases here and around the world, we’re creating an environment where if things happen elsewhere, the military can be relied upon. Pete Hegseth: Also, we’re including artificial intelligence in everything we do. If we don’t, we’re not fast enough, we’re not keeping up with adversaries. You need the energy to fuel it. Nuclear is a huge part of that, modular or otherwise. So we’re going to have the lights on and AI operating when others do not faster than everybody else because of nuclear capability, so this is a big game changer for us as well. Donald Trump: And we’re also talking about the big plants, the very, very big, the biggest. We’re going to be doing them also. But we’re going to start off a little bit, I think our focus today is the smaller module, but included in this group, we’re also doing big plans where needed. They won’t be needed too much, but they’ll literally be able to do it in an entire state. Donald Trump: And you’ve read a lot about cost overruns in a couple of states that were pretty significant, but we’re not going to have cost overruns and the technology has come a long way, both in safety and cost and everything else. Would a couple of you guys like to talk about your companies and you want to say anything? Doug Burgum: Joe, why don’t you kick it off? Joe Dominguez: Sure. My name is Joe Dominguez. I run Constellation Energy. We have about 25 percent of the nation’s fleet. We’re the largest publicly traded nuclear company in the world. We’re in the middle of a merger with Calpine. And once completed, we will be the largest electric producing company in the world, about enough power to produce to cover all of Mexico, actually. Donald Trump: That’s very impressive. I didn’t know that when we talked. You were so modest. I can’t believe it. Joe Dominguez: That’s normally not said about me, Mr. President, but thank you. Donald Trump: I’m very impressed. Go ahead. So you think it’s got a great future [Inaudible] Joe Dominguez: Yeah, well, absolutely, we do. And the big change here is not only the technology has come around, but we have some of the largest companies in the world, the hyperscalers who need this energy for AI, who are now working with us to fund the development and construction of the next generation nuclear. Nuclear is a 24/7 resource. Joe Dominguez: These data centers run 24/7. Some of them will cost $200 or $300 billion. And they want to run them all of the time. So we can’t use intermittent resources. We need something that’s always on 24/7 and nothing does that better than nuclear. The problem in the industry has historically been regulatory delay. Joe Dominguez: Mr. President, you know this because you’re the best at building big things. Delay in regulations and permitting will absolutely kill you because, if you can’t get the plant on, you can’t get revenue and the interest costs are horrible. We’re wasting too much time on permitting and we’re answering silly questions, not the important ones. Joe Dominguez: For example, let me give you an example. In three places in this country, we’re trying to license new reactors at sites that already have reactors, yet I have to spend $35 billion at each site just for the NRC to do an analysis that says this is a good place for nuclear. Well, guess what? We’ve been running nuclear in that community for four decades. Joe Dominguez: Why are we even asking that question? I’d rather spend that $35 million, three times $105 million, perfecting the design, start building the foundation and getting going. We need to do this for America. Donald Trump: Are we doing something about the regulatory in here? Joe Dominguez: Oh, yes, sir. Unidentified: Yes, you are. Doug Burgum: You are, sir. Donald Trump: It’s going to be a big factor. Unidentified: Absolutely. Joe Dominguez: Yes, sir. That issue I just described will be addressed in this EO, and many other issues that we don’t have time with the president that covers [Inaudible] Donald Trump: But you’d say it’s very – we’ve contemplated just about everything, right? Joe Dominguez: Well, this – Mr. President, this energy dominance council that you have created is something I haven’t seen in 30 years. It brings together all the pieces of government in one place to expedite the process. Under Secretary Burgum’s leadership this has been an amazing, amazing thing. It used to be the case that I’d have to run to about five different places in Washington and get one answer and now it’s all together in one place. Joe Dominguez: So, all I know about Secretary Burgum and Secretary Wright is, if we haven’t gotten it right, we’ll get it right shortly and there’ll be another order for you to sign. Donald Trump: That’s good. I’m glad to address it. Joe Dominguez: Thank you so much for your leadership. Donald Trump: You want to say something, go ahead? Maria Korsnick: Well, I was just going to say commercial nuclear, a bit of an unsung hero. And I just want to thank you, Mr. President, Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, for bringing this attention to commercial nuclear. We have the largest and most safe fleet right here in the United States. And upon that, we have fantastic innovation that’s being brought forward. Maria Korsnick: And it’s going to come in all shapes and sizes and it’s going to actually be coming through some of these companies that you see represented here. We’re going to have great jobs, we’re going to have wonderful energy, and we’re going to be ready. So, thank you, Mr. President, for leaning in. Donald Trump: Appreciate it. Great job you’ve done too. How about talking about your company and the job you’re going to do? Jake DeWitte: Yes, thank you, Mr. President. Well, first of all, a little MIT nuclear connection that goes back into familial for you. So, yeah, we’re working on small reactors. I’m Jake DeWitte, CEO and co-founder at Oklo, working on small next generation reactors that take technology America invented, developed and pioneered and bringing it to the market after it’s sat on the shelves of history for about 40 years. Jake DeWitte: And it’s because of the actions that you’re doing today that are going to help unleash that. Changing the permitting dynamics is going to help things move faster. We’re seeing private investment flow into this space like we’ve never seen before. We went public about a year ago and one of the most successful actually go-public outcomes for transaction like that first small nuclear company because the market needs this and wants this. Jake DeWitte: And under your leadership creating the Dominance Council, I mean it’s hard to overstate the value of that. And nuclear is a manifestation of energy dominance. In fact, a golf ball of uranium metal, which this is not, but it’s a golf ball [Laughter] has enough energy content in it to power your entire life’s energy needs. Jake DeWitte: I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that. And to get back to building, nuclear uses the fewest materials, right, the fewest – the least amount of concrete, of steel, of fuel for the amount of energy produces. So, it should be the cheapest, the most scalable, the most sustainable. Just like you mentioned, Mr. President, about the importance of doing that right, the physics are on our side and these things help unleash this innovation to actually realize that. Jake DeWitte: So, it’s never been more exciting. Donald Trump: Very exciting indeed. Go ahead, please. Scott Nolan: And I’m Scott Nolan, CEO of General Matter. We’re an American enrichment company trying to bring back the US’s lead in producing nuclear fuel. So, just like car engines need fuel, nuclear reactors need fuel. Right now, the US is completely dependent on other countries to make the key step of enrichment in this field. Scott Nolan: And these executive orders are going to pave the way for the US to regain its lead. So, we really appreciate it. Donald Trump: Will you be doing the AI plants? Because we have a lot of them going up now and – or soon going up and they need tremendous electricity. Are you going to be involved in any of these plants? Scott Nolan: Yes. Donald Trump: Will a lot of them be using nuclear? Some are using oil and gas, some are using different things, but – Scott Nolan: Many of them will be, I think, or – Donald Trump: It just makes a lot of sense. Scott Nolan: Nuclear is a perfect solution and that’s where most of them are interested. Donald Trump: Good luck. Scott Nolan: Thank you. Donald Trump: That’ll be great. OK, Will, please. Will Scharf: The first executive order we have for you relates to the issue that Secretary Hegseth was speaking to, which is the need for incredible amounts of power at defense installations and also in AI-focused installations. What this executive order will do is speed up the approval and adoption process for specialized nuclear reactors at these sorts of sites. Will Scharf: It also involves the Department of Energy making available the necessary fuel stock. It also creates a special envoy position and a strategy around nuclear technology export. The idea being that we can grow American industry on the back of foreign purchasers who are interested in this sort of technology as well. Donald Trump: I’m just thinking as you say that, I just signed – what about auto pens? Could I use an auto pen? What did Biden do? Did he have an auto pen at the desk? No, he didn’t do events [Laughter] He used nuclear power. You know, he didn’t do events like this, I guess, it’s all right. Otherwise, you know, you walk it to the other side of the room, have an auto pen sign it, right? Donald Trump: Here it is – it’s phase one, very big phase, very important phase. Will Scharf: Sir, this next executive order is intended to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. You heard a few of the people here speak about the complex regulatory processes that have really held the nuclear industry back. Before 1978, there were 133 reactors built in the United States. Since 1978, only two new reactors have come online. Will Scharf: That’s because of overregulation, and the goal of this executive order is bringing that regulatory process into line with the actual needs of the industry and public safety with an end goal of quadrupling the amount of nuclear power production in the next two and a half decades. Donald Trump: It’s fantastic. It’s exciting, right. There you go. Will Scharf: This next executive order relates to nuclear reactor testing, sir. The degree of overregulation and governmental inaction in this space in particular has had the effect of throttling development of new highly modernized nuclear reactors that could really revolutionize the field of nuclear power generation. Will Scharf: So, this executive order, it orders a revised regulatory process to speed this whole process while preserving obviously core safety concerns. It also creates a new pilot program with an expectation that we will have three new experimental reactors online by July 4th next year. Donald Trump: It’s amazing. That’s exciting. OK, come on. Will Scharf: Lastly, sir, we have an executive order on reinvigorating the nuclear industrial base. There are a number of core issues here, including the issue with fuel feedstock that one of the speakers mentioned before. This executive order, among other actions, includes an invocation of the Defense Production Act in order to spur a closer collaboration with private industry to ensure that we have the fuel supplies we need for a modernized nuclear energy sector. Will Scharf: In addition to that, it includes crucial provisions relating to the development of a nuclear energy sector workforce and a number of other key building blocks to the overall nuclear industry that we’re trying to to spur here. Donald Trump: Great. Thank you. Will Scharf: And we have one more for you here, sir. This doesn’t directly relate to nuclear energy, but it’s on a similar subject. This executive order is entitled, Restoring Gold Standard Science. One of the issues that we’ve had in recent decades is that government – Note: [Audio gap] Will Scharf: – that have included conflicts of interest or scientific misconduct. The purpose of this executive order is to recenter policymaking around gold standard science, scientific efforts that have followed appropriate scientific methods that don’t include those sorts of conflicts of interest. And to ensure that when departments and agencies are relying on scientific studies to promulgate rules, to promulgate regulations, that the science they’re relying on is highly reliable and available to the public. Donald Trump: He did a very good job, didn’t he? How many people here could have done that? I don’t know. I think a lot. Thanks, good job, Will. Will Scharf: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Is that it? Will Scharf: That’s all we have for you now. Donald Trump: Do we have any questions for these brilliant people? They are brilliant people, actually. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Mr. President, on nuclear, sir. A lot of the concern over the years that’s helped the nuclear industry [Inaudible] safety. Are you satisfied with those safety concerns? Donald Trump: Yeah, we are. It’s become a very safe – actually it’s become very safe and tremendous work has been done on that more than anything else and it’s really – the automatic shut offs, there’s so many different things that they have now that they would have never had. My uncle was a great nuclear person years ago and that was a different – if you would have asked that question, probably it would have been a much different answer. Donald Trump: But they have tremendous shut off power and other powers that – and very redundant, as I understand it, at a level that nobody’s ever seen before, so it’s safe. And we’re going to do a lot of the small ones and we’re going to do some of the big ones, but yeah, very safe, safe and clean. Let’s keep it on this for a little while. Donald Trump: Let’s keep it on the nuclear and then if you want to ask something else, which you might, we’ll do that. Question: On nuclear, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: What do you say to folks who are concerned with speeding up licensing or even doing fuel reprocessing raises safety and proliferation? Donald Trump: Yeah, we’re going to get it very fast and we’re going to get it very safe and we’re going to get the people in and out and they’re going to do plants. In many cases, they’ll do three or four smaller ones and put them together. That’s what France has done. France has done a good job of this for years and they, as I understand it, they had basically one plant, and if they needed more, they’d do three or four or five of them. Donald Trump: I don’t know we have to go that far, but there’s something about building one big one, but we’ll build the bigger ones too. We’re going to have – I think we’ll be – I would say we’ll be second to none because we’re starting very strong, but it’s time. It’s time for nuclear and we’re going to do it very big. Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, what about the European Union? You said the negotiations are going nowhere. Where are the kind of points – Donald Trump: [Inaudible] moving. I’ve been saying to everybody, they’ve treated us very badly over the years. It was formed in order to hurt the United States, in order to take advantage of the United States and they’ve done that. We have a big deficit with them. They sell millions and millions of cars, as you know, Mercedes and BMW and Volkswagen and many others. Donald Trump: And we were restricted from Ð essentially, restricted from selling cars into the European Union, which is not nice. And I just said, it’s time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game. They’ve taken advantage of other people representing this country and they’re not going to do that any longer. Donald Trump: Yeah? Question: Mr. President, you are deal maker, deal breaker, what are you hoping to achieve with a 50 percent tariffs on – Donald Trump: Well, I think this is – no, there is no tariff because what they’ll do is they’ll send their companies into the US and build their plant. You know, we have, I guess, over $ 12 trillion practically committed. You look at other presidents, they haven’t had $1 trillion for a year, for two years, for three years. Donald Trump: We have numbers – nobody’s ever seen numbers like we have and if they build their plant here, then they have no tariff at all. Question: Are you looking for a deal in nine days? Will you be able to do that, sir? Donald Trump: I’m not looking for a deal. I mean, we’ve set the deal, it’s at 50 percent. But again, there is no tariff if they build their plant here. Now, if somebody comes in and wants to build a plant here, I can talk to them about a little bit of a delay while they’re building their plant, which is something I think that would be appropriate, maybe. Donald Trump: We’ll determine that. Question: Is there anything they can do, sir? Is there anything that you can do? Donald Trump: I don’t know. We’re going to see what happens, but right now it’s going on in June 1st and that’s the way it is. No, they haven’t treated us properly. They haven’t treated our country properly. They banded together to take advantage of us, and the people behind me know because they had some of that with their industry. Donald Trump: But generally, we signed a great deal with United Kingdom. We have numerous other deals that are ready to be signed. We’ve signed a deal with China. We have some really amazing deals. But the European Union, I mean the sole purpose was really to, not to hurt us, but to take advantage of us and we’re not going to be taken advantage. Question: Mr. President, on Apple. On Apple, you said this morning that if they don’t make their iPhones in the US, you’re going to hit them with a 25 percent tariff. Donald Trump: Right. Question: Do you have the power to tear up one single company and why would you want to [Inaudible] an American company in that way? Donald Trump: It would be more. It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product? Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair. So anybody that makes that product and that will start on, I guess, the end of June it’ll come out. I think we have that appropriately done by the end of June. So if they make that product. Now, again, when they build their plant here, there’s no tariff, so they’re going to be building plants here. Donald Trump: But I had an understanding with Tim that he wouldn’t be doing this. He said he’s going to India to build plants. I said, that’s OK to go to India, but you’re not going to sell into here without tariffs. And that’s the way it is. Yeah. Question: What makes you confident, sir, that Apple can build in the United States at a price that American consumers [Inaudible] pay? Donald Trump: Oh, they can. They can. A lot of it’s so computerized now. These plants are amazing if you look at them, but they can do that. And actually, as you know, Apple’s coming in with $500 billion, so are the chip companies. We have all of the chip companies coming in, the biggest, $500 billion, $200 billion, $250 billion, they’re spending. Donald Trump: But we’re talking about the iPhone now and the iPhone, if they’re going to sell it in America, I want it to be built in the United States. They’re able to do that. Question: When you say that Walmart should eat the cost of the tariffs, is that an acknowledgment that it is US companies that bear the brunt of tariffs, not foreign countries? Donald Trump: No, no. Sometimes the country will eat it, sometimes Walmart will eat it and sometimes there will be something to pay, something extra. I’ve always been a fan and I’ve always believed, and if you look – take a look at what I did four years ago. We had the greatest economy and we had no inflation. Remember that? Donald Trump: We had no inflation and yet we had hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs that I put on China. Yet we had no inflation, we had no big cost differential. Oftentimes and I don’t like it when a department store – because they’ll do a lot of business. But they announce record profits and everything else. Donald Trump: They have to take out some of their profits and make a little bit less money, but I don’t want the consumer to pay. Question: But why impose tariffs that you know are hurting American businesses. Donald Trump: They’re not hurting, they’re helping because they’re creating jobs in America. We’re creating tremendous amounts of jobs in America like you’ve never seen. We’re having investment in America. We’re not getting ripped off by every country in the world. We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world. They’re making their product, they sell it, they don’t give our people the jobs. Donald Trump: They make them with other countries’ jobs and we will have something that nobody will ever see again, I think. I think we have a potential to do numbers that we never envisioned in the wildest – Look at what’s happening $10 trillion to $12 trillion in literally a couple of months. Nothing like that’s ever happened. Donald Trump: It’s a very special – we’re doing a very special thing. We want, if they’re going to sell it here, generally speaking – not for all products. There’s some products we don’t want to make, frankly. We’re much better off getting them elsewhere. But for certain products, cars, we want to make cars. We don’t want to have – and I like Canada very much, but we don’t want to have Canada making our cars. Donald Trump: We want to make our cars. Oh, it’s a phone call. Do you mind? Hello? OK. It’s only a Congressman. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: Who was it? Donald Trump: I’d let you know, actually. Yeah – Question: Are you considering stopping other universities from taking foreign students – Donald Trump: It’s a different Congressmen. They’re all congratulating us. Question: Is that an iPhone, sir? Donald Trump: Yeah. It’s lucky it is. OK. Let’s go. Question: Are you considering stopping other universities besides Harvard from accepting foreign students? Donald Trump: Well, we’re taking a look at a lot of things and as you know, billions of dollars has been paid to Harvard. How ridiculous is that, billions? And they have $52 billion as an endowment. They have $52 billion and this country is paying billions and billions of dollars and then give student loans and they have to pay back the loans. Donald Trump: So Harvard’s going to have to change its ways, and so are some others. Question: On that note, a lot of CEOs in the United States, big companies are foreign. What is that going to do – Donald Trump: I’m fine with that. No, I’m fine with it. No, we want to do that. We’re actually going to be doing something in the near future that’s going to make it possible for people to come into this country and come in and have a road toward citizenship. And I think it will be very exciting, but it’s too soon to speak. Note: [Crosstalk] Question: [Inaudible] the best and brightest from around the world to come to Harvard – Donald Trump: I do, I do, but a lot of the people need remedial math. Did you see that, where the students can’t add two and two and they go to Harvard? They want remedial math and they’re going to teach remedial math at Harvard. No, wait a minute. So why would they get in? How can somebody that can’t add or has very basic skills, how do they get into Harvard? Donald Trump: Why are they there? And then you see those same people picketing and screaming at the United States and screaming at – they’re anti-Semitic or they’re something. We don’t want troublemakers here. But how do people that can’t – when Harvard comes out with a statement that they’re going to teach some of their students [Inaudible] remedial math, that’s basic math, that’s not the deal, OK? Any more? Donald Trump: In the back. Question: Are there other countries you’re considering shortening the 90-day pause on tariffs for? And then are there specific steps you’re looking for the EU to take – Donald Trump: We do, but we have a lot of requests, and you don’t have the people to handle it, frankly. Everybody wants to make a deal. I’m sure now the European Union wants to make a deal very badly, but they just – they don’t do it right. They don’t go about it, right. The other thing they do is they sue our companies all the time. Donald Trump: They have suits where their judges – I don’t know if they’re appointed by them, but they’re definitely Europe centric and we’re not going to stand for it. They won a $17 billion lawsuit for Apple, and I read that case and that’s not a case that should have been won. They’re suing other of our companies. Donald Trump: They use this as a weapon, but they use it really to raise funds for what they do. It’s almost like a fund-raising mechanism. So, we add that to the fact that they do the non-monetary tariffs and lots of other trading. You would call them trading barriers. They don’t take our cars; they don’t take our agriculture; they don’t take anything, but we take their cars by the millions. Donald Trump: And therefore, they have the jobs, they get the money, and we get closed plants. Not going to happen that way anymore. Thank you very much, everybody.
Date: 2025-05-27
As the wonderful people of the Great State of Maine know, I did something for them, in particular the Fishing Industry, which everyone said was virtually impossible to do, or get done. I approved FULL Fishing Rights in the Ocean Waters, directly off the Coast of Maine, that were viciously taken away from them by the Obama/Biden Administration. They were not allowed to fish in those waters, and it would take them more than a day to get into areas, less fertile, where they were allowed to fish. In the meantime, Canada fished, and did very well in these formerly unrestricted areas. Immediately upon Sleepy Joe taking Office, his “AUTOPEN” rejected the Deal that I made for the people of Maine, greatly hurting the Fishermen and women. They call it a restricted “Environmental Monument,” an Ode to the Environmentalists doing everything they can to destroy our Country. In actuality, it was a punishment to the State by Obama/Biden. Additionally, I have done much for the wonderful Lumberjacks, who voted for me in great numbers. In fact, I won Maine-2, BIG. In any event, and as the World knows, I ended up winning the Election of 2024 in a LANDSLIDE, and am now working diligently to bring these valuable Fishing Rights back to Maine. Unfortunately, I have certain obstacles that only your Political Leaders can tell you about!
Date: 2025-05-27
I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation, but will cost ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State. They are considering the offer!
Date: 2025-05-29
Karoline Leavitt: Hello, everybody, how are you? Wow, a packed room today. Last night, the Trump administration faced another example of judicial overreach. Using his full and proper legal authority, President Trump imposed universal tariffs and reciprocal tariffs on Liberation Day to address the extraordinary threat to our national security and economy posed by large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits. Karoline Leavitt: The United States has run a trade deficit of goods every year since 1975. In 2024, our trade deficit in goods exceeded $1 trillion. Everybody agrees this is unacceptable. President Trump is delivering on his promise to fix this problem, and he has taken a long overdue and much needed bold stance for American workers after decades of our manufacturing base being hollowed out. Karoline Leavitt: The president’s rationale for imposing these powerful tariffs was legally sound and grounded in common sense. President Trump correctly believes that America cannot function safely long-term if we are unable to scale advanced domestic manufacturing capacity, have our own secure critical supply chains and our defense industrial base is dependent on foreign adversaries. Karoline Leavitt: Three judges of the US Court of International Trade disagreed and brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump to stop him from carrying out the mandate that the American people gave him. These judges failed to acknowledge that the president of the United States has core foreign affairs powers and authority given to him by Congress to protect the United States economy and national security. Karoline Leavitt: Congress had created the National Emergency Act to provide the Congressional framework to strike down improper IEEPA use, and any questions over whether President Trump improperly imposed these IEEPA tariffs were already adjudicated in Congress. Karoline Leavitt: Following Liberation Day, Congress firmly rejected an effort led by Senator Rand Paul and Democrats to terminate the president’s reciprocal tariffs. The courts should have no role here. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process. Karoline Leavitt: America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges. President Trump is in the process of rebalancing Americas trading agreements with the entire world, bringing tens of billions of dollars in tariff revenues to our country and finally ending the United States of America from being ripped off. Karoline Leavitt: These judges are threatening to undermine the credibility of the United States on the world stage. The administration has already filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal and an immediate administrative stay to strike down this egregious decision. But ultimately, the Supreme Court must put an end to this for the sake of our Constitution and our country. Karoline Leavitt: With Congress returning next week, it’s critical that Senate Republicans maintain the momentum and quickly pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill. The One Big, Beautiful Bill will truly make America safe and prosperous. The One Big, Beautiful Bill includes the largest border security investment ever. That’s why law enforcement groups are lining up to encourage its swift passage. Karoline Leavitt: The National Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the country, just endorsed key provisions of the bill. The FOP president announced their strong support saying the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act is more than legislation; it is a promise kept to the public safety officers across the country and a bold step toward an economy that respects, rewards and uplifts the people who keep it safe. Karoline Leavitt: And the National Border Patrol Council, which represents nearly 20,000 Border Patrol agents, hailed the legislation as well. The group’s president said this legislation provides a once-in-a-generation investment in the border security of our great country and will make America safer. The One Big, Beautiful Bill will guarantee we can permanently have the safest, strongest and most secure immigration system in American history. Karoline Leavitt: I also want to take the opportunity to debunk some false claims that have been circulating in the press about this bill. The blatantly wrong claim that the One Big, Beautiful Bill increases the deficit is based on the Congressional Budget Office and other scorekeepers who use shoddy assumptions and have historically been terrible at forecasting across Democrat and Republican administrations alike. Karoline Leavitt: For example, just before Congress enacted the original Trump tax cuts at the end of 2017, the same CBO projected that growth would average a mere 1.9 percent over the next 10 years. However, by 2019, actual growth had surged to 3.4 percent once the Trump tax cuts went into effect, exceeding the CBO forecast by nearly 2 full percentage points. Karoline Leavitt: The CBOs latest forecast makes the same anemic growth assumptions as they did in 2017, missing the impact of the One Big, Beautiful Bill. The CBO assumes long-term GDP growth of an anemic 1.8 percent and that is absurd. The American economy is going to boom like never before after the One Big, Beautiful Bill is passed. Karoline Leavitt: The largest middle class tax cut in history, massive deregulation and the most aggressive domestic energy exploration ever will fuel small businesses, further boost private investment, increase workers’ wages and supercharge economic growth. The Council of Economic Advisers has factored in the effects of all these pro-growth policies and estimated in their own analysis that growth will average 3 percent in the long run after the One Big, Beautiful Bill is passed, which is nearly double the ridiculous CBO projection. Karoline Leavitt: This higher growth would result in $4.1 trillion in additional revenue over the next 10 years. Between the commonsense spending reforms contained in the One Big, Beautiful Bill and the robust economic growth that will be generated as a result of it, there will be no increase to the deficit. The same analysis from the CEA shows just how this historic package will unleash prosperity and ignite a blue-collar boom across America. Karoline Leavitt: But if the radical Democrats get their way and the One Big, Beautiful Bill does not pass, Americans will face a whopping $4 trillion tax hike. This is unacceptable to President Trump. President Trump will not allow Democrats to massively raise Americans’ taxes. Senate Republicans must get this bill passed. Karoline Leavitt: Failure is not an option, the American people are counting us on us, on Republicans, to deliver. In other news, despite all the doom casting from the media, Americans are growing more and more optimistic about the economy under this president. Consumer confidence surged in May with the biggest monthly jump in four years, smashing expectations. Karoline Leavitt: According to the release from the Consumer Confidence Index, the increase in confidence was broad based across all age groups, income groups and political affiliations. Our country is clearly heading in the right direction under President Trump’s bold leadership. For the first time in history of Rasmussen polling, a majority of Americans believe the country is on the right track. Karoline Leavitt: It’s unsurprising because the president is fulfilling the promises he made to the American people. Here in our new media seat today, we have the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist, Mollie Hemingway. The Federalist is led by Mollie and Sean Davis and provides fearless journalism and coverage of politics and culture to millions of readers all over the world. Karoline Leavitt: Thank you for being here, Mollie. And why don’t you please kick us off? Question: Thank you, Karoline. In the first Trump administration, there was an effort to stymie the agenda of Trump through the Russia collusion hoax perpetuated by many people in the media including some people seated here or the media outlets they represent and other Democrats as well. The second Trump administration, to reference what you said at the beginning, seems to be subject to an effort to stymie the agenda using rogue lower court judges. Question: You mentioned that the Supreme Court could and should do something to rein in these lower court judges, also Congress could do something about it, but they don’t seem terribly interested in it. It also seems there’s not much of an actual coordinated effort from this White House to take and tackle this effort from judges, Democrats and other people using these judges to stymie the agenda. Question: Is there an actual effort by this White House to tackle this issue in a comprehensive way? And if so, what is it? Karoline Leavitt: There is an effort by this administration to tackle these rogue judges and the injunctions and the blockades that we have faced in our broken judicial system in every case. I mean, we have seen time and time again these lower district court judges ruling against this administration and the president’s executive authority and powers. Karoline Leavitt: And this administration is fighting every single one of those battles in court, including already the block that came down from the tariff court, the IEEPA court last night. And on my way out here to the briefing room, I understand that there was another district court judge right here in Washington, DC who ruled against the president’s tariff power. Karoline Leavitt: And I will get to the heart of your question, and I’m glad that we are addressing this in the room today, because nationwide injunctions ordered against the first Trump administration, Trump 1.0, account for more than half of the injunctions issued in this country since 1963. And President Trump had more injunctions in one full month of office in February than Joe Biden had in three years. Karoline Leavitt: And let me roll through some of these radical injunctions to paint the picture for the American people at home. These are not just talking points. These are real judges in the court of law who are trying to block the president’s power and the policies that he was elected to enact. For example, a court ordered the Trump administration to return already deported terrorist aliens back to the United States. Karoline Leavitt: A court has ruled the Trump administration can’t even temporarily pause our refugee programs. Courts prohibited the Trump administration from eliminating federal funding for child transgender surgery and mutilation, a practice that the American people overwhelmingly reject. A court also held that the Trump administration could not ban people experiencing gender dysphoria or mental health issues from serving in the military. Karoline Leavitt: Ridiculous. Courts prohibited the removal of transgender women from women’s prisons despite potential physical harm to real women in those prisons, biological women. A Northern District of California judge issued an absurd ruling that the president cannot fire people within the executive branch without Congress passing a bill, even though Congress has expressly authorized the president through the Office of Personnel Management to authorize reductions in force across agencies. Karoline Leavitt: A court also ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of already fired employees. In several cases, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from defunding the Department of Education, another signature campaign promise that this president has the power to implement. Courts ordered the Trump administration could not eliminate funding for illegal DEI programs, hence the word illegal. Karoline Leavitt: These are illegal programs to begin with and now the courts are trying to say this president can’t roll them back. And a district court judge prohibited the president from issuing any categorical funding freezes. And then another court ordered on top of that the administration makes $2 billion of payments in 36 hours. Karoline Leavitt: These are just a few of the ridiculous orders that we have seen from lower district court judges every day and we hope that the Supreme Court will weigh in and rein them in. Question: But White House Adviser Stephen Miller, says it’s judicial tyranny, some people are calling it a judicial coup. You’re saying you’re responding to each and every one of these actions, efforts by these judges to delay or thwart the implementation of the agenda. But is there going to be anything more than that or is it just going to let this operation continue even though it could delay everything for years until the presidency is over? Karoline Leavitt: The administration is operating under the directive given from the president that we need to comply with the court’s orders. He’s made that very clear, but we’re going to fight them in court. And we’re going to win on the merits of these cases because we know we are acting within the president’s legal and executive authorities. Karoline Leavitt: And thanks for being here. Gabe. Question: Thank you, Karoline. A question on tariffs, but first actually some foreign policy news, some breaking news. Some local Israeli Media is reporting that Prime Minister Netanyahu told hostage families that he’s accepted a 60-day truce offer. So can you confirm, have Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce? Karoline Leavitt: I can confirm that Special Envoy Witkoff and the president submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed and supported. Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas. I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home, and that’s been a priority from this administration from the beginning. Karoline Leavitt: I won’t comment further as we are in the midst of this right now. Question: So to be clear, you don’t know if Hamas has accepted it yet? Karoline Leavitt: Not to my knowledge, but certainly if that becomes the case and this ceasefire goes into effect, you’ll hear it directly from myself, the president or Special Envoy Witkoff. Question: And on tariffs, Kevin Hassett earlier this morning, he brushed off the legal ruling, called it a hiccup and he said that trade deal negotiations would continue. Why would other countries continue these trade deal negotiations given the rule? Karoline Leavitt: Because other countries around the world have faith in the negotiator in chief, President Donald J. Trump, and they also probably see how ridiculous this ruling is and they understand that the administration is going to win and we intend to win. We already filed an emergency appeal. We expect to fight this battle all the way to the Supreme Court. Karoline Leavitt: These other countries should also know and they do know that the president reserves other tariff authorities, Section 232, for example, to ensure that America’s interests are being restored around the world. But I can confirm that our Ambassador for Trade Jamieson Greer, already heard from countries around the world this morning, who said they intend to continue with these negotiations. Karoline Leavitt: Peter? Question: Thank you, Karoline. So many of the president’s plans right now are being blocked by courts. Karoline Leavitt: That’s true. Question: If the courts are going to be the ones who are shaping policy, does the president wish he would have just become a judge instead? Karoline Leavitt: I think the president would take this job over being a judge and certainly the president is acting within his authority. He wishes judges would do the same. Question: But so the courts are basically telling you guys, they think that the White House’s policies, the president’s policies are in some way against the law. So why can’t President Trump ask the Republicans that control the House and the Republicans that control the Senate, just to make a new law? Karoline Leavitt: Well, these laws have already been granted to the president by the Constitution and by laws that have been previously passed. I’ll give you another example. For instance, we’ve been blocked in court for the revocation of visas from individuals who have the privilege of studying in the United States of America. Karoline Leavitt: Secretary of State Rubio has simply used his authority to revoke those visas, to revoke that privilege, and we’ve seen the courts try to block that. So if these judges want to be the secretary of state or they want to be the president, they can run for office themselves. It should be the other way around. Karoline Leavitt: But all of the actions the president has taken rely on legal authorities that have already been granted to him by our nation’s existing laws. Question: And on a different topic, there are some folks in President Biden’s inner circle who are now in talks with Republicans in Congress to give interviews about how they may have handled President Biden’s decline. Is the president satisfied with aides only sitting for these transcribed interviews or would he also like to see some kind of testimony from the former First Lady, Dr. Biden? Karoline Leavitt: I think, frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak up about what she saw in regards to her husband and when she saw it and what she knew, because I think anybody looking, again, at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with your own eyes and a little bit of common sense can see this was a clear cover up and Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that cover up. There’s documentation video evidence of her clearly shielding her husband away from the cameras. Karoline Leavitt: They were just on The View last week. She was saying everything is fine. She’s still lying to the American people. She still thinks the American public are so stupid that they’re going to believe her lies. And frankly, it’s insulting and she needs to answer for it. Weja. Question: Thank you, Karoline. President Trump was asked what he thought about Elon Musk’s claim that the Big, Beautiful Bill increases the budget deficit and undermines the work of DOGE, and the president didn’t actually comment on those remarks. He just talked about the need to support the bill. So what does the president think about what Elon Musk said? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president is very proud of the One Big, Beautiful Bill and he wants to see it pass. He wants the Senate to get to work on it and send it to his desk as quickly as possible. Of course, as you know, Elon Musk announced last night his departure as an official special government employee from the Trump administration. Karoline Leavitt: We thank him for his service. We thank him for getting DOGE off of the ground and the efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse will continue. Rachel. Question: So he doesn’t have any comment about Musk saying it adds to the deficit and it undermines all his work? Karoline Leavitt: The president commented on this. I commented on it. I told you that this bill saves $1.6 trillion, according to the council of economic advisors and the analyzes that the president believes in. So he gave a comment. I gave a comment. Just because you don’t like that comment, doesn’t mean it’s not a comment. Karoline Leavitt: Rachel. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Back on trade. I know you said the White House is going to fight this ruling in court. Is the administration actively reviewing other avenues, other options to carry out the president’s trade policy? Karoline Leavitt: The president’s trade policy will continue. We will comply with the court orders, but yes, the president has other legal authorities where he can implement tariffs. However, it does not dispute the fact that the president was right to declare a national emergency when it came to fentanyl, and also when it came to our crippling deficits and the lack of critical supply chains here at home. Karoline Leavitt: That is the reasoning for the president’s tariffs. And the court didn’t dispute those facts, by the way. And there have been other courts that have reaffirmed the president’s position. In fact, a ruling in federal court earlier this month shows that the administration is in the right, said we will win on appeal. Karoline Leavitt: A federal district judge in Florida ruled that EPA in fact does grant the president the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs. And 20 years ago, I will add, though they are not a court, the New York Times editorial board responded to the January 20th, 2005 trade deficit of $58.3 billion by writing an editorial entitled Dangerous Deficits. Karoline Leavitt: And since then, our trade deficit has more than doubled. The US trade deficit in January totaled a whopping $131.4 billion. So people on both sides of the aisle, pundits, lawyers, legal scholars, politicians have all agreed that it is a national emergency, our trade deficits and our lack of critical supply chains here at home. Karoline Leavitt: It’s just President Trump was the first president to actually act on it, to restore that wealth and that prosperity to the United States of America, and it’s very unfortunate that the courts are now blocking his attempts to do that. Josh. Question: So has the administration then reached the point where you are actually asking your economic advisers to start reviewing other avenues to implement the president’s trade policy or do you want to just see this legal process take place for now? Karoline Leavitt: We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We are doing both. Josh. Question: The fed says that the president met with the fed chair earlier today. Wondering if you could give us any readout of that meeting. The fed also says that they discussed the economy. I imagine the president might have shared views on rates as well, but what can you share on this? Karoline Leavitt: Sure. I can share with you that we saw – the president and I both saw the statement that the fed put out after the meeting. That statement is correct. However, the president did say that he believes the fed chair is making a mistake by not lowering interest rates, which is putting us at an economic disadvantage to China and other countries. Karoline Leavitt: And the president’s been very vocal about that, both publicly and now I can reveal privately as well. Question: Did he speak at all about his plans for that position, about whether he would seek to move Jay Powell out of that position or keep him in until his term ends? Karoline Leavitt: No. Kristine. Question: OK. Can I ask very quickly on the tariff question? You mentioned Section 232 earlier. Are you suggesting that you might sort of speed up some of the existing 232 investigations – Karoline Leavitt: No. Question: – or are you talking potentially using 232 as a replacement power if this ruling doesn’t go your way? Of course, you hope it does. Karoline Leavitt: I’m not suggesting that. I’m just simply stating the fact that the president has other legal authorities, he can use to implement tariffs and the administration is willing to use those. As you know, we already have applied Section 232 tariffs on specific industries. Question: Thank you. Karoline Leavitt: Yeah. Thank you. Question: Yesterday, President Trump said that he needed one and a half to two weeks to determine whether or not he believed Vladimir Putin wanted peace. He has been in office now for four months. What does he believe is going to happen in the next one and a half to two weeks that would change his opinion? Karoline Leavitt: Well, it is my understanding and it is our hope that Russia and Ukraine will engage in direct talks and negotiations next week in Istanbul. And we believe that meeting is going to take place. And that is a meeting the president encouraged and urged, for these two sides to come together and negotiate directly. Karoline Leavitt: And the president has been clear from the very beginning of this conflict that he wants to see this conflict solved on the negotiating table, not on the battlefield. And he’s told that to both leaders, again both publicly and privately. So, hopefully next week it will move the ball forward in this effort. Question: Is the United States going to participate in those conversations? Karoline Leavitt: We will let you know if the president plans to send a representative. I’m not tracking that at this time. Kelly, in the back. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: I wanted to just clarify once and for all, the Qatari jet, the sale or the gift. Because the Qatari government is asking the US to clarify that the jets pending transfer was initiated by the Trump administration. So is this something that the White House is going to do? Karoline Leavitt: The amount of questions we’ve received and we’ve been incredibly clear and I have answered this, the president has answered this, the Department of Defense has answered this. This is a government to government gift transfer from the Qataris to the Department of Defense, to the United States Air Force. It is now in their hands. Karoline Leavitt: And for further details on where that stands, I would defer you to the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force. I have nothing more for you on that. Deanna. Question: Thanks, Karoline. Two questions, one on the Big, Beautiful Bill, one on immigration. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Yesterday, Trump said we will be negotiating that bill and I’m not happy about certain aspects of it, but I’m thrilled by other aspects of it. Wondering if you could share any specifics on that. And on immigration, do you know how many illegal migrants have taken Trump’s voucher program so far and have deported themselves? Karoline Leavitt: I believe it’s in the thousands of those who have chosen the way – the easier route of self-deportation, and we certainly encourage all illegal aliens who are present within our homeland to take that option. It’s a much more pleasant option than being deported and we will deport you if you’re here illegally, that’s our intention. Karoline Leavitt: As for the first question, what the president was speaking about is how this is a great bill. However, it has come as a result of a hard negotiation. It’s difficult to get things done on Capitol Hill, but thanks to President Trump, this bill is moving in the right direction. And thanks to House Republicans and the leadership over there as well, who did a great job mediating both sides of the caucus to move this bill to the Senate. Karoline Leavitt: And now the president again has told his friends in the Senate side and is already engaged in those conversations to get that bill back to his desk as soon as possible. Sure. Question: Thank you. Has this administration been briefed about the incident that happened in Gaza on Tuesday during the rollout of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution of aid to Palestinians there? And should there be a ceasefire, will this administration continue to rely on this foundation for the distribution of aid to civilians? Karoline Leavitt: Are you referring – what incident are you referring to? When the aid was rolled out to Gaza for the first time in many months and meals and food was given to hungry people thanks to President Trump? Yes, we were briefed on that plan. The president was the reason that that aid went into Gaza, and he got the Israelis to support that plan. Karoline Leavitt: And I would add that the previous administration rejected such a plan to ensure that these starving and devastated people in the Gaza Strip were given humanitarian aid and assistance. And it was the previous administration that tried to build this pier, if you all remember it. It was brought to my attention this morning and I thought that’s a good point, why don’t I bring that up? Because there’s been so much criticism. Karoline Leavitt: In fact, it was on the front page of a newspaper this morning about the criticism for this president having a humanitarian heart and giving people badly needed food and supplies. Nobody wanted to talk about how the previous administration failed in that endeavor. They built this pier that cost $230 million. Karoline Leavitt: It lasted about 20 days, and more than 60 US service members were injured – or I’m sorry, service members were injured as a part of this floating aid pier that did nothing for the people of Gaza. The president is opening up his humanitarian heart to get aid into the region while his team simultaneously negotiates a ceasefire and the return of all hostages. Karoline Leavitt: We are moving the ball forward in a positive direction for all people. The president wants to see peace for all people. Jasmine. Question: Thanks so much, Karoline. A notice investigation found that the Hallmark MAHA Commission report that was released last week cites studies that appear to not exist. We know that because in part we reached out to some of the listed authors who said that they didn’t write the studies cited. So, I want to ask, does the White House have confidence that the information coming from HHS can be trusted? Karoline Leavitt: Yes. We have complete confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his team at HHS. I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed, and the report will be updated, but it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the Federal government. Karoline Leavitt: It is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the Federal government. Question: And a quick follow up. Can you talk about what tools or research goes into production of these kinds of reports? For instance, is it AI that’s used to put together these reports now? Karoline Leavitt: I can’t speak to that. I would defer you to the Department of Health and Human Services. What I know is just what I told you. Lindsey. Question: Thank you, Karoline. Many small businesses that we’ve talked to since the tariffs have been in place have said what would really help them is a long-term plan so that they can catch up. In light of what’s happened now, this trade war with the courts, how will that impact this 90-day window? Will you guys be adjusting that? Question: And how can you help relieve some of these small businesses? Karoline Leavitt: Well, I would say nobody understands the needs of business owners and nobody has the backs of our small business community more than President Donald J. Trump. He believes, I’ve heard him talk about this with small business owners himself, that small businesses are truly the backbone of our American economy. Karoline Leavitt: And that’s why the president is supporting the One Big, Beautiful Bill. So, for those you spoke to who are asking for a long-term plan, big tax cuts are coming their way – no tax on tips, no tax on overtime for their workers, more money in their pockets. Their bottom lines will be larger; they can pay their people more. Karoline Leavitt: Wages are going to go up; inflation will continue to come down. We’ve already seen energy prices plummeting as a result of this president’s economic and energy agenda that he has been implementing across the federal government, reducing burdensome regulation. All of that is good news for small business owners across the country. Karoline Leavitt: That’s why they strongly support the president and that’s the Trump economic plan that is underway. And again, you’re emphasizing, I believe, the need to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill and the president wants to see that happen. Sure. Question: Will you still work within that 90-day window for these trade negotiations [Inaudible] Karoline Leavitt: Again, as far as we’re concerned, our trade agenda is moving forward, and we’ve already heard from countries around the world today who will continue to negotiate in good faith with the United States so we can cut good trade deals on behalf of the American people. And we fully expect to win this case in court. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Thanks, Karoline. On Golden Dome, the president put out this number of $61 billion. How did he arrive at that? Is that the number it will cost to protect Canada? And is it negotiable or where did it come from? Karoline Leavitt: I can certainly ask the president, and I can check in with our research team and we’ll get you the facts on that number. But the Golden Dome is certainly a significant investment in our nation’s national security and homeland security to protect Americans, all of you in this room, from future threats. Question: Have the Canadians been talking in good faith about paying to be in it? I know they’ve expressed some interest. Karoline Leavitt: Well, the president has certainly expressed to the Canadians how we are essentially subsidizing their national defense. He brought it up in his meeting with their new leader here. And as you know, we’ll be traveling to Canada next month for the G7. So, I expect that topic of discussion to come up on that trip as well. Karoline Leavitt: Sure. Question: Hi, Thanks, Karoline. There was a May Day USA rally in Seattle that happened over the weekend that devolved into some protests and riots. The Seattle Mayor Harrell said that it was a far-right rally held here to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, which he defined as LGBT values. Question: I know the FBI is looking into this, but that has the president reached out to the mayor at all, asked him to apologize for this? And is this something that the administration would consider an example of anti-Christian bias? Karoline Leavitt: I’m not aware of that case. I know the FBI is looking into it, but I’m not aware of any phone calls the president may or may not have made to the mayor of that city. Question: And then on DOGE, we know that Elon Musk is leaving. Do you have an updated leadership structure for who is leading the group? Is [Inaudible] involved and what is its new mission now, if any? Karoline Leavitt: Well, the entire cabinet is involved. And I spoke to the president about it this morning and the entire cabinet understands the need to cut government waste, fraud and abuse. And each cabinet secretary at their respective agencies is committed to that. That’s why they were working hand in hand with Elon Musk. Karoline Leavitt: And they’ll continue to work with the respective DOGE employees who have onboarded as political appointees at all of these agencies. So, surely the mission of DOGE will continue, and many DOGE employees are now political appointees and employees of our government. And to the best of my knowledge, all of them intend to stay and continue this important work. Question: Is there a DOGE leader taking the place of Mr. Musk? Karoline Leavitt: Well, again, the DOGE leaders are each and every member of the president’s cabinet and the president himself, who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government. Michael? Question: Thank you, Karoline. There are conflicting reports out of the Middle East right now. Saudi television network, Al Arabia, is saying that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 60-day ceasefire. Sources with Hamas are saying that has not been agreed to. If and when that does happen, will we expect to hear something from President Trump announcing that? Karoline Leavitt: As I said earlier, yes, indeed, if there is an announcement to be made, it will come from the White House, the president, myself or special envoy Witkoff. Question: Finally, Karoline, One Big, Beautiful Bill, the president says he’s not happy with all aspects of it. What changes would he like to see be made? And can this bill be both big and beautiful? Karoline Leavitt: It is a One Big, Beautiful Bill as the name rings true. And the president, as I said, is currently working with his friends in the Senate who have some recommendations for the bill. Those negotiations and discussions are continuing, but the president’s ultimate priority is to get this bill back to his desk for signature. Karoline Leavitt: And the president’s priorities in this bill are non-negotiable in terms of the tax priorities he wants to see. And the large tax cuts and the border investments that are currently in this bill, he is not going to allow them to go away for the American people. Sure, go ahead. Question: Yes, I wanted to ask you about has the president spoken to any of these foreign leaders about these agreements that have been reached specifically in the case of the United Kingdom that already has an agreement in place after this decision of the court in New York? Karoline Leavitt: Has the president talked to foreign leaders about what? Question: About the court decision in New York? Karoline Leavitt: Which court decision in New York? Question: Trade, the trade court. Karoline Leavitt: Oh, the trade court decision. He did speak to the leader of Japan this morning and he said that was a very good call and a good discussion. And as I said, the president’s cabinet, Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Bessant and Ambassador Jamieson Greer, have all been in touch with their counterparts in countries around the world to let them know the United States will still be at the negotiating table. Karoline Leavitt: And we still expect countries around the world to treat us fairly. Again, I will just close by saying that how ridiculous it is that we have been ripped off. Our middle class has been hollowed out. Our manufacturing base has left and gone overseas. Jobs have been offshored and now, no court did anything about that. Karoline Leavitt: No court did anything about hundreds of thousands of people being put out of work, about thousands of factories being closed down, about our deficits going to dangerous levels, as The New York Times has said. But now a court is trying to stop a president from trying to correct those wrongs of the past, and this administration will continue to do that. Karoline Leavitt: It’s a promise the president made to the American people and it’s a promise they elected him on. We will win this battle in court and the president will implement his America First trade policies. Thank you, everyone. Question: [Inaudible] US steel situation tomorrow, the speech? Karoline Leavitt: I can tell you the president greatly looks forward to going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he will discuss this historic deal and discuss American jobs and American steel and we hope to see you all there. Thanks, guys. Question: [Inaudible] congressional authority on tariffs? Question: Thanks, Karoline.
Date: 2025-05-30
Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much for being here. It’s an honor to be with Elon, who’s my friend and he’s done a fantastic job. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need it, and we find out government is a little nasty on occasion. Hello, Peter? Elon Musk: Yeah, at times. Question: Hello, President Trump. Donald Trump: Government’s a little bit nasty, Peter. You haven’t noticed that. You’ve had a charmed life, right? Question: You tell me. Donald Trump: Very charmed. I think you’ve had a charmed life. I think what I’ll do, if you don’t mind, numbers have just come out, which are rather extraordinary. And I thought I’d play a tape of one of the people who I’ve respected over the years from, you know, Joe Kernen and Rick Santelli. This just came out and we’ll just play that for a second. Note: [Begin video clip] Rick Santelli: [Video clip] Personal income is up 8/10 – up 8/10 of a percent. That is almost triple the expectations – Note: [Crosstalk] Rick Santelli: [Video clip] The income, the income numbers really for the first four months of the year, they’re stellar. They’re really stellar. I mean, I could go back and look at the first four months of many different years, really very strong numbers. Rick Santelli: [Video clip] And you’re right, this administration is criticized for just about everything under the sun. I’ve never ever in my lifetime had glimpses into the politics of an administration in the form of transparency like this one. Why don’t we give credit where credit is due, income really shooting up. Joe Kernen: [Video clip] Rick, I also thought everybody was going to get one last order of imports that were going to be tariffed and they were loading up on things. How the hell did they – how did they hell they already fixed the trade – or not fix it, but to cut it in half, that’s crazy. So, there wasn’t a lot of front loading of things that they needed before the tariffs hit? Rick Santelli: [Video clip] Yeah, I’ll tell you what, it really does call into question some of the conventional wisdom. And you know, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next month when we get this number or we see some of the other numbers like current accounts, see how they fared, because, I don’t know, I’ve been watching these numbers a long time, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the trade deficit cut in half in one month. Note: [End video clip] Donald Trump: Not bad, not bad. Elon Musk: Come on guys. Donald Trump: Thank you. I see Howard and Scott are here, so it’s great. You guys want to stand over here? You might as well, you’re the ones that helped reduce those numbers. And it’ll only get better. The tariffs are so important and that’s why we were so happy with the decision yesterday where the tariffs continue. Donald Trump: Because without the tariffs our nation would be imperiled. We would really be imperiled, I think I can say that with great surety, Scott and Howard. And so, we were very happy to get that decision, that big decision yesterday. And today, it’s about a man named Elon, and he’s one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced. Donald Trump: He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation, and we appreciate it. And I just want to say that Elon has worked tirelessly, helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations. And you know the kinds of things that he’s found and his people have found. Donald Trump: He’s brought a group of very smart people in, and they found things that are pretty unbelievable. Donald Trump: I have to say that the numbers that we’re talking about are substantial, but they’re going to be very much more substantial with time because many of the things that we’re working on right now, we’re going to have to remember, Elon, as we find them, but the numbers could double and triple because many, many things we don’t want to go out with them until we’re sure. Donald Trump: But we’ve found things that are unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad with the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon’s delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington. DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people and computers. Donald Trump: I actually asked Elon one time, what’s their primary thing, and they have a lot of primary things, all having to do with being smart. But he said the thing that they’re really the best at is working with computers so that they can’t be outsmarted by somebody that’s not so honest that happens to also be good with computers, but not as good as these people. Donald Trump: But the mindset of the senior ranks of every federal department, it’s really changed. And with Elon’s guidance, they’re helping to detect fraud slash waste and modernize broken and outdated systems. So as you know, we’re talking about various systems and changing systems. And sadly, it takes a long time to do that. Donald Trump: You’ll change, let’s say, a system at IRS and computerize it properly where the job could be done in one tenth the time, but it takes sometimes years to rebuild those systems. But we’ve started – in many cases, we’ve started. I will say that, this has less to do with Elon, but the air traffic control systems, we’re bidding out to the best companies in the world. Donald Trump: Those systems right now, they were – the previous administration was horrible, what they did. They spent billions and billions of dollars and in the end, it didn’t even come close to working. They tried to hook up wire to copper and it can’t be done and they just spent billions of dollars and just wasted money, actually made the system much worse. Donald Trump: So we’re going to get a brand-new modern system. Congress is working with us on that, and we’re going to get it done as quickly as we can, but it’s in the works. And once it’s done, it’ll be good for 30 years. But we have a system that’s 48 years old and would have a modern computer hooked into a very outdated computer and they don’t hook up. I mean, they didn’t hook up. So after spending billions of dollars, they turned on the system and never any cases from local to countrywide, they never worked. Donald Trump: More than 75,000 bureaucrats have voluntarily left their taxpayer funded jobs to come out and really do the do the job. Countless wasteful and unnecessary contracts have been terminated and you know that we have terminated many, many contracts and many contracts, Elon, are right now being looked at and it may be six months, it may be almost a year in some cases. Donald Trump: We’re going through procedures. We’re going through courts and we’ll remember you as we announce billions of dollars of extra waste, fraud and abuse. Just as an example, DOGE canceled $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education, $101 million, and that was just a small section of the Department of Education. $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City. Donald Trump: And the landlord never made the kind of money that he made in the last short period of time, $59 million to a hotel in New York City. $45 million for diversity equity and Inclusion scholarships in Burma, in Burma. Does anyone know about Burma? $42 million for social and behavioral change in Uganda. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Donald Trump: I can say, it’s $2 billion to Stacey Abrams and her environmental movement. There was $100 in the account and all of a sudden, they found $2 billion in the account. And I assume that’s being looked at. I don’t know. I’m not sure, but I assume that’s being looked at. Think of that, $2 billion. And then, Lee will tell you there’s another one over there for $20 billion being spent on another environmental – $20 billion, not $20 million, a lot, not $200,000, which is a lot. Donald Trump: So think of it, in her case, you have $100 and now all of a sudden, she gets hit with an infusion of $2 billion just before I take office. $20 million for Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East. Nobody knows what that’s all about. Nobody’s been able to find it. $8 million for making mice transgender. So they spend $8 million on making mice transgender. Donald Trump: And those are better than many of the others. I could sit here all day and read things just like that, but we have other things to do. So it’s much, much more than just that. We’re totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste in the months to come. We want to get our great big, beautiful bill finished and done. Donald Trump: After that, we’re going to be – we put some of this into the bill, but most of it’s going to come later. We’re going to have it cauterized by Congress, affirmed by Congress. In some cases, we’ll make cuts. In some cases, we’ll just use it in a different layer to save the money. But it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. Donald Trump: DOGE has also fully modernized the federal retirement process and continues to work very hard on the IRS modernization. But we’re taking that over with DOGE. Many of the DOGE people, Elon, are staying behind too, so they’re not leaving. And Elon is really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling. Donald Trump: It’s his baby and I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things. But Elon’s service to America has been without comparison in modern history. He’s already running one of the most innovative car companies in the world. You look at his factories and compare them with some of the old factories we have, and it’s a big difference. Donald Trump: And the most successful space company in, I guess in history, you would have to say, the largest free speech platform on the internet, etc. Yet, Elon willingly, with all of the success, he willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks because he does love our country. I know that very much. Donald Trump: He loves our country. He comes from another country, a country that’s going through trials and tribulations, I would say, but he’s all about the USA and Americans owe him a great debt of gratitude. So I just want to thank Elon for his time as special government employee. Can you imagine, call him an employee, but it’s a special government employee, and for coming and helping us. And he really has changed the mindset of a lot of people. Donald Trump: A lot of people thought, maybe we’ll cut one percent or two percent or three percent. Then they said, wow, we can cut a lot more than that and we’re going to do it very surgically. We’re going to continue on the march. We’re making America great again. When I was in Saudi Arabia and we were in, as you know, three really great countries, predominantly the three – Qatar was great. Donald Trump: UAE was great. Saudi Arabia incredible. It’s such an incredible experience to be in those three countries. But the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and I must tell you the leaders, the great leaders of the other two that we just mentioned, they all said the same thing, that the United States is the hottest country right now, anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: And six months ago, we thought it was dead. It was like a dead country and it would have been a dead country if we didn’t have the right result on November 5th. It would have been a horrible, horrible situation was going on, with the borders, with transgender for everyone, men playing in women’s sports and so much more. Donald Trump: But they were saying, the hottest country anywhere in the world and then I play that little clip because that was one person who’s respected. But there were two people because Joe was in that one too. Joe’s a good man, but that was one group of people saying something about the success of what we’ve done over the last four months. Donald Trump: They cannot believe it. In the one case, they said they’ve never seen anything like it as long as they’ve been doing what they’ve been doing. They’ve been doing it for a long time. So I want to thank Elon for helping. And again, the United States right now is the hottest country anywhere in the world. There’s no country as hot and we’re doing really well. Donald Trump: When I left, we had no wars. We had no problems. We defeated ISIS. We rebuilt our military and we had no inflation. And when I came back, we had a lot of inflation. We had wars all over the place. We had the embarrassment in Afghanistan, where we gave up billions and billions of dollars of military equipment, the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, I believe. Donald Trump: I believe that strongly. We have Russia with Ukraine. We had the attack on Israel in October, the horrible attack, October 7th, horrible, horrible attack. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And now we have something where we’re really healing a lot of that. We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe that could have turned out into a nuclear disaster and I want to thank the leaders of India and the leaders of Pakistan and I want to thank my people also. Donald Trump: We talked trade and we said we can’t trade with people that are shooting at each other and potentially using nuclear weapons. And they’re great leaders in those countries and they understood, and they agreed and that all stopped. And we’re stopping others from fighting also, because ultimately, we can fight better than anybody. Donald Trump: We have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest leaders in the world. We put one of them in charge of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as you know, General Razin Caine. And we wiped out ISIS, completely wiped-out ISIS in three weeks. They said it would take five years, and we did it in three weeks. Donald Trump: And that’s the way it is. But we don’t want to have to use our military. We want to be peace through strength when we can, and that’s the way we’re going to have it. So, I just want to thank Elon and all of his people. Most of those people are staying. Almost all of them are staying and they’re going to be with us, and you’re going to see the results coming long into the future. Donald Trump: Even a year and two years later, you’re going to see a lot of the results and those hundreds of billions of dollars are going to be adding up and they’re going to continue to add. It’ll be interesting, really interesting to see what the final number is going to be. But again, Elon gave an incredible service, nobody like him. Donald Trump: And he had to go through the slings and the arrows, which is a shame because he’s an incredible patriot. The good news is that 90 percent of the country knows that and they appreciate it and they really appreciate what he did. And I gave him a little special something we have here. Elon Musk: Thank you. Donald Trump: A very special – that I give to very special people. I have given it to some, but it goes to very special people and I thought I’d give it to Elon as a presentation from our country. Elon Musk: Thank you. Donald Trump: Thank you, Elon. Take care of yourself . Elon Musk: Thank you. You can see the lock. The lock on this is amazing. Donald Trump: A large lock. Elon Musk: Well, let me say perhaps a few words, that this is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning. My time as a special government employee necessarily had to end. It was a limited time thing. It’s 134 days, I believe, which ends in a few days. So, you know, it comes with a time limit. But the DOGE team will only grow stronger over time. Elon Musk: The DOGE influence will only grow stronger. I liken it to a sort of Buddhism. It’s like a way of life. So, it is permeating throughout the government and I’m confident that, over time, we’ll see $1 trillion of savings and a reduction in – $1 trillion of waste and fraud reduction. The calculations of the DOGE team thus far, in terms of an FY25 to FY26 delta, are over $160 billion and that’s climbing. Elon Musk: We expect that number will probably go over $200 billion soon. So, I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job. They’re going to continue doing an incredible job and I’ll continue to be visiting here and be a friend and advisor to the president. And I look forward to, you know, times being back in this amazing room. Elon Musk: By the way, isn’t this incredible? This incredible – I mean, it’s stunning I think, the way that the Oval Office – the president has just completely redone the Oval Office. It’s beautiful. I love the gold on the ceiling. Donald Trump: Thank you. It’s pretty nice. That’s been there a long time. That was plaster. Nobody ever really saw it, they didn’t know the eagle was up there and we highlighted it – essentially, it’s a landmark, a great landmark. And that’s 24-carat gold and everybody loved it. And now they all see it when they come in. So, it’s been good. Elon Musk: The Oval Office finally has the majesty that it deserves thanks to the president. So, I look forward to continuing to be a friend and advisor to the president, continuing to support the DOGE team. And we are relentlessly pursuing $1 trillion in – in waste and fraud reductions, which will benefit the American taxpayer. Elon Musk: So, that’s it really. Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you, Elon. Great job. Thank you. Thank you Question: [Inaudible] President Trump. The president mentioned that you had to deal with all the slings and arrows during your time at DOGE. There’s this – Elon Musk: Some of the people – you know, some of the media organizations in this room were the slingers [Laughter] Question: Well, so – there is a New York Times report today that accuses you of blurring the line between – Elon Musk: Oh, wait wait. wait. The New York Times, is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on Russiagate? Is it the same organization? I think it is. Question: I’ve got to check my Pulitzer counter. Elon Musk: I think it is. Donald Trump: It is. Elon Musk: So, I think the judge just ruled against New York Times for their lies about the Russiagate hoax, and that they might have to give back that Pulitzer Prize. That New York Times? Let’s move on. Question: OK. Elon Musk: Next question. Question: I’ve got one for you. I’ve got one for President Trump. President Trump, Biden aides who used to work here are in talks with Republicans in Congress to go and testify about what they did or didn’t do to possibly conceal President Biden’s decline. Do you think that Dr. Jill Biden should also have to come in and testify about what she did or didn’t do? Donald Trump: Well, I hate the concept of it. It’s the wife of a man who was going through a lot of problems and everybody that dealt with him understood that. And I guess it came out during the debate, loud and clear. That was a big – that was the biggest signal of all. They have to do what’s right. The country was – there was a lot of dishonesty in the election, as you know, of 2020 that’s been now caught. Donald Trump: People understand it was a rigged election. And when you go further out, when you see the autopen, I mean, I think the autopen is going to become one of the great scandals of all time. Because you have somebody operating it or a number of people operating it. Because I knew Joe Biden, Joe Biden wasn’t in favor of opening up borders, letting 21 million people into this from prisons and mental institutions and gang members. Donald Trump: He wasn’t into that at all. And you know, who signed these orders, proclamations and all of the different things that he signed that set our country so far back. That was so bad for our country. Question: With the autopen, how would it work? Like we’re in the Oval Office right now; if there was a group of rogue staffers that worked for you who wanted to advance a bill or an executive order without your knowledge, how could they do it? How do they – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: It’s very hard because I’d read your newspapers or your media the next day and I’d say, well, I didn’t approve that and I would find it. I mean, they wouldn’t get away with it for long because I’d say I never signed that, who the hell signed that. Autopens to me are used to sign letters to people because we get I think they said 20,000 letters a week. Donald Trump: And you like to be able – when somebody takes the time to write a letter it’s nice to sort of write back and autopens are meant for that. Autopens are not meant to sign major proclamations or tax cuts or borders – anything having to do with the border, which is so important. And if it happened on my watch, I would be able to see it because the next day or sooner, I’d be reading about something that I knew nothing about and who the hell signed this. Donald Trump: So, I almost never use the autopen. In fact, yesterday I was signing about 81 – I think it was 81 proclamations and statements to people that I think should be signed by us. I think when you write letters to foreign dignitaries or presidents or prime ministers, you should be signing those letters, not done with Autopens. Donald Trump: I understand he signed almost everything with an autopen. It’s a very dangerous thing. It really means you’re not president. Whoever operated the autopen, and we think we know who that is, and it was actually more than one person. But that’s not what the presidency is all about. I hardly used it. Question: Mr. President, on China – are you going to reinstate the tariffs on China? You said that they violated the agreement with the US. Donald Trump: Well, they did. They were – they violated a big part of the agreement we made. You know, if you read that whole statement, I was very nice to them. I helped them because they were in trouble with the stoppage of a massive amount of business. But I’m sure that I’ll speak to President Xi and hopefully we’ll work that out. Donald Trump: But yeah, there’s a violation of the agreement. Yeah, please. Question: Mr. President, can you give us an update to the latest ceasefire agreement that Israel has agreed to, but Hamas is still considering? Donald Trump: Well, they’re very close to an agreement on Gaza and we’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow. We have a chance of that. I think we have a chance of making a deal with Iran also. They don’t want to be blown up, they would rather make a deal. And I think that could happen in the not-too-distant future. Donald Trump: That would be a great thing if we could have a deal without bombs being dropped all over the Middle East. That would be a very good thing. They can’t have a nuclear weapon – Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: We want them to be safe. We want them to have a very, very successful nation, let it be a great nation. But we can’t have that – they cannot have a nuclear weapon, it’s very simple. And I think we’re fairly close to a deal with Iran. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: Yeah, please. Question: You said just now that you look forward to being a friend and advisor to the president. Elon Musk: Oh, I am. Question: So, do you expect to continue advising the president and DOGE informally or are you going to sort of shift your focus entirely to your companies? Elon Musk: Well, I expect to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like advice. Donald Trump: I hope so. Elon Musk: I mean, I’m – yeah, it’s – I expect to remain a friend and an advisor and certainly if there’s anything the president wants me to do, I’m at the president’s service. Question: Mr. Musk, on DOGE, you said that there was $1 trillion promise for cuts from DOGE. Elon Musk: Yes. I think, we do expect over time to achieve the trillion dollars. Question: But what have you found in your time here was the biggest roadblock to getting those cuts? Was it the cabinet or was it Congress or something else? What was the biggest roadblock from your work? Elon Musk: It’s mostly just a lot of hard work. It’s really not any one person or Congress. It’s going through, really, millions of line items and seeing just each one of them makes sense or does it not make sense. Obviously, at times when you cut expenses, those who were receiving the money, whether they’re receiving that money legitimately or not, they do complain. Elon Musk: And you’re not going to hear someone confessing that they received money inappropriately, never. They’re going to always say that they received money appropriately for an important cause. Naturally, that’s what you’d expect. So we just have to – it’s just a lot of work going through the vast expanses of the federal government and just really asking questions, what’s this money for, are you sure it’s actually being used well? Elon Musk: Many times, we can’t even find anyone who defends it. So for a lot of the expenses, there is actually no defender at all. And then we have to just work through the process of stopping the spending where there’s often literally no defender. Nobody even knows why the money is being spent. It’s truly absurd. Elon Musk: I mean, we find situations where there are millions of software licenses with zero people using them, zero. Exactly. This is the quizzical expression. You’re like, surely, if there’s millions of software licenses, someone should be using them. No. And then we just – we’ve got to go through the process of saying, OK, look, if no one’s using the software, we can terminate this software license agreement. Elon Musk: That’s everywhere in the government, by the way. Question: Mr. Musk, what do you think would be easier, colonizing Mars or making the government efficient? Elon Musk: It’s a tough call, but I think colonizing Mars and making life multi-planetary is harder. And as I said, we do expect to achieve over time the trillion dollars of savings. We can’t do it in a few months. But if you say by the – I think the official end of DOGE, which the president may choose to extend, is the middle of next year. Elon Musk: Say, by the middle of next year, with the support of the president and Congress, could we achieve $1 trillion of savings, I think so. We’re on track to do so. Question: Do you think that Congress is going – Donald Trump: Go ahead. You, please. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. You had mentioned earlier in the week that DOGE had become a whipping boy. And as the president mentioned, you went through a lot to go through this process. Elon Musk: Yes. Question: Was it worth it for you and what would you change? Elon Musk: Yeah. So what we found was happening was that if there were any cuts anywhere, then people would assume that was done by DOGE. And so we became, essentially, the DOGE boogeyman, where any cut anywhere would be ascribed to DOGE. A friend of mine’s daughter, who’s at law school at Georgetown, thought that DOGE had cut the Senate internships for – the legal internships for the Senate and we had nothing to do with that. Elon Musk: So if they have been cut, it was not to do with us, just as an example. So it just became a bit ridiculous where anything, any cut anywhere was somehow DOGE. And including things that made no sense and we would agree, made no sense. So there are many things that occur in the government because it’s the banal evil of bureaucracy. Elon Musk: It’s sort of the, frankly, largely uncaring nature of bureaucracy. AS the great Milton Friedman said, money is spent most poorly When it is someone else’s money being spent on people you don’t know. And that’s how federal spending is. And then you can’t really even blame the individuals because the way the government works is complaint minimization. Elon Musk: So when someone within the government tries to stop money being spent, there’s usually someone that complaints and then their manager will say, it’s not worth the trouble, just pay it anyway. That happens over and over again. Question: So was it worth – Donald Trump: Peter. Yeah. Elon Musk: I think it was an important thing. I think it was a necessary thing and I think it will have a good effect in the future. Question: Thank you, President Trump. Donald Trump: Peter. Question: This week, there was a video on board a plane that showed the first lady of France slapping her husband, Emmanuel Macron. Do you have any world leader to world leader marital advice for Macron? Donald Trump: Make sure the door remains closed. That was not good. That was not good. No, I spoke to him and he’s fine. They’re fine. They’re two really good people. I know them very well and I don’t know what that was all about, but I know him very well and they’re fine. Elon Musk: I got a little excited here. Question: What do you think about the Democratic party plan to avoid being swept in every battleground state again, by spending $20 million to study how to speak to American men? Donald Trump: Well, they spent $2.8 billion. We spent $1.5 billion. We spent much less. We spent about half of what they spent. And at the end, they were $28 million short. They spent $2.8 billion. It’s a lot, but they couldn’t get $28 million at the end and now they want to spend – I read that they want to spend money to learn how to talk. Donald Trump: That’s fake. You don’t want to be fake. You shouldn’t have to hire consultants to say what America needs because then they should be – the consultants should be running the deal, not them. But I read that, they want to spend a lot of money in each state. So we won all seven swing states, seven out of seven. Donald Trump: We won a lot more than that. We won the popular vote. We won everything and they want to spend money to find out what they did wrong. And I mean, I could tell you what they did wrong. I could tell you every one of their programs, when they say men playing in women’s sports, I would say that’s not a winner. Donald Trump: When they say transgender for everybody, I think that’s not a winner. When they say open borders so the entire world population of criminals can pour into our country, I don’t think that’s a winner. I mean, I just gave them that for free, but I don’t know if they’ll change their ways. I see them all the time. Donald Trump: I see people that I know in Congress, Democrats, they’re trying to justify some of the things I just said. You can’t justify them. I always hear they’re 80/20 issues. I say they’re not 80/20, they’re 97/3. They might be 99 to 1. They’re not 80/20. They wish they were 80/20. And they’re wasting a lot of money if they’re going to continue with that nonsense. Question: And this one’s a little bit more of a page six question, but back when you hosted The Apprentice, you mentioned once in 2012 that Diddy was a good friend of yours back then. He has since found himself in some very serious legal trouble. Donald Trump: Yeah, that’s true. Question: Would you ever consider pardoning him? Donald Trump: Well, nobody’s asked – you had to be the one to ask, Peter, but nobody’s asked. But I know people are thinking about it. I know they’re thinking about it. I think people have been very close to asking. First of all, I’d look at what’s happening and I haven’t been watching it too closely, although it’s certainly getting a lot of coverage. Donald Trump: I haven’t seen him – I haven’t spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, he – sort of that relationship busted up, from what I read. I don’t know. He didn’t tell me that, but I’d read some little bit nasty statements in the paper, all of a sudden. It’s different. Donald Trump: You become a much different person when you run for politics and you do what’s right. I could do other things and I’m sure he’d like me and I’m sure other people would like me, but it wouldn’t be as good for our country. As we said, our country is doing really well because of what we’re doing. So I can’t – it’s not a popularity contest, so I don’t know. Donald Trump: I would certainly look at the facts. If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don’t like me, it wouldn’t have any impact on me. Question: Mr. President, on the big, beautiful bill, on the big, beautiful bill, would you like to see the Senate build in some support for your tariffs on the big, beautiful bill or should that be a standalone bill? Donald Trump: I have great support on the tariffs. I mean, I was so honored that we got that ridiculous stay lifted because that would have taken away presidential power. It would have taken away everything that was granted by the founders. It would have been a terrible thing and it would have most importantly would have left us vulnerable. Donald Trump: We have a lot of countries that use tariffs on us and use them viciously, actually, viciously. And if we didn’t have the power to use tariffs on them and instantly not when you go back to Congress and try and get hundreds of people to agree on something that would take months to get just one simple proclamation. Donald Trump: If we didn’t have the power to counteract their powers, you wouldn’t have a country left. We have to act fast. We have to be fast and nimble, as they say. And that was a really great moment, I think yesterday when that stay was lifted and hopefully now we’ll go to court and just win that battle. Because if we don’t have the power to do what they’re doing to us, we are going to be a great nation no longer. Question: Elon Musk was once idolized by folks on the left in this country before joining your administration. Donald Trump: That’s true. Question: Now he’s considered a hero by conservatives. Why do you think this man and what he’s done in American life has been so politicized? Does it all have to do with you? Donald Trump: His life has been amazing. I mean, I look at so many different things. I look at that rocket being guided back into position. I’ve never seen that before. I thought it was a space where we have – thought it was a movie. You look at what he’s done in terms of communication, it’s been unbelievable. So many different – even tunnels going underground, not having to go through all the process of going – you know, he’s got a company that does that. Donald Trump: He’s got so many different companies. Starlink as an example, he saved a lot of lives, probably hundreds of lives in North Carolina. I don’t even know if you remember, but I called you, they needed Starlink in North Carolina, and I didn’t know what the hell Starlink was. I said what is it? Who owns it? He said, do you know Elon Musk? Donald Trump: I said, yeah, I happen to know the gentleman. This was before his government stay and they said we really need it because North Carolina was literally – it became an island, it was – people had no communication, they had no access to anything, and they were dying. And I called up Elon and you can’t get it because it’s so successful. Donald Trump: It’s very hard to get. And he had so much of it brought over there and they told me it was unbelievable. He saved a lot of lives. So, you know, he’s just done a lot of things. He – I don’t think – frankly, I don’t think he gets credit for what he’s done, but he’s – and he’s a very good person too. You know what – if he wasn’t a good person, but he did the same things, you know, I’d probably maybe speak differently. Donald Trump: He happens to be a really good person who loves the country. Question: Mr. President, on the One Big, Beautiful Bill, you had indicated this week that there were some things you didn’t like about what had passed in the House. What changes do you want to see the Senate make? And you had also indicated there were things you didn’t like about the bill? What would you be suggesting he push senators to change in their version? Donald Trump: Well, I’ll tell you, I’ll go first. It’s an unbelievable bill. It cuts your deficits, it cuts – you know, it’s a huge cutting. But there are things I’d like to see maybe cut a little bit more. I’d like to see a bigger cut in taxes. It’s going to be the largest tax decrease or cut in the history of our country. Donald Trump: I’d like to see it get down to an even lower number. I was shooting for a slightly lower number. I would have liked to have done that. But with all of that being said, when you look at the tax cut and the fact that the original tax cut – which made us so successful. We had the most successful four years in the history of our country, the economy, and this is going to be even better. Donald Trump: And you see that by the reports that came out just yesterday or tonight, I guess they were released this morning at 8:00. You see the kind of numbers where somebody that’s a pro is like, whoa, I haven’t seen numbers like this since I’ve been doing this. You know, these are human emotions of professionals that have never seen numbers like – and we’ve just – we’ve just started. Donald Trump: The bill is a great bill. It’s going to be jiggered around a little bit. It’s going to be negotiated with the Senate, with the House. But the end result is it extends the Trump tax cuts. If it doesn’t get approved, you’ll have a 68 percent tax increase. You’re going to go up 68 percent. That’s a number that nobody’s ever heard of before. Donald Trump: You’ll have a massive tax increase. If it does get approved, you’ll have a large tax cut, the largest we’ve ever had when you add the past tax cuts that we got you, the Trump tax, they call them the Trump tax cuts. It’s an amazing bill. It does amazing things. With all of that, it’s going to be adjusted a little bit over the next coming weeks, and I think it’s going to be passed. Donald Trump: The Republicans want to pass it. With all of the great things it does, including an extension of debt, the extension – we have to extend the debt. If we don’t extend debt, we’re in default. Now, the Democrats might like our country to be in default. But in 250 years, we’ve never been in default. That was handed to them by a very well-meaning man that gave it to them because he thought it was the right thing to do. It could have been their problem before the election, but this man thought it was the right thing to do, and he was well-meaning. Donald Trump: I don’t hold anything against him for that. But that was put on our plate when it should have been on the Democrats. September 28th, a famous date, it should have been taken care of by the Democrats. But this person, a man of power, gave it to us so that in June that comes due. Well, we have to take care of that because, if we don’t take care of it, we have a country in default. Donald Trump: And we don’t ever want to have a country in default. You know, I’ll tell you a certain senator, Elizabeth Warren, has said that she would never ever allow a default on our debt. She would never let it happen, and she would like to get rid of the debt ceiling, what’s called the debt ceiling. I call it the debt extension because we really need an extension. Donald Trump: That she’d like to see that gotten rid of. And there are many people that agree. Many Democrats agree with that. But we gave that through – and you know, I don’t want to say that – he did it well meaning, they gave that to us. It was a Democrat problem just before the election, would have had a huge impact on the election – to our benefit, we won anyway, but to our benefit, but felt that really for the good of the country we should extend that. Donald Trump: But Elizabeth Warren and various other people would like to see that – her whole career, she wanted to see it terminated, gotten rid of, not being voted on every five years or 10 years. And the reason was because it’s so catastrophic for our country. And I always agreed with her, that was one thing I agreed with her on. Now I haven’t spoken to her, but I would say that if you asked her that question now, she’d say no, no, it’s their problem. Donald Trump: But it’s a very unfortunate situation. It’s a very unfair situation. And she happened to be right on that; it should be gotten rid of, or it should simply be extended. But that’s one of the things that gets taken care of in this bill, that automatically gets extended for a four-year period, and it should be. But I agree with Elizabeth Warren on that. Donald Trump: I think you should get rid of it. It’s too catastrophic. Yeah, go ahead. Question: Mr. President, what message do you like to send to international students? Are they still welcome to study in the United States? And one question for Mr. Musk. Donald Trump: The students? Well, we want to have great students here. We just don’t want students that are causing trouble. We want to have students; I want to have foreign students. I think Harvard, you know, is close to 31 percent, that’s a lot. Our country has given $5 billion plus to Harvard over a short period of time. Donald Trump: Nobody knew that. We found that out. I wouldn’t say that was a DOGE thing, but we found that out over a period of time. That was sort of a Trump thing. We ended up in litigation for other reasons because they’re very anti-Semitic. And in finding out and in going through the books, we found out that the country gave them $5 billion plus, much more than that actually. Donald Trump: And we’re having it out with them. And let’s see what happens. I think we have a very good – well, it’s a very sad case. It’s a case we win; we can’t lose that case because we have the right to make grants. We’re not going to make any grants like that. But I don’t think Harvard’s been acting very nicely. Donald Trump: I think Columbia wants to get to the bottom of the problem. They’ve acted very well and there are other institutions too that are acting. But Harvard is trying to be a big shot. And all that happens is every three days we find another $100 million that was given. Last – two days ago, we found $200 million more. Donald Trump: The money is given to them like gravy. I’d like to see the money go to trade schools where people learn how to fix motors and engines, where people learn how to build rocket ships. Because you know somebody has to build those rocket ships. And I’d like to see trade schools set up, because you could take $5 billion plus hundreds of billions more, which is what’s spent, and you could have the greatest trade school system anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: And that’s what we need to build his rockets and robots and things that he’s doing and to build lots of other things. And you know, I went to school with people, in some cases they weren’t good students, but they could fix the engine of a car better than anybody I’ve ever seen. They could take it apart blindfolded; they had an ability at that, and they did very well. Donald Trump: They made a lot of money, you know, it’s a very skilled job, it’s great. But I’d like to see a lot of money going into trade schools. I’ve always felt that. And we probably found our pot of gold and that’s what’s been wasted at places like Harvard and the money has been wasted. Yeah, please. Question: I wanted to ask quickly, Mr. Musk, what – is your eye, OK? What happened to your eye? I noticed there’s a bruise there. Elon Musk: Well, it wasn’t – I wasn’t anywhere near France. So, but – Question: What does that mean? Donald Trump: I didn’t notice his eye. Question: First lady of France. Elon Musk: She slapped him. Donald Trump: I didn’t notice. Elon Musk: So, yeah, no, I was just walking around with little X and I said, go ahead, punch me in the face. And he did it turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually – Donald Trump: That was an accident? Elon Musk: Yeah. Donald Trump: X could do it. If you knew X, he could do it. Elon Musk: He’s with his mom right now, but I didn’t really feel much at the time. And then I guess it bruises up, but I was just horsing around with the kids basically. Donald Trump: I didn’t notice it actually. Question: I know that you try to stay pretty neutral because not your war, but as you – Donald Trump: By the way, not my war. I just want to solve the problem for people. This was not a war that was going to happen if I were president. Question: Right. And so, not your war, but as you try to fix it, and as you survey this hellscape of the Ukrainian front lines. Donald Trump: It’s horrible. Question: And you guys – you and your team deal with a very stubborn Vladimir Putin. Do you look – Donald Trump: And Zelenskyy. Question: Yeah. But do you look at this conflict – Donald Trump: Very stubborn Zelenskyy too. Question: Any differently now? Like do you look at this and see Putin as the good guy or the bad guy? Donald Trump: So, I’ve known him very well and I went through a lot of things with him because Russia was – you know, the Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax turned out to be a total hoax. New York Times, they got a Pulitzer Prize. They have to give back the Pulitzer Prize. That’s my lawsuit, and they’re doing very poorly in that lawsuit. Donald Trump: But they wrote stories about how it was true and it was false and a lot of Washington Post also. I have gotten to see things that I was very surprised at, rockets being shot into cities like Kyiv during a negotiation that I felt was maybe very close to ending. We were going to solve a problem and then all of a sudden, rockets got shot into a couple of cities and people died. Donald Trump: I saw things that I was surprised at, and I don’t like being surprised. So I’m very disappointed in that way. With that being said, I’d like to see it end. 5,000 people. I think the number is even more than that. But 5,000 people a week are being killed, mostly soldiers, but also people that live in little cities and towns throughout Ukraine. Donald Trump: And I’d like to see that stop. Question: And I asked Karoline this yesterday, but I want to ask you directly. So many of the things that you’re trying to do are held up in court right now. If the courts are going to have so much influence over US policy, do you wish you would have just become a judge instead? Donald Trump: Yeah. Well, look, it wasn’t meant to be that way. If you look at the founders, the president had certain powers and you have your three groups and they all had – supposed to be equal, pretty equal powers. But you can’t have a judge in Boston running foreign policy in places all over the country because he’s got a liberal bent or he’s a radical left person. Donald Trump: That’s what the executive branch is for. And you have checks and balances. But we had millions of people pour into our country. Many, many criminals poured into our country, murderers, murderers, mental institutions from all over the world being emptied out into our country. And if we don’t get them out and get them out quickly, we’re going to – you could lose your country very easily. Donald Trump: This is a bad – that anybody would allow this to happen to our country. You know, with all of the things, we took over inflation, we took over some wars, we took over a lot of problems that didn’t exist when I was president. None of it existed. We wiped out ISIS. Other than that, we had no wars. Putin was never going to hit Ukraine. Donald Trump: Israel would have never been attacked. That attack – as you know, Iran had no money. They didn’t have money for Hamas. They didn’t have money for Hezbollah. They had no money whatsoever. That wasn’t going to happen. All of these things that happened weren’t going to happen. You wouldn’t have had inflation. Donald Trump: So it’s very sad when I came back. But the thing that is the hardest is that they allowed 21 million people into our country and many of those people are stone-cold criminals. They moved their criminal population into the United States. And of all the things that are bad, I solved inflation, I believe already. Donald Trump: I got the fuel prices down. the fuel prices came down. That’s one of the reasons they screwed up the energy. They screwed up the cost of gasoline and oil and gas. And you had tremendous inflation, the greatest inflation probably in the history of our country under Biden. And when people said, oh, but the economy was good. Donald Trump: No, the economy was terrible for the people because they couldn’t afford the energy and the energy brought everything else up. Energy is the big deal. But with all of that, we solved that already in four months, we solved it. $1.99, $1.98 gasoline first time people have seen that in a long time, since my term. Donald Trump: But the hardest thing to solve is millions of people pouring into our country, many of whom are criminals. Because remember, these countries are smart. Their leaders are very street smart. They’re sending the people that they don’t want. They don’t want the people that are there that are law abiding, that are productive, that are working hard. Donald Trump: They want people that are in jails, we have them. They allow them to come in and I always look to the other side, like, why would somebody do something. You know, in business, I try and study why would they want to do this, why would they want to sell it, why would they want to buy it? One thing I can’t figure out is what would an administration – what were they thinking when they allowed millions of people from prisons all over the world, not just from South America, Venezuela, all over the world, from the Congo in Africa, hundreds of people, thousands of people from the Congo, rough, rough, prisoners, from Asia, from Europe, rough parts of Europe, why would they allow them to come into our country? Donald Trump: Why would they do that? It’s the one thing I can’t figure out and I don’t believe it was Joe Biden. I really don’t. I mean, look, he’s been a sort of a moderate person over his lifetime. Not a smart person, but somewhat vicious person, I will say. If you feel sorry for him, don’t feel so sorry, because he’s vicious. Donald Trump: What he did with his political opponent and all of the people that he hurt, he hurt a lot of people, Biden. And so I really don’t feel sorry for him, but he wasn’t a person that would allow murderers to come into our country. He wasn’t a person that was in favor of transgender for anybody that wanted it, to take kids out of families, etc., etc. Donald Trump: So I just don’t understand why a thing like this, how a thing like this could have been allowed to happen, very sad. It’s very sad, very sad for our country. Yeah. Go ahead, Elon. Elon Musk: I think the fundamental moral flaw of the left is empathy for the criminals and not empathy for the victims, empathy for the criminals, but empathy for the victims, and there’s been way too much of that. That needs to stop. To the president’s point, there’s been immense judicial overreach that is unconstitutional. Elon Musk: That was never intended. And it’s undermining the people’s faith in the legal system. It needs to stop. It’s gone too far. Donald Trump: And just today, we had, just a couple of hours ago, we had a great decision from the Supreme Court, thank goodness, that was very important. We had two important decisions yesterday on the tariffs, because again, we have to be able to fight fair fight with other countries. Howard, would you say, we have to be able to use tariffs to fight people that use tariffs on us? I mean, if we didn’t have that power of tariffs, we would economically be destroyed as a country because they will destroy us. Other countries will destroy us with unchecked tariffs. Donald Trump: We can check them when we have the use. They tried to take that power away from us. And if you take that power away, we’re not going to have a country. We won’t have an economically viable country. But it’s very important on immigration that we be able to get people out without having to go through a long court case. Donald Trump: I mean, it was up to some of these judges, every single one of these – millions of people, millions of people, criminals, prisoners that were let go from jails because they save a fortune when they do, they brought them into the United States. You know what they’re saving, the money they’re saving, but some of them murderers. Donald Trump: It’s very important that we’re able to get those people out of here fast, bring them back to their country where they belong. And those countries take them because if they don’t take them, they have to go through the wrath of the United States and they take them. But we have judges that don’t want that to happen. Donald Trump: And it’s a terrible thing. That’s going through the court system right now, that whole situation. But when ICE and with Border Patrol, they’ve done an incredible job. When they do this incredible job and they capture 100 killers and drug dealers, we can’t keep them for years here as we go through trials. Donald Trump: We have to get them out rapidly and we know who they are. We know who they are. And we’re very careful about who they are, but we have to get them out rapidly, or again, we’re not going to have a country. OK? Maybe one or two more. Go head, please. Question: Are you concerned that tariff may also affect companies like Tesla, which has parts manufactured abroad? And this is also to you, Mr. Musk. Donald Trump: Well, he’s going to end up building his whole car here. I mean, I thought he built his whole car, pretty much he does. He’s got incredible factories, and like I looked at one in Texas, it’s unbelievable. I know all of the manufacturers will build their parts here too. I mean, it used to bother me, they make a part in Canada, a part in Mexico, a part in Europe and sent all over the place and nobody knew what the hell was happening. Donald Trump: I think it’s – you build a car, make it in America and I gave them a little leeway on that, gave them some leeway. But over the next year, they’ve got to have the whole thing built in America. That’s what we want. We want America to buy American built cars. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Question: How was your meeting with Jerome Powell, sir? Donald Trump: Good meeting. It was a good meeting.
Date: 2025-05-30
Donald Trump: That was a great trip to a fantastic place, the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania. The, um, steelworkers are very happy. We did the tariffs, it’s gonna put them even, make them even more competitive. And it’s turning out to be a great deal. I think it’s gonna be a fantastic deal. $17 million is – Uh, $17 billion is being invested for new steel mills, new everything, and it’s gonna be something special. Donald Trump: So that was in honor of the steelworkers of Pennsylvania and it was a fantastic time. We had a great day. And it is raining quite hard, but that’s okay. How are you? Go ahead. Question: Yes, sir. Can you make Pennsylvania the steel capital of the world again? Donald Trump: I think it’s gonna happen. I think it’s gonna happen. Question: [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Not much. Uh, we just had $17 billion given. And again, we’re gonna have control in the U.S. It’s gonna be a USA deal. The board is controlled. More importantly, the money’s built, you know, it’s spent on facilities. You can’t take ‘em and leave unless put ’em in a boat. Somebody said, “Well, what about that? Donald Trump: Supposing they leave?” Well, the money’s invested on the, you know, on brick and mortar. You can’t lift it up and take it. But I, I think much more importantly, that’s gonna be a great partnership. And uh, the company, Nippon, is coming in with 17 billion-plus. So it’s gonna be fantastic for all steelworkers. Question: Is it an acquisition? Is Nippon acquiring U.S. Steel? Donald Trump: This is an investment. It’s controlled by the United States. And more importantly, they’re spending the money on brick and mortar. You can’t take it. What are you gonna do? Pick it up and move it to Japan? That’s not gonna happen. Question: But they will own U.S. Steel? Donald Trump: And you know, I rejected this about four times now. And when they finally got it right, I liked it a lot. And you could see how happy the steelworkers were. More importantly, you could see from the union’s standpoint, the union loved it. Question: Well, Mr. President, [Inaudible] Question: Thousands of – It means thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania. Right? Donald Trump: Thousands. Many thousands of jobs. Question: [Inaudible] for the State of Pennsylvania going forward. Donald Trump: That’s right. That’s right. I like this man. Question: Mr. President, were you – Donald Trump: I like (laughs). Thank you. Question: Were you aware of Elon Musk’s regular drug use? Donald Trump: No, I, I wasn’t. I think he’s fantastic. I think Elon is a fantastic guy. And, uh – Question: Are you troubled by these reports? Donald Trump: I – I’m not troubled by anything with Elon. I think he’s fantastic. Did a great job. And, you know, DOGE continues and by the time it’s finished, we’ll have numbers that’ll knock your socks off. It’s gonna be, uh – He did a fantastic job. And he didn’t need it. He didn’t need to do it. Question: How do you repl – Question: Your steel deal final? Has it been finalized? Donald Trump: He’s not easily replaced. He really isn’t. Question: Mr. President, the Nippon deal is finalized, signed off on? Donald Trump: No, I have to approve the final deal. Question: Well, how will you, how will it stay in U.S. ownership, if the US – Donald Trump: Well, you’ll see. I mean, but I have to approve the final deal with Nippon. And, uh, we haven’t seen that final deal yet. But, uh, they’ve made a very big commitment and it’s a very big investment. It’s the largest investment in the history of the State of Pennsylvania in any deal, not just steel. And it’s thousands of steel workers. Donald Trump: And not only there, all throughout the country. Question: Mr. President. Do you support the Lindsey Graham Blumenthal bill that would levy sanctions on Russia? Donald Trump: I don’t know, I have to see it. I’ll take a look at it. Question: Are you confident that your proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza that was just submitted this week will get approved by Hamas? Donald Trump: I think they wanna, uh, they wanna get out of that mess. They’re in a big mess. I think they want to get out of it. Question: Mr. President, have you announced any detail – Question: Can we anticipate – Can we anticipate any trade deals next week at all? And does this deal today with Nippon sort of overall help your talks with Japan? Donald Trump: Well, Japan very much wants to make a trade deal. I don’t think this has much to do with it, uh, but, uh, certainly it, uh, it certainly won’t hurt because we have a very good relationship with Japan, but as you know, Japan is in there right now negotiating as we speak, and they wanna very much make a deal. Donald Trump: I think the deal I’m most proud of is the fact that we’re dealing with India, we’re dealing with Pakistan, and we were able to stop potentially a nuclear war through trade as opposed through bullets. You know, normally they do it through bullets. We do it through trade, so, uh, I’m very proud of that. Nobody talks about it, but we had a very nasty potential war going on between Pakistan and India, and now if you look, uh, they’re doing fine. Donald Trump: It was getting very bad. It was getting very nasty. They’re both nuclear powers. The, uh, Pakistan representatives are coming in next week, and India, as you know, we’re very close to making a deal with India. Note: [Crosstalk] Donald Trump: And I wouldn’t have any interest in making a deal with either, if they were gonna be at war with each other, I would not, and I let ’em know. Question: Your message to the G7 here in two weeks, you’re going to Canada. Mark Carney up there obviously has a different view of the world than you do. Donald Trump: He does. Question: Uh, when it comes to energy clearly, what’s your message gonna be at G7 here in a couple weeks? Donald Trump: Well, it’s in Canada, and he’s a very nice guy, by the way, Mark Carney. I think he’s really a very nice person, and we’ve had some good talks. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens. Question: Sir, are you aware of the reports that Susie Wiles’ phone has been breached and somebody’s been impersonating her? Donald Trump: I’ve heard that, yeah. [Inaudible] Question: Are you concerned about that? Do you know anything about the – Donald Trump: Well, she’s, uh, she’s an amazing woman. She can handle it, but I’ve heard that they, uh, they breached her phones or they tried to impersonate her. Nobody can impersonate Susie. Nobody. Question: Mr. President – Donald Trump: There’s only, there’s only one Susie. Question: Mr. President, what’s your message to Chinese college students in the United States that wanna stay in the United States, don’t want their visa revoked? Donald Trump: Well, they’re gonna be okay. It’s gonna work out fine. We just wanna check out the individual students. We have – And that’s true with all colleges, and I don’t know why Harvard’s not giving us the list. There’s something going on, because Harvard’s not giving us a list. They ought to give us a list and get themselves out of trouble, but they don’t wanna give the list because they have names on there that supposedly are quite bad. Donald Trump: We want people that can love our country and take care of our country and cherish our country, and for some reason Harvard doesn’t want to give us a list. I would suggest you all get out the rain now. Goodbye everybody. Have a good time. Thank you. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you. Who are you with? Note: [Video ends as Trump walks away]
Date: 2025-05-30
Donald Trump: Thank you very much. What a group of people. We love this group. You voted for me. They never had a chance in Pennsylvania. They never even had a chance. But I’m thrilled to be back in this beautiful commonwealth at the legendary Mon Valley Works-Irvin Plant, Irvin plant, with the proud Pennsylvania patriots who are the heart and soul of US Steel. Donald Trump: Thank you very much. That’s great. Oh, you’re going to be happy. You’re going to be happy. There’s a lot of money coming your way. There’s a lot of money you’re going to say, please, sir, we don’t want this kind of success. It’s too much, sir. We can’t take it. Please, we beg you, we don’t want this much success, but we do, really, don’t we? We’re going to be so successful. Donald Trump: You have just started. You’re going to watch. We’re here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company. You’re going to stay an American company, you know that, right? But we’re going to have a great partner. We’re going to have a great partner. Donald Trump: And I have to tell you, Japan has been a tremendous friend of mine during my years as president and then we had a little hiatus. We had a rigged election, but then we won. We said, let’s make it too big to rig and they made it too big to rig. And this is a much more powerful term than we could have ever had the other way. Donald Trump: So a lot of things – God was looking down on us all for a lot of reasons, including right there, a lot of reasons. We were blessed and you’re going to be blessed. You’re going to see that. It will keep its headquarters in the great city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where it belongs. For generations, the name United States Steel was synonymous with greatness and now it will again be synonymous with greatness. Donald Trump: That’s what it’s going to be. The best and strongest steel on Earth will forever be made in America and made in Pennsylvania. And I want to thank a man that I saw right at the beginning of this whole thing during my first term, as we call it, US Steel President Dave Barrett. Dave, thank you very much wherever you may be, wherever you may be. Thank you, Dave. Donald Trump: And he came to the White House and he said sir, we’re in trouble, we need help. He was put there to save the company, right? I remember it so well, like yesterday. He was put there – they hired him to save the company and he came up and he said, we need help, sir. I said, what can we do, because all the steel companies were going south. Donald Trump: They were all in trouble. He said, if you could get tariffs, sir, and save this company. And I thought about it, I studied it up real quick. It took me about two minutes. And I said, Dave, I think we’re going to make you very happy and we did make you happy, didn’t we? We saved the company. We put 25 percent tariffs on your company. Donald Trump: So we had protection. We were protected from outside, horrible influence, including dumping, where they were dumping steel all over the United States and we saved it. It was a great honor and Dave was really the first one that brought it to my attention and I appreciate it, Dave. You did a good job. You did a good job. Donald Trump: He more than saved the company. He made the company great. This will be a great company in a very short period of time. Also, the Vice Chairman of Nippon Steel, Takahiro Mori. Takahiro, thank you very much. He’s a great guy, highly respected. He’s highly respected all over the world for what he’s done with steel. Donald Trump: This is going to be his pet project. It’s going to be great. Thank you, Takahiro, appreciate it. We’re also pleased to be joined by a man who’s done a fantastic job. He’s central – I always say he’s central casting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, where is Scott? Central casting. Thanks, Scott. We had a good report today. Donald Trump: I don’t know if you saw. The numbers were through the roof and there was no inflation and they said, Trump was right again. They were all saying, oh, inflation, inflation. We’re taking in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs and other things and we’re keeping our competitive nations, we’re keeping them – they’re competitors and we’re keeping them totally at bay. Donald Trump: And we right now have the hottest nation anywhere in the world. And six months ago, we had a nation that was dying. We had a nation that was cold as ice and now we have the hottest, most talked about nation anywhere in the world. Anywhere, good job, Scott. Also, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Lori, thank you very much, highly recommended by the Teamsters and a couple of others, I have to tell you. Donald Trump: And I said, I’ll take that, I’ll take that, but she’s been fantastic. Also, we have some incredible Congressmen and women. Mike Kelly, where’s Mike? Mike. He’s wearing a shirt today. A lot of times he does it. If it’s cold, he doesn’t wear shirts. Thank you, Mike. Dan Meuser, who I hear is going to maybe be running for governor. Donald Trump: That’s what I hear. I hear there’s a rumor about that. There’s a rumor about that. Another man – good luck with that, Dan. I’ll tell you, if that’s your decision, you’ve got my support, you know that, right? If you run, you’ve got my support. He’s been – Guy, don’t you think He’s been a great Congressman? Donald Trump: He’s been a great Congressman. And if you run, you have my support totally and you’ll win, you’ll win. The people are going to get it real fast. Thank you very much. Good luck. Guy Reschenthaler, who is a fantastic person, with a very good friend of mine today and I appreciate you coming together. And Guy, thank you very much. Donald Trump: What a job you’ve done from the beginning, right? We never had a problem from day one, you and I. Thank you very much, Guy. Great job. Mike Rowley. You know, Mike? Where’s Mike? Mike, thank you, Mike. Great job you’re doing. Thank you. Really good and another friend of mine, a great hockey player, actually, Pete Stauber. Donald Trump: Pete, thank you. What a great hockey player. He was the real deal right, Pete? He’ll even admit it. He’s going to admit it. Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tem Kim Ward. Thank you. Good job, Kim. Good job. Thank you. A woman who’s an incredible writer, actually. She understands what they call the Rust Belt. Donald Trump: We won’t be able to call this section a Rust Belt anymore. It’ll be a golden belt. It will be a golden dome, right? It will be part of a golden dome that we’re building to save everybody’s lives. But this is a woman who’s really fantastic. She’s a brilliant writer. She just got signed up by of all groups, The Washington Post. Donald Trump: That’s big time. Salena Zito. Where’s Salena? She’s around here. Salena, thank you. She understands you people and me better than we do. She understands us and she got it right from the beginning with Trump, didn’t you, Salena? She said, right, early on, guess what, he’s going to win. That was when people were saying, really, is he running, he’s only doing this for fun. Donald Trump: She said, no, he’s going to win. And I wouldn’t say it’s fun, but boy, are we doing progress, right? We’re making big progress. So you have a couple of people here that I wanted to introduce because being a guy that’s watched a lot of football, this man had tremendous courage. He had a lot of grit and everybody knows. Donald Trump: He wasn’t the largest person on the field at all, but he was, in many ways, the most courageous, Rocky Bleier. Rocky. Come up here, Rocky, come up here. Come up here, Rocky. Come up here, Rocky. He’s such a great heart. Come on up here, Rocky. Wow. And two other people I want to bring up because I’m a fan of your Steelers. Donald Trump: And I happen to think a really good quarterback is a man named Mason Rudolph, and I think he’s going to get a big shot. He’s tall, he’s handsome, got a great arm. And I have a feeling he’s going to be the guy. So Mason Rudolph, come up here. And also, a safety who’s an absolute killer, Miles Killebrew. Do you know Miles? Donald Trump: Come on up here, Miles. Come on up here, fellas. What a team. Rocky Bleier: Ready to do this. Here we go. Mr. President, on behalf of US Steel and to the people of Pittsburgh, more importantly, though, to all the Steeler fans that are here this evening, I have the honor of making you an honorary Pittsburgh Steeler and would like to present to you, your jersey, as with the number 47 as the 47th president of the United States, a number that hangs in the National Football League Hall of Fame, I’d like to present to this to a Hall of Fame president. Rocky Bleier: Please accept it. Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you. Let me say – come on, say something. Come on. Mason Rudolph: Listen, I’m, uh, honored to be here with – with a great Steeler legend like Rocky Bleier, somebody who fought for our country, uh, in Vietnam and came back and – and, you know, played some great football for the black and gold, um, awesome to be here. Awesome to be part of this big investment in Pittsburgh. Mason Rudolph: Go Steelers. Miles Killebrew: How about this president of ours, huh? Just wanted to say, God bless you, President Trump, and God bless you, Pittsburgh. Thank you. Donald Trump: Good luck out there. Go out there and do it. Rocky Bleier: OK, everything’s fine. You said it. [Inaudible] Donald Trump: Thank you very much, everybody. It’s a great group of people and he did have a lot of courage, didn’t he? Not that big? He’s – like I said, Rocky, I’ve had you up to here. But boy, does he have a heart, right? Hearts. It’s all about the heart. Also, Senator Dave McCormick, who had a great election victory and he sends his regards. Donald Trump: He’s – he’s trying to get a certain bill through that’s going to give you the largest tax cuts in history and we got to get it done. So thank you to Dave. He’s been great. Perhaps most importantly, let me thank the tough, hardworking members of the United States Steelworkers Local 2227 and the United States Steelworkers Local 1219 and the United States Steelworkers Local 1557. You people are amazing. Donald Trump: And look what you’ve been able to do, look what you’ve been able to do. This is a big deal today. This is a big deal. You know, I have to tell you about Nippon, they kept asking me over and I kept rejecting it. No way, no way, no way and after about four times I said, you know, these people really want to do a great thing. Donald Trump: They want to – they really want it and they’re putting up, you know, billions of dollars and they’re going to do this plant and other plants. And it’s great and you’re going to have control, you’re going to maintain control and nobody would put up money like that. And every time, Dave, I think you’ll say every time they came in, the deal got better and better and better for the workers because I didn’t give a damn about anybody else. Donald Trump: If you want to know the truth and the rest of them, they’ll take care of themselves. But for the workers and I have no doubt that Nippon and Dave and everybody elsewere, all working together and I’m going to be in Washington, I’m going to be watching over it and it’s going to be great. But there’s unbelievable spirit for what you’re doing. Donald Trump: And I’m telling you, you’re going to find out that the great people of Japan and we love them. You know, Shinzo Abe was my friend. He was a great prime minister of Japan and unfortunately, he’s no longer with us. You know what happened with Shinzo. But he was a great friend of mine and an amazing man and it’s an amazing country and you’re going to have a tremendous relationship. Donald Trump: So thank you very much. We very much appreciate it, very much appreciate it. For more than 124 years, the men and women of US Steel have poured the molten metal and forged the tempered beams that built America’s railroads, bridges the mighty rivers and raised up towering skyscrapers. Like the ones we have in New York, 100 stories high and much higher than that. Donald Trump: The city of Pittsburgh used to produce more steel than most entire countries could produce and it wasn’t even close, but our steelworkers know better than anyone. Decades of Washington betrayals and incompetence and stupidity and corruption cost this region over 100,000 steel jobs and they melted away just like butter melts away. Donald Trump: Between the year 2000 and 2016, more than half of all the jobs in Pittsburgh’s iron and steel mills were obliterated. They were just absolutely taken away like just taken away like you take away candy from a baby. When I came into office eight years ago, I proclaimed a simple, but crucially important principle if you don’t have steel, you don’t have a country. Donald Trump: You don’t have a country. You can’t make a military. What are we going to do? Say, let’s go to China to get our steel for the army tanks and for the boats and ships. A strong steel industry is not just a matter of dignity or prosperity and pride. It is above all a matter of national security and it is. You’re going to see some amazing things here. Donald Trump: That’s why I fought for the American steel worker like no president has ever fought before. That’s why I won your votes like no president has ever won before. And right from the beginning, it didn’t take long. You got it right from the beginning. I think before I even opened my mouth, because even as a private citizen, I used to fight and say what are you letting all of these countries come in and steal your jobs, bring them to other countries. Donald Trump: Why do you let that happen? Not only here but all over the country. In 2018, I imposed historic tariffs on foreign steel and the results were amazing. You wouldn’t have this plant right now if I didn’t put on 25 and 50 percent tariffs, they were dumping steel as you know from China and from all over the world. Donald Trump: They were dumping it all over our country, dumping it and it was bad steel, it was garbage, but it was steel and it was cheap as hell and it was a terrible thing. And you wouldn’t have had any steel mills. I don’t think Dave did have a steel mill open in the country if we didn’t do the tariffs and it was just in time – it was just in time. Donald Trump: They were closing up as fast as you can count. In a few short years, domestic steel production surged by more than 10 million tons. Imports from your foreign competitors dropped by 24 percent, almost immediately and more than $15 billion of investment poured into American steel throughout the United States, all because you had a president who stood up for our steelworkers and put America first. Donald Trump: I’m very proud of that one. Stood up for everyone else to, but then came four calamitous years of a president who obviously wasn’t doing the job. I’m trying to be nice. You know, I have to be nice, but what he did to this country is a disgrace. Between the borders, millions and millions of people pouring through our borders from all countries all over the world. Donald Trump: They came from the jails of the Congo. They came from all over South America prisons, gangs, drug dealers, drug merchants. They came from mental institutions, the mentally insane. They were pouring into our country by the millions. They allowed this to happen to our country, but we’re moving them out and we’re moving them out fast. Donald Trump: And we’re bringing them back to where they came from. We’re having a lot of problems with the liberal judges and courts. The radical left crazy judges that – you know, they come in without courts. They pour into our country totally unvetted and unchecked. Nobody checked him. Nobody had any idea who they were, 11,888 of them were murderers, 50 percent of those over 11,000 people that were murderers, 50 percent murdered more than one person and these people were allowed to come into our country by the Democrats. Donald Trump: And you can never forget what they’ve done and it’s a single – we’ve beaten inflation. Look at what we’ve done. Look at the numbers that came out, the prosperity. Everything is good. First time ever, right track, wrong track. We’re on a right track, first time in 28 years, but – but they allowed – they allowed that to happen. Donald Trump: I built almost 700 miles of wall. If we didn’t have the wall, we could have never done what we did. Over 700 miles, but still they came because they didn’t want to finish. They didn’t want to close up any gap, the gaps that we had to keep so that we could get our equipment out so we could get through. They didn’t want to put up the final stages. Donald Trump: It would have taken three weeks to put up the final stages. They said, no, we don’t want the wall built and I thought they were kidding, but they weren’t. They wanted open borders and what they let into our country can never be forgotten. The last administration granted tens of thousands of job-killing tariff exemptions to your foreign competitors. Donald Trump: So, they were afraid to take down the tariffs that are imposed because it was so good for our country, so much money. But what they did do – think of this, they gave exemptions and they were so broad and so deep. And I guess you saw that, but the exemptions that they gave allowed foreign competitors to come in and steal our industry, steal our jobs and bring them back home and bring them home by the boatload crippling imports of foreign steel skyrocketed over the last four years like you have never seen before by over 30 percent. Donald Trump: That’s an incredible, crazy number and imports of steel and rebar from Mexico exploded by more than 1,000 percent. We were getting our steel from Mexico. We were getting our steel from Canada. We were getting our steel from every place, but right here. It was then that we announced the crown jewel of our steel industry. Donald Trump: US Steel was being sold into foreign hands with no protections for our steelworkers. And I said, there’s no way we’re going to let that happen. I was watching over you. You don’t even know it. I was watching over. Tell you, best people. You’re the best people. You built this country. You know, you people built this country. Donald Trump: You people and others like you built this country. By the time I came into office many feared that the Mon Valley would lose up to 3,000 steel jobs, that US Steel would close and it was a fixture of the Pittsburgh Skyline. It may never live for another week. We had times we thought you weren’t living for another week, but I promised the people of Western Pennsylvania that I would never ever let that happen. Donald Trump: And as president, I kept that promise. Boy, did I keep that promise. So soon after initially taking office, I imposed powerful 25 percent tariffs on all foreign steel and ended each and every one of the Biden exceptions and exclusions. And today, I have a major announcement and are you ready to hear this? Donald Trump: This is on behalf of Scott, Secretary of Treasury, Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, and all of the great geniuses and people we have working and they are smart, but I don’t think you’d be a good steelworker, Scott. I’m sorry. We’re going to have to put a little more muscle content into that guy. But he’s great. Donald Trump: He’s great at what he does. We are going to be imposing a 25 percent increase. We’re going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody’s going to get around that. So we’re bringing it up from 25 percent. Donald Trump: We’re doubling it to 50 percent, and that’s a loophole. And by the way, I have to tell you, I believe that this group of people that just made this investments right now are very happy because that means that nobody’s going to be able to steal your industry. At 25 percent, they can sort of get over that fence. Donald Trump: At 50 percent, they can no longer get over the fence. So congratulations to everybody, and to you for making a great deal. You just made a better deal, right? I said to the group, would you rather have a 40 percent increase, because I was thinking about 40 when I came. I said would you rather have a 40 percent or a 50 percent? Donald Trump: They said we’ll take 50. I said, I had a feeling you were going to say that, so congratulations. Also, congratulations to Dave because you got this whole thing started. Congratulations, great job. Great job. The people here understand the word tariff and you understand it better than the people on Wall Street. Donald Trump: But now the people on Wall Street are finding out. They’re saying, wow, Trump was right. You saw today, they had an announcer, Joe Kernen, CNBC Maria Bartiromo, who’s so fantastic on Fox Business. And they were saying, Trump was right, look at these numbers. The numbers got released today at 8:00 in the morning and it showed no inflation and tremendous income jumps for workers and for the people of our country. Donald Trump: And they go, wow, he was right. He was right. But you knew that. You knew that before Wall Street. The workers knew that. We don’t want America’s future to be built with shoddy steel from Shanghai. We want it built with the strength and the pride of Pittsburgh, its Pittsburgh steel, its US Steel and it’s going to be something even more special when you get all that billions of dollars of new equipment that they’re going to be investing right here, billions and billions of dollars. Donald Trump: Since I imposed steel tariffs – and you know, I said the tariff to me is the most beautiful word in the dictionary. I love the word so much. I’ve always loved it. For 40 years, I’ve loved it. For 40 years, I didn’t understand why people weren’t in this country using tariff. They use tariffs to kill us. They use tariffs to take our businesses, not only steal other businesses too. Donald Trump: And we never knew how to use tariffs back, because we had people in the White House that either didn’t care or weren’t very smart, or both. And it really starts with the White House. It’s very simple. It starts with the White House. But I said, it’s my favorite word in the dictionary, the word tariff, and I got slaughtered in the fake news. Donald Trump: I got killed. They said, what about love? What about wife and family? What about God, they said. So they made the word tariff be my fourth favorite word and now I have no complications. It’s my fourth favorite word, God, wife, family, all of the different things. But they did – it’s not even believable. Donald Trump: I said tariffs is my favorite word and I got slaughtered by these people. But we’ve had a lot of fun. We’ve jousted for a long time with the fake news. But companies all over the world have announced nearly $10 billion in new investments in steel, just in steel alone. But the Nippon investment we’re announcing today blows them all away with a record setting and this was just heard of – we just came out a little while ago, $14 billion commitment to the future of this company. Donald Trump: That is the single largest investment of any kind in any industry. So not only steel, go all the way back, you go into fracking, you go into anything you want to go into, because you’re a good fracking state too. We love fracking, by the way. But think of this. Think of this, the largest investment of any kind in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and we also will be the largest investment in the history of American steel industry. Donald Trump: There has never been a $14 billion investment in the history of the steel industry in the United States of America. And Pittsburgh will very soon be respected around the world as the Steel City again. So I want to congratulate you. I want to congratulate you. As part of this monumental commitment, Nippon will also invest $2.2 billion to increase steel production here in the Mon Valley works, specifically allocated to Mon Valley along with $200 million for the Advanced Technology Research and Development center that’s being built already in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump: So I want to congratulate you. And in addition, another $7 billion to modernize steel mills, expand ore mines and build state of the art facilities in Indiana, Minnesota, Alabama and Arkansas. So I want to thank you and congratulations to those states. Congratulations and the bulk of these expenditures will be made in the next 14 months. Donald Trump: It’s going to happen fast. You’re going to be very busy watching trucks go back and forth, loaded up with cash, or its equivalent. And it will create and save over 100,000 American jobs, including 14,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. Thank you, very good. And by the way, your local union, I won’t talk about your national union because I don’t think he knows what the hell he’s talking about. Donald Trump: But your local union, I want to tell you is so unbelievable. They’ve been great. I have to tell you that. This is an incredible deal for American steelworkers and it includes vital protections to ensure that all steelworkers will keep their jobs and all facilities in the United States will remain open and thriving. Donald Trump: US Steel will maintain – [Audience chants “USA”] I don’t want to fight with those guys. They look pretty – I’ll never fight them. US Steel will maintain all of its current operating blast furnaces at full capacity for a minimum of the next 10 years, and we have that as a commitment. But I don’t even think that’s – I don’t even think you have to worry about that. Donald Trump: You’re not going to have to even think about that. Donald Trump: Frankly, it won’t matter because they’re going to be here for a long time, a lot longer than that there will be no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever. And every US Steel worker will soon receive a well-deserved $5,000 bonus. That’s very nice. Thank you very much. That’s great. That’s importantly for what you’ve gone through. Donald Trump: You’ve gone through a lot, it’s closing. It’s not closing, it’s opening. And you want to stay here. People say, well, we’ll move to another place and we’ll do chips or we’ll do something like chips. Somehow you don’t want to do chips. I’m looking at these giant guys with the giant arms you’re not going to like doing chips. Donald Trump: Most importantly, US Steel will continue to be controlled by the USA, otherwise I wouldn’t have done the deal. I wouldn’t have done it. But the USA and we’re going to be working together and you’re going to look at your board, you have a great board and we’re going to have an amazing alliance. In this audience are many of the incredible workers who are being really be bringing our steel industry roaring back to life. Donald Trump: And it’s going to roar, including a man who has supported me from the very beginning, the founder and steelworker of Steelworkers for Trump in this area. I have some of these guys, they’re great and I had somebody in Michigan that was so great. I love that guy. And I love this guy. He’s been with me from the beginning. Donald Trump: Brian Pavlack. Brian, come up here, come up here, Brian. Brian’s been with us from the beginning. Oh, look at him. Big guy. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it. Thank you. Brian Pavlack: Thank you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you did. It’s a great day to be American steelworker. It’s an honor to be on the stage with my hero and the greatest president ever, Donald J. Trump. Hello, my name is Brian Pavlack. I’m a third-generation steelworker and the President and founder of Steel Workers for Trump. The attempenated [sic] – the attempenated [sic] assassination of then-president candidate, Donald J. Trump, prompted me to establish Steel Workers for Trump. Brian Pavlack: Our membership now exists to 2.5k. Donald Trump: Right. Brian Pavlack: In my opinion, President Trump has demonstrated remarkable support for the American steel industry, surpassing the collective efforts of all other presidents combined. Through tariffs, he has fought to keep still being made in America rather than being dumped onto us by China. Through this deal, he has fought to keep us billions of dollars in investments, will secure jobs for generations to come. Brian Pavlack: Thank you. President Trump for your commitment to revitalizing the American steel industry and restoring its greatness and making American Steel great again. Donald Trump: Good job. [Inaudible] Brian Pavlack: Thank you, Mr. President. Donald Trump: Thank you, Brian. Great guy. And he was with me right from the beginning, I think, Brian. Right from day one and I appreciate it. We won’t forget it either. So let me also bring up real fast a few guys that I met backstage that I was very impressed with. Jack, Jason, Scott, Donald and Kurt. Come on up here, fellas. Donald Trump: Get up here, come on up here. These guys are great, come on, they’re happy people. Unidentified: Thank you, thank you. Donald Trump: You want to say a couple of words? Go ahead, say a couple of words. Go ahead. Unidentified: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m not prepared, but I can tell you I would rather be nowhere than where I am today with all of my US Steel family, friends and everybody that I love. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Baird. Thank you, Mr. Mori and most of all, thank you, Donald J. Trump. Donald Trump: [Inaudible] Jason Zugai: We did it. I want to thank everyone for coming today is a great day. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jason Zugai, the former president, current vice president of Local 2227 and I have worked at this great plant for 28 years. I’m a third-generation steelworker working for US Steel and by the way, I’m damn proud of that. Jason Zugai: So when we decided to stand up for the men and women of the Marne Valley, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Almost every day there were obstacles in our way. At any point we could have chosen to give up, but we are steelworkers and giving up just isn’t something we do. These investments will ensure steel will be made right here in Pittsburgh for years to come. Jason Zugai: And I want to take this time to thank a lot of people that were crucial to getting this partnership to the finish line. First and foremost, I want to thank God for giving me the strength, courage and wisdom to fight day after day. I want to thank my family for their support. They were always patient with me when I’d be constantly on the phone night after night discussing this partnership, talking to politicians or easing the mind of a union member. Jason Zugai: I want to thank Jack Maskell, we’ve been together from the beginning through this. From the many meetings together, DC trips that were nothing but business to just brainstorming daily. Thank you, my brother. There’s no one I’d rather have gone to this fight with. We did it and I told you how bad I hate to lose. Jason Zugai: And we won, brother. We won. To the guys from Clairton and ET that fought side-by-side with us from the beginning. It was an honor and I’ll never forget our journey. I want to thank the local mayors who have stood toe-to-toe with us from the beginning. We greatly appreciate it. Mayor Kelly, thank you and thank you for your friendship, sir. Jason Zugai: I want to thank my union brothers and sisters for believing in us and trusting us to get this done. My campaign slogan when I ran for office was I will fight for you. I hope that I have proved that to you. It was my honor. Salena Zito, thank you from the wonderful articles you wrote in the social media posts and everything you have done behind the scenes. Jason Zugai: You are a rock star. Thank you. Senator Kim Ward, thank you for fighting for us as hard as you did. You were one feisty lady and I say that with the utmost respect and we appreciate it. The state of Pennsylvania and your constituents are so proud to have you represent us. Thank you. Chris Hall, just a small town guy from Chalfont that made it out and wanted to give back to his community. Jason Zugai: Thank you for your words of wisdom and unwavering support for your community. You did a good thing. Congressman Dan Meuser, you took – you took our meeting in DC personally and never wavered after that beating you fought for us in public and that means the world to us, we will never forget your support and you can count on ours as well. Jason Zugai: Thank you. Mr. Mori, I love this guy. Thank you for taking the time to listen to our concerns and always making yourself available to answer all of our questions. This man has been disrespected and didn’t deserve that and I feel horrible that that happened to you. We will do everything in our power to see that never happens again. Jason Zugai: You have my word. These investments are life changing for all the men and women here today and for our communities. I personally look forward to working with you for years to come. Thank you. I want to thank the men from New York and DC that called me every day, every day. They gave me breaking news advice and guidance through this process. Jason Zugai: You might have been behind the scenes, but you definitely had a hand in getting this partnership to the finish line. Paul, Curtis, Chris, thank you. Jason Zugai: US Senator Dave McCormick, I met the senator at a Trump rally in Latrobe, before we were both getting ready to speak. He introduced himself to me and asked about the Nippon merger and what I thought about it. Well, as you know, I’m pretty passionate about it and let him know that. He told me, after I win, you will be my first meeting. Jason Zugai: I was his first meeting. He kept his promise. He asked all the tough questions during the meeting and he gathered the facts. We met again last week to touch base and he took it from there. Without his help, this partnership doesn’t get done. Thank you, Senator, from the bottom of my heart. And last but not least, President Trump. Jason Zugai: What can I say? I never doubted you’d be there for us when we needed you. When our international endorsed Harris, we decided to take a stand for what we believed was right. That was to come out publicly and boldly in support of you. Although we aren’t public speakers, we tucked our fears aside and did what any proud American would do. We thank you every day for risking your life and laying it all on the line for this country. Jason Zugai: I knew you wouldn’t let us down and for that, I will be forever grateful. From every steelworker that supports you and every family you saved, I want to say thank you, Mr. President for making us steel great again. God bless America, God bless us steel. Thank you. Donald Trump: Go ahead, please. Don German: So my name is Don German. I am the plant manager for this urban works here. I have 35 years with US Steel. I’m a first-generation US Steel worker. It is an honor to host you, Mr. President, today. And let me tell you, it was a lot of work, but it was well worth it. But I will always tell people that it is for the workers that are out on this floor. Don German: It is for our families that are out here who support us. It is for the community members, and our community and our state and our country and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Donald Trump: Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. Kurt Barshick: Good afternoon. As you know me, I’m Kurt Barshick. I’d like to just tell, Mr. President, the day I started at US Steel, my supervisor at the blast furnace told me, kid, what are you doing here? Do you think this mill will be here? Look at homestead, look at Duquesne, they’re not here, you’re wasting your time. Kurt Barshick: And I can stand here years later and think about our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren. They’re going to have family-sustaining, good paying jobs all because of President Trump. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you. Donald Trump: Great people. These are great people. I want to just say, I mean, I just saw them, I think this is their 156th rally. I don’t know what the hell their husbands are doing, but they come from North Carolina, the beautiful women of North Carolina. They’re over here and I just want to thank them very much for being here with us. It’s been unbelievable. Donald Trump: This is 126, or something like that. And you know, they’re happily married from what I understand, but I’ll tell you what, that must be a little bit of a strain on the relationship. They followed me all over the world for nine years now. They go to so many rallies and we appreciate – it’s called love and there’s so much love in this room. Donald Trump: It’s incredible. The men and women here today, they work every day to keep America powerful and strong. And for decades, you watched as one globalist politician after the next sold you out and sent your dreams to China and to many other foreign countries. But now you finally have a President who is working for you and fighting for you and we’re going to be watching over you. Donald Trump: This is going to be so successful. You’re going to be so proud of this. This is going to be a very big day. I hope it’s going to be one of the biggest days in your life. I don’t want it to be the biggest. You know, you got married, you had children, I guess we got to give that to them and give that to you. Donald Trump: But this is going to be truly one of the biggest days in your life. I feel sincerely, I have such confidence in this group of people. Since my election, we’ve created nearly half a million new jobs, including 10,000 manufacturing jobs and those numbers are going through the roof. We’re going to have close to $11 trillion invested in new investments in the United States. Donald Trump: And you could look at other years. There’s never been anything like that. And by the way, that’s essentially in two months, not four months because it took me a little time to get acclimated. But over the last two, two and a half months, we’re over $11 trillion is going to be coming. Apple is spending $500 billion to invest in America, not in China. Donald Trump: NVIDIA, $500 billion. If you look at this one, TSMC, and this is a company, the biggest in the world for chips, $200 billion, at least. Amazon, $4 billion. Johnson & Johnson, $55 billion. Merck, Stellantis, General Motors are putting in billions and billions of dollars. We have it all done. It’s going to be all with very little inflation. Donald Trump: In fact, it was 2.1 percent in April, way down. You went through inflation that was probably the greatest inflation in the history of our country over the last four years, and now we have it down to around two percent. Grocery prices are down, mortgage rates are down, energy prices are down and gasoline prices over Memorial Day weekend were the lowest they have been since 2003. Think of that. Donald Trump: In fact, in a couple of states, gasoline $1.98 a gallon. When have you heard that number lately? Income soared in April, up 0.8 percent, almost triple expectations and we achieved the largest drop in consumer prices and the largest increase in consumer confidence since the pandemic, and actually, probably about 20 years before the pandemic. Donald Trump: Last month, we also cut the trade deficit in half and that’s the story of today. They can’t believe it. The numbers just came. We cut before we even get started. Actually, we cut it in half, the trade deficit. And very importantly, I’ve stopped the invasion of illegal aliens who are undercutting your wages and stealing your jobs. Donald Trump: You saw that last month, 99.999 percent, can you imagine, that was our cut. The border is closed, but it’s open and it will always be open to people that want to come into our country legally. We want to have people come in legally, but we don’t want to have them come in the way they allowed to come in. We’ve ended the flood of criminals, gang members, murderers drug dealers and human traffickers, and we’re sending them back to the places from which they came. Donald Trump: And the future of American workers is only getting brighter. I said before and I’ll say it again, we have the hottest country right now in just four months, but actually you have to go back to November 5th. Since November 5th, that was Election day, we had the greatest election victory, they say, in 129 years. Donald Trump: The most consequential election in 129 years. I don’t know what 129 years was, but we’ll check it out later on. We’ll find out, must have been something pretty good. But we have the most consequential. We won every swing state. We won the popular vote. We won the districts 2,750 to 505. We’re doing a job and you’re doing a job. Donald Trump: And it’s only because of you that we could have had that success. We’re, right now, on the verge of passing the largest working-class tax cuts in American history. We’ve got to get that Beautiful, Big Bill, beautiful, beautiful as it is. We’ve got to get it passed. The Senate – call your Senators and I’ll tell you, you have great people representing you, your Senators, your Congressmen. Donald Trump: You have great people. Every single Democrat House member voted to impose the largest tax hike in history. The Democrats are voting for the largest, highest tax hike in history. I’ve never heard of it before. Donald Trump: Meanwhile, our One Big, Beautiful Bill will keep income taxes at the current rates and deliver no tax on tips, no tax in overtime and no tax on Social Security for our seniors. And we’re going to make the interest payments as you know on cars. We’re going to take the car payments and we’re going to make them those interest payments, you buy a car, you borrow money, we’re going to make interest payments, tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America. Donald Trump: And that means made with American steel and steel from US Steel and we’re permanently expanding the child tax credit and we’re creating a special Trump account for every newborn child, starting them off with a $1,000 credit to be invested over the course of their life. A little baby is born, they’re going to start off with $1,000 and if we do a good job of investing their money, we’re going to go with one of the – one of the investing guidelines. Donald Trump: Who the hell knows if they’re any good, but they have a chance to be very rich. It’s going to be very cute to see. We’re going to follow it very closely. And critically, the bill includes the largest reductions to wasteful spending in a generation or more slashing more than $1.6 trillion in waste fraud and abuse. Donald Trump: And the One Big, Beautiful Bill and get out there and get your congressmen and your senators and any other senator or congressman you know get them to vote for it because the Democrats are willing to vote against the biggest tax deduction or tax decrease in history. This is the biggest tax cut, think of it, in the history of our country. Donald Trump: If it doesn’t get approved, you’re going to have a 68 percent tax increase, lots of luck and the Democrats would rather have – you have a tax increase – think of that, of 68 percent. They would rather have that happen than vote for a bill where you get the biggest tax cut. So there’s something wrong. You know, all my life, I grow up, I watch politics and I’ve always watched politicians say we will cut your taxes. Donald Trump: We will cut these Democrats want to raise your taxes and in theory a 68 percent increase. One other thing I did and you probably saw it last week, you know, we pay the highest drug prices and pharmaceutical prices anywhere in the world by far other countries pay sometimes one-tenth of what we pay. A pill that costs $20, we spend $200, $250, $270 in many cases. Donald Trump: It’s the most unfair thing I’ve ever seen. And last week, I did what had to be done and it wasn’t easy against the biggest lobby anywhere probably in the world, most powerful lobby, the drug companies, and I’m not even calling them bad, but they were able to do things. They’re going to be fine by the way. Donald Trump: They’re going to just stabilize, but we’re going to now call a favored nations where we will pay the lowest price anywhere in the world and they have to match it. We will be cutting your drug bill by 85 and even 90 percent. You know, I was very proud in my first administration, you may have remembered, I called for a major press conference because we were the first – I was the first 1 in 28 years to lower drug prices. Donald Trump: They were lowered one quarter of 1 percent over a period of a year. And I was so proud of that because nobody had ever had an administration where prices of drugs went down one quarter of 1 percent. Not much. Now we’re going to be lowering your drug costs by 90 percent, by 85 percent, by 75 percent by numbers that nobody’s ever heard of before. Donald Trump: We will be paying equal to the lowest price of drugs and pharmaceuticals anywhere in the world. Have fun because that’s a lot of money. That’s going to be down – that’s going to bring down Medicare. It’s going to bring down the cost of – think of that, Medicaid. It’s going to have an effect on everything, but it’s going to have the biggest effect on your wallet. Donald Trump: You’re going to be saving a tremendous amount of money and nobody else would do that but me. I have taken on some rather harsh critics over that because again that’s the biggest lobby. They spend billions and billions and billions of dollars a year, not to have that done. But I said it’s really time to do it. So you’re going to have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world. Donald Trump: With One Big, Beautiful Bill, we will protect over 7 million jobs, raise take home pay for American families by up to $13,000 per household and reduce taxes for working class Americans by as much as 13 percent. Those are big numbers. The bill will also remove 1.4 million illegal aliens from Medicaid and protect the programs for truly needy Americans. Donald Trump: And it includes funding to hire 3,000 new Border Patrol agents and 10,000 new ICE agents. And these people like you, these are heroes, the jobs they have done, they go into areas that are so dangerous. It’s unbelievable. But they’re tough, they’re smart and they love our country. So, I want to just thank ICE and I want to thank the Border Patrol. Donald Trump: And I want to thank law enforcement, in general, they’ve been incredible, really incredible. And I’ll never forget our firemen. I don’t know if we have firemen here today, but we’re never going to forget our firemen. They do a great job. Over the past four months, we’ve accomplished more than most administration achieve in four years or even eight years. Donald Trump: We’ve done this in four months. We’ve done something on spirit and optimism and pride which is sweeping across our land and with the announcement it’s surging like never before here in western Pennsylvania. Remember the entire world is watching us today. I’m making a speech and I have millions and millions – look at all the fake news back there, look at that. Donald Trump: They are – that’s a lot of fake news come to think of it. No, it’s, uh, they’ve been pretty good to us here. They’ve, you know, gave us a reasonably accurate display. But, uh, all over the world – look at that, all over the world they’re watching your local region and how well it’s doing and how well it’s going to do. For generations, the workers of this region have always been there for our country when we needed you most. Donald Trump: You built this country from Pittsburgh to Pottstown, from Bethlehem to Hopewell and from Washington County to right here in Western [sic] Mifflin. The foundries and blast furnaces of Pennsylvania have smashed foreign armies, strengthened the hulls of the world’s greatest navy, raised up majestic cities, won two world wars and made America into the richest, strongest and most powerful country on the face of the Earth. Donald Trump: And it suffered greatly over the last four years, but we’re going to get it back and we’re going to get it back fast. It’s almost back already. It suffered though, it suffered. I’m not going to make any excuses. It’s it suffered with incompetent, radical left lunatics, but under our leadership we’re making it richer, stronger and more powerful than ever before. Donald Trump: And that’s why I want to thank you very much and thank you, prime minister, and thank everybody. They all knew what was happening here. With the help of patriots like you, we’re going to produce our own metal, unleash our own energy, secure our own future, build our country, control our destiny, and we are once again going to put Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of America like never before. Donald Trump: The Golden Age of America has only just begun and together we are going to make America great again, greater than ever before. Thank you very much, Pennsylvania. And God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.